The Pueus and Madeira. 269 



twenty feet deep. The Ucayali is navigable for at least 

 seven hundred miles. The " Morona," a steamer of five 

 hundred tons, has been np to the entrance of the Pachitea 

 in the dry season, a distance of six hundred miles, and in 

 the wet season ascended that branch to Mayro. A small 

 Peruvian steamer has recently ascended the Tambo to 

 within sixty miles of Fort Ramon, or seven hundred and 

 seventy-three miles from Nauta. 



Leaving the Ucayali, we pass by six rivers rising in the 

 unknown lands of Northern Bolivia : the Javari, navigable 

 by steam for two hundred and fifty miles; the sluggish 

 Jutahi, half a mile broad and four hundred miles long; 

 the Jurua, four times the size of our Connecticut, and nav- 

 igable nearly its entii'e length ; the unhealthy, little-known 

 Teffe and Coary ; and the Purus, a deep, slow river, over a 

 thousand miles long, and open to navigation half way to 

 its source. Soldan and Pinto claim to have ascended the 

 Javari, in a steamer, about one thousand miles, and it is 

 said Cliandless went up the Purus one thousand eight hun- 

 dred miles. The Teife is narrow, with a strong current. 

 Of all these six rivers, the Purus is the most important. 

 It is probably the Amaru-mayu, or " serpent-river," of the 

 Incas, and its affluents enjoy the privilege of draining the 

 waters of those beautiful Andes which formed the eastern 

 boundary of the empire of Manco Capac, and fertilizing 

 the romantic valley of Paucar-tambo, or " Inn of the Flow- 

 ery Meadow." The banks of this noble stream are now 

 held by the untamable Chunchos; but the steam- whistle 

 will accomplish what the rifle can not. The Purus com- 

 municates with the Madeira, proving the absence of rapids 

 and of intervening mountains. 



Sixty miles below the confluence of the Negro, the 

 mighty Madeira, the largest tributary of the Amazon, 

 blends its milky waters with the turbid king of rivers. 



