THE NATURALIST ON THE RIYER AMAZONS. 



de Tapa .ona-quara, aud Paraua*-quara. All 

 these form a striking contrast to the Serra de 

 Aime^im. ?n being quite destitute of trees. 

 They *ave steep "rugged sides, apparently 

 clothed with short herbage, but here and 

 there exposing bare white patches. Their 

 total length is about 40 miles. In the rear, 

 toward the interior, they are succeeded by 

 other ranges of hills, communicating with 

 the central mountain-chain of Guiana, which 

 divides Brazil from Caj'enne. 



As we sailed along the southern shore, dur- 

 ing the 6th and two following days, the 

 table-topped hills on the opposite side occu- 

 pied most of our attention. The river is from 

 four to five miles broad, and in some places 

 long, low, wooded islands intervene in mid- 

 stream, whose light - green vivid verdure 

 formed a strangely beautiful foreground to 

 the glorious landsc pe of broad stream and 

 gray mountain. Ninety miles beyond 

 Alme3 T rim stands the village of Monte Alegre, 

 which is built uear the summit of the last 

 hill visible of this chain. At this point the 

 river bends a liltle toward the south, and the 

 hilly country recedes from its shores to reap- 

 pear at Obydos, greatly decreased in height, 

 about a hundred miles farther west. 



We crossed the river three times between 

 Monte Alegra and the next town, Santarem. 

 In the middle the waves ran very high, and 

 the vessel lurched fearfully, hurling every- 

 thing that was not well secured from one side 

 of the deck to the other. On tha morning of 

 the 9th of October, a gentle wind carried us 

 along a " remanso," or still water, under the 

 southern shore. These tracts of quiet water 

 are frequent on the irregular sides of the 

 stream, and are the effect of counter move- 

 ments caused by the rapid current of its cen- 

 tral parts. At nine A.M. we passed the mouth 

 of a Parana-mirim, called Mahica, and then 

 found a sudden change in the color of the 

 water and aspect of the banks. Instead of 

 the low and swampy water-frontage which 

 had prevailed from the mouth of the Xingu, 

 we saw before us a broad sloping beach of 

 white sand. The forest, instead of being an 

 entangled mass of irregular and rank vegeta 

 tion as hitherto, presented a rounded outline, 

 and created an impression of repose that was 

 very pleasing. We now approached, in 

 fact, the mouth of the Tapajos, whose clear 

 olive- green waters here replaced the muddy 

 current against which we had so long been 

 sailing. Although this is a river of great ex- 

 tent 1000 miles in length, and. for the last 

 eighty miles of its course, four to ten in 

 breadth its contribution to the Amazons ia 

 not perceptible in the middle of the stream. 

 The white turbid current of the main river 

 flows disdainfully by, occupying nearly the 

 whole breadth of the channel, while the 

 darker water of its tributary seems to creep 

 along the shore, and is no longer distinguish- 

 able four or five miles from its mouth. 



We reached Santarem at 11 A.M. The 

 'iowns has a clean and cheerful appearance 

 from the river. It consists of three long 

 streets, with a few sbo It jr es crossing them 



at right angles, and contains about 4500 in- 

 habitants. It lies just within the mouth of 

 the Tapajos, and is divided into two parts, 

 the town and the aldeia or village. The 

 houses of the white and trading classes are 

 substantially built, many being of two and 

 three stories, and all whitewashed and tiled. 

 The aldeia, which contains the Indian por- 

 tion of the population, or did so formerly, 

 . consists mostly of mud huts, thatched with 

 I palm-leaves. The situation of the town is 

 , very beautiful. The land, although but 

 slightly elevated, does not form, strictly 

 speaking, a portion of the alluvial river 

 plains of the Amazons, but is rather a north- 

 ern prolongation of the Brazilian continental 

 land. It is scantily Wooded, and toward the 

 interior consists of undulating campos, which 

 are connected with a series of hills extending 

 southward as far as the eye can reach. I 

 subsequently made this place my headquar- 

 ters for three years. An account of its neigh- 

 borhood is therefore reserved for another 

 chapter. At the first sight of Santarem, one 

 cannot help being struck with the advantages 

 of its situation. Although four hundred 

 miles from the sea, it is accessible to vessels 

 of heavy tonnage coming straight from the 

 Atlantic. The river has only two slight 

 bends between this port and the sea, aud for 

 fi ve or six months in the year the Amazon- 

 ian trade-wind blows with very little inter- 

 ruption, so that sailing ships coming from 

 foreign countries could reach the place with 

 little difficulty. We ourselves had accom- 

 plished two hundred miles, or about half the 

 distance from the sea, in an ill-rigged vessel, 

 in three days and a half. Although the land 

 in the immediate neighborhood is perhaps ill 

 adapted for agriculture, an immense tract of 

 rich soil, with forest and meadow land, lies 

 on the opposite banks of the river, and the 

 Tapajos leads into the heart of the mining 

 provinces of interior Brazil. But where is 

 the population to come from to develop the 

 resources of this fine country ? At present 

 the district within a radius of twenty -five 

 miles contains barely 6500 inhabitants ; be- 

 hind the town, toward the interior, the coun- 

 try is uninhabited, and jaguars roam nightly, 

 at least in the rainy season, close up to the 

 ends of the suburban streets. 



From information obtained here, I fixed 

 upon the next town, Obydos, as the best 

 place to stay at a few weeks, in order to in- 

 vestigate the natural productions of the north 

 side of the Lower Amazons. We started at 

 sunrise on the 10th, and being still favored 

 by wind and weather, made a pleasant pas- 

 sage, reaching Obydos, which is nearly fifty 

 miles distant from Santarem, by midnight. 

 We sailed all day close to the southern shore, 

 and found the banks here and there dotted 

 with houses of settlers, each surrounded by 

 its plantation of cacao, which is the staple 

 product of the district. This coast has an 

 evil reputation for storms and mosquitoes, 

 but we fortunately escaped both. It was re- 

 markable that we had been troubled by mos- 

 quitoes only on one night, and then to a small 



