VOYAGE UP THE RIO NEGRO 275 
very like our partridge but larger, is to my taste 
the finest eating of all the game of these forests, 
its flesh being exceedingly white and delicate. Of 
this too we got a good many on the voyage. The 
same birds are met with in the forests of Sao 
Gabriel, and various others, some good eating, and 
others, such as parrots and toucans, only to be eaten 
when there is nothing else. We get also several 
four-footed animals, such as cuti'as (agoutis), wild 
pigs (peccaries), antas (tapirs), etc., and I must not 
omit to mention various kinds of monkeys, amongst 
which a black monkey, called uaiapissa, is con- 
sidered a first-rate delicacy. 
A circumstance which contributed greatly to the 
enjoyment of the voyage was the beautiful weather 
we had nearly all the way up. The season was so 
far advanced when I left the Barra that I was 
afraid of encountering naught but squalls and 
torrents of rain ; but there is no foretelling the 
weather on the Rio Negro : when one looks for 
fair weather cometh rain, and the contrary. In 
order to profit as much as possible from this 
favourable state of things, I agreed with the men 
to travel chiefly by night, that is, until we reached 
the region of rapids, which begins a little below 
Sta. Isabel, after which there is no more travelling 
by night. Thus when there was no wind in the 
middle of the day, we chose out some favourable 
spot for spreading out my paper in the sun — such 
as a sandy beach, and especially a large bare rock 
(such as we frequently met with on the islands 
above Barcellos) — and there remained from 10 or 
1 1 in the morning till 3 or 4 in the afternoon. 
