335 
Journal of a Voyage from SANTAREM to the BARRA Do Rio NEGRO; 
by RICHARD SPRUCE, Esq. 
(Continued from p. 278.) 
After passing the mouth of the Maué, there was no perceptible 
current in the Ramos: the water was very warm, and so thick with 
the slime of decomposing conferve, as to be very unwholesome to 
drink. We were told by parties of Indians whom we met, that the 
upper mouth was still closed, and consequently that we should be 
unable to get out into the Amazon; but on the 18th the water, though 
still unchanged in colour, began to run a little, and several small [has 
de Capim and branches of trees passed us, indicating that some force 
was in action above. When day broke on the following morning, the 
water had assumed a yellow tinge, and as we proceeded on our voyage 
several masses of scum floated by us, and the current was decidedly 
strong. There was now no doubt that the waters of the Amazon had 
entered the Zam-orómogáua, as the upper mouth of the Ramos is 
called by the Indians; and towards night of the same day we had 
fuller proof of it, in occasional sudden influxes of water, making the — 
whole river a series of whirlpools. On one occasion, when one of 
these irruptions caught us near the middle of the river, the canoe 
became quite ungovernable: it whirled round I suppose a hundred 
times, and all our exertions did not suffice to bring it into smoother 
water. We were drifting rapidly downwards, and in continual danger 
of thumping against Xhe side or on some sandbank, when fortunately a 
breath of wind sprang up, and though it did not last more than ten - 
minutes, it sufficed to put us nearly across the river, and into com- - 
paratively still water. The meeting of the cold waters of the Amazon - 
and the heated waters of the Ramos had an extraordinary effect on the | 
fish in the latter, they floated on the surface quite benumbed and - 
stupefied, and we caught as many of them as we liked with our hands. — 
On the 19th we had fresh fish in superabundance, and we salted 
down as many pescados (a delicate fish, the size of a large trout) as 
served us for ten days afterwards. This phenomenon takes place every — 
year, not only in the Ramos, but in many other furos of the Amazon; — = 
but I had not been previously informed of it, and therefore had not 
ascertained the temperature of the water of the Ramos before it was 
mixed with that of the Amazon, as I ought to have done. 
VOL. III. T 2x 
