2o6 



THE LOWER AMAZONS 



above the mean level of the river, and the clay rests on 

 strata of the same coarse iron-cemented conglomerate 

 which has already been so often mentioned. Large 

 blocks of this latter have been detached and rolled by 

 the force of currents up parts of the cliff where they are 

 seen resting on terraces of the clay. On the top of all 

 lies a bed of sand and vegetable mould which supports a 

 lofty forest growing up to the very brink of the precipice. 

 After passing these barreiros we continued our way along 

 a low uninhabited coast, clothed, wherever it was ele- 

 vated above high water-mark, with the usual vividly- 

 coloured forests of the higher Ygapo lands, to which the 

 broad and regular fronds of the Murumuru palm, here 

 extremely abundant, served as a great decoration. Wher- 

 ever the land was lower than the flood height of the 

 Amazons, Cecropia trees prevailed, sometimes scattered 

 over meadows of tall broad-leaved grasses, which sur- 

 rounded shallow pools swarming with water-fowl. Alli- 

 gators were common on most parts of the coast ; in 

 some places we saw also small herds of Capybaras (a 

 large Rodent animal, like a colossal Guinea-pig) amongst 

 the rank herbage on muddy banks, and now and then 

 flocks of the graceful squirrel monkey (Chrysothrix 

 sciureus), and the vivacious Caiarara (Cebus albifrons) 

 were seen taking flying leaps from tree to tree. On the 

 22nd we passed the mouth of the most easterly of the 

 numerous channels which lead to the large interior lake 

 of Saraca, and on the 23rd threaded a series of passages 

 between islands, where we again saw human habitations, 

 ninety miles distant from the last house at Cararaucu. 

 On the 24th we arrived at Serpa. 



Serpa is a small village consisting of about eighty 

 houses, built on a bank elevated twenty-five feet above 

 the level of the river. The beds of Tabatinga clay, which 

 are here intermingled with scoria-looking conglomerate, 

 are in some parts of the declivity prettily variegated in 

 colour ; the name of the town in the Tupi language, 

 Ita-coatiara, takes its origin from this circumstance, 

 signifying striped or painted rock. It is an old settle- 

 ment, and was once the seat of the district government, 

 which had authority over the Barra of the Rio Negro. 

 It was in 1849 a wretched-looking village, but it has 

 since revived, on account of having being chosen by the 

 Steamboat Company of the Amazons as a station for 



