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Show 1896.] EXPEDITION ON THE LOWER AMAZON. 771 Turning now to the harvest of the expedition, I may say at once that the collections we brought home consisted almost entirely of Arthropods. Mr. Pickard-Cambridge naturally devoted himself more particularly to Spiders, since they are his speciality, while I similarly looked after the Insects. But, apart from this, Mammals, with the exception of Bats and Dolphins, were conspicuous by their absence, while, as we had no one to assist us in skinning, it was impossible, in the time at our command, to do very much among the Birds. Reptiles and Amphibians w7ere by no means abundant, and such as were met with prove, wdth a single exception, to belong to well-known and widely distributed forms. Among the Fishes it might have been possible to do something, but unfortunately a trap which I had brought with m e was lost, owing to the breaking of a rope tbe second time it was put overboard. MAMMALS.-The Lower Amazon and the adjacent waterways (including the Para River and the maze of connecting channels) are shut in by dense forests, in which the naturalist unaccompanied by a guide might easily lose his way should he venture far from the narrow7 paths used by the rubber-gatherers. Around the small towns, however, there are more or less extensive clearings, while at Santarem there is a considerable tract of open country (" campo"). But in the forest itself, in the short time at my disposal, it was never possible to penetrate more than a few hundred yards from the river's brink. The entire absence of Mammals, or even of any traces of Mammals, in the forests near the shore of the river was most striking. I had included in my outfit a large number of traps of various kinds, but never found the slightest opportunity of using them. The shores of the Parana de Buyassu and the other narrow channels between the Para River and the Amazon are lowr, and the forests near the water are consequently exceedingly swampy, which may in some measure account for the absence of Mammals at this particular spot; but once in the Amazon itself the shores are much higher, though in many places, no doubt, still liable to submergence at the height of the rainy season. A fair number of Bats was collected from time to time, most of which flew' on board the ship, but in the absence of Mr. Oldfield Thomas they have not yet been examined, so that I am unable to say anything about them. Freshwater Dolphins (Inla geoffroyensis and Sotalla tucuxl, or S. fluvlatilis) were exceedingly common, especially in the neighbourhood of the Parana de Buyassu and in the furo, or narrow channel leading up to Monte Alegre. The former species, which is much larger than the other and generally appears to be about seven feet in length, is either wholly pink or flesh-coloured or else entirely black or black above and pink beneath. I often wandered whether this difference in colour is sexual, as the two kinds are nearly always seen in company; anyhow the point would be wrell |