64 TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. {September, 
1 Oth, hoping to meet him up the river. I walked across 
an extensive sand-bank, where, about noon, it was de- 
cidedly hot. There were numerous little Carabideous 
beetles on the sand, very active, and of a pale colour 
with dark markings, reminding me of insects that fre- 
quent similar situations in England. In the afternoon 
we reached a house, and made a fire on the beach to 
cook our dinner. Here were a number of men and 
women, and naked children. The house was a mere 
open shed, — a roof of palm-thatch supported on posts, 
between which the redes (hammocks) are hung, which 
serve the purpose of bed and chair. At one end was a 
small platform, raised about three feet above the floor, 
ascended by deep notches cut in a post, instead of a 
ladder. This seemed to be a sort of boudoir, or ladies’ 
room, as they alone occupied it ; and it was useful to 
keep clothes and food out of the way of the fowls, ducks, 
pigs, and dogs, which freely ranged below. The head 
of the establishment was a Brazilian, who had come 
down from the mines. He had in cultivation, cotton, 
tobacco, cacao, mandiocca, and abundance of bananas. 
He wanted powder and shot, which Mr. Leavens fur- 
nished him with in exchange for tobacco. He said they 
had not had any rain for three months, and that the 
crops were much injured in consequence. At Para, from 
which we were not distant more than 150 miles, there 
had never been more than three days without rain. The 
proximity to the great body of water of the Amazon and 
the ocean, together with the greater extent of lowland 
and dense forest about the city, are probably the causes 
of this great difference of climate in so short a distance. 
