Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/190

 160 TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [January,

On the 28th, in the afternoon, we arrived at the little village of Mabe, which we reached in very good time, for the inhabit- ants had just returned from a fishing expedition : they had procured a great quantity of fish by poisoning an igaripe near, and I purchased enough for our supper and breakfast. I found several which I had not seen before; among them, a most curious little species allied to Centrarcus, called the butterfly fish, from the extraordinary development of its fins, and pretty banded markings.

On the 29th, about noon, we passed the mouth of the river Xie, a black-water stream of moderate size and no great length. There is little trade up it, and the Indians inhabiting it are uncivilised and almost unknown.

On the 30th we came in sight of the Scrras of the Caba- buris, and the long row of hills called Pirapucd (the long fish) : they consist of lofty and isolated granite peaks, like those generally found in this district. The next day we reached Marabitanas, the frontier fort of Brazil : there is now only the remnant of a mud entrenchment, and a small detachment of soldiers. As the Commandante was not there, we did not stay, except to purchase a few plantains.

On the 1 st of February we reached the Serra of Cocoi, which marks the boundary between Brazil and Venezuela. This is a granite rock, very precipitous and forming nearly a square frustum of a prism, about a thousand feet high. It rises at once out of the forest plain, and is itself, on the summit and the less precipitous portions, covered with thick wood. Here the piurhs, or little biting flies, swarm and made us very uncomfortable for the rest of the day. We had now beautiful weather, and in the evening slept on a fine granite beach very comfortably. The next night we stayed at a rock on which we found some curious figures engraven below high-water mark. Here having a clear horizon up the river to the north, I saw my old friend the pole-star, though I was only in i° 20' north latitude. We had now every day fine rocky beaches, along which I often walked, while young Luiz would shoot fish for us with his bow and arrow. He was very skilful, and always had his bow by his side, and as we approached a rock or shallow would fit his arrow and send it into some glittering acarra or bright-coloured tucunare.

At length, on the afternoon of the 4th of February, we