1850.] 
SCENERY IN THE GAPO. 
177 
on the fish, turtle, and cow-fish which they obtain from 
the river. 
On crossing the Rio Negro from the city of Barra, we 
entered into a tract of this description. Our canoe was 
forced under branches and among dense bushes, till we 
got into a part where the trees were loftier, and a deep 
gloom prevailed. Here the lowest branches of the trees 
were level with the surface of the water, and were many 
of them putting forth flowers. As we proceeded, we 
sometimes came to a grove of small palms, the leaves 
being now only a few feet above us, and among them 
was the niaraja, bearing bunches of agreeable fruit, 
which, as we passed, the Indians cut off with their long 
knives. Sometimes the rustling of leaves overhead told 
us that monkeys were near, and we would soon perhaps 
discover them peeping down from among the thick 
foliage, and then bounding rapidly away as soon as we 
had. caught a glimpse of them. Presently we came out 
into the sunshine, in a grassy lake fiUed with lilies and 
beautiful water-plants, little yellow bladder- worts ( Utricu- 
larias), and the bright-blue flowers and curious leaves with 
swollen stalks of the Foniederias. Again in the gloom 
of the forest, among the lofty cylindrical trunks rising 
like columns out of the deep water : now a splashing of 
falling fruit around us would announce that birds were 
feeding overhead, and we could discover a flock of pa- 
roquets, or some bright-blue chatterers, or the lovely 
pompadour, with its delicate white wings and claret- 
coloured plumage ; now with a whirr a trogon would 
seize a fruit on the wing, or some clumsy toucan make 
the branches shake as he alighted. 
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