2 PARA. Cuap. IL. 
was excessively close, the sky overcast, and sheet lightning played almost 
incessantly around the horizon, an appropriate greeting on the threshold 
of a country lying close under the equator! The evening was calm, 
this being the season when the winds are not strong, so we glided along 
in a noiseless manner, which contrasted pleasantly with the unceasing 
turmoil to which we had lately been accustomed on the Atlantic. The 
immensity of the river struck us greatly, for although sailing sometimes 
at a distance of eight or nine miles from the eastern bank, the opposite 
shore was at no time visible. Indeed, the Pard river is 36 miles in 
breadth at its mouth ; and at the city of Pard, nearly 70 miles from the 
sea, itis 20 miles wide ; but at that point a series of islands commences, 
which contract the river view in front of the city. 
It will be well to explain here that the Parad river is not, strictly 
speaking, one of the mouths of the Amazons. It is made to appear so on 
many of the maps in common use, because the channels which connect 
it with the main river are there given much broader than they are in 
reality, conveying the impression that a large body of water finds an 
outlet from the main river into the Para. It is doubtful, however if 
there be any considerable streams of water flowing constantly down- 
ward through these channels. The whole of the district traversed by 
them consists of a complex group of low islands formed of river deposit, 
between which is an intricate network of deep and narrow channels. 
The land probably lies somewhat lower here than it does on the sea 
coast, and the tides meet about the middle of the channels; but the ebb 
and flow are so complicated that it is difficult to ascertain whether 
there is a constant line of current in one direction. A flow down one of 
the channels is in some cases diverted into an ebb through other rami- 
fications. In travelling from the Parad to the main Amazons, I have 
always followed the most easterly channel, and there the flow of the tide 
always causes a strong upward current; it is said that this is not so 
perceptible in other channels, and that the flow never overpowers the 
stream of water coming from the main river ; this would seem to favour 
the opinion of those geographers who believe the Para to be one of the 
mouths of the King of Rivers. 
The channels of which we are speaking, at least those straighter 
ones which trading vessels follow in the voyage from Para to the 
Amazons, are about 80 miles in length; but for many miles of their 
course they are not more than 100 yards in breadth. They are of great 
depth, and in many places are so straight and regular that they appear 
like artificial canals. The great river steamers, which now run regularly 
to the interior, in some places brush the overhanging trees with their 
paddle-boxes on each side as they pass. The whole of the region is 
one vast wilderness of the most luxuriant tropical vegetation, the 
strangest forms of palm trees of some score of different species forming 
a great proportion of the mass. I shall, however, have to allude again 
to the wonderful beauty of these romantic channels, when I arrive at 
that part of my narrative. 
The Pard river, on this view, may be looked upon as the common 
fresh-water estuary of the numerous rivers which flow into it from the 
south ; the chief of which is the Tocantins, a stream 1600 miles in 

