202 



the land is perennially wet, as along the fitros* connecting the main 

 river and the Para estnary, it is so densely forest-clothed that, from 

 the water, one sees nothing but foliage, and the land-effect is pro- 

 duced not by terra firma, but by the forest-wall that at once borders 

 and limits the channels. 



"Were the vegetation removed from the region just mentioned, 

 the vision of the traveler, instead of being shut in everywhere by 

 the forest, would range over a tract as level as the sea. Enormous 

 mud flats, jiartially covered by every tide, nowhere more than a very 

 few feet out of water, traversed by a network of deep channels, and 

 diversified by lakes, would be seen stretching away to the horizon 

 on every side, only here. and there a torrao, like that of Breves, 

 rising above the general dead level. Such would be the appearance 

 of the Breves district during the dry season if deprived of trees; 

 but, during the rains, the Amazonas deluges the whole region and 

 pours over it in one broad sheet into the bay of Marajo. To rightly 

 appreciate the topography of the lower Amazonas, we must eliminate 

 the effect produced upon us by the vegetation. True it is that the 

 alluvial lands, just described, depend upon the forest both for their 

 origin and existence, but one is apt to mistake forest topography, if 

 I may use such a term, for land topography, and count for more 

 than its real geograj^hical value, a district whose height and limits 

 are intensified or defined by forest. After having made six voyages 

 between the bay of Marajo and the main river, I am satisfied that, 

 one reason why voyagers have so much doubted whether the, so 

 called. Para river should be considered a mouth of the Amazonas, is 

 largely due to the fact, that the forest prevents a just appreciation of 

 the magnitude of the united channels of the Breves district, while, 

 at the same time, the size of the Tocantins has been much over-esti- 

 mated. Above Trocara this river is, during the dry months, only a 

 small, narrow stream, while, in the lower course, it is not a true 

 river, but a wide, extremely shallow, tidal estuary, the upper part of 

 which is in process of filling up with sand, brought down by the 

 river. The enormously wide, lower reaches, that open broadly into 

 the bay of Marajo, are swept by very strong tides, and are being 

 silted up by Amazonian mud. Travelers who hastily pass through 



* kfuro On the Amazonas is a channel that connects two different streams -.and it differs from 

 ii paruna-merim, wliich is a side channel that leaves a river and joins it again lower down. 



