86 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



CHAPTER y. 



THE AMAZONS, THE GIANT RIVEE OF THE TORRID ZONE. 



The Course of the Amazons and its Tributaries— The Strait of Obydos — Tide 

 Waves on the Amazons — The Black-water rivers — The Rio Negro — The Bay of 



; the Thousand Isles — The Pororocca — Rise of the River — The Gapo — Magnificent 

 Scenery — Different Character of the Forests beyond and within the verge of 

 Inundation — General Character of the Banks — A Sail on the Amazons — A 

 Night's Encampment — The 'Mother of the Waters' — The Piranga — Dangers 

 of Navigating on the Amazons — Terrific Storms— Rapids and Whirlpools — The 

 Stream of the Future — Travels of Orellana — Madame Godin. 



THE Amazons, the giant stream of the tropical world, is of no 

 less magnificent proportions than the Andes, where it 

 takes its source* From the small Peruvian mountain- lake of 

 Lauricocha, 12,500 feet above the sea, the Tunguragua, which 

 is generally considered as the chief branch, rushes down the 

 valleys. At Tomependa, in the province of Juan de Bracamoros, 

 rafts first begin to burden its free waters ; but, as if impatient 

 of the yoke, it still throws many an obstacle in the navigator's 

 way ; for twenty-seven rapids and cataracts follow each other as 

 far as the Pongo de Manseriche, where, at the height of 1,164 

 feet above the level of the sea, it for ever bids adieu to the 

 romance of mountain scenery. 



Its width, which at Tomependa exceeds that of the Thames 

 at Westminster Bridge, narrows to 150 feet in the defile of the 

 Pongo, which in some places is obscured by overhanging rocks 

 and trees, and where huge masses of drift-wood, torn from the 

 slopes by the mountain torrents, are crushed and disappear in 

 the vertex. 



From the Pongo to the ocean, a distance of more than 2,000 

 miles, no rocky barrier impedes the further course of the 

 monarch of streams ; and according to Herndon (Exploration 

 of the Valley of the Amazons, 1851-1853), its depth constantly 



