340 The Andes and the Amazons. 



vasante and enchente) aping the tidal pulsations of the 

 ocean. Its life, too — porpoises, rays, gulls — has a marine 

 aspect. No wonder the Indians called it parand, or the sea. 



The tributaries are in keeping with this colossal trunk. 

 Twelve of them are over a thousand miles long ; and the 

 sources of the Madeii-a and Negro, for example, are 24° 

 distant — the width of Europe. These tributaries, more- 

 over, are united by a wonderful network of natural canals 

 — igarwpes, jparands, a.n6.furos — which increase the facil- 

 ity of intercommunication. Another characteristic is the 

 chain of shallow lakes alongside of the rivers — in Brazil 

 called lago^ in Peru, lagunaj and in Bolivia, madre; they 

 generally mark the ancient course of the stream. In fact, 

 the Amazons is a great river-system, rather than one river; 

 and it drains the best part of an empire and four republics. 



As to the tributaries, the first in order is the Tocantins, 

 which rises in the mountains of Goyaz, close by the sources 

 of the Parana, and ends in a broad, shallow estuary near 

 Para. It would furnish a natural highway to the rich 

 mineral regions in Eastern Brazil, were it not for rapids 

 150 miles from its mouth. Were these away, there would 

 be 400 leagues of navigation on the Tocantins and its af- 

 fl.uents, the Araguaya and Yermelho. 



The Xingii is navigable for ninety miles, when a series 

 of rapids and falls begins — Tapaiuna, Cajutuba, Caxao, 

 Paguissama, Jurucua, Ita-tu-ca, Parates, Ita-penima, and 

 many more. 



The Tapajos is open to steamers for twenty miles beyond 

 Itaituba, or sixty leagues from Santarem; bizt the rapids of 

 Apuim, and the falls 600 miles above them, with shallows 

 between, prevent this river from ever being serviceable for 

 large craft. A few traders in guarana ascend by canoe 

 to Diamantino and Cuyaba, and occasionally cross over the 

 water-shed into the Paraguay. For the two great feeders 



