98 
TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. 
scene we had just left, and that which we now entered 
upon. The one was all luxuriance and verdure, the other 
as brown and barren as could be,— a dreary waste of 
marsh, now parched up by the burning sun, and covered 
with tufts of a wiry grass, with here and there rushes | 
and prickly sensitive plants, and a few pretty little 
flowers occasionally growing up among them. The trees, 
which in some places were abundant, did not much dimi- | 
nish the general dreariness of the prospect, for many of |f 
the leaves had fallen off owing to the continued drought, ? 
and those that were left were brown and half-shrivelled. 
The ground was very disagreeable for walking, being 
composed of numerous little clumps and ridges, placed ' j 
so closely together that you could neither step securely 
upon nor between them : they appeared to be caused j 
by the rains and floods in the wet season washing away , 
the earth from between the roots of the grass-tufts, the 
whole being afterwards hardened by the excessive heat • 
of the sun, and the grass almost entirely burnt away. ; I 
After walking over four or five miles of such ground, 
we arrived at the Lake just as it was getting dark. The 1 1 
only building there was a small shed without any walls, | | 
under which we hung our hammocks, while the Negroes ! I 
used the neighbouring trees and bushes for the same | j 
purpose. A large fire was blazing, and round it were | 
numerous wooden spits, containing pieces of fresh fish | ! 
and alligator’s tail for our supper. While it was getting || 
ready, we went to look at some fish which had just been li 
caught, and lay ready for salting and drying the next day: I 
they were the pirarucii (Sudis gigas), a splendid species, W 
five or six feet long, with large scales of more than an J 
