collections which was completely lost. After setting my whole party well under way in Teffé, I made the very instructive excursion with Major Estolano, of which an account is given in the text, to the Lago do Boto, a small sheet of water, by the side of his sitio on the banks of the main course of the Amazons, where I had a fair opportunity of ascertaining how widely different the fishes may be that inhabit adjoining faunæ in the same hydrographic basin. To this day I have not yet recovered from my surprise at finding that shores which, from a geographic point of view, must be considered simply as opposite banks of the same stream, were, nevertheless, the abode of an essentially different ichthyological population. Among the most curious fishes obtained here, I would mention a new genus, allied to Phractocephalus, of which I know only a single very large species, remarkable for its uniform canary-yellow color. Doras, Acestra, Pterygoplichthys, &c., were particularly common. Small as this lake is, the largest animals known in the whole basin are found in it: such as Manatees Botos,—the Porpoise of the Amazons, which has given its name to the lake, Alligators, Pirarucus,—the Sudis gigas of systematic writers; Sorubims, the large flat-headed Hornpouts; Pacamums, the large, yellow Siluroid above alluded to, &c., &c.—L. A. Footnote 76: It was Cuvier who first ascertained that the small Hyrax belongs to the same order as the elephant. CHAPTER VIII. RETURN TO MANAOS.—AMAZONIAN PICNIC. ARRIVAL AT MANAOS.—NEW QUARTERS.—THE “IBICUHY.”—NEWS FROM HOME.—VISIT TO THE CASCADE.—BANHEIRAS IN THE FOREST.—EXCURSION TO LAKE HYANUARY.—CHARACTER AND PROSPECTS OF THE AMAZONIAN VALLEY.—RECEPTION AT THE LAKE.—DESCRIPTION OF SITIO.—SUCCESSFUL FISHING.—INDIAN VISITORS.—INDIAN BALL.—CHARACTER OF THE DANCING.—DISTURBED NIGHT.—CANOE EXCURSION.—SCENERY.—ANOTHER SITIO.—MORALS AND MANNERS.—TALK WITH THE INDIAN WOMEN.—LIFE IN THE FOREST.—LIFE IN THE TOWNS.—DINNER-PARTY.—TOASTS.—EVENING ROW ON THE LAKE.—NIGHT SCENE.—SMOKING AMONG THE SENHORAS.—RETURN TO MANAOS.