PASSENGERS 



pounds sterling each ; some traders bring down two or 

 three thousand pounds' worth, folded into small compass 

 in their trunks. The return cargoes consist of hardware, 

 crockery, glass, and other bulky or heavy goods, but not 

 of cloth, which, being of light weight, can be carried 

 across the Andes from the ports on the Pacific to the 

 eastern parts of Peru. All kinds of European cloth can 

 be obtained at a much cheaper rate by this route than 

 by the more direct way of the Amazons, the import duties 

 of Peru being, as I was told, lower than those of Brazil, 

 and the difierence not being counter-balanced by increased 

 expense of transit, on account of weight, over the passes 

 of the Andes. 



There was a great lack of amusement on board. The 

 table was very well served, professed cooks being em- 

 ployed in these Amazonian steamers, and fresh meat 

 insured by keeping on deck a supply of live bullocks 

 and fowls, which are purchased whenever there is an 

 opportunity on the road. The river scenery was similar 

 to that already described as presented between the Rio 

 Negro and Ega : long reaches of similar aspect, with 

 two long, low lines of forest, varied sometimes with cliffs 

 of red clay, appearing one after the other ; an horizon of 

 water and sky on some days limiting the view both up 

 stream and down. We travelled, however, always near 

 the bank, and, for my part, I was never weary of ad- 

 miring the picturesque grouping and variety of trees, and 

 the varied mantles of creeping plants which clothed the 

 green wall of forest every step of the way. With the 

 exception of a small village called Fonte Boa, retired 

 from the main river, where we stopped to take in fire- 

 wood, and which I shall have to speak of presently, we 

 saw no human habitation the whole of the distance. 

 The mornings were delightfully cool ; coffee was served 

 at sunrise, and a bountiful breakfast at ten o'clock ; 

 after that hour the heat rapidly increased until it became 

 almost unbearable ; how the engine-drivers and firemen 

 stood it without exhaustion I cannot tell ; it diminished 

 after four o'clock in the afternoon, about which time 

 dinner-bell rung, and the evenings were always pleasant. 



A few miles below Tunantins, and to the west of the 

 most westerly mouth of the Japura, on the same side 

 of the Solimoens, I saw, to my surprise, a bed of stratified 

 rock, apparently a fine-grained sandstone, exposed on 



2 H 



