292 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



After receiving the Chincliipe, whicli prolongs the Andean trough in the direc- 

 tion of the Loja heights, the Maranon trends round to the north-east and then to 

 the east through a series of fissures piercing the Andes and their foothills. At the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century the walls of one of these fissures are said to 

 have collapsed, completely damming the stream for several hours. At this point 

 it is joined by the Paute (Santiago, or Canusa-Yaco), which would seem destined 

 to become the chief fluvial valley between Guayaquil bay and the banks of the 

 Amazons. 



An obstruction, however, still exists below the confluence, where the stream 

 contracts from 270 to 8G and then to 55 or 60 yards between its rocky walls 

 1,300 feet high, and beneath a dense overhanging vegetation through which but 

 a dim light penetrates to the swirling waters below. In a few minutes boats and 

 rafts rush down this gorge, over a mile long, which sejjarates the Marcwon serraiio 

 (" Maranon of the Mountains") from the Maraiion llanero ("Maranon of the 

 Plains"). Above the Pongo de Manseriche,* as these narrows are called, the 

 stream is navigable for very light craft; below, that is, 410 feet above sea- 

 level, the Maranon is already accessible to steamers, which have a clear waterway 

 of some 2,450 miles from this point to Para. In their passage down the Pongo 

 boats run some risk of being dashed against a rocky islet detached from the 

 schistose walls, or, escaping this danger, of being engulfed in the eddies formed 

 by theunderwash of the overhanging cliffs. During the heavy floods, snags swfpt 

 down with the current disappear in large numbers in these whirlpools, and 

 according- to the natives, ever lovers of the marvellous, the shattered fragments 

 never return to the surface. 



Below the Pongo begins the erratic course of the stream, meandering through 

 its own alluvial deposits, where it has left traces of old abandoned beds, blind 

 channels, swamj)s and backwaters. Even lakes are formed, especially in the 

 neighbourhood of the affluents joining the mainstream through transverse furos 

 or cation. From the northern Andes descend the Morona, the Pastaza, the Tigre 

 and the Napo ; from the south, the Iluallaga and the Ucayali ; all of which have 

 their confluences within Peruvian territory. It might have seemed natural to 

 change the name of the river at the point where it changes its regime ; but, 

 according to general usage, the Maranon does not become the Amazons till the 

 junction of the Ucayali, which, owing to its longer course, is regarded by many 

 geographers as the true upper branch. But such distinctions are frivolous, the 

 main artery being determined by the whole system of ramifications. 



The Huallaga and Ucayat.i. 



The Iluallaga, i.e. " Great," rises south of the Lauri-cocha, near Cerro de 

 Pasco, in the same group as the upper Maranon itself. But it escapes more 

 rapidly from the entanglement of the mountains, and after piercing the barrier of 

 the Andes and skirting its eastern base, it descends through " forty-two " rapids 



* Fongo is ^<i puncu of tlie Quichuas, meaning " gateway." 



