SANTAREM 



of the campos, and the activity of life, are at their highest. 

 Most birds have then completed their moulting, which 

 extends over the period from February to May. The 

 flowering shrubs are then mostly in bloom, and number- 

 less kinds of Dipterous and Hymenopterous insects appear 

 simultaneously with the flowers. This season might be 

 considered the equivalent of summer in temperate cli- 

 mates, as the bursting forth of the foliage in February 

 represents the spring ; but under the equator there is 

 not that simultaneous march in the annual life of animals 

 and plants, which we see in high latitudes ; some species, 

 it is true, are dependent upon others in their periodical 

 acts of life, and go hand-in-hand with them, but they 

 are not all simultaneously and similarly affected by the 

 physical changes of the seasons. 



I will now give an account of some of my favourite 

 collecting places in the neighbourhood of Santarem, in- 

 corporating with the description a few of the more in- 

 teresting observations made on the Natural History of 

 the localities. To the west of the town there was a pleasant 

 path along the beach to a little bay, called Mapirl, about 

 five miles within the mouth of the Tapajos. The road 

 was practicable only in the dry season. The river at 

 Santarem rises on the average about thirty feet, varying 

 in different years about ten feet ; so that in the four 

 months, from April to July, the water comes up to the 

 edge of the marginal belt of wood already spoken of. 

 This Mapiri excursion was most pleasant and profitable 

 in the months from January to March, before the rains 

 become too continuous. The sandy beach beyond the 

 town is very irregular ; in some places forming long 

 spits on which, when the east wind is blowing, the waves 

 break in a line of foam ; at others receding to shape out 

 quiet little bays and pools. On the outskirts of the town 

 a few scattered huts of Indians and coloured people are 

 passed, prettily situated on the margin of the white beach, 

 with a background of glorious foliage ; the cabin of the 

 pure-blood Indian being distinguished from the mud 

 hovels of the free negroes and mulattoes by its light 

 construction, half of it being an open shed where the 

 dusky tenants are seen at all hours of the day lounging 

 in their open-meshed grass hammocks. About two miles 

 on the road we come to a series of shallow pools, called 



