1848.] 



PATOS. 



45 



pose of bed and chair. At one end was a small platform, 

 raised about three feet above the floor, ascended by deep 

 notches cut in a post, instead of a ladder. This seemed to bei 

 a sort of boudoir, or ladies' room, as they alone occupied it ;! 

 and it was useful to keep clothes and food out of the way of 

 the fowls, ducks, pigs, and dogs, which freely ranged below. 

 The head of the establishment was a Brazilian, who had come 

 down from the mines. He had in cultivation cotton, tobacco,' 

 cacao, mandiocca, and abundance of bananas. He wantedj 

 powder and shot, which Mr. Leavens furnished him with iri 

 exchange for tobacco. He said they had not had any rain' 

 for three months, and that the crops were much injured in 

 consequence. At Para, from which we were not distant morej 

 than one hundred and fifty miles, there had never been more 

 than three days without rain. The proximity to the great body 

 of water of the Amazon and the ocean, together with the 

 greater extent of lowland and dense forest about the city, are 

 probably the causes of this great difference of climate in so 

 short a distance. 



Proceeding on our way, we still passed innumerable islands, 



' the river being four or five miles wide. About four in the 

 afternoon, we came in sight of the first rocks we met with on 

 the river, on a projecting point, rugged and volcanic in appear- 

 ance, with little detached islands in the stream, and great 

 blocks lying along the shore. After so much flat alluvial 

 country, it had quite a picturesque effect. A mile further, we 

 reached Patos, a small village, were we hoped to get men, 

 and anchored for the night. I took a walk along the shore 

 to examine the rocks, and found them to be decidedly volcanic, 

 of a dark colour, and often as rugged as the scoriae of an iron- 

 furnace. There was also a coarse conglomerate, containing 



-blackened quartz pebbles, and in the hollows a very fine white 

 quartz sand. 



We remained here two days ; Mr. Leavens going up the 

 igaripe to look for cedar, while we remained hunting for birds, 

 insects, and shells. I shot several pretty birds, and saw, for 

 the first time, the beautiful blue macaws, which we had been 

 told w^e should meet with up the Tocantins. They are 

 entirely of a fine indigo-blue, with a whitish beak ; but they 

 flew very high, and we could not find their feeding-place. 

 The insects most abundant were the yellow butterflies, which 



