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Show 1896.] EXPEDITION O N T U E L O W E R A M A Z O N . 769 kindness of Sir Wm. Flower I was selected to represent the Museum, the Trustees granting m e the necessary leave of absence. Subsequently, in order that the Museum might benefit to the fullest possible extent, Mr. Siemens consented to take a second naturalist in the person of Mr. F. O. Pickard Cambridge, who, by the boundless enthusiasm and untiring energy with wbich he threw himself into the labour of collecting, more than justified the selectiou. The ' Faraday,' a vessel of 5000 tons, sailed from Gravesend on Dec. 13, 1895, and reached Para on Jan. 4, 1896, after calling on the way at St. Vincent, in the Cape Verde Is., where we had a most enjoyable day's collecting on Dec. 26. Before proceeding to offer a few remarks on some of the more interesting species encountered on the Amazon, the Society will perhaps allow m e to give a brief outline of the course of the expedition, in order to explain the localities at which our collections were made and the conditions under which the work was carried out. The ' Faraday ' remained at anchor in the Para River, about two miles below the city, from Jan. 4th until the 10th. W e were thus enabled to collect for several days in a clearing in tbe forest about three-quarters of a mile from our anchorage, besides paying what was unfortunately a very hurried visit to the Para Museum. This institution, wdiich is devoted to Natural History aud Ethnography, is, of course, conducted upon purely faunistic lines, and, although it receives but slender assistance from the State, its zoological collections, under the energetic supervision of the present Director, Dr. E. A. Goeldi, who at the time of our visit had only been in charge for a year and a half, would do credit to any European city. The Museum is surrounded by a small but beautiful botanical garden, in which there are also a number of cages containing live animals. On Jan. 10th we left Para for the Amazon, paying out cable as we went, and on Jan. 13th reached Breves, a small town in the great island of Marajo, situated near the commencement of the network of narrow channels which connect the Para River with the Amazon. At Breves we had a day's collecting, considerably troubled by uncertainty as to the hour at which the ship would proceed on her way. On the afternoon of the following day (Jan. 14th) we ran aground on a mudbank at the western end of a channel known as tbe Parana de Buyassu, and remained there hard and fast until Jan. 20th, when we were towed off, only to run aground again on the following day in almost the same place, so that we did not get away finally until high-tide on the morning of Jan. 22nd. This delay, however annoying from a cable-laying point of view, was to a naturalist anything but unwelcome, and we turned it to good account. N o further mishaps occurred on the upward voyage, and we reached Manaos, our destination, at the mouth of the Rio Negro, about 1000 miles from Para, on Feb. 8th, after calling on our way at Gurupa, Monte Alegre, Santarem, Obydos, Parintins, and Itacoatiara. At each of these places we had from one to two days' collecting, according to 50* |