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THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



tea ventricosa, and the slender glossy-leaved 

 Bac&ba-i (^Enocarpus minor), being espe- 

 cially characteristic ; and, in short, animal 

 life, which imparts some cheerfulness to the 

 other parts of the river, is seldom apparent. 

 This " terra firme," as it is called, and a large 

 portion of the fertile lower land, seemed well 

 adapted for settlement ; some parts were 

 originally peopled by the aborigines, but 

 these have long since become extinct or amal- 

 gamated with the white immigrants. I after- 

 ward learned that there were not more than 

 eighteen or twenty families settled through- 

 out the whole country from Manacapuru to 

 Quary, a distance of 240 miles ; and these, as 

 befoie observed, do not live on the banks of 

 the main stream, but on the shores of inlets 

 and lakes. 



The fishermen twice brought me small 

 rounded pieces of very porous pumice-stone, 

 which they had picked up floating on the 

 surface of the main current of the river. 

 They were to ine objects of great curiosity, 

 as being messengers from the distant volca- 

 noes of the Andes : Cotopaxi, Llanganete, or 

 Sangay, which rear their peaks among the 

 rivulets that feed some of the early tributa- 

 ries of the Amazons, such as the Macas, the 

 Pastaza, and the Napo. The stones must 

 have already travelled a distance of 1200 

 miles. I afterward found them rather com- 

 mon ; the Brazilians use them for cleaning 

 rust from their guns, and firmly believe them 

 (o be solidified river foam. A friend once 

 brought me, when I lived at Santarem, a 

 large piece which had been found in the mid- 

 dle" of the stream below Monte Alegre, about 

 900 miles farther down the river ; having 

 reached this distance, pumice-stones would 

 be pretty sure of being carriedout to sea, and 

 flouted thence with the north westerly Atlan- 

 tic current to shores many thousand miles 

 distant from the volcanoes which ejected 

 them. They are sometimes stranded on the 

 banks in different parts of the river. Reflect- 

 ing on this circumstance since I arrived in 

 England, the probability of these porous 

 fragments serving as vehicles for the trans- 

 portation of seeds ef plants, eggs of insects, 

 spawn of fresh-water fish, and so forth, has 

 suggested itself to me. Their rounded, 

 vater-worn appearance showed that they 

 uust have been rolled a>out for a long time 

 in the shallow streams near the sources of 

 the rivers at the feet of the volcanoes, before 

 they leaped the waterfaJls and embarked on 

 the currents which lead direct for the Ama- 

 zons. They may have been originally cast 

 im the land aud afterward carried to the 

 Hirers by lieshets ; in which case the eggs 

 und seeds of land insects and plants might be 

 incidentally introduced, and safely inclosed 

 with particles of earth in their cavities. As 

 Tie speed of the current in the rainy season 

 lias been observed to be from three to five 

 miles an hour, they might travel an immense 

 tlistance before the eggs or seeds were de- 

 stroyed. 1 am ashamed to say that I neglect- 

 ed the opportunity, while on the spot, of 

 ascertaining whether this was actually Uife 



case. The attention of naturalists has only 

 lately been turned to the important subject 

 of occasional means of wide dissemination of 

 species of animals and plants. Unless such 

 be shown to exist, it is impossible to solve 

 some of the most difficult problems connected 

 with the distribution of plants and animals. 

 Some species, with most limited powers of 

 locomotion, are found in opposite parts of 

 the earth, without existing in the intermedi- 

 ate regions ; unless it can be shown that 

 these may have migrated or been accidentally 

 transported from one point to the other, we 

 shall have to come to the strange conclusion 

 that the same species had been created in two 

 separate districts. 



Canoe-men on the Upper Amazons live in 

 constant dread of the " terras chaidas," or 

 landslips, which occasionally take place along 

 the steep ear hy banks, especially when the 

 waters are rising. Large vessels are some- 

 times overwhelmed by these avalanches of 

 earth and trees. I should have thought the 

 accounts of them exaggerated if I had not 

 had an opportunity during this voyage of 

 seeing one on a large scale. One morning I 

 was awoke before sunrise by an unusual 

 sound resembling the roar of artillery. I was 

 lying alone on the top of the cabin ; it was 

 very dark, and all my companions were 

 asleep, so 1 lay listening. The sounds came 

 from a considerable distance, and the crash 

 which had aroused me was succeeded by 

 others much less formidable. The first ex 

 planation which occurred to me was that it 

 was an earthquake ; for, although the night 

 was breathlessly calm, the broad river was 

 much agitated, and the vessel rolled heavily. 

 Soon after, another loud explosion took place, 

 apparently much nearer than the former one ; 

 then followed others. The thundering peal 

 rolled backward and forward, now seeming 

 close at hand, now far off ; the sudden 

 crashes being often succeeded by a pause, or 

 a long-continued dull rumbling. At the sec- 

 ond explosion, Vicente, who lay snoring by 

 the helm, awoke and told me it was a " terra 

 cahida ;" but I could scarcely believe him. 

 The day dawned after the uproar had lasted 

 about an hour, and we then saw the work of 

 destruction going forward on the other side 

 of the river, about three miles off. Large 

 masses of forest, including trees of colossal 

 size, probably 200 feet in height, were rock- 

 ing to and fro, and falling headlong one after 

 the other into the water. After each ava- 

 lanche the wave which it caused returned on 

 the crumbly bank with tremendous force, 

 and caused the fall cf other masses by under- 

 mining them. The line of coast over which 

 the landslip extended was a mile or two in 

 length ; the end of it, however, was hid from 

 our view by an intervening island. It was a 

 grand sight ; each downfall created a cloud 

 of spray ; the concussion in one place caus- 

 ing other masses to give way a long distance 

 from it, and thus the crashes continued, 

 swaying to and fro, with little prospect of a 

 termination. When we glided out of sight. 



