RIVER SCESERT. 
153 
things 
of truth and 
the least 
describe are before our eyes bears a character 
Individuality which gives attraction to 
important. 
On the 31st March a contrary wind obliged us to remain 
011 shore till noon. We saw a part of some cane-fields laid 
" as te by the eifect of a conflagration which had spread from 
neighbouring forest. — - 1 
set fi re to the forest 
o ~ x 
The wandering Indians everywhere 
- — - where they have encamped at night ; 
l l j during the season of drought, vast provinces would be 
'e prey of these conflagrations if the extreme hardness of 
e wood did not prevent the trees from being entirely 
consumed. "We found trunks of desmanthus and mahogany 
' ! Ter0 scarcely charred two inches deep. 
Having passed the Diamante we entered a land inhabited 
RUy by tigers, crocodiles, and chiguires ; the latter are a 
“' r ge species of the genus Cavia of Linnaeus. We saw flocks 
sk n s ’ crow<i ed so closely together as to appear against the 
uke a dark cloud which every instant changed its form. 
, ue river widens by degrees. One of its banks is generally 
i ‘ and sandy from the effect of inundations ; the other 
. uigher, and covered with lofty trees. In some parts the 
'5 is bordered by forests on each side, and forms a 
^ Uight canal a hundred and fifty toises broad. The 
pinner i' 1 which the trees are disposed is very remarkable, 
j’ 0 first find bushes of sauso,* forming a kind of hedge 
b\' ll fu' eCt and appearing as if they had been clipped 
j/ the hand of man. A copse of cedar, brazilletto, and 
gumn-vit®, rises behind this hedge. Palm-trees are rare ; 
and SaW 0n]y a few scattere(i trunks of the thorny piritu 
j a c °rozo. The large quadrupeds of those regions, the 
'teda® 3 ’ tapirs, and peccaries, have made openings in the 
tfi sauso which we have just described. Through 
riv e 6 t ie ""ibl animals pass when they come to drink at the 
fiad%v, ^ e y tear hut little the approach of a boat, we 
aloj, A' pleasure of viewing them as they paced slowly 
thev’ t i 9 8 fi° re till they disappeared in the forest, which 
betw Olltero( ^ '’J' 01ie °t the narrow passes left at intervals 
the hushes. These scenes, which were often re- 
n, had ever for me a peculiar attraction. 
*Un!.! ermcsia castaneifolia. 
ftorne a of Swartz. 
This is a new genus. 
The pleasure 
approaching tha 
