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the white cliffs of Cugaiy, and the Line, level highlands of the 

 vicinity of Santarem. Seen from Monte-Alegre, the Amazonas 

 does not resemble a river. It comes mysterionsly from the west, 

 stretches a broad, reddish belt across the landscape, and disappears 

 in the east, with a wide water-horizon, as if, an arm of the sea, it 

 opened out to the ocean. When the annual flood comes, all the 

 green campos and clear-water lakes are whelmed beneath the turbid 

 current, and even from the heights of Monte-Alegre, the southern 

 shore is but dimly discernible. No wonder that the Indian fisher- 

 man calls it par' and, the sea! Looking westward from the village, 

 one sees distinctly the high, rocky, irregularly flat-topped serra of 

 Paitiina, with a curious mushroom-like pillar standing on its south- 

 ern extremity, and called the mao de i^ilao, or Indud mena. A 

 few miles to the north, is the rugged serra of Erere, breaking down 

 precipitously towards the north. From the top of the ridge behind 

 the town, the beautiful serra of Tauajure comes into vieAv, while, to 

 the eastward, lie broad plains and campos, with the level-topped mass 

 of Parauacpuira lying low down on the horizon. After this recon- 

 noissance of the region we are to explore, let us descend to the lower 

 town and go by water to Erere. 



The descent to the river is at first down a long, sandy incline, 

 showing very few exposures, but the upper part, which is very steep, 

 appears to be composed of reddish, clayey sands, much cut up by 

 rain-courses, the clay being washed out and carried away, while the 

 coarse sand is left lying loose on the surface, supporting a sparse 

 vegetation, consisting mainly of small trees and shrubs, with here 

 and there a giant cactus, cajii trees {Anacardium occidoitale) being 

 abundant, as we shall find them elsewhere on similar ground.- 

 Following the sandy path, and directing our steps to the ravine 

 leading to the lower town, we presently reach a sort of terrace 

 that runs out into a high, bluff, projecting point, extending to the 

 river side just west of the village. This point is formed by a heavy 

 bed of more or less sandy, and variegated feldspathic clay, which, 

 tougher than the overlying beds, has resisted denudation. A little 

 stream of water issuing from above the clay, ftills into a ravine, that 

 extends down to the river, and in a steep bank by the side of the 

 road near where the inhabitants resort for water, the clays are 

 well exposed. They vary in character from a pure feldspathic 



