1896.] on Cable Laying on the Amazon River. 221 



shallow place. A further difficulty in sounding originated from the 

 soft nature of the soil, which for the greater part of the Amazon 

 valley is alluvial clay, and allows the lead to sink into it for several 

 feet. 



In the narrows there appears, however, a bank of hard clav, 

 called Tabatinga, which unfortunately blocks nearly all the branches 

 of the narrows and creates bars all along the course of the Tajipuru, 

 the main westerly waterway connecting to the Gurupa branch of the 

 main river. Occasionally the same hard clay forms shallows in the 

 main river, but as a rule the section of all the channels resembles 

 the capital letter, U? i«e. the sides are very steep and the bottom 

 flat. In this respect, as in many others, the Amazon differs entirely 

 from the Indian rivers, which build up their beds above the sur- 

 rounding country, occasionally breaking through their natural 

 banks and seeking a new bed. The Amazon, on the other hand, 

 carries with it only the light clay sediment which forms the soil 

 of the whole valley, and the inducement for the main stream to 

 alter its course is therefore very small, and long straight reaches 

 are the result. 



Under these circumstances the largest vessels can ascend the river 

 nearly to the foot of the Andes, but the constantly changing sand- 

 banks at the mouth of the Amazon proper make this approach of the 

 river dangerous, and the State of Para is for obvious reasons not over 

 anxious to have the deep channels properly buoyed and surveyed. 

 This forces all the shipping to enter the Para river, and to pass the 

 narrows if the Amazon is the goal of the journey. In doing the 

 latter the choice for large ships lies between one of the channels 

 (called furos) with a bar, where it joins the Tajipuru, and a furo, 

 the Macajubim, which has plenty of water, but which winds about in 

 such a serpentine fashion that only ships with twin screws can pass it 

 unassisted. These difficulties are, however, much diminished during 

 the rainy season, when the river rises to such an extent as to drive 

 all the inhabitants of its banks into the towns, which have been 

 built wherever a natural eminence secures the inhabitant against the 

 flood. Near the mouth the difference is naturally not so great as 

 higher up, where the influence of the tide is felt less; but at 

 Manaos the difference in level between low river and high river 

 exceeds 40 feet. 



With all rivers carrying sediment, the Amazon shares the pecu- 

 liarity that its immediate banks are higher than the country lying 

 behind them, and thus we have in the rainy season the spectacle of 

 the main river flowing between two banks covered with dense forest, 

 and immense lakes stretching out on either side of these banks. 

 These do not entirely dry up during the remainder of the year, so 

 that the whole of the Amazon valley really forms a huge swamp 

 covered with a most luxuriant forest which, below Manaos, narrows 

 to a broad belt close to the main river, with prairies, called campos, 



