Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

20 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
giant stork Mycteria Americana] were seen, but
were too wary to be shot.
June 1 5.--The river now reminds me of the
Upper Rio Negro similar banks sloping steeply
to the water's edge, inundated in winter and clad
with black rootlets. In many places the perpendicular
cliffs of earth are speedily covered with
mosses. The little Oxalis also re-
rudimentary
appears accompanied by patches of a grass and a
small Composite herb. The wind has been very
cool these two days, and in the morning actually
cold.
on the
June 1 6.- -This morning we passed,
north bank, a line of cliffs about a quarter of a
mile long, the upper 12 feet being red earth in
scarcely distinguishable horizontal layers, while
the remaining 20 feet were in distinct layers in-
clined about 30" to the horizon. These were also
of red earth, but in two places a few beds of
sandstone occurred. A little below the
greyish
entrance to the pongo we came to a large clearing
on the north bank, partially planted with Yucas
and Plantains.
June
reached
17.
the
Soon after starting this morning we
pongo, where the river is much
narrowed and confined in one channel by steep
hills on each side. The margins were at first
rocky, with large blocks irregularly scattered, soon
changing to low walls of thick rock-strata.
An hour and a half within this channel we came
to streams of hot water, pouring in four or five
slender rivulets from a black cliff perhaps 20 feet
high and 20 or 30 yards from the river's margin.
Each tiowecl in a slight hollow marked by vapour