166 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



and sees the sunshine glimmering through it and lighting 

 up its depths. The steamer has just left hehind the first 

 open land we have passed, - wide, extensive flats, with 

 scarcely a tree, and covered with thick, coarse grass. 



August 24^. 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 Martius 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 Martius and 

 in Bates's " Naturalist on the Amazons." 



