PAEA. 317 



Prainlin, Porto cle Moz, and Gurupa, and, three liours below 

 the last, turned into the channel Tajapui-u, which leads 

 from the Amazons into Para River. This channel is, in 

 fact, a maze of deep natural canals joining these two estu- 

 aries. We wound about amid innumerable islands, some- 

 times passing through channels so narrow that the over- 

 hanging boughs brushed our steamer as it crowded.through. 

 As we crept through these intricate water-paths, Ave had 

 afibrded us a fine opportunity to study the low forests that 

 cover these half-submerged islands. Palms entered more 

 conspicuously into the woods than they had done farther 

 up on the Amazons. Among the many species may be 

 seen the morichi, crowned with its cluster of fan-like leaves ; 

 while not less conspicuous are the tall, slender stems of 

 the bacaba and assai. From the berry-like fruit of the 

 latter is made a delicious beverage, the favorite drink of 

 Paracuses. The low islands are inhabited by Portuguese 

 and Indians, whose miserable hovels are posted upon piles, 

 to keep them above high water. 



Just before emerging from this labyrinth, w^e stopped 

 at Breves, a little Portuguese village, located upon the isl- 

 and of Marajo, the last port before reaching Para. A short 

 run brings its upon the great estuary of Para, or " Father 

 of Waters," as the word signifies in the Indian language. It 

 is still an open question whether or not this should be con- 

 sidered as one of the mouths of the Amazons. Wallace 

 believes that no water finds its way from the Amazons into 

 the Para estuary, through the cliannels that connect the 

 two, and he consequently considers it as forming no part 

 of the Amazons, but as being simply the estuary of the 

 Tocantins, Capira, Aripana, and other rivers, that empty 

 into it from the south. Agassiz discovers that Marajo, 

 from its geological formation, must not be considered a 

 delta proper, but simply an island, once fiir up the Ama- 

 zons, but novf brought near its mouth by tlie encroach- 



