A FLOODED DELL 



387 



They were of almost all colours, sizes, and shapes : I 

 noticed here altogether eighty species, belonging to twenty- 

 two different genera. It is a singular fact that, with very 

 few exceptions, all the individuals of these various species 

 thus sporting in sunny places were of the male sex ; their 

 partners, which are much more soberly dressed and im- 

 mensely less numerous than the males, being confined to 

 the shades of the woods. Every afternoon, as the sun 

 was getting low, I used to notice these gaudy sunshine- 

 loving swains trooping off to the forest, where I suppose 

 they would find their sweethearts and wives. The most 

 abundant, next to the very common sulphur-yellow and 

 orange-coloured kinds (Callidryas, seven species), were 

 about a dozen species of Cybdelis, which are of large size, 

 and are conspicuous from their liveries of glossy dark-blue 

 and purple. A superbly-adorned creature, the Callithea 

 Markii, having wings of a thick texture, coloured sapphire- 

 blue and orange, was only an occasional visitor. On 

 certain days, when the weather was very calm, two small 

 gilded-green species (Symmachia Trochilus and Colubris) 

 literally swarmed on the sands, their glittering wings 

 lying wide open on the flat surface. The beach terminates 

 eight miles beyond Ega, at the mouth of a rivulet ; the 

 character of the coast then changes, the river banks being 

 masked by a line of low islets amid a labyrinth of channels. 



In all other directions my very numerous excursions 

 were by water ; the most interesting of those made in the 

 immediate neighbourhood were to the houses of Indians 

 on the banks of retired creeks ; an account of one of these 

 trips will suffice. 



On the 23rd of May, 1850, I visited, in company with 

 Antonio Cardozo, the Delegado, a family of the Passe 

 tribe, who live near the head waters of the igarape, which 

 flows from the south into the Teffe, entering it at Ega. 

 The creek is more than a quarter of a mile broad near the 

 town, but a few miles inland it gradually contracts, until 

 it becomes a mere rivulet flowing through a broad dell in 

 the forest. When the river rises it fills this dell ; the 

 trunks of the lofty trees then stand many feet deep in the 

 water, and small canoes are able to travel the distance of 

 a day's journey under the shade, regular paths or alleys 

 being cut through the branches and lower trees. This is 

 the general character of the country of the Upper Ama- 

 zons ; a land of small elevation and abruptly undulated. 



