VALLEY OF THE AMAZON. 299 



frontier of Ecuador. It then turns suddenly to the east, 

 which direction it maintains, with a slightly northerly inclin- 

 ation, for two thousand miles its volume greatly increased 

 by numerous large streams, each of which is by itself a mighty 

 river till, attaining a width which may vie with that of the 

 Baltic, it rushes with such fierce force into the Atlantic as to 

 turn aside on either hand the salt waters of the ocean. Thus 

 the seaman approaching the shore of South America, when 

 still out of sight of land, may lower his bucket and draw up 

 the fresh water which, it may be, has issued forth weeks 

 before from the sides of the Andes. The whole length of the 

 river, following its main curves, is but little under three thou- 

 sand miles, while the tributaries from north to south stretch 

 over seventeen hundred miles. 



The basin of the Amazon may be considered like a shallow 

 trough lying parallel to the equator, the southern sides having 

 double the inclination of the northern, the whole gently sloping 

 eastward. The channel of the river lies rather to the north 

 of the basin, some hills rising directly above its waters ; while 

 the falls of several rivers to the south are two hundred miles 

 above their mouths. Two thousand miles from its mouth the 

 depth of the river is never less than eighteen feet, while many 

 of its tributaries at their embouchures are of equal depth ; 

 and at the junction of the great rivers the hollows of its bed 

 attain a depth of twenty-four fathoms. At Tabalingua, two 

 thousand miles from its mouth, it is a mile and a half broad ; 

 and lower down, at the entrance of one of its tributaries the 

 Madeira it measures three miles across. Still further to the 

 east its sea-like reaches extend to the north for ten miles, 

 with still wider lake-like expanses, so that the eye of the 

 voyager can scarcely reach the forest-covered banks on the 



