November, 1910.] 



391 



Saps and Exudations', 



We saw many such huts and it is from 

 them that the impression often is gained 

 that the whole population of the Amazon 

 valley is made up of hut dwellers. Such 

 is far fiom being the fact. On the rising 

 ground away from the river bank are 

 some magnificent estates, or fazendas, 

 with fine buildings, great herds of cattle 

 and horses, and very considerable plan- 

 tations. Vast areas of the country are, 

 of course, not only unsettled but unex- 

 plored. And these fazendas, widely 

 scattered as they are, do not make the 

 showing they deserve. 



As we ran close to the shores we were 

 constantly flushing flocks of birds that 

 looked like short tailed pheasants. They 

 were very striking in their brown and 

 red plumage, and as they flew along the 

 margin of the stream alighting often and 

 balancing themselves on swaying bran- 

 ches near at hand, it looked as if sports- 

 men were few. We put them down as 

 Brazilian partridges, but learned later 

 that they were a sort of gilded buzzard 

 unfit for food, and altogether despicable. 

 It was a disappointment, for all the way 

 to Manaos they persisted, sometimes in 

 flocks of a hundred or more. 



Of alligators we saw not one. Not 

 that this saurian had disappeared per- 

 manently, but the high water had driven 

 it into the smaller waterways somewhat 

 removed from the river proper. 



In the afternoon of the first day the 

 ship's doctor, net in hand, came to our 

 deck and talked interestingly of his 

 ambitions as a butterfly hunter. It was 

 his first visit to the tropics and he was 

 gathering everything insectiferous that 

 he could catch. Like a wise man, he had 

 secured the help of the crew, and it was 

 an object lesson to those who venture 

 up river without mosquito bars to review 

 a night's accumulation. There were enor- 

 mous beetles, moths, gigantic praying 

 mantis, ichneumon flies, and bugs un- 

 classified by the score, Then in the day- 

 time came the shy, quick moving butter- 

 flies in blue, yellow and green, and thin 

 waisted wasps and hornets, all of which 

 kept him busy. 



The course for many years was by 

 Breves, the principal settlement on the 

 island of Marajo, at the time the centre 

 of the rubber trade. There the channel 

 was so narrow that an anchor was let go 

 and the boat swung round before it 

 could head right to go on. One of the 

 river pilots, however, once asked per- 

 mission to take a boat through another 

 channel that he had discovered — the one 

 we were in — and since then the old pass- 

 age had been abandoned. 



Almost from the start we secured the 

 use of a pair of powerful glasses, the 

 property of the captain, which gave us 

 glimpses into the jungle that were fascin- 

 ating. We could pick out rubber trees 

 nearly every time, particularly where 

 they had been tapped. I had long been 

 wondering why it was that the Hevea 

 was able to withstand the inundations 

 and still be thrifty, A very cursory 

 examination of the Amazonian soil tells 

 the whole story. It is an almost imper- 

 vious, waterproof, clay, which would 

 take months to saturate, and then would 

 not be waterlogged. 



That afternoon we ran through an 

 extremely heavy shower and looked back 

 on the biggest, most gorgeous, double 

 rainbow I have ever seen. With night- 

 fall came the great frog concert, varied 

 by the screaming of nightbirds and the 

 chirping of innumerable insects. Sitting 

 on deck, pyjama clad, enjoying the 

 gentle breeze caused by the boat's pro- 

 gress, with the dusky loom of the jungle 

 on either side and the "gorgeous Sou- 

 thern Cross " above us, the scene was, 

 in tourists' phrase, " one to inspire senti- 

 ments of awe." I always admired this 

 last phrase until I actually saw the 

 Southern Cross, I had read of it as a 

 blazing aggregation of stars of the first 

 magnitude, holding the centre of the 

 Cerulean dome. The "intermediate" 

 geography that I first studied had a half 

 page illuminated picture of it. When 

 finally, after much searching, I saw it, 

 I was filled with awe at the imagination 

 that could see beauty in that little shrin- 

 king, out-of-plumb collection of blear- 

 eyed stars, let alone making a constella- 

 tion of it. It is an insult to Orion and 

 all of his family. 



The Course from Para to Manaos. 



I do not feel that in the foregoing I 

 have given a clear idea of our course, or 

 what we saw before we emerged into the 

 Amazon. Let me put it briefly, 



We went north from Para, with Oncas 

 island on the left, leading for Point 

 Musqueiro on the mainland, then west 

 and south in the Para river, passing 

 Caprin light on the southwest: Next 

 came Mandilhy, which also has a light ; 

 then through jaraea channel, with Muru- 

 Muru island on the lelt, where one out 

 of every three steamers gets stuck in the 

 mud ; by the village of Antonio Lemos, 

 where is situated the cable station ; past 

 the village of Gurupa, by Baxio Grande 

 island, and at last we were in the 

 Amazon. 



The river was now three miles wide, 

 instead of a few hundred yards. The 

 jungle was more open, the clearings 



