THE JOURNEY TO THE AMAZON 271 



long festoons from branch to branch, sometimes curling and 

 twisting on the ground like great serpents, then mounting to 

 the very tops of the trees, thence throwing down roots and 

 fibres which hang waving in the air, or twisting round each 

 other form ropes and cables of every variety of size and 

 often of the most perfect regularity. These, and many other 

 novel features — the parasitic plants growing on the trunks and 

 branches, the wonderful variety of the foliage, the strange 

 fruits and seeds that lie rotting on the ground — taken alto- 

 gether surpass description, and produce feelings in the 

 beholder of admiration and awe. It is here, too, that the 

 rarest birds, the most lovely insects, and the most interesting 

 mammals and reptiles are to be found. Here lurk the 

 jaguar and the boa-constrictor, and here amid the densest 

 shade the bell-bird tolls his peal. But I must leave these 

 details and return to some more general description. 



" The whole country for some hundreds of miles around 

 Para is almost level, and seems to be elevated on the average 

 about thirty or forty feet above the river, the only slopes 

 being where streams occur, which flow in very shallow and 

 often scarcely perceptible valleys. The great island of 

 Mara jo, opposite Para, is equally flat, and the smaller island 

 of Mexiana (pronounced Mishiana), which is about forty 

 miles long, is even more so, there not being, I believe, a rise 

 or fall of ten feet over the whole of it. Up the river Tocan- 

 tins, however, about one hundred and fifty miles southwest of 

 Para, the land begins to rise. At about a hundred miles 

 from its mouth the bed of the river becomes rocky and the 

 country undulating, with hills four or five hundred feet high, 

 entirely covered with forest except at a few places on the 

 banks where some patches of open grass land occur, probably 

 the site of old cultivation and kept open by the grazing of 

 cattle. 



" The whole of the Para district is wonderfully intersected 

 by streams, and the country being so flat, there are frequently 

 cross-channels connecting them together. Up all these the 

 tide flows, and on their banks all the villages, estates, and 

 native huts are situated. There is probably no country in 



