378 The Andes and the Amazons. 



Ega, as tlie Portuguese called it), the Omaha of South 

 America in position; yet it contains scarcely 2000 souls, 

 although the best agricultural i-egion on the Solimoens. 

 It exports annually from 40,000 to 50,000 arrobas of rub- 

 ber, and 4000 or 5000 arrobas of pirarucii fish. Here, also, 

 are manufactured, by wild tribes in the interior, the cele- 

 brated grass hammock woven from the fibre of the tucum 

 palm. The population of the Upper Amazons has not in- 

 creased with the introduction of steamers. The climate is 

 healthy, although one lives in a constant vapor-bath, and 

 nature is bountiful. Epidemics are unknown, and ague is 

 confined to dark-colored or sluggish tributaries. 



Between Teffe (where Bates spent four years and a half, 

 and Agassiz six months) and Tabatinga (the frontier for- 

 tress of the empire) is the most uncivilized part of the 

 Amazons. Yet here enter five great rivers, which are des- 

 tined to be famous — Japnra, Iga, Jurua, Jutahi, and Javari. 

 The only towns are Fonte Boa (fifty houses), Tunautins 

 (thirty-five houses), and San Paulo (sixty houses), built on 

 slippery clay bluffs, and exporting the produce of the for- 

 ests and waters. All look as if they had seen better days. 

 Rice and cotton might be grown in vast quantities on the 

 lowlands after the subsidence of the river. But the peo- 

 ple, mainly the half - civilized Tuciina Indians, prefer to 

 collect rubber, catch turtles, swing in their hammocks, and 

 live on pirarucii and plantains. 



Tabatinga is a village of barracks, defended by sixteen 

 guns, and ornamented with graceful tucuma palms. This 

 has been a military post since 1776. It stands on a high 

 bluff of variegated clay, and gives its name (signifying 

 "white clay") to the vast Amazonian clay-formation. The 

 average depth of the river here is ten fathoms, the differ- 

 ence between high and low water being thirty-six feet. 

 The current, at flood-time, is five miles an hour. The ap- 



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