regard to the wealth of natural objects we had come to explore.

During the first few days, we were employed in landing our
baggage and arranging our extensive apparatus. We then accepted
the invitation of Mr. Miller to make use of his rocinha, or
country-house in the suburbs, until we finally decided on a
residence. Upon this, we made our first essay in housekeeping. We
bought cotton hammocks, the universal substitute for beds in this
country, cooking utensils and crockery, and engaged a free negro,
named Isidoro, as cook and servant-of-all-work.

Our first walks were in the immediate suburbs of Para. The city
lies on a corner of land formed by the junction of the river
Guama with the Para. As I have said before, the forest, which
covers the whole country, extends close up to the city streets;
indeed, the town is built on a tract of cleared land, and is kept
free from the jungle only by the constant care of the Government.
The surface, though everywhere low, is slightly undulating, so
that areas of dry land alternate throughout with areas of swampy
ground, the vegetation and animal tenants of the two being widely
different. Our residence lay on the side of the city nearest the
Guama, on the borders of one of the low and swampy areas which
here extends over a portion of the suburbs. The tract of land is
intersected by well-macadamised suburban roads, the chief of
which, the Estrada das Mongubeiras (the Monguba road), about a
mile long, is a magnificent avenue of silk-cotton trees (Bombax
monguba and B. ceiba), huge trees whose trunks taper rapidly from
the ground upwards, and whose flowers before opening look like
red balls studding the branches. This fine road was constructed
under the governorship of the Count dos Arcos, about the year