1848.] 



TIMBER-TREES, 



31 



During our makeshift conversation, carried on with our very 

 slender Portuguese vocabulary, Senhor C. would frequently 

 ask us what such and such a word was in " Americano " (for 

 so the English language is here called), and appeared highly 

 amused at the absurd and incomprehensible terms used by us 

 in ordinary conversation. Among other things we told him 

 that we called "rapaz" in Americano "boy," which word (boi) 

 in Portuguese means an ox. This was to him a complete 

 climax of absurdity, and tickled him into roars of laughter, 

 and he made us repeat it to him several times, that he might 

 not forget so good a joke ; even when we were pulling away 

 into the middle of the stream, and waving our " adeos,'' his 

 last words were, as loud as he could bawl, "O que se chama 

 rapaz ? " (What do you call rapaz ?) 



A day or two before we left the mills we had an opportunity 

 of seeing the effects of the vampire's* operations on a young 

 horse Mr. Leavens had just purchased. The first morning 

 • after its arrival the poor animal presented a most pitiable 

 appearance, large streams of clotted blood running down from 

 several wounds on its back and sides. The appearance was, 

 however, I daresay, worse than the reality, as the bats have 

 the skill to bleed without giving pain, and it is quite possible 

 the horse, like a patient under the influence of chloroform, 

 may have known nothing of the matter. The danger is in the 

 attacks being repeated every night till the loss of blood 

 becomes serious. To prevent this, red peppers are usually 

 rubbed on the parts wounded, and on all likely places ; and 

 this will partly check the sanguinivorous appetite of the bats, 

 but not entirely, as in spite of this application the poor animal 

 was again bitten the next night in fresh places. 



Mr. Leavens is a native of Canada, and has been much 

 engaged in the timber-trade of that country, and we had many 

 conversations on the possibility of obtaining a good supply of 

 timber from the Amazons. It seems somewhat extraordinary 

 that the greater part of our timber should be brought from 

 countries where the navigation is stopped neaxly half the year 

 by ice, and where the rivers are at all times obstructed by 

 rapids and subject to storms, which render the bringing down 

 the rafts a business of great danger ; where, too, there is little 



* This is a blood-sucK:ng bat (Phyllostoma sp.), mibnamed " i^ampyre,** 

 while the bats of the genus Vampyrus are fruit-eaters. 



