3898 Natural-History Collectors. 



book on the specimens of economic and medicinal Botany. I should 

 have liked to send my notes on the fishes, but it would have been 

 necessary to copy my rough pen and ink outlines of the species — the 

 only means, of course, of recognizing them ; but my ill health quite 

 disabled me from all close application. There must be, I am sure, 

 some rare and curious fishes amongst them, as they were chiefly taken 

 in remote creeks in the depths of the forest. There is a Syngnathus, 

 some curious Apodes, Esocidse, and a Pleuronectes ; also some pretty 

 things allied to the Percidae. I hope the rum, which I have renewed, 

 will preserve them until they reach you : tomorrow, I will get a case 

 made for the barrel, which is leaky, and paint it thickly over, as it is 

 not safe to send it loose. 



" I have now summed up the expenses of the four months' trip ; it 

 amounts to £50, within a few shillings. I went to work in the most 

 economical manner, denying myself all luxuries and conveniences, 

 and I don't think I, or any one else, can travel thus in one's own ves- 

 sel, so cheap again. I am afraid it will not pay, and that we must 

 come to the conclusion that districts where one cannot travel by fa- 

 vour as passenger, avoiding the expense of a vessel, and a lot of lazy 

 natives (one item of my expenses is £6 for rum, chiefly given away), 

 are not remunerative to explore ; and therefore, where there are not 

 civilized towns, I, for one, shall not attempt to travel again. 



" My private collection of insects I still retain ; it preserves very 

 well in Dowiiie's boxes, and I find it very useful for comparison of 

 fresh captures : it contains 2200 specimens, singles and pairs only, 

 nearly all Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, and of course has a glorious 

 amount of new things. Since my insects were packed I have resumed 

 my excursions, but to avoid too much fatigue, only three days a week. 

 I have added about half-a-dozen new and curious Diurnes. The wea- 

 ther is unprecedentedly dry, nearly three months without a shower ! 

 Vegetation is withered up, except in virgin forests along the water- 

 courses beyond the campos of Santarem. 



"I was not successful in shells up the Tapajos; I arrived at a place 

 where the Anastoma certainly was abundant, but I saw only dead 

 bleached shells in the clearings ; the natives told me they never saw 

 it alive, but suppose it conceals itself under old logs &c, and is burnt 

 up when they burn their clearings, and only comes out in the wet 

 season. I tried every means I knew of to procure the living shell, — 

 dug about roots of trees, turned over great numbers of rotten logs, got 

 a good many felled trees chopped up, searched in moist forests, and 

 dug by banks of creeks, &c, and now suppose it conceals itself deep 



