400 TTEWS OF NATURE 



the Rio de Chainaya has a fall (9) of 1778 feet, in the 

 short distance of 52 geographical miles; that is to say, 

 measuring from the Ford (Paso) de Pucara, to the point 

 where the Chamaya disembogues in the river Amazon, below 

 the village of Choros. The Governor of the province Jaen 

 de Bracamoros assured me, that letters sent by the singular 

 water post conveyance just mentioned, are seldom either 

 wetted or lost. After my return from Mexico, I myself 

 received, when in Paris, letters from Tomependa, which had 

 been transmitted in this manner. Many of the wild Indian 

 tribes, who dwell on the shores of the Upper Amazon, per- 

 form their journeys in a similar manner ; swimming sociably 

 down the stream in parties. On one occasion, I saw the 

 heads of thirty or forty individuals, men, women, and chil- 

 dren, of the tribe of the Xibaros, as they floated down the 

 stream on their way to Tomependa. The Correo que nada 

 returns by land, taking the difficult route of the Paramo 

 del Paredon. 



On approaching the hot climate of the basin of the Ama- 

 zon, the aspect of beautiful and occasionally very luxuriant 

 vegetation delights the eye. Not even in the Canary Islands, 

 nor on the warm coasts of Cumana and Caracas, had we be- 

 held finer orange-trees than those which we met with in the 

 Huertas de Pucara. They consisted chiefly of the sweet 

 orange-tree ( Citrus aurantium, Risso) ; the bitter orange-tree 

 (Citrus vulgaris, Risso) was less numerous. These trees, 

 laden with their golden fruit in thousands, attain there a height 

 of between 60 and 70 feet; and their branches, instead of grow- 

 ing in such a way as to give the trees rounded tops or crowns, 

 shoot straight up like those of the laurel. Near the ford of 

 Cavico a very unexpected sight surprised us. We saw a 

 grove of small trees, about 18 or 19 feet high, the leaves 

 of which, instead of being green, appeared to be of a rose 

 colour. This proved to be a new species of Bougainvillaea, a 

 genus first determined by Jussieu the elder, from a Brazilian 



