on the Upper Amazons. 5733 



tion. The banks are earthy and low, similar to the Amazons, and 

 uniformly covered with forest. The tribes of Indians succeed each 

 other in the following order : — Mar arias, Arauas, Catoquinos, Ca- 

 tauixis and Conibos, the last-mentioned having communication either 

 by land or a connecting stream with the Ucayali. 



On the evening of the 7th December we arrived at Fonte Boa, 

 a wretched, muddy and dilapidated village, situated a mile or two 

 within a creek appearing like a back-water of the main river. The 

 character of vegetation and soil here was different from that of any 

 locality I had searched on the Upper Amazons; I had planned, 

 therefore, to devote six weeks to the place. Having written before- 

 hand to one of the principal inhabitants, in the course of an hour I 

 had a house, and got all my baggage comfortably stowed before dark. 

 The village is built on two rounded, clayey mounds, and has rather a 

 large tract behind cleared from the forest; but the whole place, 

 including the streets and backyards of the houses, is covered with a 

 very dense, tough carpet of shrubs and grasses, beneath which the 

 mud is almost always moist and soft ; so that, although living in a 

 mud swamp is not very agreeable, the coolness of the place was very 

 pleasant, and certainly healthy. The village was formerly a consider- 

 able place, with an industrious population of whites and Indians, who 

 mingled together, so that now there are few of the pure Indian blood 

 left. The tribes were originally Shumanas and Passes, which now no 

 longer exist, and will soon be forgotten like the Solimoes (who gave 

 the name to the Upper Amazons), the Cambevas (part of the original 

 population of Ega), and others. 



I found the forest at Fonte Boa, as far as I penetrated it, to have 

 the same cold, clay soil as the water frontage at the village ; the ve- 

 getation was the most luxuriant and the forest trees the most gigantic 

 I had ever seen. Through the shades flowed two sparkling brooks, 

 with perennial and crystal waters, a feature rare to meet with on the 

 Upper Amazons, where the small water-courses generally dry up in 

 the dry season. Their banks were perfect paradises of verdure, the 

 most striking feature of which was the variety of ferns with immense 

 fronds, some terrestrial, others climbing the trunks of trees, and two 

 (at least) fine species -arboreal. Birds and monkeys, in this glorious 

 forest, were very abundant, — the Pithecia irrorata the most remark- 

 able of the monkeys, and Cephalopterus ornatus, Pteroglossus Beau- 

 harnaisii, amongst the most beautiful of the birds. On the North 

 bank of the Amazons, opposite Fonte Boa, the red-haired, vermilion- 

 faced monkey (Brachyurus rubicundus?) is known to be common ; 



