PECULIARITIES OF THE AMAZONS. 41 



stream, bear witness to its power. Fishes and alligators now 

 swim where a short while ago the jaguar lay in wait for the 

 tapir, and only a few birds, perching on the highest tree-tops, 

 remain to witness the tumult which disturbs the silence of the 

 woods. 



When at length the river retires within its usual limits, new 

 islands have been formed in its bed, while others have been 

 swept away ; and in many places the banks, undermined by the 

 floods, threaten to crush the passing boat by their fall, — a mis- 

 fortune which not seldom happens, particularly when high trees 

 come falling headlong down with the banks into the river. 



The lands flooded to a great depth at ever}^ time of high 

 water are called in the language of the country ' Gapo,' and are 

 one of the most singular features of the Amazons. They extend 

 hundreds of miles along the river's course, and vary in width on 

 each side from one to ten or twenty miles. Through the Gapo 

 a person may go by canoe in the wet season, without once 

 entering into the main river. He will pass through small streams, 

 lakes, and swamps, and everywhere around him will stretch out 

 an illimitable waste of waters, but all covered with a lofty 

 virgin forest. For days he will travel through this forest scraping 

 against the trunks of trees, and stooping to pass beneath the 

 leaves of prickly palms now level with the water though raised 

 on stems forty feet high. In this trackless maze the Indian 

 finds his way with unerring certainty, and by slight indications 

 of broken twigs or scraped bark goes on day by day as if 

 travelling on a beaten road. 



The magical beauty of tropical vegetation reveals itself in all 

 its glory to the traveller who steers his boat through the soli- 

 tudes of these aquatic mazes. Here the forest forms a canopy 

 over his head ; there it opens, allowing the sunshine to disclose 

 the secrets of the wilderness ; while on either side tlie eye 

 penetrates through beautiful vistas into the depths of the 

 woods. Sometimes, on a higher spot of ground, a clump of 

 trees forms an island worthy of Eden. A chaos of bushropes 

 and creepers flings its garlands of gay flowers over the forest, 

 and fills the air with the sweetest odours. Numerous birds, 

 rivalling in beauty of colour the passifloras and bignonias of 

 these hanging gardens, animate the banks of the lagune, while 

 gaudy macaws perch on the loftiest trees ; and as if to remind 



