had the good fortune to have succeeded, and to have penetrated to the other side.

We heard, one day, that a Peixe boi, or Cow-fish, had just arrived in a montaria, and was lying upon the beach. Hurrying down, we were just in time to see the animal before he was cut up. He was about ten feet in length, and as he laid upon his back, between two and three feet in height; presenting a conformation of body, much like that of a "fine old English gentleman," whose two legs were developed into a broad, flat tail. His back was covered sparsely with hairs, and his large muzzle was armed with short, stiff bristles. His smooth belly was bluish-black in color, and much scarred by the bite of some inimical fish. There was nothing corresponding to legs, but a pair of flappers, as of a turtle, answered his purposes of locomotion. Both eyes and ears were very small, but the nostrils were each an inch in diameter. The skin was one-fourth of an inch in thickness, and covered a deep coating of blubber, the extracted oil of which is used as butter in cooking. Under the blubber was the meat, something between beef and pork, in taste. These curious animals are in great numbers upon the Solemoen, and are to the people, what Periecu is below, being, like that fish, cut into slabs and salted. This form is, however, very offensive to a stranger, and no Indian will eat dried peixe boi, if he can get any thing else. mals do not venture upon land, but subsist upon the grass that lines the shores. When thus feeding, they are lanced by the Indians, who know their places of resort, and watch their appearance. Although from their bulk, several men might be puzzled to lift a cow-fish from the water, when dead, yet one Indian will stow the largest in his montaria, without assistance. The boat is sunk under the body, and rising, the difficult feat is accomplished

These ani

Not unfrequently, a peixe boi is taken eighteen feet in length. Their thick skins formerly served the Indians for shields, and their jaw-bones as hammers.

We would gladly have bought this entire animal, for the purpose of preserving his skeleton and skin. But as meat was in request that day, we were obliged to be content with the head, which we bore off in triumph, and cleansed of its muscle. This skull is now in the collection of Dr. Morton, and we learn from him that the Peixe boi of the Amazon is a distinct species from the Manatus, sometimes seen in the districts adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico.

Sometimes young cow-fishes are brought to Pará, and we had there previously seen one in a cistern, in the palace garden. It was fed on grass, and was very tame, seeming delighted to be handled. Captain Appleton, who has taken greater interest in the wonders of this province, than almost any person who ever visited Pará, has twice succeeded in bringing young cow-fishes to New-York, but they died soon after leaving his care.

The Turtles are a still greater blessing to the dwellers upon the upper rivers. In the early part of the dry season, these animals ascend the Amazon, probably from the sea, and assemble upon the sandy islands and beaches, left dry by the retiring waters, in the Japúra and other tributaries. They deposit their eggs in the sand, and at this season, all the people, for hundreds of miles round about, resort to the river banks as regularly as to a fair. The eggs are collected into montarias, or other proper receptacles, and broken. The oil, floating upon the surface, is skimmed off, with the valves of the large shells found in the river, and is poured into pots, each holding about six gallons. It is computed that a turtle lays one hundred and fifty eggs in a season. Twelve thousand eggs make one pot

of oil, and six thousand pots are annually sent from the most noted localities. Consequently, seventy-two millions of eggs are destroyed, which require four hundred and eighty thousand turtles to produce them. And yet but a small proportion of the whole number of eggs are broken. When fifty days have expired, the young cover the ground, and march in millions to the water, where swarms of enemies, more destructive than man, await their coming. Every branch of the Amazon is resorted to, more or less, in the same manner; and the whole number of turtles is beyond all conjecture. As before remarked, those upon the Madeira are little molested, on account of the unhealthiness of the locality in which they breed. They are said to be of a different and smaller variety, from those upon the Amazon. We received a different variety still from the Branco, and there may be many more yet undistinguished. The turtles are turned upon their backs, when found upon the shore, picked up at leisure, and carried to different places upon the river. Frequently, they are kept the year round, in pens properly constructed, and one such, that we saw at Villa Nova, contained nearly one hundred. During the summer months, they constitute a great proportion of the food of the people; but when we consider their vast numbers, a long period must elapse before they sensibly diminish. Their average weight, when taken, is from fifty to seventy-five pounds, but many are much larger. Where they go, after the breeding season, no one knows, for they are never observed descending the river; but, from below Pará, more or less are seen ascending, every season. They are mostly caught, at this time, in the lakes of clear water, which so plentifully skirt either shore, and generally are taken with lances, or small harpoons, as they are sleeping on the surface. But the Muras have a way of capturing them, peculiar to themselves; shooting them with arrows, from a little distance, the arrow being so elevated, that in falling, it strikes, and penetrates the shell. In this, even long practice can scarcely make perfect; and fifty arrows may be shot at the unconscious sleeper before he is secured.

There are several other small varieties of Turtles or Terrapins, somewhat esteemed as food, but in no request. Some

of them are of curious form, and. one in particular, found about Pará, instead of drawing in his head and neck, as do most others of his family, finds sufficient security by laying them round upon his fore claw, under the projecting roof of shell.

The land turtles, Jabatis, attain a size of from twenty to thirty pounds. They are delicious food, far superior, in our estimation, to their brethren of the water. Lieutenant Mawe somewhere remarks to this effect, that, in a country where the people are cannibals, and eat monkeys, they might enjoy land turtles. But the Lieutenant suffered his prejudices to run away with his judgment, in a strange way for a sailor.

We saw at Senhor Bentos' in Villa Nova, turtles of this species, which he had in the yard as pets, and who seemed very well domesticated, eating pacovas, or any sweet fruit. Some of these, the Senhor had kept for seven years, and they bore no proportion in size to others seen. From this, we inferred the great number of years that they must require before they arrive at maturity.

Owing to its remote frontier position, Barra is under different influences from other Brazilian towns, and these are observable every where. The language spoken is a patois of Portuguese and Spanish, with no very slight mixture of the Lingoa Geral. This latter language must be spoken, as matter of necessity. The currency, too, is in good part of silver, as Spanish dollars, the Brazilian paper being but in scanty supply.

The Indian population is vastly more numerous than below, and from the absence of the causes that elsewhere have driven the Indians to the woods, the two races live together amicably, and will, to all appearance, in a few generations, be entirely amalgamated. Labor, of course, is very cheap. Senhor Henriquez had one hundred Spanish Indians in his employ, to whom he paid twelve and one-half cents each per diem. These were hired of the authorities beyond the frontiers, and they were protected, by contract, from being sent below Barra. They were of a darker color, and less finely featured than most Brazilian Indians, whom we had seen. Part of them were employed in building houses, several of which were in progress of erection; and part in a tilaria, within the town. When Lieutenant

Smythe descended the Amazon, rather more than ten years since, both houses and tilaria were in a sad state, and the town was nearly stripped of inhabitants, on account of recent political difficulties. But better times have come, and a general prosperity is rapidly removing the appearances of decay.

There were a great many pleasant people, whose acquaintance we made, and who showed us such attentions as strangers love to receive. There are always, in such towns, a few strange wanderers from other countries, who have chanced along, no one knows how. Such an one was a German we found there, Senhor Frederics. He had formerly belonged to a German regiment, which was stationed at Pará, and had been lucky enough to escape the fate of most of his comrades, who had been killed during the revolution. He had found his way to the Barra, had married a pleasant lady of the place, and now practised his trade as a blacksmith. He was a man of tremendous limb, and with a soul in proportion, and we were always glad to see him at our house. Another German was a carpenter; and an odd genius, from the north of Europe, but who had been a sailor in an English vessel, and had picked up a collection of English phrases, officiated as sail-maker to the public.

Through the kindness of Senhor Henriquez, we obtained a great variety of Indian articles. The bows and lances are of some dark wood, and handsomely formed and finished. The former are about seven feet in length, and deeply grooved upon the outer side. The bow-string is of hammock grass. The lances are ten feet long, ornamented with carvings at the upper extremities, and terminated by tassels of macaw's feathers. The arrows are in light sheaves, six to each, and are formed of cane, the points being of the hardest wood, and poisoned. These are used in war and hunting, and differed from the arrows used in taking fish, in that the points of the latter are of strips of bamboo or bone. Those for wild hogs again, are still different, being terminated by a broad strip of bamboo, fashioned in the shape of a pen. This form inflicts a more effectual wound. In the same way, the javelins are pointed, the stems being of hard wood, and much ornamented with feather-work.

But the most curious, and the most formidable weapon, is