227 



is covered with forest, and that open campos are the exception. 

 These last are confined eitlier to the very low lands innndated 

 during the wet season, but left dry several months in the year with- 

 out rain, or to the high, level, never inundated sandy grounds and 

 the hard-baked, clayey or stony plains of Erere. The alluvial, 

 bottom of the Amazonas in the vicinity of Monte-Alegre and else- 

 where, is, over very large areas, destitute of trees. My friend Dr. 

 Woiekof, the Russian savant, is of the opinion that the treelessness 

 of prairies is often due to the rank growth of grasses. I am in- 

 clined to think that this is in great part the cause of the want of 

 trees on the Amazonas river-bottom; but there is still another 

 reason, and that is the dryness of the climate, and the baking of 

 the alluvial clayey soil in the dry months. The forest gains a foot- 

 hold only on the borders of the streams and in wet places, w^here it 

 holds its own by its proximity to the water. 



The only really tropically luxuriant, true jungle is found on pe- 

 rennially wet grounds. This is always full of palms, Phmnaco- 

 spermums, Ileliconias, Arums, large-leaved plants, and is tangled 

 with vines and creepers. The vegetation of the higher and drier 

 grounds is not very luxuriant, especially if the land be stony, 

 sandy, or clayey. Such is the character of the forests of the higher 

 lands everywhere in the vicinity of Monte-Alegre and Erere. The 

 trees are, for the most part small, and the undergrowth is largely 

 composed of curud palms. 



Even where the land is high, if the soil is only damp and rich, 

 the forests may be exceedingly luxuriant and composed of trees of 

 giant size, as for instance on the black lands on the top of the bluffs 

 near Santarem, and on the high lands of the Tapajos, Tocantins 

 and Xingii. 



The generally received opinion tliat the whole valley of the Am- 

 azonas is covered with one dense, rank, steaming forest, impenetra- 

 ble and indomitable by man, is as erroneous as the school geography 

 stories of enormous snakes and wild beasts, which last, somehow or 

 other, were always hibernating when I Avas in the country. The 

 forests of the Monte-Alegre-Erere district and of Santarem as well, 

 are far from luxuriant, bespeaking, during the dry season, a very dry 

 climate and a fault of moisture. 



