3^4 



THE UPPER AMAZONS 



as marked by the stains on the trunks of trees by the river 

 side. 



The second dry season comes on in January, and lasts 

 throughout February. The river sinks sometimes to the 

 extent of a few feet only, but one year (1856) I saw it ebb 

 to within about five feet of its lowest point in September. 

 This is called the summer of the Umarl, * Verao do 

 Umari after the fruit of this name already described, 

 which ripens at this season. When the fall is great, this 

 is the best time to catch turtles. In the year above 

 mentioned, nearly all the residents who had a canoe, and 

 could work a paddle, went out after them in the month of 

 February, and about 2000 were caught in the course of a 

 few days. It appears that they had been arrested in 

 their migration towards the interior pools of the forest 

 by the sudden drying up of the watercourses, and so had 

 become easy prey. 



Thus the Ega year is divided into four seasons ; two 

 of dry weather and falling waters, and two of the reverse. 

 Besides this variety, there is, in the month of May, a short 

 season of very cold weather, a most surprising circum- 

 stance in this otherwise uniformly sweltering climate. 

 This is caused by the continuance of a cold wind, which 

 blows from the south over the humid forests that extend 

 without interruption from north of the equator to the 

 eighteenth parallel of latitude in Bolivia. I had, un- 

 fortunately, no thermometer with me at Ega ; the only 

 one I brought with me from England having been lost at 

 Para. The temperature is so much lowered, that fishes 

 die in the river Teffe, and are cast in considerable quanti- 

 ties on its shores. One year I saw and examined numbers 

 of these benumbed and dead fishes. They were all small 

 fry of different species of Characini. The wind is not 

 strong ; but it brings cloudy weather, and lasts from 

 three to five or six days in each year. The inhabitants 

 all suffer much from the cold, many of them wrapping 

 themselves up with the warmest clothing they can get 

 (blankets are here unknown), and shutting themselves 

 in-doors with a charcoal fire lighted. I found, myself, 

 the change of temperature most delightful, and did not 

 require extra clothing. It was a bad time, however, for 

 my pursuit, as birds and insects all betook themselves to 

 places of concealment, and remained inactive. The 

 period during which this wind prevails is called the 



