CONICAL HILL 



267 



are imitated, and not those of any other region. The 

 European genus Apathus, which mimics European 

 Humble-bees, is not found in South America ; but the 

 common Bombus of Santarem, which is remarkable in 

 being wholly of a sooty-black colour, is attended by a 

 sooty -black parasite of a widely-different genus, the 

 Eurytis funereus. Many of the little Meliponae have 

 their counterfeits in small Diptera of the family Syr- 

 phidae ; and the brilliant green or blue bees of the country 

 (Euglossa) have their imitators in parasitic bees of equally 

 bright colours, belonging to genera unknown out of the 

 countries where the Euglossae are found. ^ 



To the south my rambles never extended further than 

 the banks of the Irura, a stream which rises amongst the 

 hills already spoken of, and running through a broad 

 valley, wooded along the margins of the watercourses, 

 falls into the Tapajos, at the head of the bay of Mapiri. 

 All beyond, as before remarked, is terra incognita to the 

 inhabitants of Santarem. The Brazilian settlers on the 

 banks of the Amazons seem to have no taste for explora- 

 tions by land, and I could find no person willing to ac- 

 company me on an excursion further towards the interior. 

 Such a journey would be exceedingly difficult in this 

 country, even if men could be obtained willing to under- 

 take it. Besides, there were reports of a settlement of 

 fierce runaway negroes on the Serra de Mururaru, and it 

 was considered unsafe to go far in that direction, except 

 with a large armed part^^ I visited the banks of the Irura 

 and the rich woods accompanying it, and two other streams 

 in the same neighbourhood, one called the Panema, and 

 the other the Urumari, once or twice a week during the 

 whole time of my residence in Santarem, and made large 

 collections of their natural productions. These forest 

 brooks, with their clear cold waters brawling over their 

 sandy or pebbly beds through wild tropical glens, always 

 had a great charm for me. The beauty of the moist, 

 cool, and luxuriant glades was heightened by the contrast 

 they afforded to the sterile country around them. The 

 bare or scantily wooded hills which surround the valley 

 are parched by the rays of the vertical sun. One of them, 

 the Pico do Irura, forms a nearly perfect cone, rising from 

 a small grassy plain to a height of 500 or 600 feet, and its 



^ These are Melissa, Mesocheira, Thalestria, &c. 



