Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-06-27
A Boy Naturalist Story Of His TRAY
els in Brazil.

ralist, whose letters to the World from
Brazil will be we'll remembered, re-
turned on Sunday evening in the
steamer Rio JdMeiro from Para, and was
visited yesterday at his hotel in Brook
lyn by World reporter. He is slight
" unwell from the effects of his voy.
age, but was in good spirits and full of
enthusiasm. This was his fourth trip
to Brazil. " have returned this time"
said he, " not because wanted to come
home, but simply because had not the
outfit necessary to enable me to con-
tinue my explorations in that most in
teresting country. I have made an i'm
mense collection of specimens, and if I
can dispose of it shall return in June
to explore the river Japura, which is
region almost entirely unvisited. You
are aware that went out as naturalist
to the Mackie Scott expedition, and
when that was abandoned in Para,
went on by myself to explore the upper
rivers. Three thousand miles up the
Amazon there is place called Manaus,
which is quite commercial center.
This is almost at the mouth of the Rio
Negro, and from there I went with
boat and two Indians through the
flooded forests of the Rio Negro, which
is one of the most beautiful OF the trib-
utaries of the Amazon. 1t enters it
from the north, 1000 miles from the
sea. Its waters are almost of an inky
color, the discoloration being caused by
the vegetation on its banks. These are
extremely rich in vegetation, and have
brought home some beautiful plants
that collected there. The banks are
high and the country is but sparsely in.
habited on account of the prevalence of
fevers, for one thing, and the great
scarcity of fish, game, and the farina
which forms the staple Of the food of
the people. Forty miles up the Rio
Negro there is a channel called Oruru,
which connects it with the Rio Gala
m@us, and the land between these two
rivers is all flooded forests except
small strip OF five miles near lake
called Lemons. One of my Indians
became sick and was obliged to leave
him behind and push ON through the
thick underground, and for fifteen days
1 thus pursued my solitary journey,
sleeping on board Of the canoe. The
nights are peculiar. These forests are
never still at night, and it seems as if
all nature wakes as soon as the sun goes
down. On the sixteenth day arrived
at dilapidated palm hut, the hut and
it's inhabitants dirty in the extreme. A
pot was on the fire, from which the
arms of monkey, which they were
cooking for dinner, protruded, but not
withstandlAg the unpleasant surround
ings, / sat down and made hearty
meal of portion of the boiled monkey.
for monkey meat, I would have you
know, is food not to be despised. The
vegetation of these forests is different
in character from that of the lower
Amazon, and I procured many beauti-
full orchids. I obtained three different
varieties of cuttleys, and many other
valuable and rare specimens. But al
though there are great many of these
plants they are hard to obtain, for to
do so the trees have to be cut down,
aud this is costly process. There is no
rubber made near the Rio Negro, and
all the inhabitants of this Lake Lemons
country have to go up the river about
seventy-five miles to get rubber, which
is their principal article of trade; and
as they work only three or four months
out of the year they are, of course, ex-
tremely poor. They are all of Indian
descent, but all shades of color are
found among them. They live in filthy
palm houses, and raise little but man
dioca. Their morals are of low order,
and they are almost entirely without
religion, although many of them have
little wooden saints in their houses to
which they resort in time of trouble.
The women are made to do all the
work, the men being shiftless and lazy.
Lemons is the largest Of an apparently
endless chain of lakes which lies be-
tween the rivers. There is q little
steamer which makes trip every two
months to San Isabella, which is 400
miles up the Rio Negro from Manaus,
collecting the rubber and taking it to
market. She makes the trip in
four days. I remained in this upper
country six weeks, collecting orchids,
most of which lost in consequence of
their having rotted. the season being
unusually rainy. All of these are for
Mr.. Erastus Corning, and for him I
have 545 plants; then for myself I have
collected about 1000 butterflies, IA, 900
beetles and number of moths. have
also brought home specimen of what
is called by the natives cat's-paw cot
ton, which grows wild in this region,
and which, I believe, can be made q
most valuable article of merchandise.
Its fiber is finer than any cotton and it
has sheen like floss silk.
"My ambition on my next voyage is
to thoroughly explore the Japura
river. It is said that there is furo or
:. creek connecting it with the Rio Negro,
and hope to ascend it and verify the
existence of this creek, pass through it
and come down by way of the Rio Ne
gro. But to do this I must have an
outfit which would cost $500. This
would fit me out completely for the
whole expedition, for can live in Bra
iii for twenty cents day. Shortly be-
fore leaving to come home I had quite
an adventure. 7 was walking in the
street in Manaus and I met Padre
Anuncio, a priest who had charge of the
largest church there. He was accom-
panied by a procession carrying .
wooden image of the VirQin. I Waited