162 TlMEHRI. 
be full of this, and concealing as it does the great mass 
of rubbish which the coquerite ever carries under its 
crown — in which, by the way it lives — it has a very 
pretty effect. Though so exceedingly abundant on this 
river it is found in no other situation. All these plants 
establish themselves in the fibre at the base of the 
leaves. As this drops away from the etae palms, a 
good many of the Coryanthes must fall too, and be lost. 
Terrestrial ferns on the main are confined to a few com- 
mon species of Adiantum, but in the creeks other 
kinds are found. 
The forest region is succeeded by the great savannah 
region. The change does not occur abruptly. In the land 
lying aback from the river the savannah takes deep 
reaches into the forest, while along the banks the forest 
struggles on with more or less success, keeping up a 
skirt, broken here and there, up to the main savannah. 
These conditions are ascribable chiefly to the nature and 
confirmation of the land. Where it begins to rise the 
dells and depressions are clothed with trees, while the 
flat higher surface is bare. These plateaus consist 
mainly of stiff compact clay, and the surface is broken 
into a net-work of deep close fissures, half concealed by 
the grass. This state seems to have resulted from the 
contraction and cracking of the ground in dry seasons. 
In wet weather the holes are full of water, and, though 
walking with the greatest care, at every two or three 
steps one plunges down to the knee, the water squirting 
up at the same time into one's face. There are wide 
areas of this kind of land, but it does not extend many 
miles. The land is then found to be sandy, and without 
these fissures. This is the beginning of the great savan- 
