282 STAY ON THE EIO GRANDE DE BELMONTE, 



Towards noon we reached the mouth of the Obu, a small river 

 which falls into the Belmonte ; some distance up the country there 

 is on its banks a small village called by its name, of twelve or fourteen 

 dwellings, where a great deal of mandiocca, rice, and maize, and some 

 sugar-cane is cultivated and brought to the town for sale. There are 

 no sugar works here ; the inhabitants merely press out the juice of 

 the cane between two small rollers, and thus obtain the syrup neces- 

 sary to supply themselves. The mouth of the little river is called 

 Boca d'Obu, and before it lies an island named Ilha da Boca d'Obu. 

 I directed the canoes to lie to at the mouth of this rivulet, in order to 

 procure the flour necessary to supply my people in the sequel of the 

 voyage, and we took the opportunity of rambling through the ad- 

 jacent forest. A canoe, laden with flour, happening to come down 

 from Obu, enabled us to accelerate our business ; we purchased of it 

 what we wanted, and again put off from shore. At a broad part of 

 the river, in the corner of a sand-bank, we perceived a flock of ducks of 

 a species that we had not before observed, which were distinguished 

 by a brownish yellow plumage *. When we approached them, they 

 flew into the air, described a large circle, and then collected again. 

 We pursued them for a long time in this manner, till they at length 

 sought refuge behmd an eminence on the bank. We immediately 

 put a hunter on shore, who cautiously advanced towards them, and 

 killed two at one shot, which afforded us a good supper. 



We passed the evening on the Coroa de Piranga, where we dug- 

 turtles' eggs out of the sand. In this deep sand the tracks of the 

 tapirs and ounces, which prowl about here by night, crossed each 

 other in all directions. We saw no other living animals than terns, 



* Anas virgata, a new species, with rusty yellowish plumage ; the whole internal wing- 

 black ; first quill-feathers with white shafts ; side feathers of the body with a yellowish 

 white longitudinal stripe ; the total length of the male bird 17 inches 9 lines. 



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