70 
TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. [September, 
I thought unhurt, but soon fell into the water, where I 
picked it up dead, having been shot through the head, 
and flown I suppose in the same manner that fowls will 
run after being decapitated. 
I then came out on to dry land, and waited for the 
Indians, who soon appeared, but all empty-handed. A 
pale yellow water-lily and some pretty buttercups and 
bladder-worts were abundant in the lake. We had a 
long row to reach the canoe, which we found at Jucahi- 
pua, where Senhor Joaquim resided, who, we had been 
told, would pilot us up to the falls. After a good dinner 
of turtle I skinned my birds, and then took a walk along 
the beach : here were fine crystalline sandstone rocks, 
in regularly stratified beds. In the evening a small 
Ephemera was so abundant about the candle as to fall 
on the paper like rain, and got into our hair and down 
our necks in such abundance as to be very annoying. 
In the morning we passed the locality of the old 
settlement of Alcobaza, where there was once a fort and 
a considerable village, but now no signs of any habita- 
tion. The inhabitants were murdered by the Indians 
about fifty years ago, and since then it has never been 
re-settled. The river was now about a mile wide, and 
had fewer islands. There was a fine flat-bedded sand- 
stone here, very suitable for building. We were shown 
a stone on which is said to be writing which no man 
can read, being circular and pothook marks, almost 
as much like the work of nature as of art. The water 
was here beautifully transparent, and there were many 
pretty fishes variously marked and spotted. 
About noon we reached the “ Ilha dos Santos,’' a 
