tures of the primeval forest: The impenetrability of this "forêt vierge" par excellence; its non-adaptability to human existence; the rivalry of vegetation; the climbing plants and animals; the few insects, and especially the freedom from mosquitoes; the marsh forest as contradistinguished from the upland forest; the colossal trees with their huge buttresses and pendent air-plants (a forest on a forest); the various underwood and struggling lianas; the absence of flowers; the unvarying character of the annual, periodical, and diurnal cycle of phenomena; the silence and the gloom broken by mysterious and hitherto unexplained sounds; and the sources

in the contemplation or exploration of the primeval forest, to counteract any unpleasant impression which these various phenomena, and especially the reckless energy of the vegetation, might produce. There is the incomparable beauty and variety of the foliage, the vivid colors, the richness and exuberance everywhere displayed, which makes the richest woodland scenery in Northern Europe a sterile desert in comparison. But it is especially the enjoyment of life manifested by individual existences which compensates for the destruction and pain caused by the inevitable competition. Although this competition is nowhere more active, and the dangers to which each individual is exposed nowhere of enjoyment to be derived from the beauty more numerous, yet nowhere is this enjoyment more vividly displayed. If vegetation had feeling, its vigorous and rapid growth, uninterrupted by the cold sleep of winter, would, one would think, be productive of pleasure to its individuals.

In animals, the mutual competition may be greater, the predacious species more constantly on the alert than in temperate climates; but there is, at the same time, no severe periodical struggle with inclement seasons. In sunny nooks, and at certain seasons, the trees and the air are gay with birds and insects, all in the full enjoyment of existence; the warmth, the sunlight, and the abundance of food producing their results in the animation and sportiveness of the beings congregated together. We ought not to leave out of sight, too, the sexual decorations—the brilliant colors and ornamentation of the males, which, although existing in the fauna of all climates, reach a higher degree of perfection in the tropics than elsewhere. This seems to point to the pleasures of the pairing seasons. “I think,” Mr. Bates remarks upon this, "it is a childish notion that the beauty of birds, insects, and other creatures is given to please the human eye. A little observation and reflection show that this cannot be the case, else why should one sex only be richly ornamented, the other clad in plain drab and gray? Surely, rich plumage and song, like all the other endowments of species, are given them for their own pleasure and advantage. This, if true, ought to enlarge our ideas of the inner life and mutual relations of our humbler fellow-creatures."

and variety, richness and exuberance, and the vivid sense of existence with which all living creatures are endowed.

But there are also other and various phenomena which belong to the details of the same extensive regions, and which enter more particularly into a narrative of local explorations. Mr. Bates arrived with Mr. Wallace at Para on the 28th of May, 1848. This city is hemmed in by the perpetual forest on all sides landwards, but the white buildings roofed with red tiles, the numerous towers and cupolas of churches and convents, the crowns of palm-trees reared above the building, all sharply defined against the clear blue sky, give an appearance of lightness and cheerfulness which is most exhilarating. There are also picturesque country-houses to be seen scattered about, half buried in luxuriant foliage. On landing, however, the hot, moist, mouldy air, which seemed to strike from the ground and walls, reminded our explorer of the atmosphere of the tropical stoves at Kew. The merchants and shopkeepers dwelt in tall, gloomy, conventlooking buildings near the port; the poorer class, Europeans, negroes, and Indians, with an uncertain mixture of the three, in houses of one story only, of an irregular and mean appearance. Here, were idle soldiers, dressed in shabby uniforms, carrying their muskets carelessly over their arms; there, were priests, and negresses with red water-jars on their heads, and sad-looking Indian women carrying their naked children astride on their hips. Amongst the latter were several handsome women, dressed in a slovenly manner, barefoot or shod in loose slippers, but wearing

Such, then, are the main and leading fea- richly decorated earrings, and round their.

world.

necks strings of very large gold beads. They | Rio de Janeiro has excavated a tunnel under had dark expressive eyes, and remarkably the bed of the river Parahyba, at a place rich heads of hair. "It was a mere fancy," where it is as broad as the Thames at London Mr. Bates says, "but I thought the mingled bridge. squalor, luxuriance, and beauty of these women were pointedly in harmony with the rest of the scene, so striking in the view was the mixture of natural riches and human poverty."

The houses were mostly in a dilapidated condition, and signs of indolence and neglect were everywhere visible. The wooden palings which surrounded the weed-grown gardens were strewn about broken; and hogs, goats, and ill-fed poultry wandered in and out through the gaps. But amidst all, and compensating every defect, in the eyes of a naturalist, rose the overpowering beauty of the vegetation. Mangoes, oranges, lemons, dates, palms, bananas, and pine-apples are among the common fruits. There were also all kinds of noises by day and by night, cicidas, crickets and grasshoppers rivalling the plaintive hooting of tree-frogs. This uproar of life never ceases, night nor day, and is one of the peculiarities of a Brazilian climate. The stranger becomes accustomed to it after a time; but Mr. Bates says that, after his return to England, the death-like stillness of summer days in the country appeared to him as strange as the ringing uproar did on his first arrival at Para.

These are the Brunels of the inseet Besides injuring and destroying young trees, the sauba ant is most troublesome to the inhabitants, from its habit of plundering the stores of provisions in houses at night.

Mr. Bates speaks of Para-albeit a tropical city-as very healthy. English residents, who had been established there twenty or thirty years, looked almost as fresh in color as if they had never left their native country. The equable temperature, the perpetual verdure, the coolness of the dry season when the sun's heat is tempered by the strong sea-breezes, and the moderation of the periodical rains, make," he says, "the climate one of the most enjoyable on the face of the earth." It is, however, exposed to fearful attacks of epidemics.

The original Indian tribes of the district are now either civilized, or have amalgamated with the white and negro immigrants. Their distinguishing tribal names have long been forgotten, and the race bears now the general appellation of Tapuyo, which seems to have been one of the names of the ancient Tupinambas. The Indians of the interior, still remaining in the savage state, are called by the Brazilians, Indios or Gentios (heathens). All the semi-civilized Tapuyos speak the Lingoa Geral—a language adapted by the Jesuit missionaries from the original idiom of the Tupinambas. The language of the Guaranis, living on the Paraguay, is a dialect of it, and hence it is called by philologists the Tupi-Guarani language; printed grammars of it are always on sale at the shops of the Para booksellers. The fact of one language having been spoken over so wide an extent of country as that from the Amazons to Paraguay, is quite an isolated one, and points to considerable migrations of the Indian tribes in former times. At present the languages spoken by neighboring tribes on the banks of the interior rivers are totally distinct; on the Juara, even, scattered hordes belonging to the same tribe are not able to understand each other.

The first walks were naturally directed to the suburbs of Para, through avenues of silk and cotton-trees, cocoa-nut palms, and almond-trees. Much was found to interest our naturalists in their first explorations, the more especially as the species of animals and plants differed widely in the open country from what are met with in the dense primeval forests. Parroquets, humming-birds, vultures, flycatchers, finches, ant-thrushes, tanagers, japirus, and other birds abounded. The tanagers represent our house sparrows. Geckos and other lizards are met with at every step. The gardens afforded fine showy butterflies and other insects. The most remarkable and obnoxious of this tribe were, however, the ants. Of these, two species make themselves more particularly obnoxious. One of these is a giant, an inch and a quarter in length, and stout in proportion. The other The mixed breeds, which now form, probis the sauba-the pest of Brazil-whose un-ably, the greater part of the population of derground abodes are very extensive. The the province of Para, have each a distinguishRev. H. Clark has related that the saüba of ing name. Mameluco denotes the offspring

Mr. Bates, a free, familiar, pro bono publico style of living in these small places, which requires some time for a European to fall into. People walk in and out of the houses

of White with Indian; Mulatto, that of semi-amphibious kind of life. There is, says White with Negro; Cafuzo, the mixture of the Indian and Negro; Curiboco, the cross between the Cafuzo and the Indian; Xibaro, that between the Cafuzo and Negro. These crosses are seldom, however, well demarcated, as they please. There is, however, a more and all shades of color exist; the names are generally only applied approximately. The term Creole is confined to negroes born in the country. Trade and planting is chiefly in the hands of the whites, the half-breeds constitute the traders, the negroes the field laborers and porters, the Indians the watermen. Amusingly enough, there are Gallegos, or Gallican water-carriers in Para, as well as in Oporto and Lisbon.

secluded apartment, where the female members of the families reside. These Mamelucos are, however, by no means ignorant, and there is many a classical library in mudplastered and palm-thatched huts on the banks of the Tocantins. Higher up the river they met with families of tawny white Mamelucos encamped in the woods, to enjoy the cooler air and fresh fish. When we say encamped, their hammocks were slung between the tree trunks, and the litter of a numerous household lay scattered about. They had even their pet animals with them, and they picnic thus for three months at a time, the men hunting and fishing for the day's wants. On the 16th of September our travellers arrived at the first rapids, beyond which the river became again broad (it was about a mile at the rapids) and deep, and the scenery was beautiful in the extreme. They per

The semi-aquatic life of the people is one of the most interesting features of the country. The montaria, or boat of five planks, takes the place of the horse, mule, or camel of other regions. Almost every family has also an igarite, or canoe, with masts and cabin. Our traveller's first experiences with the montaria was not happy. He got upset, and had to run about naked whilst his clothes were being dried on a bush. Marmosets, a family of monkeys, small in size, and more like squir-severed up to the second falls at Arroyos, rels than true monkeys in their manner of climbing, are common in Para, and are often seen in a tame state in the houses of the inhabitants. Many other species of monkeys are also kept tame. We have seen a French sketch of Para which has a monkey at every door.

where the bed of the river, about a mile wide, is strewn with blocks of various sizes, and the wildness of the scene added to the roar of the rapids was very impressive. The descent by which they exchanged the dry atmosphere, limpid waters, and varied scenery of the upper river, for the humid flat region of the In August, 1848, Messrs. Bates and Wal- Amazons valley, was effected without any lace started on an excursion up the Tocantins, particular incidents. One day, when they a vast tributary to the Para River, which is were running their montaria to a landingten miles in breadth at its mouth, and has place, they saw a large serpent on the trees been compared by Prince Adalbert of Prus- overhead; the boat was stopped just in the sia to the Ganges. Unfortunately, the util- nick of time, and the reptile brought down ity of this fine stream is impaired by the nu- with a charge of shot. At the mouth of the merous obstructions to its navigation in the Tocantins, numbers of fresh-water dolphins shape of cataracts and rapids, which com- were rolling about in shoaly places. There mence about a hundred and twenty miles were two species: one, the Tucuxi, rises horfrom Cameta —a town of some importance, izontally, showing first its back fin, draws an pleasantly situated on the left bank of the inspiration, and then dives gently down, river some twenty miles from its embouchure. headforemost; the other, the Bouto, or porThe river at that place is only five miles in poise, rises with its head upwards, it then width, and the broad expanse of dark green blows, and immediately afterwards dips, head waters is studded with low, palm-clad isl-downwards, its back curving over. It seems ands. There are towns, villages, and large thus to pitch head over heels. There is nothplanters' establishments along the banks. ing that speaks more eloquently of the vast The inhabitants are chiefly Mamelucos, show-size of the "Queen of Rivers" than the presing that the mixed race thrives best in this ence of these fresh-water dolphins and porclimate, and they lead an easy, lounging, poises. Both species are exceedingly numer

ous throughout the Amazons and its larger doubted. He detected a large hairy spider tributaries, but they are nowhere more plen- in the act of disposing of two small birdstiful than in the shoaly water at the mouth finches-which he had caught in his dense of the Tocantins, especially in the dry season. In the Upper Amazons, a third pale flesh-colored species is also abundant. With the exception of a species found in the Ganges, all other varieties of dolphin and porpoises inhabit exclusively the sea. In the broader parts of the Amazons, from its mouth to a distance of fifteen hundred miles in the interior, one or other of the three kinds here mentioned are always heard rolling, blowing, and snorting, especially at night, and these noises contribute much to the impression of sea-wide vastness and desolation which haunts the traveller. Besides dolphins, porpoises, river cows, and anacondas in the water, frigate birds and fluviatile gulls and terns in the air are characteristic of the same great river. Flocks of the former were seen on the Tocantins hovering above at an immense height.

Mr. Bates stayed some time, at an after period, at Cameto, the chief produce of which are cacao, india-rubber, and Brazil nuts, and the population about five thousand. The inhabitants are almost wholly of a hybrid nature. The Portuguese settlers were nearly all males, the Indian women were good-looking, and made excellent wives; so the natural result has been, in the course of two centuries, a complete blending of the two races. The lower classes are as indolent and sensual as in other parts of the province, a moral condition not to be wondered at in a country where perpetual summer reigns, and where the necessaries of life are so easily obtained. But they are light-hearted, quick-witted, communicative, and hospitable. The forest here is traversed by several broad roads, which pass generally under shade, and part of the way through groves of coffee and orange-trees, fragrant plantations of cacao, and tracts of second-growth woods. The houses along these beautiful roads belong chiefly to Mameluco, mulatto, and Indian families, each of which has its own plantation. Besides the main roads, there are endless by-paths which thread the forest, and communicate with isolated houses. Along these the traveller may wander day after day without leaving the shade, and everywhere meet with cheerful, simple, and hospitable people.

white web. The hairs with which these bird-killing spiders are clothed come off when touched, and cause a peculiar, and our author says from sad experience, an almost maddening irritation. One day he saw some children with one of these monster spiders secued by a cord round its waist, by which they were leading it about the house as they would a dog! There were only two monkeys near Cameta: the Pithecia satanas, a large species, clothed with long brownish black hair, and the tiny white and rare Midas argentatus, which, running along a branch, looked like white kittens. There were plenty of humming-birds; and Mr. Bates says there was no need for poets to invent elves and gnomes whilst Nature furnishes us with such marvellous little sprites ready to hand.

Among other excursions made in the province of Para was one to Caripi, a Scotch gentleman's establishment in a region once the centre of flourishing estates, but which have now relapsed into forest in consequence of the scarcity of labor and diminished enterprise. Mr. Bates was much troubled here with blood-sucking bats, which got into his hammock and bit him on his hip. A feline animal called the Sassu-arana, or false deer, from its color, was also met with at this spot. The great ant-eater was likewise not uncommon. It was killed for the sake of its flesh, which is something like goose in flavor; sometimes, however, it would in its turn nearly kill the dogs that hunted it. It seems a pity to destroy this useful animal, where the ants are the pests of the country. There are at least four species, two of which are very small, and essentially arboreal. The great banded and maned ant-eater is the only ground species, just as the megatherium was the only ground species of the allied group of sloths, which are still more exclusively South American forms than ant-eaters. Hummingbirds abounded in the orange-groves, and Mr. Bates several times shot by mistake a bird hawk-moth instead of a bird. It was only after many days' experience, he says, that he learnt to distinguish one from the other when on the wing. This resemblance, which is the subject of a curious illustration in Mr. Mr. Bates had an opportunity here of veri- Bates's work, has attracted the notice of the fying a fact in natural history which has been | natives, all of whom, even educated whites,

such, says Mr. Bates, is the inflexibility of organization in the red man, and by inheritance from Indians also in half-breeds, that the habit seems impossible to be acquired by them, although they show great aptitude in other respects for civilized life. Thus they continue to be fishers and hunters, despite the fatigue and uncertainty of the process; and this inveterate instinct is far more op

firmly believe that one is transmutable into the other. The resemblance is certainly remarkable; but there is nothing more in it. The analogy between the two creatures has been brought about, probably, by the similarity of their habits-both poising themselves before a flower whilst probing it with their proboscis. Mr. Gould relates that he once had a stormy altercation with an English gentleman, who affirmed that humming-posed to their progress in civilization than birds were found in England, for he had seen one flying in Devonshire; meaning thereby the humming-bird hawk-moth, of which we have one well-known indigenous species.

Snakes abounded in this region; many of the species were arboreal, and sometimes looked like the flexuous stem of a creeping plant endowed with life, and threading its way amongst the leaves and branches-animated lianas. It was rather alarming, in entomologizing about the trunks of trees, to suddenly encounter, on turning round, a pair of glittering eyes and a forked tongue within a few inches of one's head. Watersnakes will also sometimes take the bait intended for a fish, and the Amazonian angler often brings an unwelcome visitor to the surface. The extraction of the hook, which is generally swallowed, as with an eel, is an operation that is, we suppose, left to some bystander.

the more imaginary one of their competition with an excessive vegetation.

the

On the first night of the rainy season there was a tremendous uproar-tree-frogs, crickets, goat-suckers, and owls, all joining to perform a deafening concert. The croaking and hooting of frogs was so loud that they could not hear one another's voices within doors. Ants and termites came forth in the winged state next day. Mr. Bates retreated to Para under these adverse circumstances, and began to prepare for an expedition up Amazons. At this epoch (1849) steamers had not been introduced, and nearly all communication with the interior was by means of sailing-vessels, and the voyage, made in this way, was tedious in the extreme. When the regular east wind blew-the "vento gera," or trade wind of the Amazons—sailing-vessels could get along very well; but when this failed, they were obliged to reA curious question in connection with the main, sometimes many days together, anacclimatization and domestication of animals chored near the shore, or progress laboriously —a subject which occupies the attention of by means of the "espia." This, where the Europe, as well as of Australia and other density of vegetation put tracking out of the countries, in the present day-presented it- question, was accomplished by sending forself at Murucupi, a creek where Indians and ward a cable by a montaria, which was sehalf-breeds had lived for many generations in cured to a tree or bough, and the vessel perfect seclusion from the rest of the world, hauled up, and so on, repeating the process. the place being little known or frequented. Anything more tedious it is difficult to imagThe spot is described, as far as scenery is ine. Mr. Bates obtained a passage in a concerned, as exquisitely beautiful. Then, schooner belonging to a young Mestizo, again, the inhabitants had groves of bananas, named Joao da Cunha Correia, who was asmangoes, cotton, palm-trees, pawpaws, coffee, cending the river on a trading expedition. and sugar. They had also plots of Mandisca The channel by which the passage had to be and Indian corn. But animal food is as much effected from the Para to the Amazons was a necessary of life in this exhausting climate not more than eighty to one hundred yards in as it is in Europe. Now these people have width, and was hemmed in by two walls of no idea of securing a constant supply of meat forest, which rose perpendicularly from the by keeping cattle, sheep, or hogs, nor is there water to a height of seventy or eighty feet. any lack of tamable animals fit for human The water was of great and uniform depth, food in the Amazonian forests. There are even close to the banks. They seemed, inthe tapir, the paca, the cutia, and the curas- | deed, to be in a deep gorge, and the strange sow turkeys; but the management of domes- impression produced was augmented by the tic animals is unsuited to their tastes, and dull echoes produced by the voices of the In