240 condamine's travels 



On the 28th we pafled the Jamundas on the left. Father Acuiia calls this river 

 Cunuris, and ftates it to be that in which Orellana was attacked by the warlike women 

 whom he calls Amazons. A little below, we landed on the fame fide oppofite to the 

 Portuguefe fort Pauxis, where the bed of the river is narrowed to a breadth of nine 

 hundred and five toifes. The tide rifes thus high, at leaft the waters rife and fall 

 vifibly every twelve hours, and each day at a later period than on the preceding, as 

 upon the coafl. As the higheft rife of the tide at Para is fcarcely ten feet and a half, 

 as I afcertained by new obfervation, it follows that from Pauxis to the fea, a diftance 

 of upwards of two hundred leagues, or, according to Father Acuiia, three hundred 

 and fixty, the fall of the river is not more than ten feet and a half ; this well agrees with 

 the height of the mercury in the barometer which, at Fort Pauxis, fourteen toifes above 

 the level of the water, was about one and a fourth line higher than at Para on the fea. 



It will readily be conceived that the flow of tide will not be experienced at the ftrait 

 of Pauxis, more than two hundred leagues from Cape North at the mouth of the 

 Amazons, until many days after its occurrence at that cape, inftead of in five or fix 

 hours, the ordinary duration of the flux of the fea. In fa6t, between the coafl: and 

 Pauxis, there are a fcore of points which mark, as I may fay, the diurnal progrefs of 

 the tides in afcending the river. At all thefe different points the height of tide is 

 noticed at the fame infl:ant as on the coaft ; thus, fuppofing, for more clear explana- 

 tion of what I mean to exprefs, that the interval between each two of thefe points were 

 twelve leagues, there would be high water within fuch interval at every intermediary 

 hour ; that is to fay, at every league afcending from the fea, one hour later than at the 

 preceding. The fame, in courfe, takes place with refpeft to low water. Thefe alte- 

 rations, however, of ebb and flow, as before remarked, are confl:antly and naturally 

 fubjed: to the fame retardment every day as on the coafl;. A fimilar progreflion of 

 undulatory tides, in all probability, prevails at open fea, making the period of high 

 and low water gradually later in proportion to the difl:ance of each fpot from the point 

 where the firfl: rife and fall of the fea takes place till the breaking of its waves on the 

 fliores. The graduation of the decreafe of velocity with which the tide flows on afcend- 

 ing the river ; two oppofite currents obferved on the flux of tide, the one at the fur- 

 face, the other at a certain depth ; two others, one of which runs up along the margin 

 of the river and increafes its fpeed, while the other, in the middle of the river, runs 

 down, and is fl:ayed in its progrefs ; and, finally, again two other bppofite currents, 

 which frequently meet in the vicinage of the fea in the natural crofs-channels, where 

 the flux at one infl:ant enters either extremity ; all thefe fads, of which I am uncertain 

 whether fome of them have ever been duly noticed, and the different combinations of 

 them, together with divers other accidental circumfl:ances relating to the tides, that in 

 a river in which they afcend to a greater diftiance in all proDability from the fea than in 

 any other in the world, are doubtlefs more numerous and more varied than in any part ; 

 would aflfuredly give room for curious, and perhaps altogether, novel remarks ; but, in 

 order to leave little to conjedure, they would require a fucceflion of minute obfervations, 

 a long refidence at each fpot, and a delay, which but ill agreed with the reafonable 

 anxiety I experienced of revifiting France, after an abfence already of nearly m'ne years* 

 duration. I did not omit, however, to pay attention, in the neighbourhood of Para and 

 the North Cape, to a phenomenon incident to the fpring-tides, of greater fingularity 

 than any to which I have alluded, and to which, at due feafon, I fliall advert. 



We were received at Pauxis, as we had every where elfe been, from the infl:ant of 

 our entering the territories of Portugal. The Commandant, Captain Manuel Maziel 



Parente, 



