THE JOURNEY TO THE AMAZON 281 



" Farewell, the forest's deep recess, 



Where Sol can never come; 



Farewell, the campo's sandy plain, 



The lizards in the sun. 

 To water-melons cool, adieu ; 

 And farewell, old black cook, to you. 



"Adieu, thy shores, broad Tapajoz, 



Within thy heaven-dyed wave, 

 At noonday's silent, sultry hour 



I've joy'd to plunge and lave. 

 Adieu ! to-morrow's noonday sun, 

 I'll bathe in yellow Amazon." 



On reaching the city of Barra at the mouth of the Rio 

 Negro we found a strange and even now unaccountable 

 poverty both in insects and birds, although there was fine 

 virgin forest within a walk, with roads and paths and fine 

 rocky streams. All seemed barren and lifeless as compared 

 with the wonderful productiveness of Para. It was, therefore, 

 necessary to seek other localities in search of rarities. I 

 accordingly went a three days' journey up the Rio Negro to 

 obtain specimens of the umbrella-bird, one of the most 

 remarkable birds of these regions, my brother going in 

 another direction to see what he could discover. 



After a month I returned to Barra, and after some months 

 of almost constant wet weather went to a plantation on the 

 Amazon above Barra for two months, where I made a toler- 

 able collection, while my brother went to Serpa, lower down 

 on the Amazon ; and on returning I prepared for my long 

 intended voyage to the Upper Rio Negro in hopes of getting 

 into a new and more productive country. As soon as a 

 much overdue vessel had arrived, bringing letters and remit- 

 tances from England, I was ready to start for a journey of 

 unknown duration. After a year's experience it was now 

 clear that my brother was not fitted to become a good 

 natural-history collector, as he took little interest in birds 

 or insects, and without enthusiasm in the pursuit he would 

 not have been likely to succeed. We therefore arranged that 

 he should stay at or near Bara for a few months of the dry 



