328 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS 



exhibit is very pleasing, compared with the state of 

 savage races in many other parts of the world. 



The men awoke me at four o'clock with the sound of 

 their oars on leaving the port of the Tushaua. I was 

 surprised to find a dense fog veiling all surrounding ob- 

 jects, and the air quite cold. The lofty wall of forest, 

 with the beautiful crowns of Assai palms standing out 

 from it on their slender, arching stems, looked dim and 

 strange through the misty curtain. The sudden change 

 a little after sunrise had quite a magical effect, for the 

 mist rose up like the gauze veil before the transformation 

 scene at a pantomime, and showed the glorious foliage 

 in the bright glow of morning, glittering with dew-drops. 

 We arrived at the falls about ten o'clock. The river here 

 is not more than forty yards broad, and falls over a low 

 ledge of rock stretching in a nearly straight line across. 



We had now arrived at the end of the navigation for 

 large vessels — a distance from the mouth of the river, 

 according to a rough calculation, of a little over seventy 

 miles. I found it the better course now to send Jose 

 and one of the men forward in the montaria with Joao 

 Aracu, and remain myself with the cuberta and our 

 other man, to collect in the neighbouring forest. We 

 stayed here four days ; one of the boats returning each 

 evening from the upper river with the produce of the 

 day's chase of my huntsmen. I obtained six good speci- 

 mens of the hyacinthine macaw, besides a number of 

 smaller birds, a species new to me of Guariba, or howling 

 monkey, and two large lizards. The Guariba was an 

 old male, with the hair much worn from his rump and 

 breast, and his body disfigured with large tumours made 

 by the grubs of a gad-fly (CEstrus). The back and tail 

 were of a ruddy-brown colour ; the limbs and underside 

 of the body, black. The men ascended to the second 

 falls, which form a cataract several feet in height, about 

 fifteen miles beyond our anchorage. The macaws were 

 found feeding in small flocks on the fruit of the Tucuma 

 palm (Astryocaryum Tucuma), the excessively hard nut 

 of which is crushed into pulp by the powerful beak of the 

 bird. I found the craws of all the specimens filled with 

 the sour paste to which the stone-like fruit had been re- 

 duced. Each bird took me three hours to skin, and I 

 was occupied with these and my other specimens every 



