1850.] 



SCENERY IN THE GAPO. 



121 



He will pass through small streams, lakes, and swamps, and 

 everywhere around him will stretch out an illimitable waste of 

 waters, but all covered with a lofty virgin forest. For days he 

 will travel through this forest, scraping against tree-trunks, and 

 stooping to pass beneath the leaves of prickly palms, now level 

 with the water, though raised on stems forty feet high. In 

 this trackless maze the Indian finds his way with unerring 

 certainty, and by slight indications of broken twigs or scraped 

 bark, goes on day by day as if travelling on a beaten road. In 

 the Gapo peculiar animals are found, attracted by the fruits of 

 trees which grow only there. In fact, the Indians assert that 

 every tree that grows in the Gapo is distinct from all those 

 found in other districts ; and when we consider the extra- 

 ordinary conditions under which these plants exist, being sub- 

 merged for six months of the year till they are sufficiently lofty 

 to rise above the highest water-level, it does not seem impro- 

 bable that such may be the case. Many species of trogons 

 are peculiar to the Gapo, others to the dry virgin forest. The 

 umbrella chatterer is entirely confined to it, as is also the Httle 

 bristle-tailed manakin. Some monkeys are found there only 

 in the wet season, and whole tribes of Indians, such as the 

 Purupurus and Muras, entirely inhabit it, building small, easily- 

 removable huts on the sandy shores in the dry season, and on 

 rafts in the wet ; spending a great part of their lives in canoes, 

 sleeping suspended in rude hammocks from trees over the deep 

 water, cultivating no vegetables, but subsisting entirely on the 

 fish, turtle, and cow-fish which they obtain from the river. 



On crossing the Rio Negro from the city of Barra, we entered 

 into a tract of this description. Our canoe was forced under 

 branches and among dense bushes, till we got into a part 

 where the trees were loftier, and a deep gloom prevailed. 

 Here the lowest branches of the trees were level with the 

 surface of the water, and were many of them putting forth 

 flowers. As we proceeded we sometimes came to a grove of 

 small palms, the leaves being now only a few feet above us, 

 and among them was the maraja, bearing bunches of agreeable 

 fruit, which, as we passed, the Indians cut off with their long 

 knives. Sometimes the rustling of leaves overhead told us 

 that monkeys were near, and we would soon perhaps discover 

 them peeping down from among the thick foliage, and then 

 bounding rapidly away as soon as we had caught a glimpse of 



