304 THE SPUR OF BENI. 



and Chachacocha, breaks the latter chain ; and the point 

 where the great river penetrates the mountains, is very 

 remarkable. Entering the Amazon by the Eio Chamaya or 

 Guancabamba, I found opposite the confluence, the pictures- 

 que mountain of Patachuana ; but the rocks on both banks 

 of the Amazon begin only between Tambillo and Tomependa 

 (lat. 5 31', long. 80 56'). From thence to the Pongo do 

 Bentema, a long succession of rocks follow, of which the 

 last is the Pongo de Tayouchouc, between the strait of Man- 

 seriche and the village of San Borja. The course of the 

 Amazon, which is first directed north, then east, changes 

 near Puyaya, three leagues north-east of Tomependa, 

 Throughout the whole distance between Tambillo and San 

 Borja, the waters force a way, more or less narrow, across 

 the sandstones of the Cordillera of Chachapoyas. The 

 mountains are lofty near the Embarcadero, at the confluence 

 of the Imasa, where large trees of cinchona, which might be 

 easily transplanted to Cayenne, or the Canaries, approach 

 the Amazon. The rocks in the famous strait of Manseriche 

 are scarcely 40 toises high ; and further eastward, the last 

 hills rise near Xeberos, towards the mouth of the Eio 

 Huallaga. 



I have not yet noticed the extraordinary widening of the 

 Andes near the Apolobamba. The sources of the Rio Beni 

 being found in the spur which stretches northward beyond 

 the confluence of that river with the Apurimac, I shall give 

 to the whole group the name of "the spur of Beni." The 

 following is the most certain information I have obtained 

 respecting those countries, from persons who had long inha- 

 bited Apolobamba, the Real das Minas of Pasco, and the 

 convent of Ocopa. Along the whole eastern chain of Titi- 

 caca, from La Paz to the knot of Huanuco (lat. 17^ to 10^) 

 a very wide mountainous land is situated eastward, at the 

 back of the declivity of the Andes. It is not a widening of 

 the eastern chain itself, but rather of the small heights that 

 surround the foot of the Andes like a penumbra, filing the 

 whole space between the Beni and the Pachitca. A chain 

 of hills bounds the eastern bank of the Beni to lat. 8 ; for 

 fchp rivers Coanache and Magua, tributaries of the Ucayali 

 (flowing in latitude 6 and 7), come from a mountainous 

 tract between the Ucavali and the Javari. The existence of 



