288 
EXCUESIOlSrS AROUND EGA. 
Chap. IY. 
matted, and ribboned with climbing plants, woody and 
succulent, in endless variety. The most prevalent palm 
was the tall Astryocaryum J auari, whose fallen spines 
made it necessary to pick our way carefully over the 
^ as we were all barefoot. There was not much 
green underwood, except in places where Bamboos grew ; 
these formed impenetrable thickets of plumy foliage 
and thorny, jointed stems, which always compelled us 
to make a circuit to avoid them. The earth elsewhere 
was encumbered with rotting fruits, gigantic bean-pods, 
leaves, limbs, and trunks of trees, fixing the impression 
of its being the cemetery as well as the birthplace of 
the great world of vegetation overhead. Some of the 
trees were of prodigious height. We passed many speci- 
mens of the Moratinga, whose cylindrical trunks, I dare 
not say how many feet in circumference, towered up 
and were lost amidst the crowns of the lower trees, 
their lower branches, in some cases, being hidden from 
our view. Another very large and remarkable tree was 
the Assacu (Sapium aucuparium). A traveller on the 
Amazons, mingling with the people, is sure to hear 
much of the poisonous qualities of the juices of this 
tree. Its bark exudes, when hacked with a knife, a 
milky sap, which is not only a fatal poison when taken 
internally, but is said to cause incurable sores if simply 
sprinkled on the skin. My companions always gave the 
Assacu a wide berth when we passed one. The tree 
looks ugly enough to merit a bad name, for the bark is 
of a dingy olive colour, and is studded with short and 
sharp, venomous-looking spines. 
After walking about half a mile we came upon a dry 
ground 
