3i8 VOYAGE UP THE TAP A JOS 



to Joao Aracu, who had not noticed it before (it was only 

 his second year of residence in the locaUty), but agreed 

 with me that it must be the * mare Yes, the tide, the 

 throb of the great oceanic pulse felt in this remote corner, 

 530 miles distant from the place where it first strikes the 

 body of fresh water at the mouth of the Amazons. I 

 hesitated at first at this conclusion, but on reflecting that 

 the tide was known to be perceptible at Obydos, more 

 than 400 miles from the sea ; that at high water in the dry 

 season a large flood from the Amazons enters the mouth 

 of the Tapajos, and that there is but a very small difference 

 of level between that point and the Cupari, a fact shown 

 by the absence of current in the dry season ; I could have 

 no doubt that this conclusion was a correct one. 



The fact of the tide being felt 5 30 miles up the Amazons, 

 passing from the main stream to one of its affluents 380 

 miles from its mouth, and thence to a branch in the third 

 degree, is a proof of the extreme flatness of the land which 

 forms the lower part of the Amazonian valley. This uni- 

 formity of level is shown also in the broad lake-like ex- 

 panses of water formed near their mouths by the principal 

 affluents which cross the valley to join the main river. 



August 2 1 St. — Joao Aracu consented to accompany me 

 to the falls with one of his men, to hunt and fish for me. 

 One of my objects was to obtain specimens of the hya- 

 cin thine macaw, whose range commences on all the branch 

 rivers of the Amazons which flow from the south through 

 the interior of Brazil, with the first cataracts. We 

 started on the 19th ; our direction on that day being 

 generally south-west. On the 20th our course was 

 southerly and south-easterly. This morning (August 21st) 

 we arrived at the Indian settlement, the first house of 

 which lies about thirty-one miles above the sitio of Joao 

 Aracu. The river at this place is from sixty to seventy 

 yards wide, and runs in a zigzag course between steep 

 clayey banks twenty to fifty feet in height. The houses 

 of the Mundurucus to the number of about thirty are 

 scattered along the banks for a distance of six or seven 

 miles. The owners appear to have chosen all the most 

 picturesque sites — tracts of level ground at the foot of 

 wooded heights, or little havens with bits of white sandy 

 beach — as if they had an appreciation of natural beauty. 

 Most of the dwellings are conical huts, with walls of frame- 

 work filled in with mud and thatched with palm leaves, 



