THE JOURNEY TO THE AMAZON 285 



three months after my arrival there, has been preserved, and 

 from it I extract the following passage: — 



" I have been spending a month with some Indians three 

 days' journey up a narrow stream (called the Cobati River). 

 From there we went half a day's journey through the forest 

 to a rocky mountain where the celebrated ' Gallos de Serra ' 

 (Cocks of the Rock) breed. But we were very unfortunate, 

 for though I had with me ten hunters and we remained nine 

 days at the Serra, suffering many inconveniences (having 

 only taken farina and salt with us), I only got a dozen 

 gallos, whereas I had expected in less time to have secured 

 fifty. Insects, there were none at all; and other good birds 

 excessively rare. 



" My canoe is now getting ready for a further journey up 

 to near the sources of the Rio Negro in Venezuela, where I 

 have reason to believe I shall find insects more plentiful, and 

 at least as many birds as here. On my return from there 

 I shall take a voyage up the great river Uaupes, and another 

 up the Isanna, not so much for my collections, which I do 

 not expect to be very profitable there, but because I am so 

 much interested in the country and the people that I am 

 determined to see and know more of it and them than any 

 other European traveller. If I do not get profit, I hope at 

 least to get some credit as an industrious and persevering 

 traveller." 



I then go on to describe the materials I was collecting for 

 books on the palms and on the fishes of these regions, and 

 also for a book on the physical history of the Amazon valley. 

 Only the " Palms " were published, but I give here a few 

 copies of the drawings I made of about two hundred species 

 of Rio Negro fishes, which I had hoped to increase to double 

 that number had I remained in the country. 



The two first figures (Cynodon scombroides and Xiphos- 

 toma lateristriga) belong to the family Characinidae, a group 

 which abounds in the fresh waters of tropical America and 

 Africa, where it replaces the carps (Cyprinidse) of Europe 

 and the Old World generally, though not very closely allied to 



