RIO MAMORE. 



219 



and habits of these birds are very amusing. A large crane walks 

 through the drizzle, holding his head and body as straight as possible, 

 which gives him the air of an elderly gentleman leisurely walking out 

 for his health, with hands crossed under his coat-tail. 



We entered the river Mamore, which, at Cochabamba, is called 

 "Grande;" and where the Chapare empties into it, is named Rio "Sara." 

 It seems the inhabitants upon the banks of this great stream call it by 

 a name to suit their own neighborhood. Those who lived on its more 

 slender parts called it "Grande," probably without knowing where it 

 flowed, or if it was a tributary to the Paraguay or Madeira ; while 

 those inhabiting the lower waters changed the name again and again. 

 "Grande" is the Spanish, and "Mamore" the Indian name. 



We find it interesting to see how the people on the Andes supposed 

 the rivers of South America flowed towards the Atlantic. The Beni, 

 for instance, is represented as the source of the Amazon, while it is 

 only the second tributary of the Madeira. The headwaters of the south- 

 ern tributaries of the Amazon, over which we passed, are laid down in 

 ordinary maps too far to the westward. They are made to appear to 

 the student too near to the Pacific ; there is a mountainous strip of 

 land between the headwaters of the Amazon and the Pacific shore. 



The long travel of Lieutenant Smyth, of the royal navy, before he 

 reached the navigable waters of the Maraiion from Lima, and the still 

 longer journey taken by Lieutenant Maw, royal navy, over the moun- 

 tains from Truxillo, in Peru, to the same point, show that these officers 

 did not find the head of navigation as soon as was generally supposed 

 they would, by the appearance of the maps they had studied in 1829. 



Not only the Beni, but the Mamore, is made, by recent publications, 

 to flow into the Amazon, not through the Madeira, but by an imaginary 

 course, through a ridge of mountains, distinctly laid down. This map 

 represents the Paraguay and Madeira both flowing from the same 

 source in Brazil, while the source of the Madeira is on the Andes, in 

 Bolivia. Some credit is due to Mr. Woodbridge for endeavors, twenty- 

 four years ago, to lay before the schools a map, which is useful and 

 truthful, with only such errors as are consequent upon an existing want 

 of information. 



The Mamore, at the junction with the Chapare, being the smaller of 

 the two streams, surprised us ; but the rainy region explained the differ- 

 ence. All the tributaries of the Chapare are within the rain-belt, while 

 most of those forming the Mamore, above Santa Cruz de la Sierra, are 

 beyond the rain-belt. 



Canoes ascend the Mamore to the mouth of the Piray river, and up 



