i68 TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. {February, 



'and wanted birds, insects, and other animals; and then he 

 'began to comprehend, and at last promised to send me some 

 men the day after the next, to carry over my luggage. I 

 accordingly turned back without going to the village, which 

 was still nearly a mile off. 



On my return to Pimichin I found that my Indians had 

 had but little success in fishing, three or four small perch being 

 all we could muster for supper. As we had the next day to 

 spare, I sent them early to get some *'timbo" to poison the 

 water, and thus obtain some more fish. While they were gone, 

 I amused myself with walking about the village, and taking 

 notes of its peculiarities. Hanging up under the eaves of our 

 shed was a dried head of a snake, which had been killed a 

 short time before. It was a jararaca, a species of Cras- 

 pedocephalus^ and must have been of a formidable size, for its 

 poison-fangs, four in number, were nearly an inch long. My 

 friend the deserter informed me that there were plenty like it 

 in the mass of weeds close to the house, and that at night they 

 came out, so that it was necessary to keep a sharp watch in 

 and about the house. The bite of such a one as this would 

 be certain death. 



At Tomo I had observed signs of stratified upheaved rocks 

 close to the village. Here the flat granite pavement presented 

 a curious appearance : it contained, imbedded in it, fragments 

 of rock, of an angular shape, of sandstone crystallized and 

 stratified, and of quartz. Up to Sao Carlos I had constantly 

 registered the boiling-point of water with an accurate ther- 

 mometer, made for the purpose, in order to ascertain the height 

 above the level of the sea. There I had unfortunately broken 

 it, before arriving at this most interesting point, the watershed 

 between the Amazon and the Orinooko. I am, however, 

 inclined to think that the height given by Humboldt for Sao 

 Carlos is too great. He himself says it is doubtful, as his 

 barometer had got an air-bubble in it, and was emptied and re- 

 filled by him, and before returning to the coast was broken, so 

 as to render a comparison of its indications impossible. Under 

 these circumstances, I think little weight can be attached to the 

 observations. He gives, however, eight hundred and twelve feet 

 as the height of Sao Carlos above the sea. My observations 

 made a difference of 0*5^ of Fahrenheit in the temperature of 

 boiling water between Barra and Sao Carlos, which would give 



