The length of the Jaburti channel is about 35 miles, allowing for the numerous abrupt bends which occur between the middle and the northern end of its course. We were three days and a half accomplish-ing the passage. The banks on each side seemed to be composed of hard river-mud, with a thick covering of vegetable mould, so that I should imagine this whole district originated in a gradual accumulation of alluvium, through which the endless labyrinths of channels have worked their deep and narrow beds. The flood-tide as we travelled northward became gradually of less assistance to us, as it caused only a feeble current upwards. The pressure of the waters from the Amazons here makes itself felt: as this is not the case lower down, I suppose the currents are diverted through some of the numerous channels which we passed on our right, and which traverse, in their course towards the sea, the north-western part of Marajé. In the evening of the 29th we arrived at a point where another channel joins the Jaburti from the north-east. Up this the tide was flowing; we turned westward, and thus met the flood coming from the Amazons. This point is the object of a strange superstitious observance on the part of the canoemen. It is said to be haunted by a Pajé, or Indian wizard, whom it is necessary to propitiate, by depositing some article on the spot, if the voyager wishes to secure a safe return from the “serta6,” as the interior of the country is called. The trees were all hung with rags, shirts, straw hats, bunches of fruit, and so forth. Although the superstition doubtless originated with the aborigines, yet I observed, in both my voyages, that it was only the Portuguese and uneducated Brazilians who deposited anything. ‘The pure Indians gave nothing, and treated the whole affair as humbug; but they were all civilised Tapuyos.

On the 3oth, at 9 p.m., we reached a broad channel called Macaco, and now left the dark, echoing Jaburti. The Macaco sends off branches towards the north-west coast of Marajo. Whilst waiting for the tide I went ashore in the montaria with Joao da Cunha The forest was gloomy and forbidding in the extreme, the densely-packed trees producing a deep shade, under which all was dark and cold. There was no animal life visible—vertebrate, articulate, or molluscous. At its commencement the Macaco is about half a mile wide, and runs from S.S.W. to N.N.E.; towards the north it expands toa breadth of two or three miles. It is merely a passage amongst a cluster of islands, between which a glimpse is occasionally obtained of the broad waters of the main Amazons. A brisk wind carried us rapidly past its monotonous scenery, and early in the morning of the 1st of October we reached the entrance of the Uituqudara, or the Wind-hole, which is 15 miles distant from the end of the Jaburt. This is also a winding channel, 35 miles in length, threading a group of islands, but it is much narrower than the Macaco. On emerging from the Uituqudra on the znd, we all went ashore-the men to fish in a small creek, Joad da Cunha and I to shoot birds. We saw a flock of scarlet and blue macaws (Macrocercus macao) feeding on the fruits of a bacaba palm, and looking like a cluster of flaunting banners beneath its dark-green crown. We landed about fifty yards from the place, and crept cautiously through the forest, but before we could reach them they flew off with loud harsh screams. ' At a wild-fruit tree we were more successful, as my companion shot an anaca (De-rotypus coronatus), one of the most beautiful of the parrot family. It is of a green colour, and has a hood of feathers, red bordered with blue, at the back of its head, which it can elevate or depress at pleasure. The anaca is the only new-world parrot which nearly resembles the cockatoo of Australia. It is found in all the lowlands throughout the Amazons region, but it is not a common bird anywhere. Few persons succeed in taming it, and I never saw one that had been taught to speak. The natives are very fond of the bird nevertheless, and keep it in their houses for the sake of seeing the irascible creature expand its beautiful frill of feathers, which it readily does when excited. ‘The men returned with a large quantity of fish. I was surprised at the great variety of species; the prevailing kind was a species of Loricaria, a foot in length, and wholly encased in bony armour. It abounds at certain seasons in shallow water. The flesh is dry, but very palatable. ‘They brought also a small alligator, which they called Jacaré curtia, and said it was a kind found only in shallow creeks. It was not more than two feet in length, although full-grown according to the statement of the Indians, who said it was a “ mai d’ovos,” or mother of eggs, as they had pillaged the nest, which they had found near the edge of the water. The eggs were rather larger than a hen’s, and regularly oval in shape, presenting a rough hard surface of shell. Unfortunately, the alligator was cut up ready for cooking when we returned to the schooner, and I could not therefore make a note of its peculiarities. ‘The pieces were skewered and roasted over the fire, each man being his own cook. I never saw this species of alligator afterwards.

October 3rd.—About midnight the wind, for which we had long been waiting, sprang up, the men weighed anchor, and we were soon fairly embarked on the Amazons. I rose long before sunrise, to see the great river by moonlight. There was a spanking breeze, and the vessel was bounding gaily over the waters. The channel along which we were sailing was only a narrow arm of the river, about two miles in width:. the total breadth at this point is more than 20 miles, but the stream is divided into three parts by a series of large islands. ‘The river, notwithstanding this limitation of its breadth, had a most majestic appearance. It did not present that lake-like aspect which the waters of the Para and Tocantins affect, but had all the swing, so to speak, of a vast flowing stream. The ochre-coloured turbid waters offered also a

Acari Fish (Loricaria duodecimalis).

great contrast to the rivers belonging to the Parad system. The channel formed a splendid reach, sweeping from south-west to north-east, with a horizon of water and sky both up stream and down. At 11 a.m. we arrived at Gurupa, a small village situated on a rocky bank 30 or 4o feet high. Here we landed, and I had: an opportunity of rambling in the neighbouring woods, which are intersected by numerous pathways, carpeted with Lycopodia growing to a height of 8 or 10 inches, and enlivened by numbers of glossy blue butterflies of the Theclidze or hair-streak family. The land on which Gurupd is built appears an isolated rocky area, for the rest of the country round about lies low, and is subject to inundation in the rainy season. At 5 p.m. we were again under weigh. Soon after sunset, as we were crossing the mouth of the Xingu, the first of the great tributaries of the Amazons, 1200 miles in length, a black cloud arose suddenly in the north-east. Joao da Cunha ordered all sails to be taken in, and immediately afterwards a furious squall burst forth, tearing the waters into foam, and producing a frightful uproar in the neighbouring forests. A drenching rain followed: but in half an hour all was again calm, and the full moon appeared sailing in a cloudless sky.. From the mouth of the Xingu the route followed by vessels leads straight across the river, here 10 miles broad. ‘Towards midnight the wind

failed us, when we were close to a large shoal called the Baixo Grande. We lay here becalmed in the sickening heat for two days, and when the trade-wind recommenced with the rising moon at 10 p.m. on the 6th, we found ourselves on a lee-shore. Notwithstanding all the efforts of our pilot to avoid it, we ranaground. Fortunately the bottom consisted only of soft mud, so that by casting anchor to windward, and hauling in with the whole strength of crew and passengers, we got off after spending an uncomfortable night. We rounded the point of the shoal in two fathoms’ water; the head of the vessel was then put westward, and by sunrise we were bounding forward before a steady breeze, all sail set and everybody in good humour.

The weather was now delightful for several days in succession, the air transparently clear, and the breeze cool and invigorating. At daylight, on the 6th, a chain of blue hills, the Serra de Almeyrim, appeared in the distance, on the north bank of the river. The sight was most exhilarating after so long a sojourn in a flat country. We kept to the southern shore, passing in the course of the day the mouths of the Uru-curicaya and the Aquiqul, two channels which communicate with the Xingt. The whole of this southern coast hence to near Santarem, a distance of 130 miles, is lowland and quite uninhabited. It-is intersected by short arms or back waters of the Amazons, which are called in the Tupi language Parandmirims, or little rivers. By keeping to these, small canoes can travel great part of the distance without being much exposed to the heavy seas ofthe mainriver. The coast throughout hasa most desolate aspect: the forest is not so varied as on the higher land; and the water-frontage, which is destitute of the green mantle of climbing plants that form so rich a decoration in other parts, is encumbered at every step with piles of fallen trees, peopled by white egrets, ghostly storks, and solitary herons. In the evening we passed Almeyrim. ‘The hills, according to Von Martius, who landed here, are about 800 feet above the level of the river, and are thickly wooded to the summit. They commence on the east by a few low, isolated, and rounded elevations; but towards the west of the village they assume the appearance of elongated ridges, which seem to have been planed down to a uniform height by some external force. The next day we passed in succession a series of similar flat-topped hills, some isolated and of a truncated-pyramidal shape, others prolonged toa length of several miles. There is an interval of low country between these and the Almeyrim range, which has a total length of about 25 miles: then commences abruptly the Serra de Marauqua, which is succeeded in a similar way by the Velha Pobre range, the Serras de Tapaiuna-quara, and Paraud-quara. All these form a striking contrast to the Serra de Almeyrim in being quite destitute of trees. They have steep rugged sides, apparently clothed with short herbage, but here and there exposing bare white patches. ‘Their total lengthis about 40 miles. In the rear, towards the interior, they are succeeded by other ranges of hills, communicating with the central mountain chain of Guiana, which divides Brazil from Cayenne. As we sailed along the southern shore, during the 6th and two following days, the table-topped hills on the opposite side occupied

most of our attention. The river is from four to five miles broad, and in some places long, low, wooded islands intervene in mid-stream, whose light-green, vivid verdure formed a strangely beautiful foreground to the glorious landscape of broad stream and grey mountain. Ninety miles beyond Almeyrim stands the village of Monte Alegre, which is built near the summit of the last hill visible of this chain. At this point the river bends a little towards the south, and the hilly country recedes from its shores to reappear at Obydos, greatly decreased in height, about a hundred miles farther west. Twenty-five miles to the southwest of Monte Alegre, high land again appears, but now on the opposite side of the river. This is the northernmost limit of the table-land of Brazil, as the hills of Monte Alegre are the southernmost of that of Guiana. In no other part of the river do the high lands on each side approach each other so closely. Beyond Obydos they gradually recede, and the width of the river valley consequently increases, until in the central parts of the Upper Amazons, near Ega, it is no less than 540 miles. At this point, therefore, the valley or river plain of the Amazons is contracted to its narrowest breadth, reckoning from the places 2000 miles from its mouth, where the river and its earliest tributaries rush forth between walls of rock through the easterninost ridges of the Andes. It is, perhaps, necessary to take this in consideration when studying the geographical distribution of the plants and animals which people these vast wooded plains. We crossed the river three times between Monte Alegre and the next town, Santarem. In the middle the waves ran very high, and the vessel lurched fearfully, hurling everything that was not well secured from one side of the deck to the other. On the morning of the 9th of October, a gentle wind carried us along a “ remanso,” or still water, under the southern shore. ‘These tracts of quiet water are frequent on the irregular sides of the stream, and are the effect of counter movements caused by the rapid current of its central parts. At 9 a.m. we passed the mouth of Parand-mirim, called Mahicd, and then found a sudden change in the colour of the water and aspect of the banks. Instead’ of the low and swampy water-frontage which had prevailed from the mouth of the Xing, we saw before us a broad sloping beach of white sand. The forest, instead of being an entangled mass of irregular and rank vegetation as hitherto, presented a rounded outline, and created an impression of repose that was very pleasing. We now approached, in fact, the mouth of the Tapajos, whose clear olive-green waters here replaced the muddy current against which we had so long been sailing. Although this is a river of great extent—a thousand miles in length, and, for the last eighty miles of its course, four to ten in breadth—its contribution to the Amazons is not perceptible in the middle of the stream. ‘The white turbid current of the main river flows disdainfully by, occupying nearly the whole breadth of the channel, whilst the darker water of its tributary seems to creep along the shore, and is no longer distinguishable four or five miles from its mouth.

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