Chap. VI. CONCLUSION". 417 



What has struck me powerfully is the immeasurably 

 greater diversity and interest of human character and 

 social conditions in a single civilised nation, than in 

 equatorial South America where three distinct races 

 of man live together. The superiority of the bleak 

 north to tropical regions however is only in their social 

 aspect, for I hold to the opinion that although humanity 

 can reach an advanced state of culture only by battling 

 with the inclemencies of nature in high latitudes, it is 

 under the equator alone that the perfect race of the 

 future will attain to complete fruition of man's beautiful 

 heritage, the earth. 



The following day, having no wind, we drifted out of 

 the mouth of the Para with the current of fresh water 

 that is poured from the mouth of the river, and in 

 twenty-four hours advanced in this way seventy miles 

 on 'our road. On the 6th of June, when in 7° 55'lSi. 

 lat. and 52° 30' W. long., and therefore about 400 miles 

 from the mouth of the main Amazons, we passed nume- 

 rous patches of floating grass mingled with tree-trunks 

 and withered foliage. Amongst these masses I espied 

 many fruits of that peculiarly Amazonian tree the 

 Ubussu palm ; and this was the last I saw of the Great 

 River. 



VOL. II. E E 



