Brazil; the Amazons and the Coast ... Illustrated from sketches by J. Wells Champneys and others

Front matter

BRAZIL BRAZIL THE AMAZONS AND THE COAST BY HERBERT H. SMITH ILLUSTRATED FROM SKETCHES by J. WELLS CHAMPNEY AND OTHERS NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 743 and 745 Broadway Copyright by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. Trow's Printing and Bookbinding Company, 205-213 East \ith Street, NEW YORK. TO Senhor D. S. FERREIRA PENNA, OF PARA, AS A MARK OF SINCERE ADMIRATION FOE HIS GEOGRAPHICAL STUDIES ON THE LOWER AMAZONS, AND AS AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MY GRATITUDE FOR HIS MANY KINDNESSES, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED.

Preface

. IN 1870, when a young student, I made a trip to the Amazons in the company of my friend and teacher, Prof. C. F. Hartt. The glimpse of tropical life which I then obtained, acted as a constant attraction to draw me back to these glorious forests and rivers. In 1874 I returned to Brazil, with the design of collecting and studying the Amazonian animals. After two years, spent in the vicinity of Santarem, I was requested by Prof. Hartt, then in charge of the Brazilian Geological Commission, to make some explorations on the northern tributaries of the Amazons and on the Tapajos. These explorations occupied, altogether, more than a year. On their completion I went to Rio de Janeiro, spending four months there before returning to the United States. It was then that I began to dream of writing a book on Brazil, but for a long time the idea remained latent.

I had, indeed, a large mass of notes, and a collection of about one hundred thou sand specimens, principally entomological ; but the notes were thrown together at random, and a large portion of the collections were still in their packing-boxes. Heretofore my reading of books on Brazil had been desultory and not very extensive. I now began to collect such works as I could obtain, and to compare the views of the various authors with my own observations. This taught me a new difficulty. I found that most travellers either praised Brazil unduly, or condemned the country altogether. From my pleasant

PREFACE.

. observations of tropical nature I was inclined to side with the farmer class, but I felt that I could not write fairly of social and commer cial life without more careful study. At this juncture the Messrs. Scribner & Co. invited me to write a series of articles on Brazil for their magazine. Through their liberality I was enabled to make two more trips to South America, revisiting Rio and the Amazons, and making special studies of the coffee and sugar industries, of social and commercial life, and, finally, of the famine district in Ceara. Mr. J. Wells Champney, the artist, was my companion on one of these trips. To him I am indebted, not only for a series of very accurate and beautiful drawings, but for many keen observations and intelligent criticisms on Brazilian nature and society. With these added studies, I began the present work.

As my per sonal adventures and observations were, in themselves, hardly worth writing about, I have avoided a purely narrative form. I have,' rather, endeavored to frame a series of essays, with a general loose connection, but varying in tense and person as the subjects seemed to require. While generally confining my descriptions to the ground that I have personally been over, I have tried to make them typical of the whole, so that the book, though it does not describe the whole of Brazil, may yet present an intelligible picture of the country. Naturally, I have dwelt most on the scenes that I love best — the wild streams and glorious green forests of the Amazons. When I have treated of the less pleasant social and commercial life, I have endeavored to weigh my own opinions carefully with those of other persons, and to judge fairly from the whole ; thus, the book may appear contradictory in parts, because it does not always praise, nor yet wholly condemn, the Brazilian people.

I believe that this is a difficulty which every author must meet, who attempts to write the truth about any nation. The series of six articles on Brazil, first published in Scribner's Magazine, have been embodied in the present work, but with so

PREFACE.

. IX many changes and additions as to give them an entirely new char acter. Among the many kind friends who have assisted me in my work, I can speak here only of a few. My thanks are especially due to Sr. D. S. Ferreira Penna, and to His Excellency, Dr. F. M. C. de Sa e Benevides, late President of Para ; to Mr. R. J. Rhome, of Taperinha ; to His Honor, the Baron of Santarem, and to Sr. Cae tano Correa, of the same place, as well as to many American colonists of the vicinity ; to Dom Manuel Onetti, of Monte Alegre ; to President Julio, and Sr. Morsing, of Fortaleza; to Dr. Gomes Per rira, of Baturite ; to Mr. H. H. Swift, and Dr. Mamede, of Pernam buco ; to Maj. O. C. James, of Rio de Janeiro ; and to Sr. Miranda Jordao, of Bern Posta. Among my American coadjutors, I must mention the officers of the American Geographical Society.

Besides the illustrations by Mr. Champney, a number of drawings were made by Mr. Wiegandt, of Rio de Janeiro ; a few were worked up from photographs, by various artists ; three were borrowed from Keller. The zoological drawings, in Chapter VII., are by Mr. J. C. Beard. Two chapters, which, in their nature, did not admit of illustrations, have been placed at the end of the book ; and one, of a more exclusively scientific cast, has been reduced to the form of an appendix. I hope that this may be but the beginning of my studies on South America. As such, I offer it to the reading public. Brooklyn, N. Y., Dec. i, 1879. CONTENTS.

Appendix

. Geology and Physical Geography of the Amazons Valley, . . 619 Index, LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Table-topped Hills of the Lower Amazons 5 River-side Vegetation, . 9 Flooded Forest of the Upper Amazons (from Keller) 13 On the Banks — Lower Amazons, 17 Indian Settlement, . 26 The Fort, Para 35 At the Custom-house, . 38 The Assai Stand, 44 The Market Wharf, 46 The Theatre, Para 52 The Washerwoman, Para, 56 " Monkey Joe's," . 57 Estrada de Sao Jose, 59 The Botanical Garden 63 Breves Channel 81 The Rubber-gatherer, 84 Preparing Rubber, 85 At Breves, .............. 91 Victoria Regia, ............. 96 The Pirarucii Fisher 98 Drying Cacao, 113 The Beach below Santarem, .......... 117 At the Window 123 Scavengers, 128 Beach Scenes at Santarem, .......... 130 Taperinha Plantation, from the River, ........ 152 The Cane-mills — Old and New, 154 Picking Tobacco-leaves, ........... 156 Preparing Tobacco, 157 The Plantation House, Taperinha LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE Lace-maker, ............;. 160 Looking down from the Cane-field, Taperinha, 161 Fishing by Torchlight 164 Looking up the Uaiaia" from Taperinha 168 Forest Group, ............. 177 Sandy Campos (Hill-sides) 178 In the Forest, 186 Inaja" Palms, 199 Spider Monkeys, ............. 206 Young Pacas, ............. 208 Leaf-insect, I, ............. 219 Leaf-insect, 2, 221 Longicorn Beetles, ............ 224 The Embarkation, 227 Camp on the Tapaj<5s, ............ 229 Jara Palm, 232 Ascending the Rapids 251 Cacao-orchard, 260 Jose's Family, ............. 263 Thatch-palm on the Campo at Terra-preta, ....... 275 Pirarucii (from Keller), 285 Igarape de Cujubim 287 Village Scene, Alenquer 296 An Indian Kitchen, ............ 299 An Indian Mother, . 307 Highland Stream, 318 The River-shore, Curua, ........... 323 Manuel's Hut, 325 Looking over the Lowlands from Monte Alegre, 344 Calabash-tree 3.48 Serra d'Erere, from the Northeast 350 View on Lake Maripa, ........... 353 Indian Shooting Fish, ............ 356 Camp Scene on the Maecuru, .......... 362 The Spring, 374 Indian Woman making Pottery, ......... 379 Straining the Mandioca, 382 Roasting Farinha, ............ 383 Hammock-weaving, ■■■-........ 3S6 Indian Woman beating Cotton, ......... 389 The Saire, •••-.......,.. 394 Road-side Scene, Ceara, ........... 404 A Jangada in the Breakers (from Keller) 406 Group of Refugee Children (from a photograph) LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

XV PAGE The Exodus 4Ir Refugees Working on the Roads 429 The Reef at Pernambuco, 439 Bahia, from the Hill, 44g Victoria Harbor 4C0 Tijuca, from the Bay 452 Rua Primeiro de Marco, 453 The Sugar-loaf, from the West 456 The Organ Mountains, , .rg Up the Bay 4S9 Porters waiting for Work 464 Plantation Slaves, ........... . 469 In the Passeio Publico 476 Beer-Garden, 478 The Gavea 480 Botafogo and the Corcovado, 482 Fruit-seller 485 Poultry-seller 488 Charcoal-seller, ............. 489 A narrow Street, 494 Water-carts in the Largo de Carioca, 497 The Sugar-loaf, from the South 501 Loading a Ship with Coffee, at Rio, ......... 505 Coffee-plantation in Southern Brazil, 513 The Viveiro 516 Picking Coffee, 517 Coffee-berries on the Tree, 518 The Pulping-machine, ........... 520 Steam Drying-machine, ........... 521 Diagram of a Coffee-engenho, .......... 523 Coffee-sheller (old form) 524 Picking over Coffee 525 Cutting Cane-stalks for the Cattle, . 527 The Uniao e Industria Road, near Entre Rios, ...... 530 Coffee Warehouse, ............

Weighing 538 Diagram I. (Appendix), ........... 620 "II. " 620 " III. " 620 "IV. " • 621 "V. " 621 Diagram illustrating the Formation of Terraces, ... ... EXPLANATION OF THE MAP. The portion ambrMing the region to the south of the Amazons, ind w«rt of th« Tapajoe, w;is extracted bom :i mantuoript m;i|> of Senhor D. S. Fcrroira Penna; that of the Lower Trombetas was taken, in part, bom the map of that river, published by Dr. Joflo Barton Etodrigoec; the remainder is original. The positions of three points— Obidos, SantMem, aud Itaituba— have been detenoi 1 bj various lurreyi. Beyond t Ik-si-, Um map bai only an approximate correctness; but the sketch-work has been carefully done, and it is believed that the actual positions of the lakes aud channels will not be found to vary much from those Ind REFERENCES.

Amazonn. 66. Taoonha muira Rapids. 61 Pannacti. Rapids. 88. Lago de Mimi. 69. Lago de Mimi /.iuho. 70. Lago de Bamauma. i 73. Lago de Juoary. le t 'ujuiiiiii. I 75. Lago di- \: : 78. [garape de < lujublm, . 17. Lugo dai Anlngas. 7s. Lago de Turara, 80. Lagode Tat6. 81. Lago de Maripa do (Vntro. 83. Pery (settlement I. 84. < 'urimata | iettll I) 1 larary > nettlemenl i. 86. Lago de Pirauaba, Jacarot npa. o de I schlaca. 81). Furo de Ricardo (dry in summer i. 90. Lago de < Saranandubn, 91. Lagode Ajmhy, ■ ro de Pipaiia, ■ Itanduba. 94. Lugo dr Pannaca. t»5. [garape apara, 96. BurublJu rra d'JSrere, 98, Serra de Paltuna. 99. Berrade Arochl. i"". Berr \i i lid. Serra de Paralzo. 'rra de 1 fueury km, Berrade Brutin. LOG. Bern d'AJrl. 106, Serra de Tnjnri. 107. Berrade Santa Helena. Curm'i. los.

Bam tie.! raii. 109, I. r.i Rapids. HO. Oachoelrlnna. 1 1 1, [garape da l.ontra. irape Branco. ■ i do Arapary. in. Prale Grande. 1 15, Lago de Pacuplohy Grande, 116. I. . ii|ni'hv | ' - queno, 117. Las) inilla. 119. Igi ddoa, 110. Paooval (deserted settle llieiil ). 121. l mad. [0 de Ai'Uma. 128. [garape do MamuV 124. Lago de Jurupary. . ro de Juruparlooara. 126. Lago de Tncumacachy. 127. Lugo e Furo de Burubifi mit i. 128, Lago de Tucuni 139, 1 1 1 mi. 130. Lago le Uidua. ment), 184. Araiuue. 135. Urucuritua. 136. IgarapA plohuna. 137. uacura i settlement). I3f. Lago '!«■ \i 139. [garape de .luncal. 140. La ill, Lago di 1 1". Lago do* laatanhanduba* it:;. Li l ii. Lago iir Jacarepuru. I 1 ■'■ Ll le \1; iiin'i. 1 iti. [garape de < !uru< i 147. I ie Le Irapapa. ode Muritua, 1 19, Lago de U uritua zinho. 150.

Lugo ilo Murit.ua i. 151. Lago doe Botoa , Dlvi Ion ■ Uardoz [53. Lago ilr Jauary < !urua, 164. [lha da Bocoa. Ponta de Araoatd (varaea sored i. 156. llliu de Muini (terra flrme). 157. Furo di \ 193. Furo do I n 159 i . igo de Mungualepe, 161, La rode Hongubal. 162, Lago de Cucuy | lib* de Cn odo Barroa, 164, Li lo i ':ii Antonio. 165. Lago do i Saranazal. li m Viuteni, Javary). ilsica, i .h. I m lo Bora R< i Iro. 1 ;i. Lago de Pacury. 172. Una de Maracanaoka. 173. I:i :■ Hi' Janda. i , i. [garape de Cutpeua, odeJaburQ. ■ i de Jabura, 177. Lago de Tartan i igo do Itaoai odeTaicM. 1 ipella. 188. Lago ilr I'u'.i yau ira. hi. Lago de Paraw ■■■ de Maqui. irapode [taoa Jauaritfia, ISa Bocoa da Cima (furo). hen. ' lie ( 'unillMI. rode i ruchi, 192. Lago de BSo Antonia ode Amary. 194. I a Ic < iaplntuba, 195, I .;i le \ n 198.

Lago ilr Papiranga. • di* i luricaca. . de Taperiba, 169. Lagode Bamauma. viaquicaua. • de Paooi d. o de Arrozal. 208 Lago de t luricaca einho. l.irakituUt. < !urlooara. o de Jadtara, ■ inco. 208. Tern preta I nettlemenl I. 209. Amaltal i nettlemenl I, 910; uiia do Baooo (tern tinne). 111. Una de Sao Pedro i terra fame ). Him do Bom Betlro limit.-). Tnniih, i,,s (Dr. Barbozu Rodriguez.) 213. Lflgoda A.'hipira. 214, Borra de Aohsplca, 215. [garap£ < !ai tanha. inal de Uhirtri. e I ';iv|ini'ii. 218. Lago de Parallel, 219. llhfl de Jadtara. 230. Lago de Aripichy, i de Sacurj iacury. Limy. i Sapucua, i nniiry, i urn from the Jainnnda. '. Faro de ( iachuiry. •* 228. Serra de < iummu, 229, I Ago de Itaplctira. ' 230. Lagode Klrlklri. gl. Lago de Curumsi. 232. Lago da Uorartl uaca. sAtXrs h, (ir>'i'ii iin- Anunon% and (h. /i//K(J /:'■,.

(Sr. Patina, ) i 'it de ' lurumftoury, 284. Lagode Bale. i iiro de Miut'.'ii I'lhu (drj in mnuiier). Ptrapltinga (dry in immmtr >. 23*. Puiode Uuirat&ba rinho, ■ ll'H. 240, liriinipr da 241, I ■.u-.i. ■ i r.'i de Plracol arape de Iraoury. 21 1. Bern de Araoury. 5o \ ioente {settlement). 246, [garape de arauary. ■'i ,. [garape de i taoumlnim, MB, Furo do TroYoado. Tap(0A$, Ponta do Bale I Ponta <i*r Maplri I. 951. Bahlade m Ponta Grande. 253 [garape de Mapiri | receive* the Panama). ide Tapary, 256. Lago de ; ■ aran. 258. Bahiade \ '-'.v.i. Ponta de Cururu. 200. [garape awa | Furo). 261. BeiTaPlroca( Alter do Ohio). tmanai. i 263. Lago d« Alter do I . da Banta Rita. 2, Paranamirl de < iarapanim, 3, km inota < lolorda Uultar. ide Arapoefi. i de SllelirijU. o de JunoaL B, Bern mamlri de ' H 10.

Miiaiie Mara li. llhade Amador, 12. llhada Uapella, on do Mem. i de Marlmarituba. ii. Llhade Arapary. 15, llhade A. turns, in. llha de Sui urubiumiri. IS. Lago de Aium.imn ■;. Maracatpa, 20. Una deCm 21. Praia de Arltapem. 23. Lago de Pin j uiara. 24. Li nta. o de harm. i n .le piraoaoara, 1 1 . I 'i ioNX 28, Lago de Aral 29. Ilhae Lagode Jurupary. 80. llha da- Bai . whirlpool). 82. Paranarnirj de I apara. 83. Paranamirl de Taparamiri. ii da Praia. 35. Uha do l*i ra, 36. llha da Pi 87. llha dr Palhao, 88. llhade Saracura, 39, Uha do Taparamiri. 10. Barreinw de Para ary, tie sunn). 42. 'I'a i 13, Costa de Paricatuba (settle merits). 44, Cacoal Grande i plantation I. 15, I.; i Hi. llha das Barrelraa do Cucary. 17, Barrein do nts). 18. Poi 19, Uha de Freohai 50, Ponta de Urubacu m. Uha Grande do huki.

Chapter I. The Great River And Its History

ON the fly-leaf of an old copy of Schiller I find this note : "July 26th, noon, long. 470 30' W. G., lat. 50 30' N. Water slightly discolored, assuming a greenish tint ; current from the southwest." , The charts indicate similar discolored patches all along the coast of Guiana, and as far north as lat. 90 or icX In these patches the current is from the southwest, south, or southeast. The line of green water runs parallel to the coast, but two or three hundred miles away from it. There are no shoals here ; bottom is beyond the reach of ordinary sound ings. Consulting that clever book of travels, Mr. Bates's " Nat uralist on the Amazons," we find noted on the last page a curious observation made in these seas : " On the 6th of June, when in 70 55' N. lat. and 52° 30' W. long., we passed numerous patches of floating grass mingled BRAZIL. 2 with tree-trunks and withered foliage.

Amongst these masses I espied many fruits of ubussu palms." The ubussu, or bussu {Manicaria saccifera), is an Amazonian tree, growing along the narrow channels about Marajo. " And this," says Mr. Bates, " was the last I saw of the great river." The green tint, then, is caused by intermixture of fresh water, in which are suspended particles of yellow clay. The fresh water was gathered far westward on the slopes of the Andes ; the clay has been washed from muddy banks over the whole breadth of Brazil. Farther south, near the equator, and still a hundred miles from land, the sea is much more strongly tinged ; in April and May, indeed, it has nearly the clay-yellow hue of the Amazons itself, and furious currents struggle with each other until the surface boils and seethes as below a cataract. The flood of turbid waters, after this first battle with the ocean, gives way before the yet stronger equatorial current ; its flank is turned, and it sweeps away northward, staining the sea with the blood of its defeat, littering it with debris, madly rushing into the heart of the enemy's country, until its last forces are exhausted and it sinks to annihilation, six hundred miles from the field of battle.

Down on the ocean-floor the king is building his monument ; such an one as you may have seen of the old-time rivers — sheets of sandstone and shale, stretching over hun dreds of miles, rising into hills and mountains, furrowed by lakes and valleys. We shall see presently how he is building along the great valley ; building, and tearing down, and re building, with a restless impatience of his own work. But this ocean monument grows steadily, for the river-king wills that his name shall live ; through years and centuries he has been washing away the continent and spreading it under the sea. From green water to yellow water, and off through the forests and plains of the Amazons valley. It will be rough life for us, with rough pleasures and cares ; but there is health in it, and bright sunshine and green boughs, and a glimpse of nature-love there at nature's heart.

In the outset we must survey our field and see what other explorers have done here. The Amazons is not the longest river in the world ; it is even a good thousand miles shorter than the geographies would have it, for they set it down at four thousand miles. The more probable estimates give two thousand seven hun dred and forty miles from Lake Lauricocha along the river curves to the Atlantic ; or, if the Ucayali be considered as the source, the length is rather more than three thousand miles. In either case, both the Mississippi and the Nile are longer than the South American river. But the Amazons is wider and deeper than either of them ; it carries more water than the two together ; and it has a vastly greater extent of navigable surface, what with the side-channels and the mighty tributaries.

This immense river-system, that can stain the sea for six hundred miles from its mouth, is dependent, too, on great causes ; and often very remote ones, which we must seek out carefully. First, the configuration of the land. The northern part of South America is a plain — a low one, with gentle slopes. On the western side this plain is bordered by the Andes, snowy peaks away up in the cloud-region. To the north the Andes sweep round through New Grenada and Venezuela ; to the south there are high table-lands in Central Brazil. The plain is, in fact, a great basin, shut in on three sides, but open toward the east. Here the northeast and southeast trade-winds blow in freely, as they blow over the BRAZIL. tropics all round the earth. Hot winds, sweeping over a warm ocean. They take up water, every hour, until they are full of it — saturated, so that the least puff of cold air sends torrents of rain down over the ocean.

When they reach the South American coasts they are heavy with mois ture, more than any other winds in the world. The sun is the furnace, the Atlantic is the retort, South America is the receiver. Cool land-currents strike the trades and condense their moisture. Already, near the coast, there are daily rains ; and then, far to the westward, come freezing Andean winds, meeting the warm ones from the East, whirling about with them, rising and eddying and tossing, and filling the sky with clouds at every pace. Here the rains are almost constant, and the air, and ground, and trees, are all soaked and dripping. On the Upper Amazons, if a gun is kept loaded overnight, it will not go off in the morning ; sugar and salt deliquesce so rapidly that it is almost impossible to keep them ; books and furniture and clothes drop to pieces.

"All our watches stopped," says Orton. Now the winds strike cold mountain-sides, snowy peaks, and beds of ice. There yet more of their moisture must be wrung from them, until, dry and cool, they pass on to the Pacific, over a country almost devoid of vegetation, except along the river-courses. They have not always kept close to the ground. On the Lower Amazons, and as far up as Manaos, the prevailing winds are easterly; after that the trades form an upper cur rent, and near the plain there are variable winds, where ed dying currents from the mountains come in. But on the high Andean peaks the breeze is steadily from the east. This great basin that I have described receives more rain than any other region in the world of like extent. The water is collected in channels— brooks from the Andes, and streams on the dripping lowlands, and rivers pouring toward the east; finally the whole is gathered into two great troughs, the Amazons and the Orinoco— two river systems that are almost combined above, but separated below by the mountains of Guiana, the highest land in the basin.

These Guiana mountains will not compare with the Andes ; but they are quite high enough to affect the rainfall. If report be true, indeed, some of the peaks are nearly ten thousand feet above the sea-level ; and even near the Ama zons there are spurs sixteen hundred feet high — flat-topped Table-topped Hills of the Lower Amazons. hills of Almeyrim and Velha Pobre. To the highest range sweeps our northeast trade-wind, and the Guiana slope is all moist and dripping — a matted forest down to the coast ; Sir Walter Raleigh, wandering there in search of El Dorado, was drenched and steamed into a proper respect for the country. But on the southern side of the range is precisely the driest region along the main Amazons ; dry comparatively, that is, for even there the rains are heavy enough in the winter ; but in August and September there are weeks to gether without even a shower.

So here the great forest is interrupted ; you find it along hill-sides and about the river courses, but on level ground you shall walk, or gallop if you please, for days, over open stony lands and sandy campos, BRAZIL. with a stunted growth of trees — a region altogether unlike the rest of the valley. Real forest must have good, pouring rains ; but here the rain has all been stolen away by the mountains. On the other side of the Amazons, if we ascend the Tocantins or the Xingii, we shall find that the summer climate grows drier as we advance, until we reach the great open Sertao, where dry and wet seasons are sharply divided, and hardly any rain falls from June to November. Even on the Lower Tocantins there is a long, dry season : " It did not rain for three months," we read in Mr. Wallace's book.

We shall study the Sertao and its seasons in their proper place ; it will be enough now to remember that wet and dry seasons there depend on the position of the sun. When it is south of the line, the Sertao atmosphere is warmer than the trade-wind, and the rains do not fall ; when it is on the northern side, there are ascending currents and heavy rains. But near the equator this change is hardly felt, and to the westward the cooling winds come all through the year from the Andes. It is well for us to note these modified regions — the lee of the Guiana highlands, and edges of the Sertao. But they are only little fragments of the great plain ; for the rest it is rain, rain, almost every day — often five or six times in a day — drizzling, pouring, filling up the river-channels, stain ing the sea beyond.

You must not look for a dry season on the Upper Amazons or at Para ; the so-called dry and wet seasons are only marked by lighter or heavier showers. " It rains every day, or it rains all the while," says a voyaging friend of mine.* At Obidos the whole Amazonian flood is gathered into * Gait found no inches, by rain-gauge, during one year on the Upper Amazons. a narrow trough, through which it rushes with mill-race swiftness ; even along the shores it is difficult to force vessels against it. This channel at Obidos is little more than a mile wide,* but it makes up for that by its great depth. Lieut. Herndon sounded it, rather unsatisfactorily : " In what was pointed out as the deepest part I sounded in one hundred and fifty, one hundred and eighty, and two hundred and ten feet, with generally a pebbly bottom.

In another place I judged I had bottom in two hundred and forty feet, but the lead came up clean. It is very difficult to get correct soundings in so rapid a current." Wallace found that this current ran four miles per hour in the dry season. Taking these two observations of Herndon and Wallace as our basis, we can venture on a calculation of the amount of water that passes through the strait. With a width of six thousand feet, we may allow an average depth of forty feet — a very low estimate. This would give two hundred and forty thousand feet for the water which is opposite a given foot of space at any one instant. Mr. Wallace's observation was made, no doubt, in mid-stream ; along the banks, and at the bottom, the current is slower. Allow but two and one-quarter miles per hour for the average, that would give over three feet per second, or seven hundred and sixty thousand cubic feet per second in the whole breadth.

Von Martius and Wallace, it is true, calcu lated but five hundred thousand feet per second ; but they must have underestimated the depth. Below Obidos, the Amazons receives the Tapajos, Xingii, and other smaller trib utaries ; but collectively they can hardly add more than one hundred thousand feet per second. On the whole, if we say that eight hundred and fifty thousand feet per second pass * 1,892 metres, according to Sr. D. S. Ferreira Penna : A Regiao Occidental da Provincia do Para, p. 141. BRAZIL. into the ocean by the northern mouth, we are quite within bounds. That is double the outflow of the Mississippi.* The difference in rainfall is great enough to produce a yearly rise and fall of the river. From December or January to June the winds are stronger, and the cold currents from the West more numerous ; every fisherman knows the vento da cima — "wind from up-river" — which brings rain almost always, and with it an increase of volume in the river.

The rise and fall vary a good deal with the locality and with different years. On the Upper Amazons, about Teffe, there are, in fact, two floods, t corresponding to what may be called two rainy seasons. The first is in November and December, when the showers are somewhat heavier and the river rises fifteen or twenty feet above the summer level ; after that there is a fall of four or five feet before the great rainy season, the one that is felt all over the valley. Perhaps this fall in December is caused by dry weather below the Andes ; for Lieut. Herndon, careful collector of facts, has recorded this in Peru : " There is a period of fine weather from the middle of December to the middle of January, called El Verano del Nino, or the summer of the child, from its happening about Christmas. The streams which are fed from the rains of this country invariably stop rising, and fall a little after this period." £ At Teffe the highest water is in June : forty-five feet, says Bates, above the summer level, but it varies with different years ; after this the fall continues into October.

But here, * Wallace, on a basis of seventy-two inches per annum, calculates the rainfall of the whole valley at one million five hundred thousand cubic feet per second, and he supposes that half of this is evaporated. This gives nearly the same result. + Bates: Naturalist on the Amazons, p. 326. t Valley of the Amazon, Part I., p. 112. and elsewhere on the upper rivers, there are rcpiquetes — little floods — when the waters increase a few inches only ; these seem to be caused by the sudden rising of one or two tributaries. The great river spreads its arms over such a vast territory that there may be a rainy season about the head-waters of one, while the others are still low. On the Lower Amazons, however, the rcpiquetes are not felt, and the two floods of November and February are hardly separated.