Cuap. X, CUDA/A 265 
it, and thus the crashes continued, swaying to and fro, with little prospect 
of a termination. When we glided out of sight, two hours after sunrise, 
the destruction was still going on. 
On the oth of April we passed the mouth of a narrow channel which 
leads to an extensive lake called Anuri; it lies at the bottom of a long 
enseada or bay, on the north or left side of the river, around which sets 
the whole force of the current. The steamboat company have since 
established a station near this for supplying their vessels with firewood. 
A few miles beyond, on the opposite side, we saw the principal mouth 
of the Purtis, a very large stream, whose sources are still unknown. 
Salsaparilla and Copaiiba collectors, the only travellers on its waters, 
have ascended it in small boats a distance of two months’ journey 
without meeting with any obstruction to navigation. This shows that 
its course lies to a very great extent within the level plain of the Upper 
Amazons. The mouth is not more than a quarter of a mile broad, and 
the water is of an olive-green colour. 
We passed Cudaja on the 12th. This is a channel which communi- 
cates with an extensive system of backwaters and lakes, lying between 
this part of the river and the Japurd, 250 miles farther west. The 
inhabitants of the Solimoens give the name of Cupiy6d to this little- 
known interior water-system. A Portuguese, whom I knew very 
well, once navigated it throughout its whole length. He described the 
country in glowing terms. ‘The waters are clear; some of the lakes 
are of vast extent, and the land everywhere is level and luxuriantly 
wooded. It isa more complete solitude than the banks of the main 
river, for the whole region is peopled only by a few families of Mura 
savages. The. inhabitants of Ega, who are employed in the summer 
season in salting piraructi, sometimes make their fishing stations on the 
sandy shores of one or other of these lakes. The largest of them, 
whose opposite or northern shore is said to be scarcely visible from 
the south side, is called Lake Muira, and is very seldom visited. 
A number of long, straggling islands occur in mid-river beyond 
Cudajé. We passed the mouth of the Mamiy4, a black-water stream, 
on the 18th, and on the roth arrived at the entrance to Lake Quary. 
This is not, strictly speaking, a lake, but the expansion of the united 
beds of several affluents of the Solimoens, caused by the slowly-moving 
waters of the tributaries originally spreading out over the flat alluvial 
valley, into which they descend from the higher country of the early 
part of their course, instead of flowing directly into the full and swift 
current of the main river. NHenceforward most of the branch rivers 
exhibit these lake-like expansions of their beds. The same phenomenon 
takes a great variety of forms, and is shown, as already observed, in the 
Tapajos and other tributaries of the Lower Amazons. The mouth of 
the Quary, or the channel which connects the lake with the Solimoens, 
is only 2co or 300 yards broad, and has but a very feeble current. It 
is about half a mile long, and opens on a broad sheet of water which is 
not of imposing magnitude, as it is only a small portion of the lake, 
this having a rather sharp bend in its lower part, so that the whole 
extent is not visible at one view. There is a small village onthe shores 
