212 



A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



CHAPTER VII. 



LIFE IN TEFFE. 



Aspect of Tefpie. — Situation. — Description of Houses. — Fishing Excur- 

 sion. — Astonishing Variety of Fishes. — Acara. — Scarcity of Labor- 

 ers. — Our indoors Man. — Bruno. — Alexandrina. — Pleasant Walks. 



— Mandioca-shed in the Forest. — Indian Encampment on the 

 Beach. — Excursion to Fishing Lodge on the Solimoens. — Amazonian 

 Beaches. — Breeding-Places of Turtles, Fishes, etc. — Adroitness of 

 Indians in finding them. — Description of a "Sitio." — Indian Clay- 

 Eaters. — Cuieira-Tree. — Fish Hunt. — Forest Lake. — Water Birds. 



— Success in collecting. — Evening Scene in Sitio. — Alexandrina as 

 "aide scientifique." — Fish Anecdote. — Relations between Fishes 

 as shown by their embryology. — note upon the marine character 

 OP THE Amazonian Faun.e. — Acara. — News from the Parties in the 

 Interior. — Return of Party from the I9A. — Preparations for De- 

 parture. — Note on General Result op Scientific Work in Teffe. 



— Waiting for the Steamer. — Sketch of Alexandrina. — Mocuim. 



— Thunder-Storm. — Repiquete. — Geological Observations. 



September 21th. — Of all the little settlements we have 

 seen on the Amazons, Teffe looks the most smiling and 

 pleasant. Just now the town, or, as it should rather be 

 called, the village, stands, as I have said, above a broad 

 sand-beach ; in the rainy season, however, we are told that 

 the river covers this beach completely, and even encroaches 

 on the fields beyond, coming almost to the threshold of some 

 of the dwellings. The houses are generally built of mud, 

 plastered over and roofed with tiles, or thatched with palm. 

 Almost all have a little ground about them, enclosed in a 

 picket fence, and planted with orange-trees and different 

 kinds of palms, — Cocoa-nut, Assais, and Pupunhas or 

 peach-palms. The latter bears, in handsome clusters, a 

 fruit not unlike the peach in size and coloring ; it has a 

 mealy character when cooked, and is very palatable, eaten 



