EXCURSIONS ON THE COAST. 385 
life-size figure of the Saviour, sinking under the cross, is 
borne on a platform through the streets. Little girls, 
dressed as angels, walk before it, and it is accompanied by 
numerous dignitaries of the Church. Altars are illumi- 
nated in the different churches ; the populace, even down 
to the children, are dressed in black ; and the balconies of 
every house filled with figures in mourning, waiting for the 
sad procession to pass by. 
February 2Sth. Off Marajo, in the steamer Tabatinga. 
All great rivers, as the Nile, the Mississippi, the Ganges, the 
Danube, have their deltas ; but the largest river in the 
world, the Amazons, is an exception to this rule. What, 
then, is the geological character of the great island which 
obstructs its opening into the ocean ? This is the question 
which has made a visit to Marajo of special interest to Mr. 
Agassiz. Leaving Para at midnight, we reached the little 
town of Soures early this morning. It is a village lying on 
the southeastern side of the island, and so far seaward that, 
in the dry season, when the diminished current of the Ama- 
zonian waters is overborne by the tides, the water is salt 
enough to afford excellent sea-bathing:, and is resorted to for 
fj C_-< ' 
that purpose by many families from Para. At this moment, 
however, the water has not even a brackish character. The 
only building of any interest in the town is the old Jesuit 
church, a remnant of the earliest chapter in the civilization 
of South America. However tinged with ambition and a 
love of temporal power, the work of the Jesuits in Brazil 
tended toward the establishment of an organized system oi 
labor, which one cannot but wish had been continued. All 
that remains of the Jesuit missions goes to prove that they 
were centres of industry. These men contrived to impart, 
even to the wandering Indian, some faint reflection of their 
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