158 



THE LOWER AMAZONS 



rich soil, with forest and meadow land, lies on the op- 

 posite banks of the river, and the Tapajos leads into the 

 heart of the mining provinces of interior Brazil. But 

 where is the population to come from to develop the re- 

 sources of this fine country ? At present the district 

 within a radius of twenty-five miles contains barely 6500 

 inhabitants ; behind the town, towards the interior, the 

 country is uninhabited, and jaguars roam nightly, at 

 least in the rainy season, close up to the ends of the 

 suburban streets. 



From information obtained here, I fixed upon the 

 next town, Obydos, as the best place to stay at a few 

 weeks, in order to investigate the natural productions 

 of the north side of the Lower Amazons. We started 

 at sunrise on the loth, and being still favoured by wind 

 and weather, made a pleasant passage, reaching Obydos, 

 which is nearly fifty miles distant from Santarem, by 

 midnight. We sailed all day close to the southern shore, 

 and found the banks here and there dotted with houses 

 of settlers, each surrounded by its plantation of cacao, 

 which is the staple product of the district. This coast 

 has an evil reputation for storms and mosquitoes, but we 

 fortunately escaped both. It was remarkable that we 

 had been troubled by mosquitoes only on one night, 

 and then to a small degree, during the whole of our 

 voyage. 



I landed at Obydos the next morning, and then bid 

 adieu to my kind friend Joao da Cunha, who, after land- 

 ing my baggage, got up his anchor and continued on his 

 way. The town contains about 1200 inhabitants, and is 

 airily situated on a high bluff, 90 or 100 feet above the 

 level of the river. The coast is precipitous for two or 

 three miles hence to the west. The cliffs consist of the 

 parti-coloured clay, or Tabatinga, which occurs so fre- 

 quently throughout the Amazons region ; the strong 

 current of the river sets full against them in the season 

 of high water, and annually carries away large portions. 

 The clay in places is stratified alternately pink and yellow, 

 the pink beds being the thickest, and of much harder 

 texture than the others. When I descended the river 

 in 1859, a German Major of Engineers, in the employ of 

 the Government, told me that he had found calcareous 

 layers, thickly studded with marine shells interstratified 

 with the clay. 51 Onf the top of the Tabatinga lies a bed 



