233 



On the opposite side of the Amazon as, and to the south-west, im- 

 mense alhivial plains with many large lakes stretch away to the dim, 

 ill-defined horizon, but I could not make out the Xingii, which 

 probably lies out of sight below tlie horizon. 



The area of country one may survey from the top of Paraua- 

 quara is immense, and every topographical feature is seen as on a 

 map. I could not but contrast the bird's-eye view from the serra, 

 and the clear and comprehensive idea it gave me of this part of the 

 Amazonian valley, with the meagre idea of the Amazonas one ob- 

 tains by traveling by steam along the river, when all he sees is the 

 broad turbid flood, bordered on each side by a strip of forest, 

 with perhaps a few distant hills seen over the tree-tops; a few islands 

 and a clear water horizon both in the east and west. 



One traveling in this way sees actually nothing of the structural 

 features of the valley, and he puts one in mind of an ant who 

 makes an excursion up a Corinthian column following industriously 

 along the bottom of a fluting. 



The Amazonas has been "explored" quite sufficiently in this 

 style, and the sooner travelers settle down to the conviction that the 

 Amazonas, like the Mississippi or any other great river, is too big for 

 one man to explore alone, even in a life-time, the better it Avill be 

 for science. Mr. Chandless has set a good example to Amazonian 

 travelers in his careful surveys of the Parii and of the Canuma, 

 Abacaxi and Maue-Assii. 



The following is a section made from the top of Parauaquara to 

 its base. The exposures on the mountain side, are so poor and dis- 

 connected, and the sword-grass made the descent so painful that 

 observations were made with difficulty, and I could not determine 

 the thickness of the beds. The beds are given in the descending 

 order. 



BUL. BUF. SOC. NAT. SCI. (30) JANUARY, 187-1. 



