88 



THE TOCANTINS 



One of the men volunteered to walk with us into the 

 forest, and show us a few cedar-trees. We passed through 

 a mile or two of spiny thickets, and at length came upon 

 the banks of the rivulet Trocara, which flows over a 

 stony bed, and, about a mile above its mouth, falls over 

 a ledge of rocks, thus forming a very pretty cascade. In 

 the neighbourhood, we found a number of specimens of 

 a curious land-shell, a large fiat Helix, with a labyrinthine 

 mouth (Anastoma). We learnt afterwards that it was 

 a species which had been discovered a few years previously 

 by Dr. Gardner, the botanist, on the upper part of the 

 Tocantins. 



At Patos we stayed three days. In the woods, we 

 found a number of conspicuous insects new to us. Three 

 species of Pieris were the most remarkable. We after- 

 wards learnt that they occurred also in Venezuela and 

 in the south of Brazil ; but they are quite unknown in 

 the alluvial plains of the Amazons. We saw, for the 

 first time, the splendid Hyacinthine macaw (Macrocercus 

 hyacinthinus. Lath., the Araruna of the natives), one of 

 the finest and rarest species of the Parrot family. It 

 only occurs in the interior of Brazil, from i6° S. lat. to 

 the southern border of the Amazons valley. It is three 

 feet long from the beak to the tip of the tail, and is en- 

 tirely of a soft hyacinthine blue colour, except round 

 the eyes, where the skin is naked and white. It flies in 

 pairs, and feeds on the hard nuts of several palms, but 

 especially of the Mucuja (Acrocomia lasiospatha). These 

 nuts, which are so hard as to be difficult to break with 

 a heavy hammer, are crushed to a pulp b}^ the powerful 

 beak of this macaw. 



Mr. Leavens was thoroughly disgusted with the people 

 of Patos. Two men had come from below with the in- 

 tention, I believe, of engaging with us, but they now 

 declined. The inspector, constable, or governor of the 

 place appeared to be a very slippery customer, and I 

 fancy discouraged the men from going, whilst making a 

 great show of forwarding our views. These outlying 

 settlements are the resort of a number of idle worthless 

 characters. There was a kind of festival going on, and 

 the people fuddled themselves with caxiri, an intoxicating 

 drink invented by the Indians. It is made by soaking 

 mandioca cakes in water until fermentation takes place, 

 and tastes like new beer. 



