WCP6668

[1]

San Carlos del Rio Negro,

Venezuela.

Sept. 17, 1853.

My dear Sir William /

I had lately the pleasure of writing to you and of sending a few objects for your Museum¹, and now a few days ago I was gratified by the reception of your kind letter of March 31 of the present year, informing me of the safe arrival of my sendings from S. Gabriel². Tomorrow a person leaves San Carlos³ for the Barra⁴, and as I do not expect another opportunity before starting up the Casiquiare⁵, I profit by it to inform you of my movements. I have just finished building a boat with a large cabin, all of boards, and not covered in with palm-leaves as is customary here. The boat is 11 Varas⁶ (Spanish) long, and it is narrower and shallower than the one in which I came up from the Barra. On the top of the cabin I shall be able to dry a good many plants, and within it to stow them away when dried, if indeed the mosquitos will allow me to work, of which I am rather doubtful. The Flora will no doubt be very interesting — everything that is not Humboldtian⁷ will be new — and as I shall be the first naturalist to ascend the Casiquiare, and must of necessity creep along the river's edge, I may reasonably expect to see many things which a person descending the stream, and of course keeping near the middle, would unavoidably overlook. But I am told that I shall be unable to do anything on the voyage and that I shall have enough to do to beat off the mosquitos. Even on land it is necessary to keep in movement, and instead of sitting down to eat a meal one must walk about, platter in hand and be content to swallow a considerable seasoning of mosquito along with one's victuals. Since the waters of the Casiquiare began to fall we have had no small share of mosquitos at San Carlos, and as I write my hands & face are pretty well framed by them. It is not merely the pain & irritation these insects cause which renders them annoying, ^nor and that after allowing them to suck away at your face for some time you put up your hand to brush them ^off away and draw it away covered with blood; but beyond this they get into your eyes, nose & mouth, so that you absolutely cannot tell what you are about.

In my last letter I mentioned that I had arranged to accompany the Comisario [Spanish: Commissioner] Geral⁸ [Portuguese: General] of San Fernando⁹ in an expedition to the sources of the Orinoco¹⁰, which was to come off next year; but he writes to me now that he is preparing a large boat in which he intends to put 20 oars and 10 soldiers, with the intention of meeting ^joining me at Esmeralda¹¹. But We have also news from Caracas that the work of the whole of the north of Venezuela is in a state approaching civil war, consequent on the recent election of a new president, against whom there is a strong party in the country, and that sanguinary conflicts have taken place between armed bodies of horse and foot; and further that the Comisario of San Fernando has been removed from his post, & that a person is on his way to replace him. I have therefore no great confidence in the execution of our project, but I shall go as well prepared as I can for making the observations desirable in case of my ascending the Orinoco above Esmeralda.

I told you of the great scarcity of provisions at San Carlos, in consequence of which I sent some time ago as far as the cataracts of Maypures¹² to buy an ox and [2] have the salted flesh brought to me. It is only very lately that it reached me, and though it has more the appearance of thongs of leather thus ^than of beef and is tough and strong-tasted, it is exceedingly acceptable, and it came at a time when neither fish nor flesh of any kind was to be had at San Carlos. Though thus relieved from the necessity of spending half my time in the search of eatables, I have found very little to do in the way of collecting. So long as the rainy season lasted scarcely a tree was to be seen in flower. We are now entering on the summer, as we call it here, though the amount of rain that falls daily is scarcely diminished, and the trees by the river-side are flowering, but the predominant species are the same as those of San [sic] Gabriel, and by the Rio Uaupés¹³ from its mouth to the base of the first falls. In the angle between the Rio Negro and Casiquiare I have got some mosses and Hepaticae that have interested me much. As my predilection for these tribes is known to many, you may perhaps have been asked whether I was doing anything in them, and if I intended to distribute the species. I have hitherto avoided alluding to mosses in my communications to you because the number was so few that I had no idea of their ever summing up to a quantity worth the trouble of distribution. On the Alto Rio Negro [Portuguese: Upper Rio Negro] I have been more successful & I now think that some day or other I may make up sets of those mosses and Hepaticae which I have gathered in sufficient quantity. Of mosses the number of species is still small, considering the space of ground passed over, and how sharply I have looked for them during 4 years of travel. I suppose that in all this time I have not gathered more mosses than I could have gathered in a month in a space of 50 miles diameter in any part of Europe. Yet all are interesting and a good many will be new. The general character of the Cryptogamic¹⁴ vegetation on the Amazon this & Rio Negro seems to be quite that of Demerara [Guyana] and Surinam, and to bear little resemblance to that of the rest of Brazil. The mosses are mostly pleurocarpous, and comprise a great number of minute Hypnums and a good many Hookerias. A pretty species of the latter genus, frequent on logs in the moⁱst forest near San Carlos, seems to be the Hookeria pallescens which you described in 'Musei Exotici'¹⁵ from specimens gathered by Humboldt¹⁶ at Esmeralda. I shall endeavour to look up all Humboldt's species from this region. Among acrocarpous mosses the commonest and perhaps the most beautiful is Octoblepharum albidum, which grows everywhere on trees, both in wet and dry situations. O[ctoblepharum]. cylindricum is much less frequent, and I have mostly seen it on palm-trunks. I expect I have one or two new species of this genus. There are a good many minute Fissidens, whose habitat is chiefly on termite's nest on the ground or in trees. The genera Macromitrium, Syrrhopodon, and Calymperes have all representatives, but they are far from being so abundant as I expected to find them. On the other hand I have met with species of some genera considered peculiar to cooler climates, as for instance an Anacalypta at Santarem and a Phascum at Saó Gabriel. On the Rio Negro, a very common and a very handsome moss is Leucobryum (Dicranum) Martianum; it grows on wet logs, and has the additional merit of fruiting copiously. I have been somewhat disappointed that since I set foot in S. America, now more than 4 years ago, I have not once seen Funaria hygrometrica — the moss which, as some one has said, more poetically than truly, "springs up wherever the f wild Indian has lighted his fire". I have seen hundreds of places in Amazonian forests where Indians, wild and tame, have lighted fires, and the plants which spring up in such places are not mosses: I shall some day be able to tell you what they mostly are. There is a moss which seems partial to charred trunks; it resembles Hypnum tamariscinum in miniature, and I take it to be H[ypnum]. involvens. Ceratodon purpureus is an almost constant companion of Funaria hygrometrica in Europe, and has, like [3] it, the reputation of being cosmopolite, but I have never seen it here.

The Hepaticae have been everywhere much more numerous than the mosses, and will I hope comprise much that is new. The great mass belong to the genus Lejeunia [Lejeunea], but there are several species of Omphalanthus, Phragmicoma, Mastigobryum, Plagiochila, Aneura^, &c. One of the commonest Hepaticae on the Rio Negro is a Sphagnoecetis, quite like our Jungermannia Sphagni in aspect, but smaller, and fruiting abundantly towards the end of the rainy season. I have a good many new species allied to common European forms, as for instance, to Jung[ermannia]. bicuspidata and trichophylla; and a series of several species, apparently all undescribed, intermediate between foliose and frondose Hepaticae.

Very few mosses grow on the inundated margins of the large rivers, and they are species that recur everywhere. It is necessary to plunge into the heart of the forest and to seek out rocky rivulets and the trunks of fallen trees which lie in or near them. Hence when I ascended the Rio Negro in Nov. 1851, when the river was low, although there were abundance of trees in flower, the mosses on the banks were so much dried up as to appear almost nonexistent. The contrary was the case when I came from the Rio Uaupés to San Carlos in March last, when the rivers were rising and the rains were frequent and violent. The trunks of the inundated trees were in many cases clad with a green coating of mosses and Hepaticae, but the trees themselves were almost without exception destitute of flowers.

I shall do my best to explore the mountains at the back of Esmeralda, but I do not expect much from them. The great peculiarity of the mountains I have hitherto visited is that they are hills without valleys — lumps of granite sticking ^up out of the plain. They seem all destitute of water; and this is probably the reason why they are quite uninhabited, there not being, so far as I can learn, so much as an Indian's hut on all the mountains of the Rio Negro and Alto Orinoco.

I am glad to find that my specimens, both for the herbarium¹⁷ and Museum, have given you satisfaction. It is the certainty that my friends in Europe will appreciate my labours that enables me to bear up under the hardships of travel in this region. I have no doubt that a stronger man than I might do more, but even the strongest must be content ato lose a great deal of time among a people so lethargic as this, as Mr. Wallace can better inform you. As to my health, about which you so kindly inquire, it is much what it was in England, easily disordered, but (with care) rarely seriously affected. I suppose I am so thoroughly acclimated to the tropics that I shall take ill to a cold climate again.

I am much interested with what you tell me of your Museum & the Victoria-house¹⁸. As a general rule there are no aquatics (save Podostemons) on the Rio Negro, and no grasses.

I knew all about the steamers on the Amazon, but I am much obliged for the letters you and Mr. Miers¹⁹ are writing on my behalf to Rio, as they may be of use if I am spared to ascend higher up the Amazon.

I am rejoiced to hear of your improved health, and trust it may be spared to you for many, many years to come.²⁰

Believe me | My dear Sir William | Ever your faithful & obliged | Rich^d Spruce [signature]

Sir W[illiam]. J[ackson]. Hooker.²¹

[4] P. S. I intended writing to Mr. Bentham²², but have not time. If you will however kindly show him this letter it will inform him of all I wished to say to him. Possibly I may write from Esmeralda either to him or you, sh^d there be an opportunity down the Casiquiare.

I am sorry to learn from Mr. Bentham's last letter that I am likely to be deprived of his valuable aid in distributing my plants. I wrote to him a short time ago to say that I expected the proceeds of my Uaupés' plants would cover my expenses for the rest of the time I propose remaining in S. America. I hope he will receive my letter ere he finally makes up his mind.

I have asked him also to pay Mr. Pince²³ the balance in which I remain indebted to him, as I see no other certain way of paying him. I found the other day on mount Cocui²⁴ a fine Sobralia, but the stems and rhizomes are so slender that I see no doubt it being possible to get it to England alive, without hav<ing> a glazed case up here, which is impossible; I intend however to take some plants down with me when I go to the Barra.

Mr. Smith²⁵ has never told me whether the seeds I have sent were worth anything<.>

I cannot undertake to gather seed of trees at a shilling a species, when it often costs me more than that to collect them. A very large proportion of the trees here have resinous or oily seeds which w^d not keep alive out of earth. I shall try to bring away with me young plants of the Piassaba palm — it grows to a convenient size for your conservatory²⁶, and, w^d be a curious & interesting object. I saw a good many trees the other day on the Guainia²⁷, but no flower or fruit. The habit is quite that of Leopoldina [Leopoldnia], but the account given me of the fruit does not square with that genus. It is said to be large, globose and edible; while that of the Leopoldina is remarkably compressed, unsymmetrical and has a bitter taste.

RS.