194 



THE LOWER AMAZONS 



glow to the body. As the sun ascended, a hght mistiness 

 crept along the lower strata of the atmosphere ; after 

 mid-day this increased in density, until an hour before 

 sunset the sun became obscured, and no longer produced 

 that sickening heat which at all other times was so de- 

 pressing in the late hours of afternoon. An hour or two 

 after sunset the mist cleared away, and the nights were 

 starlit and deliciously cool. Every day the fog increased 

 in amount, until at the beginning of February a thick 

 moist veil enveloped the whole landscape both night and 

 day. The wind then increased to a gale ; every sailing 

 craft on the river was obliged to seek shelter ; and when 

 the monthly river steamer, a vessel of 400 tons burthen, 

 anchored in the port, it pitched up and down as I have 

 seen ships do in breezy weather in the Southampton 

 water. This lasted three days, at the end of which the 

 wind suddenly lulled, black clouds gathered in the east, 

 the fog lifted up like a curtain, and down came the de- 

 luging rain which inaugurates the wet season. 



I made, in this second visit to Villa Nova, an exten- 

 sive collection of the natural productions of the neigh- 

 bourhood. A few remarks on some of the more interesting 

 of these must suffice. The forests are very different in 

 their general character from those of Para, and in fact 

 those of humid districts generally throughout the Amazons. 

 The same scarcity of large-leaved Musaceous and Maran- 

 taceous plants was noticeable here as at Obydos. The 

 low-lying areas of forest or Ygapos, which alternate every- 

 where with the more elevated districts, did not furnish 

 the same luxuriant vegetation as they do in the Delta 

 region of the Amazons. They are flooded during three 

 or four months in the year, and when the waters retire, 

 the soil — to which the very thin coating of alluvial deposit 

 imparts little fertility — remains bare, or covered with a 

 matted bed of dead leaves, until the next flood season. 

 These tracts have then a barren appearance ; the trunks 

 and lower branches of the trees are coated with dried 

 slime, and disfigured by rounded masses of fresh- water 

 sponges, whose long horny spiculae and dingy colours 

 give them the appearance of hedgehogs. Dense bushes 

 of a harsh, cutting grass, called Tiririca, form almost the 

 only fresh vegetation in the dry season. Perhaps the 

 dense shade, the long period during which the land re- 



