The Naturalist on the River Amazons

Chapter Vii—the Lower Amazons — Obydos to Manaos, or the Barra of the

RIO NEGRO Departure from Obydos — River Banks and By-channels — Cacao Planters — Daily Life on Board our Vessel — Great Storm — Sand-island and its Birds — Hill of Parentins — Negro Trader and Mauhes Indians — Villa Nova, its Inhabitants, Forest, and Animal Productions — Cararaucú — A Rustic Festival — Lake of Cararaucú — Motuca Flies — Serpa — Christmas Holidays — River Madeira — A Mameluco Farmer — Mura Indians — Rio Negro — Description of Barra — Descent to Pará — Yellow Fever.

Chapter Viii—Santarem

Situation of Santarem — Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants — Climate — Grassy Campos and Woods — Excursions to Mapirí, Mahicá, and Irurá, with Sketches of their Natural History; Palms, Wild Fruit-trees, Mining Wasps, Mason Wasps, Bees, and Sloths.

Chapter Ix—Voyage Up the Tapajos

Preparations for Voyage — First Day’s Sail — Loss of Boat — Altar do Chao — Modes of obtaining Fish — Difficulties with Crew — Arrival at Aveyros — Excursions in the Neighbourhood — White Cebus, and Habits and Dispositions of Cebi Monkeys — Tame Parrot — Missionary Settlement — Entering the River Cuparí — Adventure with Anaconda — Smoke-dried Monkey — Boa-constrictor — Village of Mundurucu Indians, and Incursion of a Wild Tribe — Falls of the Cuparí — Hyacinthine Macaw — Re-emerge into the broad Tapajos — Descent of River to Santarem.

Chapter X—the Upper Amazons — Voyage to Ega

Departure from Barra — First Day and Night on the Upper Amazons — Desolate Appearance of River in the Flood Season — Cucáma Indians — Mental Condition of Indians — Squalls — Manatee — Forest — Floating Pumice Stones from the Andes — Falling Banks — Ega and its Inhabitants — Daily Life of a Naturalist at Ega — The Four Seasons of the Upper Amazons.

Chapter Xi—Excursions in the Neighbourhood of Ega

The River Teffé — Rambles through Groves on the Beach — Excursion to the House of a Passé Chieftain — Character and Customs of the Passé Tribe — First Excursion to the Sand Islands of the Solimoens — Habits of Great River-turtle — Second Excursion — Turtle-fishing in the Inland Pools — Third Excursion — Hunting-rambles with Natives in the Forest — Return to Ega.

Chapter Xii—Animals of the Neighbourhood of Ega

Scarlet-faced Monkeys — Paráuacu Monkey — Owl-faced Night-apes — Marmosets — Jupurá — Bats — Birds — Cuvier’s Toucan — Curl-crested Toucan — Insects — Pendulous Cocoons — Foraging Ants — Blind Ants.

Chapter Xiii—Excursions Beyond Ega

Steamboat Travelling on the Amazons — Passengers — Tunantins — Caishána Indians — The Jutahí — The Sapó — Marauá Indians — Fonte Boa — Journey to St. Paulo — Tucúna Indians — Illness — Descent to Pará — Changes at Pará — Departure for England.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Saüba or Leaf-carrying Ant Saüba Ant—Female Climbing Palm (Desmoncus) Interior of Primæval Forest on the Amazons Amphisbæna Acrosma Arcuatum Assai Palm (Euterpe Oleracea) Bird-killing Spider (Mygale Avicularia) attacking Finches Ant-eater grappling with Dog Humming-bird and Humming-bird Hawk-moth Soldiers of different Species of White Ants—Ordinary Shape of Worker—Winged Class Acari Fish (Loricaria Duodecimalis) Flat-topped Mountains of Paráua-quára, Lower Amazons Heliconius Thelxiope—Heliconius Melpomene Musical Cricket (Chlorocœlus Tananá) Peuriríma Palm (Bactris) Peloæus Wasp building Nest Cells of Trypoxylon Aurifrons Melipona Bees gathering Clay The Jacuarú (Teius Teguexim) Acará (Mesonauta Insignis) Sarapó (Carapus)—Needle-fish (Hemaramphus) Bulging-stemmed Palm: Pashiúba Barrigudo (Iriartea Ventricosa) Uikí Fruit Pupunha Palm Blow-gun, Quiver, and Arrow Surubim (Pimelodus Tigrinus) Arrow used in Turtle Shooting Turtle Fishing and Adventure with Alligator Night Adventure with Alligator Umbrella Bird Scarlet-faced and Parauacú Monkeys Curl-crested Toucan Adventure with Curl-crested Toucans Suspended Cocoon of Moth Sack-bearing Caterpillar (Saccophora) Foraging Ants (Eciton Drepanophora) Foraging Ants (Eciton Erratica) constructing a Covered Road—Soldiers sallying out on being disturbed Masked-dance and Wedding-feast of Tucúna Indians Map 1 Map 2 Map 3

AN APPRECIATION

From Natural History Review, vol. iii. 1863.

BY CHARLES DARWIN Author of The Origin of Species, etc.

In April, 1848, the author of the present volume left England in company with Mr. A. R. Wallace—“who has since acquired wide fame in connection with the Darwinian theory of Natural Selection”—on a joint expedition up the river Amazons, for the purpose of investigating the Natural History of the vast wood-region traversed by that mighty river and its numerous tributaries. Mr. Wallace returned to England after four years’ stay, and was, we believe, unlucky enough to lose the greater part of his collections by the shipwreck of the vessel in which he had transmitted them to London. Mr. Bates prolonged his residence in the Amazon valley seven years after Mr. Wallace’s departure, and did not revisit his native country again until 1859. Mr. Bates was also more fortunate than his companion in bringing his gathered treasures home to England in safety. So great, indeed, was the mass of specimens accumulated by Mr. Bates during his eleven years’ researches, that upon the working out of his collection, which has been accomplished (or is now in course of being accomplished) by different scientific naturalists in this country, it has been ascertained that representatives of no less than 14,712 species are amongst them, of which about 8000 were previously unknown to science. It may be remarked that by far the greater portion of these species, namely, about 14,000, belong to the class of Insects—to the study of which Mr. Bates principally devoted his attention—being, as is well known, himself recognised as no mean authority as regards this class of organic beings. In his present volume, however, Mr. Bates does not confine himself to his entomological discoveries, nor to any other branch of Natural History, but supplies a general outline of his adventures during his journeyings up and down the mighty river, and a variety of information concerning every object of interest, whether physical or political, that he met with by the way.

Mr. Bates landed at Pará in May, 1848. His first part is entirely taken up with an account of the Lower Amazons—that is, the river from its sources up to the city of Manaos or Barra do Rio Negro, where it is joined by the large northern confluent of that name—and with a narrative of his residence at Pará and his various excursions in the neighbourhood of that city. The large collection made by Mr. Bates of the animal productions of Pará enabled him to arrive at the following conclusions regarding the relations of the Fauna of the south side of the Amazonian delta with those of other regions.

“It is generally allowed that Guiana and Brazil, to the north and south of the Pará district, form two distinct provinces, as regards their animal and vegetable inhabitants. By this it means that the two regions have a very large number of forms peculiar to themselves, and which are supposed not to have been derived from other quarters during modern geological times. Each may be considered as a centre of distribution in the latest process of dissemination of species over the surface of tropical America. Pará lies midway between the two centres, each of which has a nucleus of elevated table-land, whilst the intermediate river-valley forms a wide extent of low-lying country. It is, therefore, interesting to ascertain from which the latter received its population, or whether it contains so large a number of endemic species as would warrant the conclusion that it is itself an independent province. To assist in deciding such questions as these, we must compare closely the species found in the district with those of the other contiguous regions, and endeavour to ascertain whether they are identical, or only slightly modified, or whether they are highly peculiar.

“Von Martius when he visited this part of Brazil forty years ago, coming from the south, was much struck with the dissimilarity of the animal and vegetable productions to those of other parts of Brazil. In fact the Fauna of Pará, and the lower part of the Amazons has no close relationship with that of Brazil proper; but it has a very great affinity with that of the coast region of Guiana, from Cayenne to Demerara. If we may judge from the results afforded by the study of certain families of insects, no peculiar Brazilian forms are found in the Pará district; whilst more than one-half of the total number are essentially Guiana species, being found nowhere else but in Guiana and Amazonia. Many of them, however, are modified from the Guiana type, and about one-seventh seem to be restricted to Pará. These endemic species are not highly peculiar, and they may yet be found over a great part of Northern Brazil when the country is better explored. They do not warrant us in concluding that the district forms an independent province, although they show that its Fauna is not wholly derivative, and that the land is probably not entirely a new formation. From all these facts, I think we must conclude that the Pará district belongs to the Guiana province and that, if it is newer land than Guiana, it must have received the great bulk of its animal population from that region. I am informed by Dr. Sclater that similar results are derivable from the comparison of the birds of these countries.”

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