creepers and climbers which wind around them, hanging in long festoons from branch to branch, sometimes curling and twisting on the ground like great serpents, then mounting to the very tops of the trees, thence throwing down roots and fibres which hang waving in the air, or twisting round each other form ropes and cables of every variety of size, and often of the most perfect regularity. These, and many other novel features-the parasitic plants growing on the trunks and branches, the wonderful variety of the foliage, the strange fruits and seeds that lie rotting on the ground-taken altogether surpass description, and produce feelings in the beholder of admiration and awe. It is here, too, that the rarest birds, the most lovely insects, and the most interesting mammals and reptiles are to be found. Here lurk the jaguar and the boa-constrictor, and here amid the densest shade the bell-bird tolls his peal. But I must leave these details and return to some more general description.

"The whole country for some hundreds of miles around Para is almost level, and seems to be elevated on the average about thirty or forty feet above the river, the only slopes being where streams occur, which flow in very shallow and often scarcely perceptible valleys. The great island of Marajó, opposite Para, is equally flat, and the smaller island of Mexiana (pronounced Mishiána), which is about forty miles long, is even more so, there not being, I believe, a rise or fall of ten feet over the whole of it. Up the river Tocantins, however, about one hundred and fifty miles south-west of Para, the land begins to rise. At about a hundred miles from its mouth, the bed of the river becomes rocky and the country undulating, with hills four or five hundred feet high, entirely covered with forest except at a few places on the banks where some patches of open grass land occur, probably the site of old cultivation and kept open by the grazing of cattle.

"The whole of the Para district is wonderfully intersected by streams, and the country being so flat, there are frequently cross-channels connecting them together. Up all these the tide flows, and on their banks all the villages, estates, and

native huts are situated. There is probably no country in the world that affords such facilities for internal communication by water.

"The climate of Para cannot be spoken of too highly. The temperature is wonderfully uniform, the average daily variation of the thermometer being only 12° F. The lowest temperature at night is about 74°, the highest in the day about 86°, but with occasional extremes of 70° and 90° Though I have been constantly out at all times of the day, and often exposed to the vertical sun, I have never suffered any ill effects from the heat, or even experienced so much inconvenience from it as I have often done during a hot summer at home. There are two principal divisions of the year into the wet and dry seasons, called here winter and summer. The wet season is from January to June, during which time it rains more or less every day, but seldom the whole day, the mornings usually being fine. The dry season is by no means what it is in some parts of the world; it still rains every two or three days, and it is a rare thing for more than a week to pass without a shower, so that vegetation is never dried up, and a constant succession of fruits and flowers and luxuriant foliage prevails throughout the year. Notwithstanding the amount of water everywhere, Para is very healthy. The English and Americans who have lived here the longest look the healthiest. As for myself, I have enjoyed the most perfect health and spirits without the necessity for nearly so many precautions as are required at home.

"The vegetable productions of the country around Para are very numerous and interesting. There are upwards of thirty different kinds of palms, and in almost every case the leaves, stems, or fruits are useful to man. One elegant species, the stem of which, though not thicker than a man's arm, rises to a height of sixty or eighty feet, produces a small blackish fruit, from which a creamy preparation is made, of which everybody becomes very fond, and which forms a large part of the subsistence of the natives. From the fibres of one kind ropes are made, which are in general use for the cables of native vessels as they are almost indestructible in water.

The houses of the Indians are often entirely built of various parts of palm-trees, the stems forming posts and rafters, while the leaf-stalks, often twenty feet long, placed side by side and pegged together, make walls and partitions. Not a particle of iron is needed, the various parts of the roofs being fastened together with the lianas or forest-ropes already described, while, as both stem and leaf-stalks split perfectly straight no tools whatever are needed besides the heavy bush-knife which every countryman carries.

"The calabash tree supplies excellent basins, while gourds of various sizes and shapes are formed into spoons, cups, and bottles; and cooking-pots of rough earthenware are made everywhere. Almost every kind of food, and almost all the necessaries of life, can be here grown with ease, such as coffee and cocoa, sugar, cotton, farinha from the mandioca plant (the universal bread of the country), with vegetables and fruits in inexhaustible variety. The chief articles of export from Para are india-rubber, brazil-nuts, and piassaba (the coarse stiff fibre of a palm, used for making brooms for streetsweeping), as well as sarsaparilla, balsam-capivi, and a few other drugs. Oranges, bananas, pine-apples, and watermelons are very plentiful, while custard-apples, mangoes, cashews, and several other fruits abound in their season. All are very cheap, as may be judged by the fact that a bushel basket of delicious oranges may be purchased for sixpence or a shilling.

"Coming to the animal world, a forest country is often disappointing because so few of the larger animals can be seen, though some of them may be often heard, especially at night. The monkeys are in every way the most interesting, and are the most frequently to be met with. A large proportion of American monkeys have prehensile tails, which are so powerful in some of the species that they can hang their whole weight upon it and swing about in the air with only a few inches of the tip twisted round a branch. If disturbed in such a position they swing themselves off, catching hold of boughs hand over hand, and rapidly disappear. They live entirely in the tree-tops, hardly ever descending to the ground,

VOL. I.

T

and in this region of forests they can travel hundreds of miles without requiring to do so, so that they are almost as independent of the earth as are the swifts and the hummingbirds. They vary in size from the little marmosets, not so large as a squirrel, up to the howling monkeys the size of a large shepherd's dog. Of what are commonly termed wild beasts the jaguar or onça (somewhat similar to a leopard, but stouter) is the most powerful and dangerous, and is very destructive to horses and cattle. The puma (often called the American lion), though equally large, is much less dangerous. Tapirs, agoutis, armadillos, and sloths are not uncommon, but are very rarely seen. Birds are very abundant, and many are exceedingly beautiful. Macaws, parrots, toucans, trogons, chatterers, and tanagers, are all common, and often of the most gorgeous colours, while the lovely little humming-birds, though not so numerous as in the mountain districts, are to be seen in every garden. In the islands of Mexiana and Marajo, those splendid birds the scarlet ibis and the roseate spoonbill abound, together with great numbers of storks, herons, ducks, divers, and other aquatic birds; while in the forests of the mainland the fine crested curassows and the elegant trumpeters are among the larger ground-feeders.

"Lizards swarm everywhere in a variety of strange forms -the curious geckos, which can walk about the ceilings by means of suckers on their toes; the large iguanas, which cling to branches by their prehensile tails, and whose flesh is a delicacy; and the large ground lizards, three or four feet long. Frogs of all kinds abound, and some of the little tree frogs are so gaily coloured as to be quite pretty. The rivers are full of turtles of many kinds, one of the largest being very plentiful and as delicate eating as the well-known marine turtle of City feasts. Snakes, though not often seen, are really very numerous, but comparatively few are poisonous.

"Fish abound in all the rivers, and many of them are of the very finest quality. One very large fish, called the pirarucú, is three or four feet long, and when slightly salted and dried in the sun can be kept for any time, and takes the place of salt cod, kippered haddocks, and red herrings in Europe.

"The inhabitants of Para, as of all Brazil, consist of three distinct races: the Portuguese and their descendants with a few other Europeans, the native Indians, and the Negroes together with a considerable number of mixed descent. The Indians in and near Para are all 'tame Indians,' being Roman Catholics in religion and speaking Portuguese, though many speak also the Lingoa-Geral or common Indian language. They are the chief boatmen, fishermen, hunters, and cultivators in the country, while many of them work as labourers or mechanics in the towns. The negroes were originally all slaves, but a large number are now free, some having purchased their freedom, while others have been freed by their owners by gift or by will. Most of the sugar and cocoa plantations are worked partly by slave and partly by hired labour. The negroes, here as elsewhere, are an exceedingly talkative and contented race, as honest as can be expected under the circumstances, and when well treated exceedingly faithful and trustworthy. Generally they are not hard-worked, and are treated with comparative kindness and lenity.

"The people of all races are universally polite, and are generally temperate and peaceful. The streets of Para are more free from drunkenness and quarrels than any town of like size in England or Wales; yet in the time of Portuguese rule there were some fearful insurrections, brought on by oppressive government. But now, foreigners of all sorts can live in perfect safety, and on excellent terms with the native residents and officials, though, of course, they have to conform to the customs of the country, and obey all the laws and regulations, which latter are sometimes inconvenient and troublesome."

*

Shortly after writing this letter I went on a collecting expedition up the river Guamá, and soon after my return, in July, 1849, my younger brother Herbert came out to join me in order to see if he had sufficient taste for natural history to become a good collector. I had decided to start up the Amazon as soon as I could find an opportunity, and after a month in the suburbs of Para we left in a small empty boat