FLAT-TOPPED MOUNTAINS 155 



whole of this southern coast hence to near Santarem, a 

 distance of 130 miles, is low land and quite uninhabited. 

 It is intersected by short arms or back waters of the 

 Amazons, which are called in the Tupi language Parana- 

 mirims or little rivers. By keeping to these, small canoes 

 can travel great part of the distance without being much 

 exposed to the heavy seas of the main river. The coast 

 throughout has a most desolate aspect : the forest is 

 not so varied as on the higher land ; and the water 

 frontage, which is destitute of the green mantle of climbing 

 plants that form so rich a decoration in other parts, is 

 encumbered at every step with piles of fallen trees, peopled 

 by white egrets, ghostly storks, and solitary herons. In 

 the evening we passed Almeyrim. The hills, according 

 to Von Martins, who landed here, are about 800 feet 

 above the level of the river and are thickly wooded to 

 the summit. They commence on the east by a few low 

 isolated and rounded elevations ; but towards the west 

 of the village they assume the appearance of elongated 

 ridges, which seem to have been planed down to a uni- 

 form height by some external force. The next day we 

 passed in succession a series of similar flat-topped hills, 

 some isolated and of a truncated-pyramidal shape, others 

 prolonged to a length of several miles. There is an in- 

 terval of low country between these and the Almeyrim 

 range, which has a total length of about 25 miles : then 

 commences abruptly the Serra de Marauaqua, which is 

 succeeded in a similar way by the Velha Pobre range, 

 the Serras de Tapaiuna-quara, and Paraua-quara. All 

 these form a striking contrast to the Serra de Almeyrim 

 in being quite destitute of trees. They have steep, 

 rugged sides, apparently clothed with short herbage, but 

 here and there exposing bare white patches. Their total 

 length is about 40 miles. In the rear, towards the in- 

 terior, they are succeeded by other ranges of hills com- 

 municating with the central mountain chain of Guiana, 

 which divides Brazil from Cayenne. 



As we sailed along the southern shore, during the 6th 

 and two following ^ays, the table-topped hills on the 

 opposite side occupied most of our attention. The river 

 is from four to five miles broad, and in some places long, 

 low wooded islands intervene in mid-stream, whose light- 

 green, vivid verdure formed a strangely beautiful fore- 

 ground to the glorious landscape of broad stream and 



