FROM PARA TO MANAOS. 



155 



pottery, as ugly, I must say, as they were curious, we 

 wandered up into the forest to gather plants for dry- 

 ing. The palms are more abundant, larger, and in great- 

 er variety than we have seen them hitherto. At dusk 

 we returned to the steamer, where we found a crowd 

 of little boys and some older members of the village 

 population, with snakes, fishes, insects, monkeys, &g. 

 The news had spread that the collecting of " bixos " 

 was the object of this visit to their settlement, and all 

 were thronging in with their live wares of different kinds. 

 Mr. Agassiz was very much pleased with this first harvest. 

 He added a considerable number of new species to his 

 collection of Amazonian fishes made in Para, already so 

 full and rare. We remained at the Breves landing all 

 night, and this morning we are steaming along between 

 islands, in a channel which bears the name of the river 

 Aturia. It gives an idea of the grandeur of the Amazons, 

 that many of the channels dividing the islands by which 

 its immense breadth is broken are themselves like ample 

 rivers, and among the people here are known by distinct 

 local names. The banks are flat ; we have seen no clifls 

 as yet, and the beauty of the scenery is wholly in the 

 forest. I speak more of the palms than of other trees, 

 because they are not to be mistaken, and from their pe- 

 culiar port they stand out in bold relief from the mass 

 of foliage, often rising above it and sharply defined against 

 the sky. There are, however, a host of other trees, the 

 names of which are unknown to us as yet, many of which 

 I suppose have no place even in botanical nomenclature, 

 forming a dense wall of verdure along the banks of the 

 river. We have sometimes heard it said that the voyage 

 up the Amazons is monotonous ; but to me it seems de- 



