CUDAJA 



351 



established a station near this for supplying their vessels 

 with firewood. A few miles beyond, on the opposite side, 

 we saw the principal mouth of the Purus, a very large 

 stream, whose sources are still unknown. Salsaparilla 

 and Copaiiba collectors, the only travellers on its waters, 

 have ascended it in small boats a distance of two months' 

 journey without meeting with any obstruction to naviga- 

 tion. This shows that its course lies to a very great extent 

 within the level plain of the Upper Amazons. The mouth 

 is not more than a quarter of a mile broad, and the water 

 is of an olive-green colour. 



We passed Cudaja on the 12th. This is a channel 

 which communicates with an extensive system of back- 

 waters and lakes, lying between this part of the river and 

 the Japura, 250 miles farther west. The inhabitants of 

 the Solimoens give the name of Cupiyo to this little-known 

 interior water-system. A Portuguese, whom I knew very 

 well, once navigated it throughout its whole length. He 

 described the country in glowing terms. The waters are 

 clear ; some of the lakes are of vast extent, and the land 

 everywhere is level and luxuriantly wooded. It is a more 

 complete solitude than the banks of the main river, for 

 the whole region is peopled only by a few families of Mura 

 savages. The inhabitants of Ega, who are employed in 

 the summer season in salting pirarucu, sometimes make 

 their fishing stations on the sandy shores of one or other 

 of these lakes. The largest of them, whose opposite or 

 northern shore is said to be scarcely visible from the south 

 side, is called Lake Mura, and is very seldom visited. 



A number of long, straggling islands occur in mid-river 

 beyond Cudaja. We passed the mouth of the Mamiya, a 

 black- water stream, on the i8th, and on the 19th arrived 

 at the entrance to Lake Quary. This is not, strictly 

 speaking, a lake, but the expansion of the united beds of 

 several affluents of the Solimoens, caused by the slowly- 

 moving waters of the tributaries originally spreading out 

 over the flat alluvial valley, into which they descend from 

 the higher country of the early part of their course, instead 

 of flowing directly into the full and swift current of the 

 main river. Henceforward most of the branch rivers 

 exhibit these lake-like expansions of their beds. The 

 same phenomenon takes a great variety of forms, and is 

 shown, as already observed in the Tapajos and other 

 tributaries of the Lower Amazons. The mouth of the 



