he tail
exactly resembled the stem or continuation of the midrib of the dead
leaf. The flattened body was curled up at the sides, and veined and
colored precisely like the leaf. The head, colored like the leaf,
projected in front.

We were still in the Brazilian highlands. The forest did not teem with
life. It was generally rather silent; we did not hear such a chorus of
birds and mammals as we had occasionally heard even on our overland
journey, when more than once we had been awakened at dawn by the
howling, screaming, yelping, and chattering of monkeys, toucans,
macaws, parrots, and parakeets. There were, however, from time to
time, queer sounds from the forest, and after nightfall different
kinds of frogs and insects uttered strange cries and calls. In volume
and frequency these seemed to increase until midnight. Then they died
away and before dawn everything was silent.

At this camp the carregadores ants completely devoured the doctor's
undershirt, and ate holes in his mosquito-net; and they also ate the
strap of Lyra's gun-case. The little stingless bees, of many kinds,
swarmed in such multitudes, and were so persevering, that we had to
wear our head-nets when we wrote or skinned specimens.

The following day was almost without rain. It was delightful to drift
and paddle slowly down the beautiful tropical river. Until mid-
afternoon the current was not very fast, and the broad, deep, placid
stream bent and curved in every direction, although the general course
was northwest. The country was flat, and more of the land was under
than above water. Continually we found ourselves travelling between
stretches of marshy forest where for miles the water stood or ran
among the trees. Once we passed a hillock. We saw brilliantly colored
parakeets and trogons. At last the slow current quickened. Faster it
went, and faster, until it began to run like a mill-race, and we heard
the roar of rapids ahead. We pulled to the right bank, moored the
canoes, and while most of the men pitched camp two or three of them
accompanied us to examine the rapids. We had made twenty kilometres.

We soon found that the rapids were a serious obstacle. There were many
curls, and one or two regular falls, perhaps six feet high. It would
have been impossible to run them, and they stretched for nearly a
mile. The carry, however, which led through woods and over rocks in a
nearly straight line, was somewhat shorter. It was not an easy portage
ove