166 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
and sees the sunshine glimmering through it and lighting 
up its depths. The steamer has just left behind the first 
open land we have passed, wide, extensive flats, with 
scarcely a tree, and covered with thick, coarse grass. 
August 24th. Yesterday afternoon we saw, on the 
north side of the river, the first elevations of any conse- 
quence one meets on the Amazons, the singular flat-topped 
hills of Almeirim. They are cut off as squarely on the top 
as if levelled with a plane, and divided from each other by 
wide openings, the sides being shaved down with the same 
evenness as the summits. Much has been said about the 
geology of these singular hills, but no one has fairly investi- 
gated it. Yon Martins landed, and ascertained their height 
to be about eight hundred feet above the level of the river, 
but beyond this, no one seems to know anything of their 
real nature. They are generally represented as spurs of the 
higher table-land of Guiana.* Last evening was the most 
beautiful we have seen on the Amazons. We sat on the 
front upper deck as the crimson sun went down, his broad 
red pathway across the water followed presently by the 
pale trembling line of light from the crescent moon above. 
After the sun had vanished, broad rays of rose-color, 
shooting almost to the zenith, still attested his power, 
lending something of their glow also to a great mass of 
white clouds in the east, the reflection of which turned 
the yellow waters of the river to silver, while between 
glory and glory the deep blue sky of night gathered over 
the hills of Almeirim. This morning at dawn we stopped 
at the little settlement of Prainha, but did not land, and 
we are now on our way to Monte Alegre, where we shall 
pass a day and a half. 
* Representations of these hills may be found in the Atlas of Martins and 
in Bates's " Naturalist on the Amazons." 
