EXCURSIONS TO THE IRURA 269 



considerable height. One of them called Cupu-ai bears a 

 fruit of elliptical shape and of a dingy earthen colour six 

 or seven inches long, the shell of which is woody and thin, 

 and contains a small number of seeds loosely enveloped 

 in a juicy pulp of very pleasant flavour. The fruits hang 

 like clayey ants' -nests from the branches. Another kind 

 more nearly resembles the cacao ; this is shaped some- 

 thing like the cucumber, and has a green ribbed husk. 

 It bears the name of Cacao de macaco, or monkey's 

 chocolate, but the seeds are smaller than those of the 

 common cacao. I tried once or twice to make chocolate 

 from them. They contain plenty of oil of similar fragrance 

 to that of the ordinary cacao-nut, and make up very well 

 into paste ; but the beverage has a repulsive clayey 

 colour and an inferior flavour. 



My excursions to the Irura had always a picnic char- 

 acter. A few rude huts are scattered through the valley, 

 but they are tenanted only for a few days in the year, 

 when their owners come to gather and roast the mandioca 

 of their small clearings. We used generally to take with 

 us two boys — one negro, the other Indian — to carry our 

 provisions for the day ; a few pounds of beef or fried fish, 

 farinha and bananas, with plates, and a kettle for cooking. 

 Jose carried the guns, ammunition and game-bags, and 

 I the apparatus for entomologizing — the insect net, a 

 large leathern bag with compartments for corked boxes, 

 phials, glass tubes, and so forth. It was our custom to 

 start soon after sunrise, when the walk over the campos 

 was cool and pleasant, the sky without a cloud, and the 

 grass wet with dew. The paths are mere faint tracks ; 

 in our early excursions it was difficult to avoid missing our 

 way. We were once completely lost, and wandered about 

 for several hours over the scorching soil without recovering 

 the road. A fine view is obtained of the country from 

 the rising ground about half way across the waste. Thence 

 to the bottom of the valley is a long, gentle, grassy slope, 

 bare of trees. The strangely-shaped hills ; the forest at 

 their feet, richly varied with palms ; the bay of Mapiri 

 on the right, with the dark waters of the Tapajos and its 

 white glistening shores, are all spread out before one as 

 if depicted on canvas. The extreme transparency of the 

 atmosphere gives to all parts of the landscape such clear- 

 ness of outline tltat the idea of distance is destroyed, 

 and one fancies the whole to be almost within reach of 



