My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

—148 MY LIFEmiles of river, all alike had that poverty of insect andbird-life which characterized Barra itself, a povertywhich is not altogether explicable. The enormousdifficulties and delays of travel made itimpossible tobe at the right place at the right season ;while theexcessive wetness of the climate rendered the lossthe only month or two of fine weather irreparable forthe whole year. The comparative scantiness of nativepopulation at all the towns of the Rio Negro, the smallamount of cultivation, the scarcity of roads throughthe forest, and the want of any guide from theexperience of previous collectors, combined to rendermy numerous journeys in this almost totally unknownregion comparatively unproductive in birds and insects.As it happened (owing to Custom Houseformalities at Barra), the whole of my collectionsduring the last two voyages were with me on the shipthat was burnt, and were thus totally lost.One letter I wrote from Guia on the Upper RioNegro, three months after my arrival there, hasbeen preserved, and from it I extract the followingpassage :" I have been spending a month with some Indiansthree days' journey up a narrow stream (called theCobati River). From there we went half a day'sjourney through the forest to a rocky mountain wherethe celebrated ' Gallos de Serra ' (Cocks of the Rock)breed. But we were very unfortunate, for thoughI had with me ten hunters and we remained ninedays at the Serra, suffering many inconveniences(having only taken farinha and salt with us), I onlygot a dozen gallos, whereas I had expected in lesstime to have secured fifty. Insects there were noneat all ; and other good birds excessively rare.of