262 



ENTRANCE OF THE RIO NEGRO. 



to the lake is bold and wide — quite three hundred yards across — and 

 with no bottom, at its mouth, in one hundred and twenty feet. A man 

 at Pesquera, just from the lake with a cargo of manteiga, and bound to 

 Para, told me that it was two days' journey to the opening of the lake ; 

 that the lake was very long, and about as wide as the Amazon at this 

 j)lace, (three miles ;) that it was full of islands, and that no one knew its 

 upper extremity ; but that it was reported to communicate with the Ja- 

 pura. All this country seems cut up with channels from river to river ; 

 but I believe they are canoe channels, and only passable for them at 

 high water. In many instances these channels, in the rainy season, 

 widen out into lakes. 



The banks of the river are bow losing the character of savage and 

 desolate solitude that characterizes them above, and begin to show signs 

 of habitation and cultivation. We passed to-day several farms, with 

 neatly framed and plastered houses, and a schooner-rigged vessel lying 

 off several of them. 



January 5. — At 3 a. m. we passed a rock in the stream called 

 Caldei'on, or Big Pot, from the bubbling and boiling of the water over 

 it when the river is full. At this time the rock is said to be six or eight 

 feet above the surface of the water. We could hear the rush of the 

 water against it, but could not see it on account of the darkness of the 

 night. 



We stopped two hours to breakfast, and then drifted with the current 

 broadside to the wind, (our six men being unable to keep the boat " head 

 to it,") until four, when the wind went down. At five we entered the 

 Rio Negro. We were made aware of our approach to it before getting 

 into the mouth. The right bank at the mouth is broken into islands, 

 and the black water of the Negro runs through the channels between 

 these islands and alternates, in patches, (refusing to mingle,) with the 

 muddy waters of the Amazon. The entrance is broad and superb. It 

 is far the largest tributary of the Amazon I have yet seen ; and I esti- 

 mate its width at the mouth at two miles. There has been no exag- 

 geration in the description of travellers regarding the blackness of its 

 water. Lieut. Maw describes it perfectly when he says it looks like 

 black marble. It well deserves the name of "Rio Negro." When 

 taken up in a tumbler, the water is a light- red color, like a pale juniper 

 water; and I should think it colored by some such berry. A body im- 

 • mersed in it has the color, though wanting the brilliancy, of red Bohe- 

 mian glass. 



It may have been fancy, but I thought the light cumuli that hung 

 over the river were darker here than elsewhere. These dark, though 

 peaceful-looking clouds, the setting sun, the glitter of the rising moon 



