284 THE LOWER AMAZOIS^S. Chap. VIL 



in fishing, selling what they do not require themselves 

 and getting drunk with the most exemplary regularity 

 on casha^a, purchased with the proceeds. 



The configuration of the district of country in which 

 Villa Nova is situated, is remarkable. About a mile 

 inland, there commences a chain of lakes of greater or 

 lesser extent, which are connected together by narrow 

 channels, and extend to the interior by-water of the 

 Ramos. This latter communicates with the channel of 

 Canoma, already mentioned as connected with the river 

 Madeira. The whole tract of land, therefore, forms an 

 island, or group of islands, which extends from a little 

 below Villa Nova, to the mouth of the Madeira, a 

 distance of 180 miles ; the breadth varying from ten 

 to twenty miles. The district is known by the name 

 of the Island of Tupinambarana. The Canoma is an 

 outlet to the waters of the Madeira when this river is 

 fuller than the main Amazons, which is the case from 

 November to February. But it also receives the con- 

 tributions of eight other independent rivers, most of 

 which have broad, lake-like expansions of water near 

 their junction with the Canoma. One of them, the 

 Andira-mirim, I was told, is a league broad for some 

 distance from its mouth. The country bordering these in- 

 terior waters is extremely fertile, and the broad lakes have 

 clear waters and sandy shores. They abound in fish and 

 turtle. The country is healthy along the banks of the 

 Canoma, and for some distance up its tributary streams. 

 In certain places on the banks of these, intermittent 

 fevers prevail, as they do on all those affluents of the 

 Amazons which have clear, dark waters and slow cur- 



