232 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
streams), and when we reach the heart of the 
forest they are all alacrity to climb or cut down 
the trees, the gathering of the flowers being all 
the while represented as a mere matter of amuse- 
ment. As I had no letters from Para to the 
authorities here (no British Consul having been 
there for now more than a year and a half), I have 
had to send as far as Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira for 
men — a month's distance, at least, above the Barra. 
I expected them several weeks ago, but I had 
news that they were ill, and I had almost given up 
all expectation of them when they arrived on the 
night of the 5th inst. There are five of them, all 
stout fellows, and I have ''arranged" other two 
here (one a Peruvian Indian from Moyobamba) ; 
so that, as my canoe goes well under sail, I hope 
to get along merrily. I propose to make Sao 
Gabriel my first resting-place. It is exactly on the 
Equator, in the midst of cataracts and mountains, 
and ought to produce something good. The 
Podostemons that grow on the falls are a chief 
article of support to the natives for one-half of the 
year ! 
[In the MS. book containing Spruce's Journal 
of his voyages on the Rio Negro and Orinoco 
there are some notes relating to the longer excur- 
sions he took while at the Barra which are referred 
to in the preceding letter. The first of these 
excursions was from the 21st to the 24th of May, 
when he went down the Rio Negro to its junction 
with the Amazon about eight miles below the city, 
where w^as a small Indian settlement called Lages 
or the Ledges — from flat sandstone rocks which 
