it germinates aerially, and allows tbe tides to flow to 
and fro between its elevated tracery of roots. After a 
while these will push their way farther out, and by suc- 
cessively forming belts afford the land behind staple pro- 
tection, and facilities to sustain vegetative forms of a 
higher order. A new island may be consolidated 
rapidly in this manner, as the coast line itself is meta- 
morphosed into a luxuriant tropical forest, where within 
the memory of man the fisherman has cast his net in 
five fathoms of water. A great portion of the Island of 
Marajo has thus been built up within a comparatively 
short time, and the peculiar clayey character of its soil 
only confirms this hypothesis. In some places this 
deposit is by no means insignificant, as I saw it on 
several exposed banks and cuttings attain a thick- 
ness of over thirty feet. It is curious, however, that 
the peculiar tropical jungles for which the valley 
of the Amazon is so famous, do not flourish on this 
soil, although moisture is not lacking. Its proper 
home is the immediate vicinity of streams, where it 
seems to thrive so much better for being submerged two 
thirds of the year. The well redeemed land behind sus- 
tains a straggling vegetation of the Caju tree {Anacar- 
dium occidentale) and several species of palm trees, 
among which we noticed the Tucunia, Miriti and 
Curua, along with a number of the curious climbing 
palms. None of these ever form extensive forest.^, but 
occur in straggling bushes of smaller or larger extent, 
but seldom covering connectedly over twenty acres. 
It is in these few sheltered spots where the Jaguar re- 
treats during the day and is driven out or scared upon 
any near by tree, where he is easily killed. It is probably 
that this cawpn vegetation, which gives the country the 
feature of an open park, extends to the immense tracts 
between the main southern confluents of the Amazons, 
Xingu, Tocantins, Tapajos and Madeira, the geography 
of which is as yet unwritten. It is justly surmised that 
there the land is too elevated to foster any other but 
campo vegetation, which exhibits corresponding re- 
semblance in the Lianas of the Orinoco. There is no 
particular object to be gained in the penetration of these 
solitudes, hence they are to this day unknown. The 
white explorer confines himself to canoe travel, since 
his means are scanty, his outfit insignificant, and his 
general purposes diverted into different channel* of re- 
“ search. He can not, even if inclined, proceed alone, as 
his companions are not the material he needs to carry 
out any such hazardous enterprise. They will follow 
him, but not beyond the beaten path travelled over and 
over again by their ancestors, as far as their traditions 
reach. On the main stream steamer* have now super- 
seded their primitive mode of locomotion, and by these 
the tourists may travel in a few weeks from the Atlantic 
mouth of the Amazon to the very foot of the chain of 
the Cordilleras. Such a journey could be accomplished 
by a delicately framed lady without any inconvenience, 
and offers thus few if any enticements, as no inci- 
dents of note vary the monotony, excepting perhaps 
the slightly varying aspects of the little settlements, 
which form successive stations. Even these often loom 
up like islands from a fluvial archipelago, and are simply 
convenient trading posts for the several articles of ex- 
port, which are raised in the neighborhood. They 
are mostly located on elevated bluffs, and form 
conspicuous landmarks. Their geography only em- 
braces their immediate vicinity, and the country be- 
yond is as much of a puzzle here as to the far off com- 
piler of geographical statistic*. But few of the southern 
tributaries are at present open to travel, whicu mainly 
follows the course of the Madeira, on account of the 
width and depth of this stream, which beyond its cat- 
aracts allow of safe canoe journeying throughout the 
entire continent of South America, at least as far as the 
mouth of the La Plata, with which it is connected 
through the ramifications of the Uruguay. These 
southern facilities are replaced in the North by the Rio 
Negro, which, through its inter-connections with the 
Cassiquiari, affords an uninterrupted fluvial highway 
to the mouth of the great Orinoco River. I know of no 
part of the world where a traveller may in his canoe 
journey a distance of over 5000 miles, passing succes- 
sively all possible variations of the richest tropical 
sceneries. Man follows thus instinctively the highways 
mapped out by the hand of nature, and since his canoe 
replaces all other available modes of terrestrial locomo- 
tion, his knowledge cannot well extend beyond the bor- 
ders of the river. 
When India Rubber, the staple article of export from 
the valley of the Amazon, rose in price on account of 
greater demand, it became necessary, in order to keep i 
up with the supply, to explore several of the hitherto | 
neglected tributaries, which h^d only been known by 
name. Their virgin forests could furnish an unlimited 
supply of healthy trees, from which this valuable article 
is obtained, and no expenses were spared to open trade 
with the Indian tribes inhabiting the banks of the 
Purus. An American firm alone in Para invested a 
sum of $10,000 to defra)’ the expenses of a single ex- 
ploring party under command of Capt. Piper, in order 
to glean some information of the country bordering this 
river, which is only TOO miles in the interior. Such in- 
stances will, I hope, illustrate sufflciently the scanty 
knowledge of these regions, the difficulty of enlarging 
It, and correct the ideas of many who look at such un- 
dertakings as they would upon the incidents of a 
pleasure trip from St, Louis to New Oilcans. 
The above named expedition left previous to my arri- 
val in a small iron propeller, which had been freighted 
with the current articles of trade, such as Indian tribes 
are generally in need of. It consisted of six men only, 
two of whom left in a cowardly manner, when they 
had reached the last civilized settlements near the con- 
fluence of the Purus with the Amazons. Beyond these 
the whole country is terra incognita. It was known, 
however, that immense forests rich in India rubber 
trees fringed its shores, and the rumor xvas also current 
that the Indians, who occasionally traded with the last 
settlement*, were anthropophagous and extremely fero- 
cious. Tne expedition left in the earlier part of 1872, 
and as no tidings of it had been received up to the time 
of my own departure in 1873, the supposition gradually' 
gained ground that the entire crew had been masacred 
by the natives. This then is the country where no ad- 
venturous interest attaches itself, where one ma}’^ go as 
safe as in the thoroughfares of our large cities, and sur- 
rounded with all of their conveniences. If the visitor 
chooses to tiavel on the main stream alone, which is 
navigated by large and commodious steamers, if he 
gives such tiibutaries as the Purus in his programme 
a wide berth, he may then enjoy the tameness of travel 
to his heart’s content, and return with a rehash of the 
same material which has been elaborated before him in 
different forms. 
I must confess to my per*onal regrets, that neither 
time, means nor th ■ proposed purposes of the journey, 
permitted me to obtain a few glimpses of such strange 
scenes, and I felt thus compelled to keep within range of 
the civilized districts. 
Yet even these were not fully known to their own in- 
habitants. Santarem is the largest settlement between 
Para and the Pacific Ocean, but I never met with an}' 
one while residing there, who knew anything of the 
country back of the town. A small belt of it, perhaps, 
only 20 miles wide, limited all information. Here no 
jungle or submerged forests with their dense vegetation 
bar the way. Santarem lies at the foot of an elevated 
plateau, which is covered with a beautiful growth of 
tall massive trees, on a light and dry soil, at least in the 
dry season. But communication is entirely confined to 
the rivers. The light produce raised inland is carried 
in the slowest and most laborious manner to the nearest 
trading post on the backs of the Indian or fhe degen- 
erated mixed descendants. The naturalist is thus 
forced against his best inclinations to select one or the 
other stations near the shore as his working ground, 
and he may feel proud if he penetrates from these more 
than fifteen miles inland, as he can not procure for love or 
money, any guides. His entreaties are met with apathy 
and indifference on the part of the natives, who have no 
ambition to improve their condition, and live without 
much labor on fruit and fish, in houses without any fur- 
niture beyond a hammock and a cooking pot. It is thus 
extremely difficult to organize effective expeditions, few 
care to take the lead or follow the white stranger, who, 
however anxious he may be to push on his way, is thus 
perfectly helpless for want of assistance, and contents 
himself at last to follow in the wake of the many who 
went before him, and whose experience he shares and 
narrates, interwoven perhaps, with a few original views 
of nature and habits of men from his own standpoint 
of view. This is the reason why the impression prev.'iils 
that the country is so well-known that nothing on the 
whole is lost, nor gained by going there at all. 
Time passes rapidly, no matter wherever we may be, 
providing we have a steady object in view, which to at- 
tain requires unreinittent labor. Although surrounded 
for a number of months by a people whose language 
was in the beginning perfectly unintelligible, although 
i continually struggling to overcome difficulties and un- 
I expected obstacles I cannot help but look upon my stay 
at Santarem as a most interesting episode of my life. 
Not a day passed without witnessing some new capture 
or novel occurrence, and the very vagueness of all in- 
formation concerning the deep wilderness just back of 
the town, the half-believed exaggerations concerning 
vegetative or animal life, kept the imagination ever in 
healthy, active play, a slate very propitious to general 
bodily health. ^Months flew by like so many minutes, 
and hundreds of interesting places reijuiring time to ex- 
plore had to be left entirely behind, never perhaps to 
be revi.sited in life. If the traveler wishes to obtain, 
good solid re.sults of his work in these parts, he must at 
onee make up his mind to count his leave of absence by 
years in the place of months; otherwise he will, like 
myself, enjoy the satisfaction to bid good-bye, when 
he has just learned the language, and the ways to econ- 
omize his means and his more valuable time. 
The neigh4orhood of Santarem is well supplied with 
birds inhabiting the forests, but lacks the many varieties 
which enliven marshes and river shores elsewhere. I 
found myself often returning with pockets full of am- 
munition, but empty of specimens, which I had ex- 
pected to obtain in unlimited numbers. The journal 
reminds me of several days, when I never even fired a 
single shot, which is rather disheartening work to the 
collector of birds, who is expected to return with tons 
of collections from a country, the birds of which, judged 
from museum collections, are ever numerous and ever 
conspicuous. The seasons, however, make a great 
difference, as we see also with us, in spring and fall, 
woodlands and marshes teeming with our feathered 
tribes which wander off or are unattainable in summer 
and winter. The rainy season, which I enjoyed from 
the first to the very last, represents hpre in some re- 
spects our northern winter, at least the Amazonian des- 
ignates it as such . The rainfalls are then every day’s oc- 
currence; all of the lowlands are over-flooded and inac- 
cessible, and the plateaus are so well drenched that birds 
find water most anywhere, and scatter in accordance, thus 
giving no chance to hunt them with success. The reverse 
hapnens in the dry season, when on the higher lands 
the entire country is parched up, and gapes in wide, 
hard fissures. The harvest may then be very satisfac- 
tory to the hunter who selects any of the few little pool* 
or tiny brooks which retain some moisture, as his hunt- 
ing grounds. In a few minutes he may then kill more 
than he would in the rainy season in so many days, and 
have all facilities in that to dry and prepare his cap- 
tures^well, which is often impossible in the wet season, 
when even ink will run on firm paper on account of the 
all permeating moisture. The moulting season also oc- 
curs in this latter unpropitious time of the year. It 
commences near the middle of Februar}', attains its 
maximum rainfall in March and April, and lasts with 
but few interrupting sunny days to September, when 
showers become light, irregular, and finally cease for 
weeks at the time. It happens sometimes in this valley, 
where conditions for moisture are so favoring, that the 
rainy season predominates the whole year, in which 
cases all rivers swell to an enormous extent, as occurred 
during my visit, when the town of Santarem was in 
danger of being flooded, a circumstance which had not 
been witnessed since 1835. It is also strange and annoy- 
ing that the tourist, when he lands first, can obtain no 
.sort of information concerning these changes from the 
dry to the rainy season. All my inquiries, when I ar- 
rived, amounted to nothing; nobody seemed to have 
any correct idea as to the beginning and end of each 
period; all people asserted was simply this: that it 
rained often and long in the wet sea.son, while opposing 
influences make themselves felt in tbe opposite period; 
a truly exhaustive statement to one whose success, 
health, and calculations are immensely influenced by 
these circumstances. After you have lived there a few 
years everybody seems to know all about it, and won- 
ders why you should have ever been so curious to ask 
about Vliat is sure to happen in its own time. Let the 
futuie traveler take warning and shun the lower Ama- 
zon from February to September, unless he wishes to 
put up with untold inconveniences and dangers to his 
liealth. Thus we may set out for a visit at different 
easons, and return with very differently colored ac- 
counts; to some it may have proven all gloom and dis- 
appointment and ill health; to others all sunshine and 
pleasant recollections. Look well before you leap, is 
the true motto; count by all means on the seasons, if 
you wish odds in favor of you, and spend the time from 
March to September in the southern provinces, where 
at that ^ime fine dry weather prevails. 
(to be continued.) 
