350 



THE UPPER AMAZONS 



should have thought the accounts of them exaggerated 

 if I had not had an opportunity during this voyage of 

 seeing one on a large scale. One morning I was awoke 

 before sunrise by an unusual sound resembling the roar 

 of artillery. I was lying alone on the top of the cabin ; 

 it was very dark, and all my companions were asleep, so 

 I lay listening. The sounds came from a considerable 

 distance, and the crash which had aroused me was suc- 

 ceeded by others much less formidable. The first explana- 

 tion which occurred to me was that it was an earthquake ; 

 ior, although the night was breathlessly calm, the broad 

 river was much agitated and the vessel rolled heavily. 

 Soon after, another loud explosion took place, apparently 

 much nearer than the former one ; then followed others. 

 The thundering peal rolled backwards and forwards, now 

 seeming close at hand, now far off ; the sudden crashes 

 being often succeeded by a pause or a long-continued dull 

 rumbling. At the second explosion, Vicente, who lay 

 snoring by the helm, awoke and told me it was a ' terra 

 cahida ' ; but I could scarcely believe him. The day 

 dawned after the uproar had lasted about an hour, and 

 we then saw the work of destruction going forward on the 

 other side of the river, about three miles off. Large 

 masses of forest, including trees of colossal size, probably 

 200 feet in height, were rocking to and fro, and falling 

 headlong one after the other into the water. After each 

 avalanche the wave which it caused returned on the 

 crumbly bank with tremendous force, and caused the fall 

 of other masses by undermining them. The line of coast 

 over which the landslip extended was a mile or two in 

 length ; the end of it, however, was hid from our view by 

 an intervening island. It was a grand sight : each down- 

 fall created a cloud of spray ; the concussion in one place 

 causing other masses to give way a long distance from it, 

 and thus the crashes continued, swaying to and fro, with 

 little prospect of a termination. When we glided out of 

 sight, two hours after sunrise, the destruction was still 

 going on. 



On the 9th of April we passed the mouth of a narrow 

 <:hannel which leads to an extensive lake called Anuri ; 

 it lies at the bottom of a long enseada or bay, on the north 

 or left side of the river, around which sets the whole force 

 of the current. The steamboat company have since 



