244 



A JOUKNEY IN BRAZIL. 



October 21s^. — Since Thursday afternoon our canoe has 

 been loaded, all the specimens, amounting to something 

 more than thirty barrels, kegs, and boxes, packed and 

 waiting the arrival of the. steamer. We have paid our 

 parting visits to friends and acquaintances here. I have 

 taken my last ramble in the woods where I have had so 



who knew how to catch fish or fowl, was out at work, and, with the assistance 

 of my young friends Dexter, Hunnewell, and Thayer, and the co-operation 

 of Major Coutinho and Mr. Burkhardt, our daily progress was unmistakable. 

 They generally took care of the collections of land animals, while I reserved the 

 fishes to myself, and Major Coutinho was busy with geological and meteorologi- 

 cal observations. Even the servants helped in cleaning the skeletons. I made 

 here a very extensive collection of fish brains, embracing most genera found 

 in this locality, but it was unfortunately lost on arriving at Manacs. Aware 

 of the difficulty of transporting preparations so delicate, I kept them always 

 by my side, simply packed in an open barrel, in the hope of bringing them 

 safely home, and also that I might, without difficulty, add to the number. In 

 an unguarded moment, however, while landing, one of our attendants cap- 

 sized the whole into the Rio Negro. It is the only part of my collections 

 which was completely lost. 



After setting my whole party well under way in Teff^, I made the very 

 instructive excursion with Major Estolano, of which an account is given in 

 the text, to the Lago do Boto, a small sheet of water, by the side of his sitio 

 on the banks of the main course of the Amazons, where I had a fair opportu- 

 nity of ascertaining how widely different the fishes may be that inhabit 

 adjoining faunae in the same hydrographic basin. To this day I have not 

 yet recovered from my surprise at finding that shores which, from a geographic 

 point of view, must be considered simply as opposite banks of the same stream, 

 were, nevertheless, the abode of an essentially different ichthyological popula- 

 tion. Among the most curious fishes obtained here, I would mention a new 

 genus, allied to Phractocephalus, of which I know only a single very large 

 species, remarkable for its uniform canary-yellow color. Doras, Acestra, 

 Pterygoplichthys, &c., were particularly common. Small as this lake is, the 

 largest animals known in the whole basin are found in it : such as Manatees 

 Botos, — the Porpoise of the Amazons, which has given its name to the lake ; 

 Alligators, Pirarucus, — the Sudis gigas of systematic writers ; Sorubims, the 

 large flat-headed Hornpouts ; Pacaraums, the large, yellow Siluroid above al- 

 luded to, «&c., &c. — L. A. 



