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dian crew and the splash of their paddles. | most part, with steep rugged sides, destitutė

This channel was thirty-five miles long, and it took three days and a half in effecting the passage. The extremity of the channel is said to be haunted by a Paje, or Indian wizard, whom it is necessary to propitiate by depositing some article on the spot, if the voyager wishes to secure a safe return from the "sertão," as the interior of the country is called. Here the trees were all hung with rags, shirts, straw-hats, bunches of fruit, and so forth. The men caught plenty of fish in these channels, the prevailing kind being a species of Loricaria, wholly encased in bony armor. A small alligator, not more than two feet in length, is also found in the shallow creeks.

of trees and clothed with short herbage, but here and there exposing bare white patches. One of these ranges, called the Paranaquara, is remarkable for its flat tops. The valley, or river plain, is contracted to its narrowest breadth in this hilly region, being only from four to five miles broad. In no other part of the river do the highlands on each side approach so closely. Beyond, they gradually recede, and the width of the river valley consequently increases, until in the central parts of the Upper Amazons it is no less than five hundred and forty miles.

Santarem, a beautifully situated town, which Mr. Bates made his head-quarters for no less than three years, lies at the mouth of The channel, on entering the Amazons the Tabajos, and, although four hundred Proper, formed a splendid reach, sweeping miles from the sea, is accessible to vessels of from south-west to north-east, with a horizon heavy tonnage coming straight from the Atof water and sky both up stream and down. The majestic river did not, however, present the lake-like aspect which the waters of the Para and Tocantins affect, but had all the swing, so to speak, of a vast flowing stream. There was a spanking breeze, and the vessel bounded gaily over the waters. The same evening, however, a furious squall burst forth, tearing the waters into foam, and producing a frightful uproar in the neighboring forests. In half an hour all was again calm, and the full moon appeared sailing in a cloudless sky.

The Amazons is at the junction of the Xingu, one of its great tributaries, ten miles broad, and, with the exception of a trifling detention of two days in the sickening heat, becalmed, the weather was delightful, 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. The coast throughout is described, however, as having a most desolate aspect: the forest is not so varied as on the higher land, and the water frontage, 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. The Almeyrim range is only the first of a long series of hilly ranges, each having their separate names, and, for the

lantic. There is plenty of land here, and the Tapajos opens a direct way into the heart of the mining provinces of interior Brazil. But where is the population to come from, inquires Mr. Bates, to develop the resources of this fine country? At present the district, within a radius of twenty-five miles, contains barely six thousand five hundred inhabitants; behind the town the country is uninhabited, and jaguars roam nightly close up to the ends of the suburban streets. This while other countries are groaning under the necessity of contributing to the support of an excessive population. The tendency of mankind is to cumulate, instead of wisely distributing itself amidst virgin lands, forests, and waters. The progress in such regions is, hence, of an almost geological slowness.

Mr. Bates took up his head-quarters for the time being at Obydos, a small town of twelve hundred inhabitants, on the north bank, airily situated on a high bluff and in a hilly district. The river here is contracted to a breadth of rather less than a mile (1,738 yards), and the entire volume of its waters, the collective product of a score of mighty streams, is poured through the strait with tremendous velocity, and a depth of from thirty to forty fathoms. Behind is an extensive lake, called the Lago Grande da Villa Franca, which communicates with the Amazons both above and below Obydos. The inhabitants of Santarem are mainly whites, and they have lately imported negroes, before which they used to do, what a free negro is

said to have recommended us to do in Aus- | ashore, either in a shady nook of the forest tralia, to force servitude on the Indians. It or at the house of some settler. The mornis indeed questionable if it is not better to teach the savages to earn a livelihood by honest industry, than to let them starve in idleness. There were heiresses at Obydos whose property was reckoned in cacao plantations, oxen, and slaves. Some enterprising young men had come over from Para and Maranham to appropriate to themselves the ladies and their fortunes. The people were very sociable and hospitable, but only one had enterprise sufficient to establish a sugarmill.

ings were cool and pleasant, but by evening the heat would grow intolerable; later, however, the hours were delicious. The hammocks were swung on deck, and they went to sleep amid a perpetual chorus of animals, among whom the chief performers were the howling monkeys. Their frightful, unearthly roar deepened the feeling of solitude which crept on as darkness closed around them. Soon after, the fireflies came forth and flitted about the trees. As night advanced, all became silent in the forest, save the occasional hooting of tree-frogs, or the monotonous chirping of wood-crickets and grasshoppers. Now and then they came to large islands with sand-banks-open spaces in which the canoe-men take great delight-and hence they generally land at them, spending part of the day in washing and cooking. These sand-banks resembled the sea-shore. Flocks of white gulls were flying overhead, and sandpipers coursed along the edge of the These birds must have adapted flu

The forest around Obydos was more varied than it is in the Amazons region generally, and is rendered utterly impenetrable by the thick undergrowth of plants of the pine-apple order, and by cacti. Monkeys abounded, and one species, a coaita, is much esteemed as an article of food. The worst is, that this is just the most mild, affectionate, intelligent, and human-like monkey. A wood-cricket is also met with here that sings so loudly that the natives place it, like a bird, in a wicker- water. work cage. Mr. Bates likewise met with viatile habits like the tern on the Nile and some transition forms here among butterflies, Euphrates. In this peculiarity they are anwhich he believes tend to show that a physio-alogous to the dolphins and porpoises, which logical species can be and is produced in na- in so vast a stream as the Amazons are, as we ture out of the varieties of a pre-existing have seen, no longer marine, but purely fluclosely allied one. The process of origina-viatile creations. There were also plenty of tion of a species in nature, he remarks, as it rarer birds, ibises, unicorn-birds, that bray takes place successively, must be ever, per- like a jackass, barbets, or pig-birds, and haps, beyond man's power to trace, on ac- others. count of the great lapse of time it requires. But we can obtain a fair view of it by tracing a variable and far-spreading species over the wide area of its present distribution, and a long observation of such will lead to the conclusion that new species in all cases must have arisen out of variable and widely disseminated forms.

An elevated wooded promontory constitutes the boundary between the provinces of Para and Amazons. Beyond this the explorers stopped four days at the village of Villa Nova. There were pools here, in which grew the Victoria water-lily, and which swarmed with water-fowl, snowy egrets, striped herons, and gigantic storks. CanaryMr. Bates started from Obydos in a trader's birds and macaws were stirring in the trees. boat, passing on his way numerous houses, There were also hawks and eagles. At a subeach surrounded by its grove of cacao-trees. sequent period, Mr. Bates passed eight months A cacao-tree costs about sixpence, and one at this lively spot. The whole tract of land family manages its own small plantation of here is, in reality, a group of islands which ten to fifteen thousand trees. The life of extend from a little below Villa Nova to the these cacao cultivators is pleasant: the work mouth of the Madiera, a distance of one hunis all done under the shade, and occupies dred and eighty miles; the breadth of this only a few weeks in the year. But the people island and lacustrine district varying from are poor, for they have no gardens, orchards, ten to twenty miles. The country borderor domestic animals, and they live on fish ing these interior waters is said to be exand farinha. At night-time the boat gen-tremely fertile and not insalubrious, the erally lay to, and dinner was also cooked broad lakes having clear waters and sandy

dred miles, which he accomplished in a small cuberta, manned by ten stout Cucama Indians, in thirty-five days. On this occasion he spent twelve months in the upper region of the Amazons. He revisited the same country in 1855, and devoted three years and a half to a fuller exploration of its natural productions. This in addition to his residence at Santarem and the exploration of the Tapajos.

shores. They abound in fish and turtle, and swarm with wild-fowl. The woods, unfortunately, abound in ticks, as in red acari in other places, which mount to the tips of blades of grass, and attach themselves to the clothes of passers-by. Mr. Bates says it occupied him a full hour daily to pick them off his flesh after his diurnal rambles. The Urubu vultures were another annoyance. They are so bold that if the kitchen was left unguarded for a moment, they walked in and The sketches of life and of the aspects of lifted the lids of the saucepans with their nature under such various circumstances, and beaks to rob them of their contents. They during such a lengthened period, are mialso follow the fishermen to the lakes, where nutely detailed and very entertaining-nor they gorge themselves with the offal of the were all these explorations effected without fisheries. Kept in their proper places, they adventures. When on the Cupari, a tribuare manifestly useful scavengers. The but- tary to the Tapajos, a Sucuruju (the Indian terflies were at once colossal and most beau-name for the anaconda, or great water-sertiful, and our naturalist describes it as a grand sight to see them by twos and threes floating at a great height in the still air of a tropical morning.

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pent, Eunectes murinus) robbed the hen-coop in the boat. Some days afterwards, the young men belonging to the different sitios agreed together to go in search for the serA next stay of ten days was made at a pent, which had committed many other depvillage where a line of clay cliffs diverts the redations. It was found after a long search, course of the river. At a festival here, the sunning itself on a log at the mouth of a meal consisted of a large boiled pirarucu-a muddy rivulet, and was despatched with harmanatee, or river cow-which had been har-poons. It was not a large one, only eighteen pooned for the purpose in the morning. Mr. feet nine inches in length, but it had a most Bates describes the meat as having the taste hideous appearance, owing to its being very of very coarse pork; but the fat, which lies broad in the middle and tapering abruptly at in thick layers, is of a greenish color, and of both ends. a disagreeable, fishy flavor. The manatee, or vacca marina," as it is also called, is one of the few objects which excite the dull wonder and curiosity of the Indians, notwithstanding that it is very common. The fact of its suckling its young at the breast, although an aquatic animal, seems to strike them as something very strange. One was killed on the Upper Amazons which was nearly ten feet in length and nine feet in girth at the broadest part.

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At Ega, Mr. Bates relates, a large anaconda was near making a meal of a young lad about ten years of age. The father and his son went one day in their montaria a few miles up the Teffé, to gather wild fruit; landing on a sloping, sandy shore, where the boy was left to mind the canoe whilst the man entered the forest. The beaches of the Teffé form groves of wild guava and myrtletrees and during most months of the year are partly overflown by the river. Whilst the Mr. Bates did not proceed on his first as- boy was playing in the water under the shade cent of the Amazons beyond Barra, a large of these trees, a huge reptile of this species goodly town at the junction of the Rio Negro, stealthily wound its coils around him, unperand which is now the principal station for ceived till it was too late to escape. His the lines of steamers which were established cries brought his father quickly to the rescue, in 1853-a steamer running once a fortnight and he rushed forward, and seizing the anabetween Para and Barra, and a bi-monthly conda boldly by the head, tore its jaws asunone plying between the latter place and der. There appears to be no doubt that this Nanta, in the Peruvian territory. On a second excursion, Mr. Bates left Barra for Ega, the first town of any importance on the Solimoens, while Mr. Wallace explored the Rio Negro. The distance is nearly four hun

formidable serpent grows to an enormous bulk, and lives to a great age, for Mr. Bates heard of specimens having been killed which measured forty-two feet in length. The natives of the Amazons country universally be

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lieve in the existence of a monster water-pressed being that the imprisoned beast would serpent, said to be many score fathoms in tear the net. First, one shouted, I have length, which appears successively in differ- touched his head;' then another, He has ent parts of the river. They call it the Mai scratched my leg.' One of the men, a lanky d'agoa-" the mother or spirit of the water." Miranha, was thrown off his balance, and This fable, which was doubtless suggested then there was no end to the laughter and by the occasional appearance of Sucurujus of shouting. At last a youth of about fourteen unusually large size, takes a great variety of years of age, on/my calling to him from the forms, and the wild legends form the subject bank to do so, seized the reptile by the tail, of conversation amongst old and young, over and held him tightly, until, a little resistance the wood fires in lonely settlements. being overcome, he was able to bring it ashore. The net was opened, and the boy slowly dragged the dangerous but cowardly beast to land through the muddy water, a distance of about one hundred yards. Meantime, I had cut a strong pole from a tree, and as soon as the alligator was drawn to solid ground, gave him a sharp rap with it on the crown of his head, which killed him instantly. It was a good-sized individual; the jaws being considerable more than a foot long, and fully capa

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One day that Mr. Bates was entomologizing alone and unarmed, in a dry ygapo, where the trees were rather wide apart and the ground coated to the depth of eight or ten inches with dead leaves, he was near coming into collision with a boa-constrictor. He had just entered a little thicket to capture an insect, and was pinning it, when he was startled by a rushing noise. He looked up to the sky thinking a squall was coming on, but not a breath of wind stirred in the tree-ble of snapping a man's leg in twain.' The tops. On stepping out of the bushes, he met species was the large cayman, the Jacaréuassu face to face a huge serpent coming down a of the Amazonian Indians (Jacare nigra). slope, and making the dry twigs crack and fly with his weight as he moved over them. He had frequently met with a smaller boa, the Cutim-boia, in a similar way, and knew from the habits of the family that there was no danger, so he stood his ground. On see ing him the reptile suddenly turned, and glided at an accelerated pace down the path. There was very little of the serpentine movement in his course. The rapidly-moving and shining body looked like a stream of brown liquid flowing over the thick bed of fallen leaves, rather than a serpent with skin of varied colors. The huge trunk of an uprooted tree lay across the road; this he glided over in his undeviating course, and soon after penetrated a dense swampy thicket, where Mr. Bates, who had set after him at first, says he did not care to follow him.

Adventures with alligators are not less amusing. One day, when out turtle fishing in the pools in the neighborhood of Ega, when the net was formed into a circle, and the men had jumped in, an alligator was found to be enclosed. "No one," Mr. Bates 66 says, was alarmed, the only fear ex1049

THIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE.

At another spot in the same neighborhood no one could descend to bathe without being advanced upon by one or other of these hungry monsters. There was much offal cast into the river, and this, of course, attracted them to the place. "One day," Mr. Bates relates, "I amused myself by taking a basketful of fragments of meat beyond the line of ranchos, and drawing the alligators towards me by feeding them. They behaved pretty much as dogs do when fed; catching the bones I threw them in their huge jaws, and coming nearer and nearer, showing increased eagerness after every morsel. The enormous gape of their mouths, with their blood-red lining and long fringes of teeth, and the uncouth shape of their bodies, made a picture of unsurpassable ugliness. I once or twice fired a heavy charge of shot at them, aiming at the vulnerable part of their bodies, which is a small space situated behind their eyes, but this had no other effect than to make them give a hoarse grunt and shake themselves; they immediately afterwards turned to receive another bone which I threw to them.”

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From Good Words.
CHRISTMAS EVANS.*

THERE are few travellers or tourists in Wales who will not remember having seen at some halting-place in their rambles, either at the seaside lodging-house, or in the little parlor of the country inn, a picture of an unprepossessing countenance, with one eye quite closed up, and very little apparent speculation in the other. If this portrait were met with anywhere but in Wales, it would probably at once be taken for a representation of some renowned pugilist copied from the original very shortly after one of his professional engagements. But as every one knows that in Wales the people seldom exhibit portraits of any but divines, the visitor is constrained to take a closer inspection of the picture, and from the wisp of white neck-tie, the high black coat collar, and the tout ensemble of the costume, he is impelled to the conclusion that the suspected gladiator is verily a member of the clerical ranks. Though by profession clerical, however, our friend does not seem to be very dainty of his “cloth :" for even in an engraving his coat appears to indicate rude manufacture, and long wear. Lavater himself might well be puzzled to divine the powers or the passions which the drowsy face denotes; for with the exception of a sort of sluggish, elephantine humor expressed in the one eye which is supposed to be susceptible of daylight, a drearier or more stolid physiognomical blank

and most grotesque extremes. Then would have become apparent in the face some index of the specialities of the man; for if ever there was a man whose general appearance in repose belied his character, that man was Christmas Evans.

It is difficult, if not impossible, for the most phlegmatic spectator to look upon a dense and eager crowd of people unmoved. But no phlegmatic spirit could attract a crowd around himself. There never probably in the history of oratory was an eye which surveyed such vast multitudes of which itself was the centre, as the one eye of Christmas Evans. If an artist could have sketched him then, there would have been an almost inspired animation in the face which is stereotyped as so dull and heavy. Not that there was no fire within; far from that. He had a feverish soul-an almost volcanic nature-there was lava under that drowsy exterior, and it lay very near the surface. But it needed some fire from without to kindle the fire within, and oftentimes the inspiration of the mighty crowds which came to hear him preach effected this in a marvellous degree. Vast crowds they were; and as curious as they were vast. It would have been indeed a study for a painter to have looked upon the rapt fixedness of the upturned faces of the tens of thousands who thronged round this uncouth declaimer, as he held them spell-bound by his weird and rugged eloquence. I can imagine a reader starting at the expression tens of thousands, as applied to one congregation, but in several instances it is not an overstatement. I have been assured by several minconventional sense, and not as implying the isters in Wales, that as many as forty or fifty possession of the higher and subtler intellect- thousand people have been congregated toual endowments, for the most partial and gether at the services he has conducted. The thusiastic Cambrian would scarcely claim effect of his name in the heyday of his popthese qualities for his idol. For it is before ularity in Wales was talismanic. No matter the picture of an idol that we stand; a man how formal the company, you had but to inas emphatically and devotedly worshipped in troduce his name to lift the thermometer from his day, as any deity of heathendom; and zero to fever heat. The mention of “old more so, probably, within his own sphere Christmas,” instead of causing a Welshman than any one hero of a man-worshipping age. instinctively to button his top-coat, would It is a pity that this picture was not taken be enough to make him literally perspire with whilst this Welsh apostle was engaged in enthusiasm for he would not associate the public labor, at the moment that his violent name with the hoary king who wears a holly imagination was revelling amidst its mildest crown; but with the travelling preacher, with his old hat, his threadbare coat, his black gaiters—and his one eye.

it is difficult to conceive.

Yet this is a faithful likeness of a great
We use the word great in its more

man.

en

*It must be thirty or forty years since the editor of The Living Age copied an account of Christmas Evans. After so many years, his name is talked of again!

It is not an easy matter to convey a correct idea of the necromancy of his power by

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