348 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
from those of Mexico and Brazil, constituting several dis- 
tinct faunae, there is one, the puma or red lion, the panther 
of the North, which is found on the east of the Rocky Moun- 
tains and the Andes, from Patagonia to Canada. 
" The movement of the waters, which affects so powerfully 
the distribution of the fishes, forms in itself a very curious 
phenomenon. There is, as it were, a rhythmical correspond- 
ence in the rise and fall of the affluents on either shore of 
the Amazons, causing the great body of the water, in its 
semiannual tides, to sway alternately more to the north or 
to the south. On the southern side of the valley, the rains 
begin in the months of September and October. They pour 
down from the table-lands of Brazil and the mountains of 
Bolivia with cumulative force, gathering strength as the 
rainy season progresses, swelling the head-waters of the 
Purus, Madeira, Tapajoz, and other southern tributaries, 
and gradually descending to the main stream. The process 
is a slow one, however, and the full force of the new flood 
is not felt in the Amazons until Februarv and March. Dur- 
/ 
ing the month of March, in the region below the confluence 
of the Madeira, for instance, the rise of the Amazons aver- 
ages a foot in twenty- four hours, so great is the quantity of 
water poured into it. At about the same period with the 
southern rains, or a little earlier, say in the months of Au- 
gust and September, the snows in the Andes begin to melt 
and flow down towards the plain. This contribution from 
the Cordilleras of Peru and Equador, coinciding with that 
from the highlands of Brazil and Bolivia, swells the Ama- 
zons in its centre and on its southern side to such an extent 
that the bulk of the water pushes northward, crowding upon 
its northern shore, and flowing even into the tributaries 
which open on that side of the river, and are now at their 
