122 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



side and pounce upon its victim with unerririg certainty. I 

 lost these interesting pets later in the cruise, while in the 

 Straits of Magellan, probably from the cold, to which they 

 were extremely sensitive. 



The evening and morning scenes that may be enjoyed at 

 Para are indescribably beautiful. At night all is still, save the 

 occasional rustling of a balmy breeze, and the imagination 

 must be vivid that can picture to itself more loveliness 

 than is exhibited when the moon appears in all her splendor. 

 The dark, luximant foliage crowning hundreds of spreading 

 trees is furnished with a mellow lustre too exquisite for words 

 to portray ; while the waving plumes of numerous palm trees, 

 glancing'their reflections downward upon the beholders, add 

 to the charm of the scenery, and the opening blossoms of 

 many fruit trees and humbler flowers, load the air with a fra- 

 grance none the less grateful from not being mingled with of- 

 fensive effluvia. The blandness of the evening air is in de- 

 lightful contrast to the rays of the noonday sun, and an occa- 

 sional breeze invigorates the system after either the confine- 

 ment or exposure of the day. Although in the course of the 

 night there falls a copious dew, yet so balmy and healthful is 

 the atmosphere that there is no dread of exposing to it the 

 most delicate constitution. This is the climate of all others I 

 would seek as a relief for enfeebled health, particularly pecto- 

 ral affections, although so near the equator, it is not excessive- 

 ly hot. The temperature rarely reaches 95 degrees of Fahren- 

 heit, the greatest heat of the day, about 2 p. m., ranging gen- 

 erally from 89 to 94 ; but on the other hand, the air is never 

 cooler than 73, so| that a uniformly high temperature exists. 

 Americans say the heat is not so oppressive as in New York 

 or Philadelphia. The humidity is, of course, excessive, par- 

 ticularly in the rainy season, yet there is no danger from ex- 

 posure to the night air or residence in low swampy districts. 

 The English and American residents who had been here 

 twenty or thirty years looks as fresh in color as if they 

 had never left their native country, and the natives them- 

 selves, particularly the women, seemed to preserve their good 

 looks and plump condition until late in life. The Paranese 

 rise with the dawn, drink a cup of coffee, and devote the cool 

 of the morning to business. Early in the day the sky is in- 

 variably cloudless ; the heavy dew of the previous night's 

 rain which lies on the moist foliage is quick'y dissipated by 

 the glowing sun, which, risiDg straight out of the east, mounts 

 rapidly toward the zenith. All nature is fresh, new leaf and 

 flower buds expand rapidly. Some mornings a single tree 

 will appear in flower amidst what was the preceding evening 

 a uniform mass of green forest— a dome of blossom suddenly 

 created as if by magic. The birds are all active ; from the 

 trees may be heard the chattering of parrots whose bright col- 

 ors add to the charm of the foliage. The heat increases rap- 

 idly, until toward two o'clock, by which time every voice of 

 bird or beast is hushed ; only in the trees is heard at inter- 

 vals the harsh whirr of the cicade. The leaves, which 

 were so moist and fresh in the early morning, now 

 become lax and drooping, and the flowers shed their 

 petals. Even the streets and shops are deserted, the inhabit- 

 ants being either asleep in their hammocks or seated on mats 

 in the shade, too languid even to talk. A little later and per- 

 haps a shower will fall, producing a welcome coolness. First, 

 the cool sea breeze which commenced to blow about ten 

 o'clock, and which increased in force with the increased power 

 of the sun, will flag and finally die away altogether. Now the 

 heat and electric tension of the atmosphere becomes almost in- 

 supportable. But soon white clouds begin to gather in the 

 east, growing gradually blacker along their lower borders. 

 Suddenly the whole eastern horizon becomes black, and 

 spreads upward until old Sol ib at length obscured. Then 

 the rush of a mighty wind is heard swaying the tree tops, a 

 vivid flash of lightning bursts forth, then a crash of thunder 

 and down streams the deluging rain. The storm soon ceases, 

 leaving bluish-black motionless clouds in the sky until night. 

 Meantime all nature is refreshed, but heaps of flower petals 

 and fallen leaves are seen under the trees. Toward evening 

 life revives again, and everj r bush and tree teems with life. 

 The following morning the sun again rises in a cloudless sky, 

 and so the cycle is completed — spring, summer and autumn, 

 as it were, in one tropical day. The days are more or less like 

 this throughout the year, though a little difference is observ- 

 able between the wet and dry seasons— the one is varied with 

 showers, the other with sunny days. It is never spring, sum- 

 mer or autumn, but each day is a combination of all three. 

 With the day and night always of equal length, the atmos- 

 pheric disturbances of each day neutralize themselves before 

 each succeeding morn ; with the sun in its course proceeding 

 midway across the sky, and the daily temperature the same 

 within the two or three degrees throughout the year— how 

 grand in its perfect equilibrium and simplicity is the march of 

 nature under the equator ! 



Few objects attract the attention of the stranger more than 

 the carwas, which seem to have incorporated all the diversities 

 of naval architecture since the days of Noah; and they are to 

 be found of all sizes. The largest resemble more the Chinese 

 junk than anything else, and, to the eye of a sailor, are any- 

 thing but conducive to safety ; but they are considered excel- 

 lent for Amazonian navigation. The lading is no less diverse 

 than the styles. One is laden with sarsaparilla and cinchona ; 

 a second with nuts, palm hats, tapioca, parrots and monkeys ; 

 while a third has a cargo of dried fish, cocoa, vanilla, copaiba 

 balsam, anatto, caoutchouc, guarana, cotton, coffee and rubber 

 shoes. 



The use of caoutchouc is paid to have been taught through 

 the employment of it by the Oinaguas Indians for bottles and 

 syringes ; hence the local names " seringa," syringe, and "b&r- 

 racha," leathern bottle. The aboriginal designation is " cahu- 

 chu," from which doubtless arises the name caoutchouc. The 

 trees which furnish the gum grow erect to a height of eighty 

 or ninety feet, half the distance from the ground being totally 

 devoid of branches ; but the top is spreading, and ornamented 

 with a thick, glossy foliage. On the slightest incision the gum 

 exudes, having at first the appearance of thick, yellow cream. 

 From this the shoes are made by pouring it over wooden lasts 

 previously coated with clay. This is repeated until the de- 

 sired thickness is obtained, when they are subjected to the 

 action of smoke from the burning fruit of the wassau palm, 

 which serves the double purpose of drying and imparting a 

 darker color. 



Another tree not uncommon in the region of Para is the 

 Massaranduba, or Cow-iree, and is certainly most remarkable. 

 We had beard a great deal about this tree, and about its pro- 

 ducing from its bark a copious supply of ' milk as pleasant to 

 as that furnished by the cow. " We bad eaten its fruit 

 iu Para, where it is sold in the streets, by the negro market 

 women ; and heard a good deal of the durability of its timber 

 in resisting the action of water. A trip of a few miles into the 

 interior allowed us the much admired view of tins wonderful 

 growing in its native wilds, and we found it one of the 

 large CO est monarch;, very peculiar m appearance on ac- 



count of its deeply scored, reddish and ragged bark. A decoc- 

 tion of the bark, we were told, furnished "an excellent reddish 

 dye for cloth. On trying the milk, it was found cmite pleas- 

 ant with coffee, but possessed a slight rankness when drank 

 pure; it soon coagulates into a species of glue, which is ex- 

 ceedingly tenacious, and is often used to cement broken 

 crockery ; it also forms a species of plaster, which is held in 

 high repute by the natives. This tree, so well known on the 

 Amazon, yields its fluid In great profusion, but it is not con- 

 sidered safe to drink much of it. Its botanical character 

 seems never to have been properly investigated, though doubt- 

 less it belongs to the same family — Eupfwrbvacim—ns the Ca- 

 outchouc. It is said that the juice of the latter is sometimes 

 used as milk, and that the Negroes and Indians who work in 

 its preparation are fond of drinking it ; be this as it may, sev- 

 eral deaths are recorded from it— through, perhaps, too free 

 use. 



After a stay of two weeks we bid adieu to Para and again 

 put out to sea. We push well out to avoid the head winds so 

 prevalent near the coast, getting no glimpse of land from the 

 time we leave the Amazon until the eighth day, when the 

 island of Fernando de Noranha is seen as a dim blue streak off 

 to the west. This rocky and almost sterile isle serves as a 

 sort of Brazilian Botany Bay. The convicts are not allowed 

 to eat the bread of idleness, raising their own food from the 

 soil, the settlement being in every way self-sustaining. Es- 

 cape is almost an impossibility, no vessels being allowed to 

 touch at the island without a permit, and the nearest main 

 land — Cape St. Roque — is fully three hundred miles away. 

 We had hoped that our ship would touch at either Bahaia or 

 Pernambuco, but such was not our lot. The latter is seldom 

 visited by men-of-war, as the bar does not allow heavy 

 draught vessels to enter, and there is, moreover, a dis- 

 agreeable port regulation, forcing all ships to store their pow- 

 der at the fort wdtile lying in harbor. But perhaps the most 

 powerful objection is that its harbor cannot be relied upon for 

 quietness or safety, as the powerful winds and rolling seas are 

 frequently sufficient to part the strongest cables. 



After leaving Para "bibles" and "prayer-books" were in 

 requisition, and the ship holystoned from stem to stern, which 

 had bepn done but once since leaving Hampton Boads. This 

 converts a ship into a floating Babel, and any one between 

 decks need have no very vivid imagination to fancy himself un- 

 der a railroad bridge with a full train crossing. But we have 

 compensation for all this hubbub in decks almost as white 

 as driven snow, and so clean that a handkerchief might 

 be swept over them anywhere without interfering with its im- 

 maculateness. Nothing requires more unremitting attention 

 on a man-of-war than cleanliness. Without it a ship would 

 become intolerable and endanger the health of its crowded 

 occupants. We number nearly three hundred souls all told, 

 besides having coals, water, provisions, clothing, and also 

 spare sails and spars for emergencies. How such a mass of 

 life and material can be brought within the capacity of a 

 single sloop of war, and yet leave scope and verge enough for 

 action, is a mystery understood only by a sailor. Some one 

 has said : "The housewife who grumbles over the intrusion of 

 an additional piece of furniture should look into a sloop of war, 

 and she will go home with the conviction that she can sleep 

 quite comfortably in the cradle with her infant." 



After the cleaning, painting is next in order, and the odor of 

 turpentine, benzine and tar salutes the olfactories whichever 

 way one turns. Our batteries are given a coat of black var- 

 nish, ropes are re-tarred, spars scraped down and slushed, 

 hammock nettings scrubbed, bright, worked polished, tarpau- 

 lins varnished, and everything given as new an aspect as is 

 possible, that we may appear well at the Brazilian metropolis. 



As we sail toward the southward, hooks and harpoons are 

 gotten out and furbished up, for we have reached the region 

 of dolphins, porpoises and sharks. Jack holds a deep rooted 

 antipathy for the latter, who can hope for no mercy at his 

 hands. "Ther, d — n you," muttered an old quartermaster, 

 as he gave the final quietus, by means of an axe. to the tail of 

 a monster which had been hauled in; "I guess you won't 

 hunt honest folks no more." Next to the capture is the fun 

 of cutting open the shark ; for queer things are often found 

 in their stomach, such as shot, tobacco, boxes and buttons, in 

 fact anything that may chance to fall overboard from a passing 

 vessel. We were disappointed in this fellow, however, he 

 having stowed his locker with nothing but an empty condensed 

 milk can. 



Soon after passing Brazil's denvict colony we encountered 

 head winds, but the end of the fifteenth clay out from Para 

 the welcome cry of " Land ho!" was heard from the foretop, 

 which tells the listeners that Cape Frio is ahead, and we confi- 

 dently expect to see Bio in the morning. Soon a long tine of 

 coast comes to view, and we who have never been on the South 

 Atlantic station, anxiously scan every indentation for the 

 opening into the famous bay of the "River of January;' but 

 all in vain. At last the officers of the watch puts an end to 

 speculation by informing us that we have yet many a mile to 

 sail, and on a* different tack. Soon after the sun has set, for 

 there is no twilight in the tropics, the silvery moon rises 

 in all her splendor, and the sea shows ripples of phos- 

 phorescent light under oar counter. The beautiful oven- 

 ing is soon to lose its charms, for the executive officer re- 

 marks, "The barometer is falling!" This causes us to peer 

 anxiously to the Southwest, where a dark cloud bank is seen 

 rising. But a little streak at first, it slowly increases in vol- 

 ume and gradually shuts out all signs of the coast, from which 

 we are " clawing off " as fast as circumstances will allow. The 

 horizon becomes darker and darker, the wind comes in great 

 "soughs" through the rigging, while forked lightnings, al- 

 most overpowering in their brilliancy, illumine the blackness. 

 As our ship heels to the port under a fiercer blast, a clap of 

 thunder, like the explosion of hundreds— nay, thousands of 

 parks of artillery, startles and causes a peculiar, breathless, 

 creeping sensation indescribable. When the rain came it 

 seemed as if Heaven's flood gates had been thrown down, for 

 the dropsof "pattering raim " at home, in the tropics become 

 fierce, drenching streams, or heavy drops, which, striking, sting 

 and pain with all the intensity of a bullet. So great was the 

 flood that the scuppers were unable to carry off the amount 

 that fell upon the deck where it was quickly ankle deep, every 

 roll of the ship causing bucketfuls to swash over the combings 

 of the hatches, deluging the decks below. Our marine lieu- 

 tenant, who was from New England, remarked : " When I 

 was home last they were praying for rain, and had been i'oi 

 more 'u two weeks. I hope they may get their share of this I" 

 Just then a roll took him off his legs, and he slid gracefully 

 into the scuppers, which caused him to hasten below with all 

 the attributes of Sandy McGregor, who was "as wot as he. 

 could be; he could be no wotter." Although the rain soon 

 ceased the wind did not, and the sea so impeded our progress 

 that it was the. evening of the following day when we ap- 

 proached the frownirj Santa Cruz. 



On cither side of the narrow entrance to the Bay of Rio, as 



far as Ihe eye can reach, stretch the mountains and hillswhich 

 remind one forcibly of Alpine peaks. The first object that com- 

 mands attention is the rocky isle rismg abruptly 'frorn the sea, 

 crowned by a light that sheds its beams thirty miles seaward, 

 guiding the mariner to this beauteous haven. To the left i? 

 seen the Tres Imas, or Three Brothers, the Gavia, Corcovado 

 and Tijuea. On the right another range begins near the fort- 

 ress and stretches away to that bold" promontory known as 

 Cape Frio. Far away, through the opening of the bay and 

 towering above the coast line, we see in the bright moonlight 

 the faint outlines of the Organ Mountains defined against the 

 clear sky. As we pass under the guns of Santa Cruz, a trum- 

 pet is protruded from the lantern, and we. receive and respond 

 to the customary hail that greets the incoming vessel. A lit- 

 tle later and we are in smooth water, and our anchors bring 

 us up, and we swing upon the bosom of Nictherhoi, at what : 

 is known as the "Man-o'-war anchorage." 



The unrivaled splendor of the moon; the southern constel- 

 lations, with their cmeen, the Southern cross, which spangled 

 the heavens ; the myriads of lights in the city and on the nu- I 

 merous ships in the harbor ; the phosphorescent glow of the 

 water and reflection of Luna's sheen — all combined with the 

 gentle land breeze, laden with the odors of perfumed flowers,, 

 causes the grandeur of that evening to linger in my memory 

 as a beautiful dream. We kept the deck until the "we sma' " 

 hours, smoking and chatting— it seeming almost a sacrilege to 

 retire. 



Called at an early hour, 1 hastened to the deck to witness 

 the rising of the sun, and to determine how far the magnifi- 

 cent picture of the night before was borne out by the realities 

 of the day. As far up the bay as the eye could reach, lovely 

 little verdant and palm-clad isles wt^re to be seen rising out of 

 the blue water ; while the hills and lofty mountains which 

 surrounded us on all sides were given a richness and beauty of 

 coloring unsurpassable. Purple, gold, rose color and etherial 

 blue, all the varied tints imparted by a rising sun, were 

 in tenfold splendor and unrivaled beauty, far surpassi 

 most imaginative sketch of fairy land ever portrayed by 

 artist's hand. Since then I have viewed the beautiful in 

 Panama; witnessed the glories of the Golden Horn; : 

 Vesuvius and St. Elmo's height to drink in the beauties of the 

 Bay of Naples, but none can eemal the Bay of Rio for beauty 

 or splendor. Naples is beautiful ; the Golden Horn gar n 

 surroundings, and Panama is glorious. But the River of Jan- 

 uary surpasses them all. It is simply magnificently grand. 



INTRODUCTION AND SUCCESSION OF 

 VERTEBRATE LIFE IN AMERICA.* 



By 0. C. Marsh. 



PRESIDENT OF THE BIOLOGICAL SECTION OP THE AMERICAN 



ASSOCIATION. 



Third Papee. 



IT remains now to consider the highest group of the Animal 

 Kingdom, the class Mammalia, which includes Man. Of 

 the existence of this class before the Trias we have no evi- 

 dence, either in this country or in the Old World, and it is 

 nificant fact that at essentially the same horizon in each hem 

 isphere, similar low forms of Mammals make their appear 

 ance. Alth' ugh only a few incomplete specimens have ben 

 discovered, they are characteristic and well preserved, ami a| 

 are apparently Marsupials, the lowest Mammalian grom 

 which we know in this country, living or fossil. The Amerr 

 can Triassic Mammals are known at present on h 

 small lower jaws, on which is based the genus Bromgtltem^ 

 supposed to be related to the insect-eating Myrtu,, 

 living in Australia. 



Although the Jura of Europe has yielded other simiM 

 Mammals, we have as yet none of this class from that fonna 

 tion ; while, from rocks of Cretaceous age, no Mammals afl 

 known in any part of the world. This is especially to be re- 

 gretted, as it is evidently to the Cretaceous that we uiUSl loot 

 for the first representatives of many of our present 

 Mammals, as well as for indications of their mon 

 lineage. That some discovery of this nature from 

 ceous is near at hand, I cannot doubt, when I coiisid 

 the last few years have brought to light in the Eacen - 



In the lowest Tertiary beds of this country, a ricl 

 lian fauna suddenly makes its appearance, a) 

 through the Age of Mammals to the present, An 

 been constantly occupied by this type of lite in the 

 diversity of form. Fortunately, a nearly continuous rdM 

 of this fife, as preserved, is now accessible to us, an 

 great additions to our knowledge of the genealogy 

 trials, and perhaps the solution of more profound p 

 Before proceeding to discuss in detail American fos: 

 nialia, it is important to define the divisions of turn 

 in our Tertiary and Post-Tertiary deposits, as these 

 cases mark successive stages in the development of thi 

 mals. 



The boundary line between the Cretaceous and 

 the region of * the Rocky Mountains has be, 

 dispute during the last few years, mainly in consequent! 

 the uncertain geologicial bearings of the fossil p! 

 found near this horizon. The accompanying invertebrate 

 sils have thrown little light on the question, which is 

 tially, whether the great Lignite series of the \Y 

 most Cretaceous or lowest Eocene. The evid 

 numerous vertebrate remains is, in my judgment, de< 

 and in favor of the former view. 



This brings up an important point in Palaeontology, < 

 which my attention was drawn several years since, nai 

 the comparative value of different groups of fossils in r 

 ing geological time. In examining the subject wilh i 

 care, I found that for this purpose Plants, as their natu 

 dicates, are most unsatisfactory witnesses, that jnv 

 animals are much better-, and that vertebrates 

 most reliable evidence of climatil 

 changes. The sub-divisions of the latter group, i 

 and in fact all forms of animal life are of vail 

 mainly according to the perfection of the.. 



Fishes, for exampk 

 ed by changes that would destroy % , 

 higher Mammal- « that " 



forms pa.- safety. The more ; 





♦ Delivered before the 



