266 The Ajstdes and the Amazon. 



of the Amazon.^' They often run to a great distance par- 

 allel to the great river, and intersecting the tributaries, so 

 that one can go from Santarem a thousand miles up the 

 Amazon without once entering it. These natui-al high- 

 ways will be of immense advantage for inter-communica- 

 tion. 



But extraordinary as is this net-work of natural canals, 

 the tributaries of the Amazon are still more wonderful. 

 They are so numerous they appear on the map like a thou- 

 sand ribbons streaming from a main mast, and many of the 

 obscure affluents, though large as the Hudson, are unknown 

 to geography. From three degrees north to twenty de- 

 grees south, every river that flows down the eastern slope 

 of the Andes is a contributor — as though all the rivers be- 

 tween Mexico and Mount Hooker united their waters in 

 the Mississippi. While the great river of the northern con- 

 tinent drains an area of one million two hundred thousand 

 square miles, the Amazon (not including the Tocantfns) is 

 spread over a million more, or over a surface equal to two 

 thirds of all Europe. Let us journey around the grand 

 trunk and take a glimpse of the main branches. 



The first we meet in going up the left bank is the Rio 

 Negro. It rises in the Sierra Tunuhy, an isolated mountain 

 group in the llanos of Colombia, and enters the Amazon at 

 Manaos, a thousand miles from the sea. The upper part, 

 down to the parallel of one degree north, has a very rapid 

 current ; at San Gabriel are the first rapids in ascending ; 

 between San Gabriel and Barcellos the rate is not over two 

 or three miles per hour ; between Barcellos and Manaos it 

 is a deep biit sluggish river, and in the annual rise of the 

 Amazon its waters are stagnant for several hundred miles 



* Igarap^is sometimes limited to a creek filled with back-water; parana- 

 inirim is the proper term for a narrow arm of the main river ; axiAfuros are 

 the diminutive mouths of the tributaries. 



