Cost of Living at Santarem. 367 



ample, having a yield of seventj-five bushels to the a-^re, 

 and tobacco, one tliousand pounds. The great want is a 

 laboring class ; there are too many shop-keepers and too 

 few workers. Yet such as are willing to work can be 

 hired at fifty cents a day. One paper, a foot square, is 

 published weekly. The following prices will give some 

 idea of living at Santarem : Wheat flour (mostly from 

 Harper's Ferry, United States) costs $16 a barrel ;* and 

 New York goods generally sell at three times their origi- 

 nal value, the chief addition being made at the custom- 

 house at Para. Agricultural implements are at double 

 their price. Butter (all from England and the United 

 States), SO cents a pound; Holland cheese, 75 cents ; New- 

 foundland cod-fish, 20 cents a pound ; Lowell domestics, 

 from 25 to 40 cents a metre ; sawn lumber, $20 a hun- 

 dred. Of home productions, cacao sells in the city from 

 $2 10 to $2 20 an arroba (32 pounds) ; coffee from 16 to 

 24 cents a pound; sirup (no sugar is made), 40 cents a 

 frasca (5 pints) ; maize, $2 a bushel ; cachaga rum, 50 cents 

 a gallon; peanuts, $2 a bushel; Brazil-nuts, $1 50 a bush- 

 el ; farina, $5 a bushel ; guarana, $25 to $45 an arroba ; 

 tobacco, $1 to $1 25 a pound ; lime, $3 a barrel ; pork, 35 

 to 40 cents a pound; beef, 7 to 9 cents a pound. Hides, at 

 the ranchos, 5 cents a pound ; at Santarem, 7 cents a pound ; 

 at Para, 12 to 14. Cattle, at the ranchos, $15 to $20 ; at 

 Santarem, $25 to $28 ; at Para, $35 to $50. Horses, at the 

 ranchos, $35 to $40 ; at Santarem, $40 to $50 ; at Para, $50 

 to $100. 



The best-paying business at Santarem would be the man- 

 ufacture of brick, leather, and lumber. The only articles 

 manufactured are caju wine, cachaga, soap, and lime. But- 



* Wheat can be grown only on the slopes of the Andes, in Bolivia, .nntl in 

 Matto-Grosso. The Amazons valley consumes at present about 20,000 bar- 

 rels of foreign flour vearlv. 



