THE LOWER AMAZONS 



Para. Shortly afterwards we entered the narrow channel 

 of the Jaburu, which lies twenty miles above the mouth 

 of the Breves. Here commences the pecuUar scenery of 

 this remarkable region. We found ourselves in a narrow 

 and nearly straight canal, not more than eighty to a 

 hundred yards in width, and hemmed in by two walls 

 of forest, which rose quite perpendicularly from the 

 water to a height of seventy or eighty feet. The water 

 was of great and uniform depth, even close to the banks. 

 We seemed to be in a deep gorge, and the strange im- 

 pression the place produced was augmented by the dull 

 echoes produced by the voices of our Indians and the 

 splash of their paddles. The forest was excessively 

 varied. Some of the trees, the dome-topped giants of 

 the Leguminous and Bombaceous orders, reared their 

 heads far above the average height of the green walls. 

 The fan-leaved Miriti palm was scattered in some numbers 

 amidst the rest, a few soUtary specimens shooting up their 

 smooth columns above the other trees. The graceful 

 Assai palm grew in little groups, forming feathery pictures 

 set in the rounder foliage of the mass. The Ubussu, 

 lower in height, showed only its shuttlecock-shaped 

 crowns of huge undivided fronds, which, being of a vivid 

 pale green, contrasted forcibly against the sombre hues 

 of the surrounding foliage. The Ubussu grew here in 

 great numbers ; the equally remarkable Jupati palm 

 (Rhaphia taedigera), which, like the Ubussu, is peculiar 

 to this district, occurred more sparsely, throwing its long 

 shaggy leaves, forty to fifty feet in length, in broad 

 arches over the canal. An infinite diversity of smaller- 

 sized palms decorated the water's edge, such as the 

 Maraja-i (Bactris, many species), the Ubim (Geonoma), 

 and a few stately Bacabas (QEnocarpus Bacaba). The 

 shape of this last is exceedingly elegant, the size of the 

 crown being in proper proportion to the straight smooth 

 stem. The leaves, down even to the bases of the glossy 

 petioles, are of a rich dark-green colour, and free from 

 spines. ' The forest wall ' — I am extracting from my 

 journal — * under which we are now moving consists, be- 

 sides palms, of a great variety of ordinary forest-trees. 

 From the highest branches of these down to the water 

 sweep ribbons of climbing plants of the most diverse and 

 ornamental foliage possible. Creeping convolvuli and 

 others have made use of the slender lianas and hanging 



