will narrate some of the incidents of these excursions, and give
an account of the more interesting observations made on the
Natural History and inhabitants of these interior creeks and
forests.

Our first trip to the mills was by land. The creek on whose banks
they stand, the Iritiri, communicates with the river Pars,
through another larger creek, the Magoary; so that there is a
passage by water; but this is about twenty miles round. We
started at sunrise, taking Isidoro with us. The road plunged at
once into the forest after leaving Nazareth, so that in a few
minutes we were enveloped in shade. For some distance the woods
were of second growth, the original forest near the town having
been formerly cleared or thinned. They were dense and
impenetrable on account of the close growth of the young trees
and the mass of thorny shrubs and creepers. These thickets
swarmed with ants and ant-thrushes; they were also frequented by
a species of puff-throated manikin, a little bird which flies
occasionally across the road, emitting a strange noise, made, I
believe, with its wings, and resembling the clatter of a small
wooden rattle.

A mile or a mile and a half further on, the character of the
woods began to change, and we then found ourselves in the
primaeval forest. The appearance was greatly different from that
of the swampy tract I have already described. The land was rather
more elevated and undulating; the many swamp plants with their
long and broad leaves were wanting, and there was less underwood,
although the trees were wider apart. Through this wilderness the
road continued for seven or eight miles. The same unbroken forest