Chap. I. 
REST m THE FOREST. 
51 
Descending into the valley, a small brook has to be 
crossed, and then half a mile of sandy plain, whose 
vegetation wears a peculiar aspect, owing to the pre- 
dominance of a stemless palm, the Curua (Attalea 
spectabilis), whose large, beautifully pinnated, rigid 
leaves rise directly from the soil. The fruit of this 
species is similar to the coco-nut, containing milk in 
the interior of the kernel, but it is much inferior to it 
in size. Here, and indeed all along the road, we saw, on 
most days in the wet season, tracks of the Jaguar. 
We never, however, met with the animal, although we 
sometimes heard his loud hough " in the night whilst 
lying in our hammocks at home, in Santarem, and knew 
he must be lurking somewhere near us. 
My best hunting ground was a part of the valley 
sheltered on one side by a steep hill whose declivity, 
like the swampy valley beneath, was clothed with 
magnificent forest. We used to make our halt in a 
small cleared place, tolerably free from ants and close 
to the water. Here we assembled after our toilsome 
morning's hunt in different directions through the 
woods, took our well-earned meal on the ground — two 
broad leaves of the wild banana serving us for a table- 
cloth — and rested for a couple of hours during the great 
heat of the afternoon. The diversity of animal pro- 
ductions was as wonderful as that of the vegetable 
forms in this rich locality. I find by my register that 
it was not unusual to meet with thirty or forty new 
species of conspicuous insects during a day's search, 
even after I had made a great number of trips to the 
same spot. It was pleasant to lie down during the 
E 2 
