204 THE LOWER AMAZONS 



compelled to consider them as local modifications of 

 one and the same species. The difference between the 

 two local forms is of a slight nature, and many naturalists 

 on this account alone would consider them to belong to 

 the same species ; but the numerous existing intermediate 

 shades of variation show how many grades are possible 

 between even two local varieties of a species. In fact, 

 the steps of modification are found to be exceedingly 

 small and numerous in all cases where the filiation of 

 races or species can be traced ; and this circumstance 

 may be held as confirming the truth of the axiom, 

 * Natura non facit saltum which has been impugned 

 by some writers. 



About two miles beyond this sand-bank was the miser- 

 able abode of a family of Mura Indians, the most degraded 

 tribe inhabiting the banks of the Amazons. It was 

 situated on a low terrace on the shores of a pretty little 

 bay at the commencement of the high barreiros. With 

 the exception of a cluster of bananas there were no fruit- 

 trees or plantation of any description near the house. 

 We saw in the bay several large alligators, with head 

 and shoulders just reared above the level of the water. 

 The house was a mere hovel ; a thatch of palm-leaves 

 supported on a slender framework of upright posts and 

 rafters, bound with flexible lianas, and the walls were 

 partially plastered up with mud. A low doorway led 

 into the dark chamber ; the bare earth floor was filthy 

 in the extreme ; and in a damp corner I espied two large 

 toads whose eyes glittered in the darkness. The furniture 

 consisted of a few low stools ; there was no mat, and the 

 hammock was a rudely woven web of ragged strips of the 

 inner bark of the Monguba tree. Bows and arrows hung 

 from the smoke-blackened rafters. An ugly woman, clad 

 in a coarse petticoat, and holding a child astride across 

 her hip, sat crouched over a fire roasting the head of a 

 large fish. Her husband was occupied in notching pieces 

 of bamboo for arrow-heads. Both of them seemed rather 

 disconcerted at our sudden entrance ; we could get nothing 

 but curt and surly answers to our questions, and so were 

 glad to depart. 



We crossed the river at this point, and entered a narrow 

 channel which penetrates the interior of the island of 

 Tupinambarana, and leads to a chain of lakes called the 

 Lagos de Cararaucu. A furious current swept along the 



