VOYAGE TO SANTAREM 75 
way of taking a short siesta in the heat of the day, 
which enabled me to enjoy the evenings more. 
He had lately returned from an interesting trip to 
Monte Alegre, and was preparing a boat to ascend 
to the Rio Negro. At Monte Alegre he had fallen 
in with the famed aquatic Victoria amazonica, and 
had brought away a fragment of a leaf quite suffi- 
cient to show that there was no mistake about the 
plant. During my voyage from Para I had learnt 
from the Tapuyas that in lakes around Santarem 
there was a water-plant called in Portuguese the 
Forno or Oven, in Lingoa Geral Auape-yapona 
(the Jacana's oven), from the resemblance of its 
enormous leaves to the circular oven used for 
baking farinha, and from the little river-side birds 
called Jacana or Auape being frequently seen upon 
them. Captain Hislop and other residents at 
Santarem confirmed this report, which pointed 
plainly to the Victoria. Having obtained precise 
directions to one of its localities, Mr. Jeffries was 
so kind as to lend me a boat and men, and to 
accompany myself and Mr. Wallace to see the 
Forno. We crossed the main channel of the 
Amazon to what appears from Santarem to be its 
northern shore, but is really the north side of a 
very long island, called Ananari ; and then went a 
little way up a creek to a sitio called Tapii'ra- 
uan'. A walk thence of about two miles across the 
island brought us to a parana-miri, in which we 
had the satisfaction of finding a patch of the Vic- 
toria about 10 yards in diameter. There was 
barely 2 feet of water where it grew, rooted into 
nearly an equal depth of mud. The leaves were 
packed as close as they could lie, and none of them 
