lo NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
Ap7dl 25. — Stopped to cook our breakfast this 
morning on a bit of dry land (inundated only in 
the highest floods) where the forest was lofty and 
not much obstructed by twiners. One very fine 
Pao Mulatto, perhaps not less than 100 feet high, 
had a mass of broad strips of shed bark at the base. 
I picked up a piece of this, and while examining 
it heard a rattling in the place whence I had taken 
it. Stooping down, I saw that I had uncovered 
a large rattlesnake, who was raising himself up and 
poising his head for a spring at my leg, which was 
not more than two feet off. I retreated with all 
speed and fetched my gun from the canoe, but on 
returning the snake had disappeared. 
On the 26th we reached Urarinas, a small pueblo 
about the size of San Regis, and already referred to 
as having a common origin. 
April 28. — About noon to-day we spied a band 
of peccaries crossing the river towards our side, and 
already beyond the middle. With considerable 
difficulty we secured nine of them by the use of 
our guns and cutlasses. One of the largest boars, 
when wounded, was very fierce and tried to climb 
into the canoe, and had he not been speedily 
killed might have wounded some of the men seri- 
ously with his large keen tusks, of which, as is 
well known, even the jaguar is afraid. As we did 
not reach a place where we could prepare and cook 
them till early the following afternoon, the meat 
had already become too tainted for salting, but we 
had a meal of it, and the remainder was all cooked 
and eaten during the succeeding night by my 
Indians and the villagers. 
We had entered the Huallaga river during the 
