TO VILLA DE ST. SALVADOR. 



79 



afforded our botanist ample employment. We saw cipos interwoven 

 in the most singular manner ; remarkably beautiful banisterias, 

 mostly with yellow flowers ; trunks of singular forms ; and frequently 

 magnificent, awe-inspiring bowers of cocoa palms, an ornament of 

 the forests to which no description can do justice. Above us, among 

 the branches, were the beautiful blossoms of the bromelias. New 

 notes of birds excited our curiosity. The white pr-ocnias ( araponga ) 

 was particularly common. 



The route over a sandy soil was fatiguing, but the magnificent 

 scenery of the forest richly indemnified us for every exertion. Upon 

 the trunk of a tree which grew obliquely, I found a lead-coloured snake 

 six or seven feet long, which I shall denominate coluber plumbeus'^ . 

 It suffered us all to ride past without moving. I had desired one of 

 my hunters to shoot it, but a negro, who carried the plants we col- 

 lected, was with great difficulty prevailed upon to carry this large, 

 wholly innoxious animal, which we tied up in a cloth at the end of 

 a long stick, across his shoulders. After he had gone a considerable 

 distance, he perceived a slight motion in his burden, and was so terri- 

 fied, that he threw it down and ran away. A little farther on we 

 found the hunters, whom we had sent before, sitting at the foot of an 

 ancient tree. They had shot some beautiful birds : several toucans, 

 arassaris (ramphastos aracari. Linn.), surucuas (trogon)^ and the 

 little red sahui, (shnia rosalia. Linn.) 



Towards evening we reached the river S. Joao, which discharges 

 itself into the sea, near the town built here. It is from three to four 

 hundred paces broad, and is crossed in canoes : our animals were 

 led through the water, higher up. We landed on the other side of 



* The length of this animal was six feet, one inch, four lines; it had two hundred and 

 twenty-four divisions on the belly, and seventy-nine pair of tail-scales. The upper parts are 

 of a dark lead colour ; the lower of a fine yellowish white, shining like porcelain. 



