288 



MOUTH OF THE MADEIRA. 



not keep such a haystack as our clumsy, heavy boat either head to 

 wind or before it, and she would, therefore, lie broadside to in the trough 

 of the sea, rolling fearfully, and threatening to swamp. I should have 

 had sails fitted to her in Barra. 



After crossing the river, we passed the mouth of two considerable 

 streams. The lower one, called Uauta, is two hundred yards wide at 

 its mouth, and has a considerable current. It is said to have a large 

 lake near its headwaters, with outlets from this lake, communicating 

 with the iVmazon above, and also with the Madeira ; that is, it is a 

 paranamiri of the Amazon, widening into a lake at some part of its 

 course. At half-past 8 p. m. we made fast for the night to some bushes 

 on the low, western bank of the Madeira. 



A large island occupies the middle of the Amazon, opposite the 

 mouth of the Madeira. This mouth is also divided by a small island. 

 The western mouth, up wdiich I pulled nearly to the head of the island, 

 (a distance of about a mile,) is three-quarters of a mile wide, with sixty- 

 six feet of depth, and a bottom of fine white and black sand. The 

 current runs at the rate of three and a quarter miles the hour. This 

 current, like that of all the rivers, varies very much, according to the 

 season. I was told afterwards, in Obidos, that, when the river was low — 

 in the months of August, September, and October — there was very 

 little current, and that a vessel might reach Borba from the mouth in 

 three days; but that, when it is full and falling — in the months of 

 March, April, and May — there is no tributary of the Amazon with so 

 strong a current ; and then it requires twenty days to reach Borba. 



The eastern mouth is a mile and a quarter wide. The island which 

 divides the mouth, is low and grassy at its outer extremity, but high 

 and wooded at its upper. I looked long and earnestly for the broad L 

 that Gibbon was to cut on a tree at the mouth of whatever tributary 

 he should come down, in hopes that he had already come down the 

 Madeira, and, not being able to go up stream to Barra, had gone on 

 down ; but it was nowhere to be seen. 



The Madeira is by far the largest tributary of the Amazon. Once 

 past its cascades, which are about four hundred and fifty miles from its 

 mouth, and occupy a space of three hundred and fifty miles in length, 

 it is navigable for large vessels by its great tributaries — the Beni and 

 Mamore — into the heart of Bolivia; and by the Guapore or Itenes, quite 

 through the rich Brazilian province of Matto Grosso. The Portuguese 

 astronomers, charged with the investigation of the frontiers, estimate 

 that it drains a surface equal to forty-four thousand square leagues. 

 We shall, however, know more of this river on the arrival of Mr. Gib- 



