cattle estate by the
proprietor. The alligators abound in a lake in the centre of the island,
where they are killed in great numbers for their fat, which is made into
oil.

On inquiring about the best localities for insects, birds, and plants,
we were rather alarmed by being told that oncas were very numerous, even
near the house, and that it was dangerous to walk out alone or unarmed.
We soon found, however, that no one had been actually attacked by them;
though they, poor animals, are by no means unmolested, as numerous
handsome skins drying in the sun, and teeth and skulls lying about,
sufficiently proved.

Light-coloured, long-tailed cuckoos were continually flying about.
Equally abundant are the hornbill cuckoos, and on almost every tree may
be seen sitting a hawk or a buzzard. Pretty parroquets, with white and
orange bands on their wings, were very plentiful. Then among the bushes
there were flocks of the red-breasted oriole. The common black vulture
is generally to be seen sailing overhead, the great Muscovy ducks fly
past with a rushing sound, offering a striking contrast to the great
wood-ibis, which sails along with noiseless wings in flocks of ten or a
dozen.

_IV.--Continuing Upstream_

We now prepared for our voyage up the Amazon; and, from information we
obtained of the country, determined first to go as far as Santarem, a
town about 500 miles up the river, and the seat of considerable trade.
We sailed up a fine stream till we entered among islands, and soon got
into the narrow channel which forms the communication between the Para
and Amazon rivers.

We proceeded for several days in those narrow channels, which form a
network of water, a labyrinth quite unknown, except to the inhabitants
of the district. It was about ten days after we left Para that the
stream began to widen out and the tide to flow into the Amazon instead
of into the Para river, giving us the longer ebb to make way with. In
about two days more we were in the Amazon itself, and it was with
emotions of admiration and awe that we gazed upon the stream of this
mighty and far-famed river. What a grand idea it was to think that we
now saw the accumulated waters of a course of 3,000 miles. Venezuela,
Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil, six mighty states,
spreading over a country far larger than Europe, had each contributed to
form the flood which bore us so peacefully on its bosom.

The most striking features of the Amazon a