ight's rest.

We were up at five o'clock; for the morning hours are very precious in
this climate, and the Brazilian day begins with the dawn. At six o'clock
we had had coffee, and were ready for the various projects suggested for
our amusement. Our sportsmen were already in the forest; others had gone
off on a fishing excursion in a montaria; and I joined a party on a
visit to a _sitio_ higher up the lake. Mr. Agassiz, as has been
constantly the case throughout our journey, was obliged to deny himself
all these parties of pleasure; for the novelty and variety of the
species of fish brought in kept him and his artist constantly at work.
In this climate the process of decomposition goes on so rapidly, that,
unless the specimens are attended to at once, they are lost; and the
paintings must be made while they are quite fresh, in order to give any
idea of their vividness of tint. We therefore left Mr. Agassiz busy with
the preparation of his collections, and Mr. Bourkhardt painting, while
we went up the lake through a strange, half-aquatic, half-terrestrial
region, where the land seemed hardly redeemed from the water. Groups of
trees rose directly from the lake, their roots hidden below its surface,
while numerous blackened and decayed trunks stood up from the water in
all sorts of picturesque and fantastic forms. Sometimes the trees had
thrown down from their branches those singular aerial roots so common
here, and seemed standing on stilts. Here and there, when we coasted
along by the bank, we had a glimpse into the deeper forest, with its
drapery of lianas and various creeping vines, and its parasitic sipos
twining close around the trunks, or swinging themselves from branch to
branch like loose cordage. But usually the margin of the lake was a
gently sloping bank, covered with a green so vivid and yet so soft that
it seemed as if the earth had been born afresh in its six months'
baptism, and had come out like a new creation. Here and there a palm
lifted its head above the line of the forest, especially the light,
graceful Assai palm, with its tall, slender, smooth stem and crown of
feathery leaves vibrating with every breeze.

Half an hour's row brought us to the landing of the _sitio_ for which we
were bound. Usually the _sitios_ stand on the bank of the lake or river,
a stone's throw from the shore, for convenience of fishing, bathing,
etc. But this one was at some distance, with a very nicely-kept winding
path leadi