ere a cormorant sat alone on the
branch of a dead tree, or a kingfisher poised himself over the water,
watching for his prey. Numerous gulls were gathered in large companies
on the trees along the river-shore; alligators lay on its surface,
diving with a sudden plash at the approach of our canoe; and
occasionally a porpoise emerged from the water, showing himself for a
moment and then disappearing again. Sometimes we startled a herd of
capivara, resting on the water's edge; and once we saw a sloth, sitting
upon the branch of an Imbauba (Cecropia) tree, rolled up in its peculiar
attitude, the very picture of indolence, with its head sunk between its
arms. Much of the river-shore consisted of low alluvial land, and was
covered with that peculiar and beautiful grass known as Capim; this
grass makes an excellent pasturage for cattle, and the abundance of it
in this region renders the district of Monte Alegre very favorable for
agricultural purposes. Here and there, where the red clay soil rose
above the level of the water, a palm-thatched cabin stood on the low
bluff, with a few trees about it. Such a house was usually the centre of
a cattle farm, and large herds might be seen grazing in the adjoining
fields. Along the river-banks, where the country is chiefly open, with
extensive low marshy grounds, the only palm to be seen is the Maraja.
After keeping along the Rio Gurupatuba for some distance, we turned to
the right into a narrow stream, which has the character of an Igarape in
its lower course, though higher up it drains the country between the
serra of Errere and that of Tajury, and assumes the appearance of a
small river. It is named after the serra, and is known as the Rio
Errere. This stream, narrow and picturesque, and often so overgrown with
capim that the canoe pursued its course with difficulty, passed through
a magnificent forest of the beautiful fan-palm, called here the Miriti
(_Mauritia flexuosa_). This forest stretched for miles, overshadowing,
as a kind of underbrush, many smaller trees and innumerable shrubs, some
of which bore bright, conspicuous flowers. It seemed to me a strange
spectacle,--a forest of monocotyledonous trees with a dicotyledonous
undergrowth; the inferior plants thus towering above and sheltering the
superior ones. Among the lower trees were many Leguminosae,--one of the
most striking, called Fava, having a colossal pod. The whole mass of
vegetation was woven together by innumerable lian