72 
ductive, and by two months' industry sufficient food may be obtained to 
maintain a family for a year, but such is the idleness of the people that they 
barely have sufficient for home consumption, and I could scarcely buy 
anything. Again, a small mud hut does not afford sufficient facility for 
preserving such delicate things as insects from the attack of ants and 
cockroaches, so after several trials and disasters I gave it up in despair. I 
found the temperature here very different from that on the Coast. I never 
saw the thermometer at the latter place below 57° Fahrt., here it is down 
to 52°. A.t Uheos 90° is high, but here I frequently found it 104°. As I 
could not return to the Coast until February, it being considered unsafe to 
enter the forest during the rainy season, I went to the River Verde, a tributary 
of the San Francisco, but saw nothing worthy of remark, so I availed myself 
of the first opportunity of returning to llheos. On my return journey T was 
more struck than on my first by the variable nature of the forest trees. Some- 
times five or ten miles altered the entire nature of the growth. For instance, 
in some places we found little except Palms and Bromeliacse in a sandy soil, 
at others we could not find a Palm to thatch our rancho, clay and loam 
replacing the sand. I noticed a curious family of large soft-wooded trees, 
here called Barigudas, of which I saw more than a dozen species. These 
trees are never found on the sea coast, but commence about fifty miles in 
the interior. 
A bird allied to the Whip-poor-will is very common in the forest on the 
Coast, and I heard its plaintive cry just before meeting with the first 
Bariguda, — here, however it abruptly terminates— and they are never found 
together. This is a curious fact well known to the woodmen. The blossom 
of one species of Barigudas is very destructive to cattle ; they eat it greedily, 
and a large number die. It is said that even deer are sometimes found dead 
beneath the trees. 
I will now give a list of the principal animals I met with, commencing 
with the Quadrumana. Four genera occur — Mycetes, Callithrix, Cebus, and 
Jacchus —but I found some difficulty in determining the species. Mycetes 
fuscus is by far the most common howling monkey, and well it deserves its 
name ; its decidedly unmelodious voice may be heard for nearly a mile, and 
as these monkeys commonly assemble in large bands, their combined noise is 
beyond description. They frequently imitate the Jaguar, though not very 
closely. In my opinion their flesh is by far the best flavoured meat obtain- 
able in the Brazils. 
The Marmoset Jacchus vulgaris is very common round the plantations ; its 
chief food being bananas. The blacks catch them in great numbers, in large 
baskets constructed on the same principle as the lobster pot, baited with 
bananas. A larger species of Jacchus occurs in the interior. 
