156 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III. 



long stretches of sandy soil clothed with thinner forests. 

 The climate, in consequence, is comparatively dry, many 

 months in succession during the fine season passing 

 without rain. All this is changed on the Solimoens. 

 A fortnight of clear, sunny weather is a rarity : the 

 whole region through which the river and its affluents 

 flow, after leaving the easternmost ridges of the Andes, 

 which Poppig describes as rising like a wall from the 

 level country 240 miles from the Pacific, is a vast 

 plain, about 1000 miles in length, and 500 or 600 

 in breadth, covered with one uniform, lofty, imper- 

 vious, and humid forest. The soil is nowhere sandy, 

 but always either a stiff clay, alluvium, or vegetable 

 mould, which latter, in many places, is seen in water- 

 worn sections of the river banks to be twenty or 

 thirty feet in depth. With such a soil and climate, 

 the luxuriance of vegetation, and the abundance and 

 beauty of animal forms which are already so great in 

 the region nearer the Atlantic, increase on the upper 

 river. The fruits, both wild and cultivated, common to 

 the two sections of the country, reach a progressively 

 larger size in advancing westward, and some trees which 

 blossom only once a year at Para and Santarem, yield 

 flower and fruit all the year round at Ega. The climate 

 is healthy, although one lives here as in a permanent 

 vapour bath. I must not, however, give here a lengthy 

 description of the region whilst we are yet on its 

 threshold. I resided and travelled on the Solimoens 

 altogether for four years and a half. The country on 

 its borders is a magnificent wilderness where civilized 

 man, as yet, has scarcely obtained a footing ; the culti- 



