284 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



more than a thousand miles of river, all alike had that 

 poverty of insect and bird-life which characterized Barra 

 itself, a poverty which is not altogether explicable. The 

 enormous difficulties and delays of travel made it impossible 

 to be at the right place at the right season; while the 

 excessive wetness of the climate rendered the loss of the only 

 month or two of fine weather irreparable for the whole year. 

 The comparative scantiness of native population at all the 

 towns of the Rio Negro, the small amount of cultivation, the 

 scarcity of roads through the forest, and the want of any 

 guide from the experience of previous collectors, combined to 

 render my numerous journeys in this almost totally unknown 

 region comparatively unproductive in birds and insects. As 

 it happened (owing to Custom House formalities at Barra), 

 the whole of my collections during the last two voyages were 

 with me on the ship that was burnt, and were thus totally 

 lost. On the whole, I am inclined to think that the best 

 places now available for a collector in the country I visited 

 are at the San Jeronym and Juarite falls on the River Uaupes, 

 and at Javita, on a tributary of the Orinoko, if the whole of 

 the dryest months could be spent there. So far as I have 

 heard, no English traveller has to this day ascended the 

 Uaupes river so far as I did, and no collector has stayed any 

 time at Javita, or has even passed through it. There is, 

 therefore, an almost unknown district still waiting for explora- 

 tion by some competent naturalist. 



One letter I wrote from Guia on the Upper Rio Negro, 

 three months after my arrival there, has been preserved, and 

 from it I extract the following passage : — 



" I have been spending a month with some Indians three 

 days' journey up a narrow stream (called the Cobati River). 

 From there we went half a day's journey through the forest 

 to a rocky mountain where the celebrated * Gallos de Serra ' 

 (Cocks of the Rock) breed. But we were very unfortunate, 

 for though I had with me ten hunters and we remained nine 

 days at the Serra, suffering many inconveniences (having 

 only taken farinha and salt with us), I only got a dozen 

 gallos, whereas I had expected in less time to have secured 



