On the shores of the main river the mass of the forest is composed, besides palms, of Leguminosae, or trees of the bean family, in endless variety as to height, shape of foliage, flowers, and fruit; of silk-cotton trees, colossal nut-trees (Lecythideae), and Cecropiae; the underwood and water-frontage consisting in great part of broad-leaved Musaceae, Marantaceae, and succulent grasses-- all of which are of light shades of green.The forests of the Rio Negro are almost destitute of these large-leaved plants and grasses, which give so rich an appearance to the vegetation wherever they grow; the margins of the stream being clothed with bushes or low trees, having the same gloomy monotonous aspect as the mangroves of the shores of creeks near the Atlantic.The uniformly small but elegantly-leaved exogenous trees, which constitute the mass of the forest, consist in great part of members of the Laurel, Myrtle, Bignoniaceous, and Rubiaceous orders.The soil is generally a stiff loam, whose chief component part is the Tabatinga clay, which also forms low cliffs on the coast in some places, where it overlies strata of coarse sandstone.This kind of soil and the same geological formation prevail, as we have seen, in many places on the banks of the Amazons, so that the great contrast in the forest-clothing of the two rivers cannot arise from this cause.
The forest was very pleasant for rambling.In some directions broad pathways led down gentle slopes, through what one might fancy were interminable shrubberies of evergreens, to moist hollows where springs of water bubbled up, or shallowbrooks ran over their beds of clean white sand.But the most beautiful road was one that ran through the heart of the forest to a waterfall, which the citizens of Barra consider as the chief natural curiosity of their neighbourhood.The waters of one of the larger rivulets which traverse the gloomy wilderness, here fall over a ledge of rock about ten feet high.It is not the cascade itself, but the noiseless solitude, and the marvellous diversity and richness of trees, foliage, and flowers encircling the water basin that form the attraction of the place.Families make picnic excursions to this spot; and the gentlemen--it is said the ladies also--spend the sultry hours of midday bathing in the cold and bracing waters.The place is classic ground to the Naturalist from having been a favourite spot with the celebrated travellers Spix and Martius, during their stay at Barra in 1820.Von Martins was so much impressed by its magical beauty that he commemorated the visit by making a sketch of the scenery serve as background in one of the plates of his great work on the palms.
Birds and insects, however, were scarce amidst these charming sylvan scenes.I have often traversed the whole distance from Barra to the waterfall, about two miles by the forest road, without seeing or hearing a bird, or meeting with so many as a score of Lepidopterous and Coleopterous insects.In the thinner woods near the borders of the forest many pretty little blue and green creepers of the Dacnidae group, were daily seen feeding on berries; and a few very handsome birds occurred in the forest.
But the latter were so rare that we could obtain them only by employing a native hunter, who used to spend a whole day, and go a great distance to obtain two or three specimens.In this way Iobtained, amongst others, specimens of the Trogon pavoninus (the Suruqua grande of the natives), a most beautiful creature, having soft golden green plumage, red breast, and an orange-coloured beak; also the Ampelis Pompadoura, a rich glossy-purple chatterer with wings of a snowy-white hue.
After we had rested some weeks in Barra, we arranged our plans for further explorations in the interior of the country.Mr.
Wallace chose the Rio Negro for his next trip, and I agreed to take the Solimoens.My colleague has already given to the world an account of his journey on the Rio Negro, and his adventurous ascent of its great tributary the Uapes.I left Barra for Ega, the first town of any importance on the Solimoens, on the 26th of March, 1850.The distance is nearly 400 miles, which we accomplished in a small cuberta, manned by ten stout Cucama Indians, in thirty-five days.On this occasion, I spent twelve months in the upper region of the Amazons; circumstances then compelled me to return to Para.I revisited the same country in 1855, and devoted three years and a half to a fuller exploration of its natural productions.The results of both journeys will be given together in subsequent chapters of this work; in the meantime, I will proceed to give an account of Santarem and the river Tapajos, whose neighbourhoods I investigated in the years 1851-4.
