VII 
AT MANAOS 
235 
— light penetrates everywhere, and the eye searches 
in vain for the variety of shady recesses which are 
at other times so pleasing. . . . 
It is only in the height of the rainy season 
that the margins of these rivers are seen to 
advantage — then all is fair and pure. But let the 
water descend 20 feet, and there appear discoloured 
trunks, shaggy towards their base with black root- 
lets, muddy and tangled stems of shrubs which, 
though not normally twining, seem to have inter- 
laced for mutual support against the crushing, 
sweeping water. Herbaceous twiners all dead 
and presenting only withered, blackened strings. 
Bunches of dead grass and other unsightly matter 
brought down by the stream hang everywhere. 
Yet it is in the dry season that most of the forest 
trees are in flower. 
[The visit to Manaquiry, about fifty miles 
up the SoHmoes, which occupied most of the 
month of June, and which is partly described 
in the letter to Mr. Bentham, is not specially 
mentioned in the Journal, except in one of 
the following notes, written immediately after his 
return.] 
The leaves of the Coffee tree are often used 
instead of the berries in the region of the Amazon. 
On Lake Trombetas the leaves were strung on a 
stick which was stuck in a chink of the wall, and 
they were not used till dry. On the Rio Negro 
they are used both fresh and dry. 
The mode of gathering rice in the lakes of 
Manaquiry, where it grows spontaneously, as also in 
many other parts of America and Solimoes, is very 
simple. When the seed is ripe, which is at the end 
