EXCURSION ON THE EIO NEGRO. 



331 



houses and mandioca plantations in the forest ; and the 

 padre says that, on many a Sunday throughout the year, 

 his congregation consists only of himself and the boys 

 who assist at the service. 



After we had rested for half an hour at the priest's 

 house, he proposed to send us to his little mandioca plan- 

 tation at a short distance in the forest, where a partic- 

 ular kind of palm, which Mr. Agassiz greatly coveted, was 

 to be obtained. Such a proposition naturally suggests a 

 walk ; but in this country of inundated surfaces land 

 journeys, as will be seen, are often made by water. We 

 started in a montaria, and, after keeping along the river 

 for some time, we turned into the woods and began to 

 navigate the forest. The water was still and clear as glass : 

 the trunks of the trees stood up from it, their branches 

 dipped into it ; and as we wound in and out among them, 

 putting aside a bough here and there, or stooping to float 

 under a green arbor, the reflection of every leaf was so per- 

 fect that wood and water seemed to melt into each other, 

 and it was difficult to say where the one began and the 

 other ended. Silence and shade so profound brooded over 

 the whole scene that the mere ripple of our paddles seemed 

 a disturbance. After half an hour's row we came to dry 

 land, where we went on shore, taking our boatmen with 

 us ; and the wood soon resounded with the sound of their 

 hatchets, as the palms fell under their blows. We returned 

 with a boat-load of palms, besides a number of plants of 

 various kinds which we had not seen elsewhere. We 

 reached the " Ibicuhy " just in time ; for scarcely were 

 we well on board and in snug quarters again, when the 

 heavens opened and the floods came down. I am not 

 yet accustomed to the miraculous force and profusion of 



