42 



TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. 



{September^ 



near the water, on low trees and bushes. We landed on an 

 extensive sandy beach, where many terns and gulls were flying 

 about, of which, after a good many ineffectual attempts, we 

 shot two. We reached the canoe again as she came to anchor 

 at Baiao, under a very steep bank about a hundred feet high, 

 which commences a few miles below. Here we had about a 

 hundred and twenty irregular steps to ascend, when we found 

 the village on level ground, and the house of Senhor Seixus 

 close at hand, which, though the floors and walls were of mud, 

 was neatly whitewashed. As the house was quite empty, we 

 had to bring a great many necessaries up from the canoe, which 

 was very laborious work in the hot sun. We did not see a 

 floored house in the village, which is not to be wondered at 

 when it is considered that there is not such a thing as a sawn 

 board in this part of the country. A tree is cut longitudinally 

 down the middle with an axe, and the outside then hewn 

 away, and the surface finished off with an adze, so that a tree 

 makes but two boards. All the boarded floors at Cameta, and 

 many at Para, have been thus formed, without the use of either 

 saw or plane. 



We remained here some days, and had very good sport. 

 Birds were tolerably plentiful, and I obtained a brown jacamar, 

 a purple-headed parrot, and some fine pigeons. All round the 

 village, for some miles, on the dry high land, are coffee- 

 plantations and second-growth forest, which produced many 

 butterflies new to us, particularly the whites and yellows, of 

 which we obtained six or seven species we had not before met 

 with. While preparing insects or skinning birds in the house, 

 the window which opened into the street was generally crowded 

 with boys and men, who would wait for hours, watching my 

 operations with the most untiring curiosity. The constantly- 

 repeated remark, on seeing a bird skinned, was, " Oh, the 

 patience of the whites ! " Then one would whisper to another, 

 " Does he take all the meat out ? " " Well, I never ! " " Look, 

 he makes eyes of cotton ! And then would come a little 

 conversation as to what they could possibly be wanted for. 

 " Para mostrar " (to show) was the general solution ; but they 

 seemed to think it rather unsatisfactory, and that the English 

 could hardly be such fools as to want to see a few parrot and 

 pigeon skins. The butterflies they settled much to their own 

 satisfaction, deciding that they were for the purpose of obtain- 



