The gurana, prepared from the fruit of the _Paullinia sorbilis_, is a hard, chocolate-brown mass, of a slightly bitter taste, and of no smell whatever. It is usually sold in cylindric pieces of from ten inches to a foot in length, in which the half-bruised almond-like seeds are still distinguishable; the more homogeneous and the harder the mass, the better is its quality. To render it eatable, or rather drinkable, it is rasped as fine as possible on the rough, bony roof of the mouth of the _Sudis gigas_ (pira-rucu), and mixed with a little sugar and water. A teaspoonful in a cup of warm water is said to be an excellent remedy in slight attacks of ague. The taste of this beverage, reminding one slightly of almonds, is very palatable; still, it scarcely accounts for the passionate liking entertained for it by the inhabitants of the greater part of South America. It must be the stimulating effects of the paullinin it contains (an alkaloid like caffeine and theine) that render it so indispensable to those who have been accustomed to it. All the boats that come lightly freighted with ipecacuanha and deer- or tiger-hides, from Mato Grosso down the Arinos and the Tapajoz, in face of the considerable cataracts and rapids of the latter, take their full loads of guarana at Santarem; and the heavy boats of the Madeira also convey large quantities of it to Bolivia; for at Cuyaba, as well as at Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Cochabamba, there are many who cannot do without their guarana, for which they often have to pay thirty francs the pound, and who prefer all the rigors of fasting to abstinence from their favorite beverage. On the other hand, the mestizo population on the Amazon, where it is prepared on a large scale by the half-civilized tribes of the Mauhes and Mundurucus and sold at about three francs the pound, are not so passionately attached to it; they rather take coffee and a sort of coarse chocolate, which they manufacture for themselves. CANOE- AND CAMP-LIFE ON THE MADEIRA. FRANZ KELLER. [To the extract just made from Keller's "Amazon and Madeira Rivers," we add the following, in which an interesting account of camp-life in the forest and river regions of Brazil is given.]