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It is, however, in the basin of the Amazons especially, that my researches have been crowned with an unexpected success. Spix and Martius, for whose journey I wrote, as you doubtless remember, my first work on fishes, brought back from there some fifty species, and the sum total known now, taking the results of all the travelers who have followed up the inquiry, does not amount to two hundred.
Spix's Brazilian Fishes. Second Vacation Trip. Sketch of Work during University Year. Extracts from the Journal of Mr. Dinkel. Home Letters. Hope of joining Humboldt's Asiatic Expedition. Diploma of Philosophy. Completion of First Part of the Spix Fishes. Letter concerning it from Cuvier.
The most complete account yet published of the river is that given by Von Martius in the third volume of Spix and Martius' Travels. These most accomplished travellers were eleven months in the country namely, from July, 1819, to June, 1820 and ascended the river to the frontiers of the Brazilian territory.
I think it equal to that occasioned by the sting of the black scorpion." He gives the name of the Indians as Mahues, but I assume that they are the same as the Mauhes described by Spix and Martius. Série, iii. pp. 21 sq. The writer says that the candidate has to keep his arms plunged up to the shoulders in vessels full of ants, "as in a bath of vitriol," for hours.
In the daytime, the Motuca, a much larger and more formidable fly than the mosquito, insisted upon levying his tax of blood. We had been tormented by it for many days past, but this place seemed to be its metropolis. The species has been described by Perty, the author of the Entomological portion of Spix, and Martius' travels, under the name of Hadrus lepidotus.
Behind the rocinha, after several days' exploration, I found a series of pathways through the woods, which led to the Una road; about half way was the house in which the celebrated travellers Spix and Martius resided during their stay at Para, in 1819. It was now in a neglected condition, and the plantations were overgrown with bushes.
. . .I have never written you about what has engrossed me so deeply; but since my secret is out, I ought not to keep silence longer. That you may understand why I have entered upon such a work I will go back to its origin. In 1817 the King of Bavaria sent two naturalists, M. Martius and M. Spix, on an exploring expedition to Brazil.
M. Martius issued colored illustrations of all the unknown plants he had collected on his journey, while M. Spix brought out several folio volumes on the monkeys, birds, and reptiles of Brazil, the animals being drawn and colored, chiefly life-size, by able artists. It had been his intention to give a complete natural history of Brazil, but to the sorrow of all naturalists he died in 1826.
From the days of Humboldt and Spix and Martius to the present time, German explorers have borne a conspicuous part in the exploration of South America.
With the exception of what could be learned from the few specimens brought home, after transient visits by Spix and Martius and the Count de Castelnau, whose acquisitions have been deposited in the public museums of Munich and Paris, very little was known in Europe of the animal tenants of this region; the collections that I had the opportunity of making and sending home attracted, therefore, considerable attention.
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