MOSQUITOES 



163 



his estate, on the occasion of a visit from the Bishop of 

 Para, who sometimes travels through his diocese, and I 

 slept in the Bishop's room attached to the building. The 

 abundance of mosquitoes is a great drawback to the rich 

 agricultural country on this side of the river. A little 

 before night sets in, the inhabitants are obliged to close 

 the doors and windows of their sleeping apartments ; and 

 it is singular that this simple means of keeping out the 

 pests seems to be pretty successful. On the Upper 

 Amazons the precaution is of no use, and every one is 

 obliged to sling his hammock under a mosquito tent. 

 The whole of this coast, as well as the banks of the many 

 inlets which intersect it, is inhabited by scattered settlers. 

 The population of the municipal district of Obydos, which 

 comprises about twenty miles of river frontage, is esti- 

 mated at 12,000 souls. 



I made a large collection in the neighbourhood of 

 Obydos, chiefly of insects. The forest is more varied 

 than it is in the Amazons region generally. There is 

 only one path leading into it for any considerable dis- 

 tance. It ascends first the rising ground behind the 

 town, and then leads down through a broad alley where 

 the trees arch overhead, to the sandy margins of a small 

 lake choked up with aquatic plants, on the opposite bank 

 of which rises the wooded hill before mentioned. Passing 

 a swampy tract at the head of the lake, the road con- 

 tinues for three or four miles along the slopes of a ravine, 

 after which it dwindles into a mere picada or hunter's 

 track, and finally ceases altogether. Another shorter 

 road runs along the top of the cliff westward, and ter- 

 minates at a second small lake, which fills a basin-shaped 

 depression between the hills, and is called Jauarete-paua, 

 or the Jaguar's Mud-hole. The vegetation on this rising 

 ground is, of course, different from that of the low land. 

 The trees, however, grow to an immense height. Those 

 plants, such as the Heliconiae and Marantaceae, which have 

 large, broad, and glossy leaves, and which give so luxuriant 

 a character to the moister areas, are absent ; but in their 

 stead is an immense diversity of plants of the Brome- 

 liaceous or pine-apple order, which grow in masses amongst 

 the underwood, and make the forest in many places 

 utterly impenetrable. Cacti also, which are peculiar to 

 the drier soils, are very numerous, some of them growing 



