was scattered in some numbers amid the rest, a few solitary specimens shooting up their smooth columns above the other trees. The graceful Assai palm grew in little groups, forming feathery pictures set in the rounder foliage of the mass. The Ubussú, lower in height, showed only its shuttlecockshaped crowns of huge undivided fronds, which, being of a vivid pale-green, contrasted forcibly against the sombre hues of the surrounding foliage. The Ubussú grew here in great numbers; the equally remarkable Jupatí palm (Rhaphia tædigera), which, like the Ubussú, is peculiar to this district, occurred more sparsely, throwing its long shaggy leaves, forty to fifty feet in length, in broad arches over the canal. An infinite diversity of smaller-sized palms decorated the water's edge, such as the Marajá-i (Bactris, many species), the Ubim (Geonoma), and a few stately Bacábas (Enocarpus bacaba). The shape of this last is exceedingly elegant, the size of the crown being in proper proportion to the straight smooth stem. The leaves, down even to the bases of the glossy petioles, are of a rich dark-green color, and free from spines. The forest wall "I am extracting from my journal-" under which we are now moving, consists, besides palms, of a great variety of ordinary forest-trees. From the highest branches of these down to the water sweep ribbons of climbing plants, of the most diverse and ornamental foliage possible. Creeping convolvuli and others have made use of the slender lianas and hang ing air-roots as ladders to climb by. Now and then appears a Mimosa or other tree having similar fine pinnate foliage, and thick masses of Ingá border the water, from whose branches hang long bean-pods, of different shape and size, according to the species, some of them a yard in length. Flowers there are very few. I see, now and then, a gorgeous crimson blossom on long spikes ornamenting the sombre_foliage toward the summits of the forest. I suppose it to be long to a climber of the Combretaceous or der. There are also a few yellow and violet Trumpet-flowers (Bignonia). The blossoms of the Ingás, although not conspicuous, are del icately beautiful. The forest all along offers so dense a front that one never obtains a glimpse into the interior of the wilderness." The length of the Jaburú channel is about 85 miles, allowing for the numerous abrupt bends which occur between the middle and the northern end of its course. We were three days and a half accomplishing the pas sage. The banks on each side seemed to be composed of hard river-mud, with a thick covering of vegetable mould, so that I should imagine this whole district originatal in a gradual accumulation of alluvium, through which the endless labyrinths of channels have worked their deep and narrow beds. The flood-tide, as we travelled northward, became gradually of less assistance to us, as it caused only a feeble current upward. The pressure of the waters from the Amazons here makes itself fo't. As this is not the cese lower down, I suppose the currents are di verted through some of the numerous channels which we passed on our right, and which traverse, in their course, toward the sea, the north-western part of Marajó. In the evening of the 29th we arrived at a point where another channel joins the Juburn from the north-east. Up this the tide was flowing; we turned westward, and thus met the flood coming from the Amazons. This point is the object of a strange superstitious observ. ance on the part of the canoe-men. It is said to be haunted by a Pajé, or Indian wizard, whom it is necessary to propitiate, by depos. iting some article on the spot, if the voyager wishes to secure a safe return from the sertaô, as the interior of the country is called. The trees were all hung with rags, shirts, straw hats, bunches of fruit, and so forth. Although the superstition doubtless originated with the aborigines, yet I observed, in both my voyages, that it was only the Portuguese and uneducated Brazilians who deposited anything. The pure Indians gave nothing, and treated the whole affair as a humbug; but they were all civilized Tapuyos. On the 30th, at nine P.M., we reached a broad channel called Macaco, and now left the dark, echoing Jaburú. The Macaco sends off branches_toward the north-west coast of Marajó, It is merely a passage among a cluster of islands, between which a glimpse is occasionally obtained of the broad waters of the main Amazons. A brisk wind carried us rapidly past its monotonous scenery, and early in the morning of the 1st of October we reached the entrance of the Uituquáta, or the Wind-hole, which is 15 miles distant from the end of the Jaburú. This is also a winding channel, 35 miles in length, threading a group of islands, but it is much narrower than the Macaco. On emerging from the Uituquára on the 2d, we all went ashore-the men to fish in a small creek, Joao da Cunha and I to shoot birds. We saw a flock of scarlet and blue macaws (Macrocercus macao) feeding on the fruits of a bacaba palm, and looking like a cluster of flaunting banners bencath its darkgreen crown. We landed about fifty yards from the place, and crept cautiously through the forest, but before we reached them they flew off with loud harsh screams. At a wildfruit tree we were more successful, as my companion shot an anacá (derotypus coronatus), one of the most beautiful of the parrot family. It is of a green color, and has a hood of feathers, red bordered with blue, at the back of its head, which it can elevate or depress at pleasure. The anaca is the only new-world parrot which nearly resembles the cockatoo of Australia. It is found in all the lowlands throughout the Amazons region, but is not a common bird anywhere. Few persons succeed in taming it, and I never saw one that had been taught to speak. The natives are very fond of the bird nevertheless, and keep it in their houses for the sake of seeing the irascible creature expand its beautiful frill of feathers, which it readily does a cloudless sky. when excited. The men returned with a large quantity of fish. I was surprised at the From the mouth of the Xingú the route great variety of species; the prevailing kind followed by vessels leads straight across the was a species of Loricaria, a foot in length, river. here ten miles broad. Toward midand wholly encased in bony armor. It night the wind failed us, when we were close abounds at certain seasons in shallow water. to a large shoal called the Baixo Grande. We The flesh is dry, but very palatable. They lay here becalmed in the sickening heat for brought also a small alligator, which they two days, and when the trade-wind recomcalled Jacaré curúa, and said it was a kind menced with the rising moon at ten P.M. on found only in shallow creeks. It was not the 6th, we found ourselves on a lee-shore. more than two feet in length, although full- Notwithstanding all the efforts of our pilot grown, according to the statement of the In- to avoid it, we ran aground. Fortunately, dians, who said it was a "mai d'ovos," or the bottom consisted only of soft mud, so mother of eggs, as they had pillaged the that by casting anchor to windward, and nest, which they had found near the edge of hauling in with the whole strength of crew the water. The eggs were rather larger than and passengers, we got off after spending an a hen's, and regularly oval in shape, present- uncomfortable night. We rounded the point ing a rough hard surface of shell. Unfortu- of the shoal in two fathoms water; the head nately, the aligator was cut up ready for of the vessel was then put westward, and by cooking when we returned to the schooner, sunrise we were bounding forward before a and I could not therefore make a note of its steady breeze, all sail set and everybody in peculiarities. The pieces were skewered and good humor. roasted over the fire, each man being his own cook I never saw this species of alli gator afterward, October 3d.--About midnight the wind, for which we had loug been waiting, sprang up, the men weighed anchor, and we were soon fairly embarked on the Amazons. I rose long before sunrise, to see the great river by moonlight. There was a spanking breeze, and the vessel was bounding gayly over the waters. The channel along which we were sailing was only a narrow arm of the river, about two miles in width; the total breadth at this point is more than twenty miles, but the stream is divided into three parts by a series of large islands. The river, notwithstanding this limitation of its breadth, had a most majestic appearance. It did not present that lake-like aspect which the waters of the Pará and Tocantins affect, but had all the swing, so to speak, of a vast flowing stream. The ochre-colored turbid waters offered also a great contrast to the rivers belonging to the Pará system. The channel formed a splendid reach, sweeping from south-west to north-east, with a horizon of water and sky both up stream and down. At eleven A. M we arrived at Gurupá, a small village situated on a rocky bank 30 or 40 feet high. Here we landed, and I had an opportunity of rambling in the neighboring woods, which are intersected by numerous pathways, carpeted with Lycopodia growing to a height of 8 or 10 inches, and enlivened by numbers of glossy blue butterflies of the Theclidae or hair-streak family. At five P.M. we were again under weigh. Soon after sunset, as we were crossing the mouth of the Xingú, the first of the great tributaries of the Amazons, 1200 miles in length, a black cloud arose suddenly in the north-east. Joao da Cunha ordered all sails to be taken in, and immediately afterward a furious squall burst forth, tearing the waters into foam, and producing a frightful uproar in the neighboring forests. A drenching rain followed, but in half an hour all was again calm, and the full moon appeared sailing in The weather was now delightful for seve ral days in succession, the air transparently clear, and the breeze cool and invigorating. At daylight, on the 6th, a chain of blue hills, the Serra de Almeyrim, appeared in the distance, on the north bank of the river. The sight was most exhilarating after so long a sojourn in a flat country. We kept to the southern shore, passing in the course of the day the mouths of the Urucuricáya and the Aquiquí, two channels which communicate with the Xingú. The whole of this southern coast hence to near Santarem, a distance of 130 miles, is lowland and quite uninhabited. It is intersected by short arms or back-waters of the Amazons, which are called in the Tupí language Paraná mirims, or little rivers. By keeping to these, small canoes can travel a great part of the distance without being much exposed to the heavy seas of the main river. The coast throughout has a most desolate aspect; the forest is not so varied as on the higher land, and the waterfrontage, which is destitute of the green mantle of climbing plants that form so rich a decoration in other parts, is encumbered at every step with piles of fallen trees, peopled by white egrets, ghostly storks, and solitary herons. In the evening we passed Almey⚫ rim. The hills, according to Von Martius, who landed here, are about 800 feet above the level of the river, and are thickly wooded to the summit. They commence on the east by a few low, isolated, and rounded elevations; but toward the west of the village they assume the appearance of elongated ridges, which seem as if they had been planed down to a uniform height by some external force. The next day we passed in succession a series of similar flat-topped hills, some isolated and of a truncated-pyramidal shape, others prolonged to a length of several miles. There is an interval of low country between these and the Almeyrim range, which has a total length of about 25 miles; then commences abruptly the Serra de Marauquá, which is succeeded in a similar way by the Velha Pobre range, the Serras de Tapa na-quára, and Paraua-quára. All these forn a striking contrast to the Serra de Almeyim n being quite destitute of trees. They ave steep rugged sides, apparently clothed with short herbage, but here and there exposing bare white patches. Their total length is about 40 miles. In the rear, toward the interior, they are succeeded by other ranges of hills, communicating with the central mountain-chain of Guiana, which divides Brazil from Cayenne. As we sailed along the southern shore, durng the 6th and two following days, the table-topped hills on the opposite side occupied most of our attention. The river is from four to five miles broad, and in some places long, low, wooded islands intervene in midstream, whose light green vivid verdure formed a strangely beautiful foreground to the glorious landsc pe of broad stream and gray mountain. Ninety miles beyond Almeyrim stands the village of Monte Alegre, which is built near the summit of the last hill visible of this chain. At this point the liver bends a little toward the south, and the hilly country recedes from its shores to reappear at Obydos, greatly decreased in height, about a hundred miles farther west. We crossed the river three times between Monte Alegre and the next town, Santarem. In the middle the waves ran very high, and the vessel lurched fearfully, hurling everything that was not well secured from one side of the deck to the other. On the morning of the 9th of October, a gentle wind carried us along a remanso," or still water, under the southern shore. These tracts of quiet water are frequent on the irregular sides of the stream, and are the effect of counter movements caused by the rapid current of its central parts. At nine A.M. we passed the mouth of a Paraná-mirim, called Mahicá, and then found a sudden change in the color of the water and aspect of the banks. Instead of the low and swampy water-frontage which had prevailed from the mouth of the Xingú, we saw before us a broad sloping beach of white sand. The forest, instead of being an entangled mass of irregular and rank vegeta tion as hitherto, presented a rounded outline, and created an impression of repose that was very pleasing. We now approached, in fact, the mouth of the Tapajos, whose clear olive-green waters here replaced the muddy current against which we had so long been sailing. Although this is a river of great extent-1000 miles in length, and, for the last eighty miles of its course, four to ten in breadth-its contribution to the Amazons is not perceptible in the middle of the stream. The white turbid current of the main river flows disdainfully by, occupying nearly the whole breadth of the channel, while the darker water of its tributary seems to creep along the shore, and is no longer distinguish *ble four or five miles from its mouth. We reached Santarem at 11 A.M. The owns has a clean and cheerful appearance from the river. It consists of three long streets, with a few shoes crossing them at right angles, and contains about 2500 in. habitants. It lies just within the mouth of the Tapajos, and is divided into two parts, the town and the aldeia or village. The houses of the white and trading classes are substantially built, many being of two and three stories, and all whitewashed and tiled. The aldeia, which contains the Indian portion of the population, or did so formerly, consists mostly of mud huts, thatched with palm-leaves. The situation of the town is very beautiful. The land, although but slightly elevated, does not form, strictly speaking, a portion of the alluvial river plains of the Amazons, but is rather a northern prolongation of the Brazilian continental land. It is scantily wooded, and toward the interior consists of undulating campos, which are connected with a series of hills extending southward as far as the eye can reach. subsequently made this place my headquarters for three years. An account of its neighborhood is therefore reserved for another chapter. At the first sight of Santarem, one cannot help being struck with the advantages of its situation. Although four hundred miles from the sea, it is accessible to vessels of heavy tonnage coming straight from the Atlantic. The iver has only two slight bends between th's port and the sea, and for five or six months in the year the Amazonian trade-wind blows with very little interruption, so that sailing ships coming from foreign countries could reach the place with little difficulty. We ourselves had accomplished two hundred miles, or about half the distance from the sea, in an ill-rigged vessel, in three days and a half. Although the land in the immediate neighborhood is perhaps ill adapted for agriculture, an immense tract of rich soil, with forest and meadow land, lies en the opposite banks of the river, and the Tapajos leads into the heart of the mining provinces of interior Brazil. But where is the population to come from to develop the resources of this fine country? At present the district within a radius of twenty-five miles contains barely 6500 inhabitants; behind the town, toward the interior, the country is uninhabited, and jaguars roam nightly, at least in the rainy season, close up to the ends of the suburban streets. From information obtained here, I fixed upon the next town, Obydos, as the best place to stay at a few weeks, in order to investigate the natural productions of the north side of the Lower Amazons. We started at sunrise on the 10th, and being still favored by wind and weather, made a pleasant passage, reaching Obydos, which is nearly fifty miles distant from Santarem, by midnight. We sailed all day close to the southern shore, and found the banks here and there dotted with houses of settlers, each surrounded by its plantation of cacao, which is the staple product of the district. This coast has an evil reputation for storms and mosquitoes, but we fortunately escaped both. It was remarkable that we had been troubled by mos quitoes only on one night, and then to a small degree, during the whole of our voyage. square leagues' extent in the campos, or grassland districts, which border the Lago Grande and other similar inland lakes, near the villages of Faro and Alemquer. These campos bear a crop of nutritious grass; but in certain seasons, when the rising of the Amazons exceeds the average, they are apt to be flooded, and then the large herds of half-wild cattle suffer great mortality from drowning, hunger, and the alligators. Neither in cattle keeping nor cacao-growing are any but the laziest and most primitive methods followed, and the consequence is, that the proprietors are generally poor. I landed at Obydos the next morning, and then bid adieu to my kind friend Joao da Cunha, who, after landing my baggage, got up his anchor and continued on his way. The town contains about 1200 inhabitants, and is airily situated on a high bluff, ninety or one hundred feet above the level of the river. The coast is precipitous for two or three miles hence to the west. The cliffs consist of the parti-colored clay, or Tabatinga, which occurs so frequently through out the Amazons region; the strong current of the river sets full against them in the season of high water, and annually carries away large portions. The clay in places is strati- The forest at Obydos seemed to abound in fied alternately pink and yellow, the pink monkeys, for I rarely passed a day without beds being the thickest, and of much harder seeing several. I noticed four species: the texture than the others. When I descended Couită (Ateles paniscus), the Chrysothrix the river in 1859, a German Major of En- sciureus, the Callithrix torquatus, and our gineers, in the employ of the Government, old Pará friend, Midas ursulus. The Coaitá told me that he had found calcareous layers, is a large black monkey, covered with coarse thickly studded with marine shells inter- hair, and having the prominent parts of the stratified with the clay. On the top of the face of a tawny flesh-colored hue. It is the Tabatinga lies a bed of sand, in some places largest of the Amazonian monkeys in stature, several feet thick, and the whole formation but is excelled in bulk by the Barrigudo" rests on strata of sandstone, which are ex- (Lagothrix Humboldtii) of the Upper Amaposed only when the river reaches its lowest zons. It occurs throughout the lowlands of level. Behind the town rises a fine rounded the Lower and Upper Amazons; but does hill, and a range of similar elevations extends not range to the south beyond the limits of six miles westward, terminating at the mouth the river plains. At that point an allied speof the Trombetas, a large river flowing through cies, the white-whiskered Conitá (Ateles marthe interior of Guiana. Hills and lowlands ginatus) takes its place. The Coaitás are alike are covered with a sombre rolling for called by zoologists spider-monkeys, on acest. The river here is contracted to a breadth count of the length and slenderness of their of rather less than a mile (1738 yards), and body and limbs. In these apes the tail, as a the entire volume of its waters, the collective prehensible organ, reaches its highest degree product of a score of mighty streams, is of perfection; and on this account it would, poured through the strait with tremendous perhaps, be correct to consider the Coaitás velocity. It must be remarked, however, as the extreme development of the American that the river valley itself is not contracted type of apes. As far as we know, from livto this breadth, the opposite shore not being ing and fossil species, the New World has continental land, but a low alluvial tract, progressed no farther than the Coaita, toward subject to inundation more or less in the the production of a higher form of the Quadrainy season. Behind it lies an extensive rumanous order. The tendency of nature lake, called the Lago Grande da Ville here has been, to all appearance, simply to Franca, which communicates with the Ama- perfect those organs which adapt the species zons both above and below Obydos, and has more and more completely to a purely arbotherefore the appearance of a by-water or an real life; and no nearer approach has been old channel of the river. This lake is about inade toward the more advanced forms of anthirty-five miles in length, and from four to thropoid apes, which are the products of the ten in width; but its waters are of little Old World solely. The flesh of this monkey depth, and in the dry season its dimensions is much esteemed by the natives in this part are much lessened. It has no perceptible of the country, and the military commancurrent, and does not therefore now divert dant at Obydos, Major Gama, every week any portion of the waters of the Amazons sent a negro hunter to shoot one for his from their main course past Obydos. table. One day I went on a Coaitá hunt, borrowing a negro slave of a friend to show me the way. When in the deepest part of a ravine, we heard a rustling sound in the trees overhead, and Manoel soon pointed out a Coaitá to me. There was something humanlike in its appearance, as the lean, dark shaggy creature moved deliberately among the branches at a great height. I fired, but unfortunately only wounded it in the belly. It fell with a crash, headlong, about twenty or thirty feet, and then caught a bough with its tail, which grasped it instantaneously, so that the animal remained suspended in mid I remained at Obydos from the 11th of October to the 19th of November. I spent three weeks here, also, in 1859, when the place was much changed, through the influx of Portuguese immigrants and the building of a fortress on the top of the bluff. It is one of the pleasantest towns on the river. The houses are all roofed with tiles, and are mostly of substantial architecture. Most of the Obydos townsfolk are owners of cacao plantations, which are situated on the lowlands in the vicinity. Some are large cattle proprietors, and possess estates of many air. Before I could reload it recovered itself, and mounted nimbly to the topmost branches, out of the reach of a fowling-piece, where we could perceive the poor thing apparently probing the wound with its fingers. Coaitás are more frequently kept in a tane state than any other kind of monkey. The Indians are very fond of them as pets, and the women often suckle them when young at their breasts. They become attached to their masters, and will sometimes follow them on the ground to considerable distances. I once saw a most ridiculously tame Coaitá. It was an old female, which accompanied its owner, a trader on the river, in all his voyages. By way of giving me a specimen of its intelligence and feeling, its master set to and rated it soundly, calling it scamp, heathen, thief, and so forth, all through the copious Portuguese vocabulary of vituperation. The poor monkey, quietly seated on the ground, seemed to be in sore trouble at this display of anger. It began by looking earnestly at him, then it whined, and lastly rocked its body to and fro with emotion, crying piteously, and passing its long gaunt arms continually over its forehead, for this was its habit when excited, and the front of the head was worn quite bald in consequence. At length its master altered his tone. "It's all a lie, my old woman; you're an angel, a flower, a good affectionate old creature," and so forth. Immediately the poor monkey ceased its wailing, and soon after came over to where the man sat. The disposition of the Coaitá is mild in the extreme; it has none of the painful, restless vivacity of its kindred, the Cebi, and no trace of the surly, untamable temper of its still nearer relatives, the Mycetes, or howling monkeys. It is, however, an arrant thief, and shows considerable cunning in pilfering small articles of clothing, which it conceals in its sleeping-place. The natives of the Upper Amazons procure the Coaitá, when full grown, by shooting it with the blowpipe and poisoned darts, and restoring life by putting a little salt (the antidote to the Urai poison with which the darts are -tipped) in its mouth. The animals thus caught become tame forthwith. Two fe males were once kept at the Jardin des Plantes of Paris, and Geoffroy St. Hilaire relates of them that they rarely quitted each other, remaining most part of the time in close embrace, folding their tails round one another's bodies. They took their meals together; and it was remarked on such occasions, when the friendship of animals is put to a hard test, that they never quarrelled or disputed the possession of a favorite fruit with each other. The neighborhood of Obydos was rich also in insects. In the broad alleys of the forest a magnificent butterfly of the genus Morpho, six to eight inches in expanse, the Morpho He cuba, was seen daily gliding along at a height of twenty feet or more from the ground. Among the lower trees and bushes numerous kinds of Heliconii, a group of butterflies pe culiar to tropical America, having long nar. row wings, were very abundant. The prevailing ground color of the wings of these insects is a deep black, and on this are depicted spots and streaks of crimson, white, and bright yellow, in different patterns ac cording to the species. Their elegant shape, showy colors, and slow, sailing mode of flight, make them very attractive objects, and their numbers are so great that they form quite a feature in the physiognomy of the forest, compensating for the scarcity of flow ers. Next to the Heliconii, the Cata grammas (C. astarte and C. peristera) were the most conspicuous. These have a very rapid and short flight, settling frequently and remaining stationary for a long time on the trunks of trees. The colors of their wings are vermilion and black, the surface having a rich velvety appearance. The genus owes its Greek name Catagramma (signifying “ letter beneath") to the curious markings of the underside of the wings, resembling Arabic numerals. The species and varieties are of almost endless diversity, but the majority inhabit the hot valleys of the eastern parts of the Andes. Another butterfly nearly allied to these, Callithea Leprieurii, was also very abundant here, at the marshy head of the pool before mentioned. The rings are of a rich dark-blue color, with a broad border of silver-green. These two groups of Callithea and Catagramma are found only in tropical America, chiefly near the equator, and are certainly among the most beautiful produc tions of a region where the animals and plants seem to have been fashioned in na ture's choicest moulds. A great variety of other beautiful and curious insects adorned these pleasant woods. Others were seen only in the sunshine in open places. As the waters retreated from the beach, vast num. bers of sulphur-yellow and orange colored butterflies congregated on the moist sand. The greater portion of them belonged to the genus Callidryas. They assembled in densely-packed masses, sometimes two or three yards in circumference, their wings all held in an upright position, so that the beach looked as though variegated with beds of crocuses. These Callidryades seem to be migratory insects, and have large powers of dissemination. During the last two days of our voyage the great numbers constantly passing over the river attracted the attention of every one on board. They all crossed in one direction, namely, from north to south, and the processions were uninterrupted from an early hour in the morning until sunset. All the individuals which resort to the mar. gins of sandy beaches are of the male sex. The females are much more rare, and are seen only on the borders of the forest, wan dering from tree to tree, and depositing their eggs on low mimosas which grow in the shade. The migrating hordes, as far as I could ascertain, are composed only of males, and on this account I believe their wander ings do not extend very far. A strange kind of wood-cricket is found in |