A Mixture of White and Red Blossoms. 
291 
by the Indians because its cry is quite like that of tile A. autumnalis , 
which however far excels it in brilliancy of plumage. One can easily 
imagine how busily our guns were kept going at the frightened swarms 
of the Yissisi as they continued to fly up and down stream and over 
our heads: A. mosch ata seemed to be smarter, for if once scared they did 
not return. We used our weapons upon them with most successful 
results, often bringing down at one shot from 0 to 8 on the wing: their 
flesh is undoubtedly one of the greatest delicacies. 
824. The fartln r we went the more numerous were the sandbanks and 
the drier the river until we finally had to punt the boats forward with 
pcles. A number of black porous crags appeared on the river bank itself, 
or in beds on top of clay, while in those situations where the savannah 
reached direct down to the water, the steep banks geneially consisted of 
sandy concretions, to which the name Cascalho-Conglomerate* has 
been applied. 
825. Among the various new plants several species of the beautiful 
Gustavia were especially conspicuous, particularly G. fastuosa Willd. 
and G. urceolata Poit. which with their large lovely white flowers sliona 
sweetly out of the dark green. Psidium uquaticuin and aromaticum as 
well as the lowly trees of a Des manthus commonly occupied the sand” 
banks. A show was made on the branches of the latter by a beautiful 
Loranthus with brilliant red blossoms over an inch long, in which Ü 
recognised a new species that Dr. Klotzsch has called Loranthus, 
(hiianensis ; just as plentiful upon them was Loranthus Smith'd Schomb. 
I have not found either of these species on any other tree. If the foster- 
father blooms at the same time as the son, the sight has something 
infinitely charming about it because then the white flowers of the 
Desmanthus mix in the loveliest manner with the red ones of the 
Loranthus. 
820. The inlets or kirahaghs are to be found continually along the 
banks : amongst them that of Assicure deserves mention on account of its 
size. (These bays appear to be the resort of the Sudis gigas for we 
everywhere recognised their reddish-brown and black tinged tail and 
dorsal fins in between the malicious heads of the kaimans exposed on 
the surface of the water. The Sawako-tunalli or Rain Mountain, with 
which many a superstitious belief is connected, and along the base of 
which we passed, is the highest summit of a mountain group that 
forces the river to turn sharply to the south. The mountains were 
almost generally bare, and only here and there were occupied by 
isolated stretches of forest: on the other hand, some devilish Power 
seemed to have regularly overstrewn them with huge granite boulders. 
827. The whole horizon was again to-night reddened with the 
glare of a burning savannah. In the course of the afternoon 
wherever the savannah touched the waterside we had already seen 
immense columns of smoke rolling along. During the night the stream 
M — — — — 
* Cascalho-conglomerate. This is probably the secondary conglomerate formed by the 
re-cementing of the detrital products of the Kaieteurian conglomerate of which the 
Pacaraima Mountains are formed. (E.E.W.) 
