176 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
turtle oil on the Amazon. Many of these people 
were debtors of M. Gouzennes, but his agent, 
Gustavo, could get nothing from them but promises 
to have the payment ready by the time of his return 
voyage. On the 3rd of November we reached a 
sitio called " As Barreiras " (The Cliffs), consisting 
of two houses perched on the top of a cliff of sandy 
clay on the right bank. Here the men were 
actually occupied in catching and preserving hsh 
for M. Gouzennes in a lake called Lago das 
Garcas, lying on the opposite side of the river ; 
and we had to wait until it should be dry enough 
to be embarked, which detained us for twelve days. 
The lakes which lie thickly on both sides of the 
Ramos are all richly stored with fish. In the 
height of the dry season, when the water of the 
lakes is low, numbers of fishermen resort to them 
for the purpose of taking pirarucii ; including not 
only all the available population of the Ramos, but 
also fishing -parties from places as far distant as 
Para and Macapa. When I had somewhat re- 
covered from my sickness, I managed to reach the 
Lago das Garcas ; to do which I had to thread a 
narrow track above three miles long through thick 
forest, consisting chiefly of wild Cacao trees, 
Bertholletias, and Urucuri palms [Attalea speciosa, 
Mart.). I found the lake nearly circular, of about a 
mile in diameter, and several fishing-parties were 
at work on it. The general sleeping apartment 
was a large palm-leaf shed erected on poles in the 
lake, at a sufficient distance from shore to secure it 
from the visits of carapanas. This contrivance is 
resorted to on all the lakes, which are abominable 
places for plague of every description. 
