Chap. III. 
PALM-FEUITS. 
167 
little bloodsuckers could not very easily find an un- 
occupied place to operate upon. Poor Miguel, the 
Portuguese, suffered horribly from these pests, his 
ancles and wrists being so much inflamed that he was 
confined to his hammock, slung in the hold, for weeks. 
At every landing-place I had a ramble in the forest 
whilst the red skins made the fire and cooked the meal. 
The result was a large daily addition to my collection of 
insects, reptiles, and shells. Sometimes the neighbour- 
hood of our gipsy-like encampment was a tract of dry 
and spacious forest pleasant to ramble in ; but more 
frequently it was a rank wilderness, into which it was 
impossible to penetrate many yards, on account of 
uprooted trees, entangled webs of monstrous woody 
climbers, thickets of spiny bamboos, swamps, •or obsta- 
cles of one kind or other. The drier lands were some- 
times beautified to the highest degree by groves of the 
Urucuri palm^(Attalea excelsa), which grew by thousands 
under the crowns of the lofty, ordinary forest trees ; 
their smooth columnar stems being all of nearly equal 
height (forty or fifty feet), and their broad, finely- 
pinnated leaves interlocking above to form arches and 
woven canopies of elegant and diversified shapes. The 
fruit of this palm ripens on the upper river in April, 
and during our voyage I saw immense quantities of 
it strewn about under the trees in places where we 
encamped. It is similar in size and shape to the date, 
and has a pleasantly-flavoured juicy pulp. The Indians 
would not eat it ; I was surprised at this, as they 
greedily devoured many other kinds of palm fruit 
whose sour and fibrous pulp was much less palatable. 
