94 



TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON, 



[Augustf 



clad Andes were here congregated in the wide extent of ochre- 

 coloured water spread out before us ! Venezuela, Columbia, 

 Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil — six mighty states, spread- 

 ing over a country far larger than Europe — had each contri- 

 buted to form the flood which bore us so peacefully on its 

 bosom. 



We now felt the influence of the easterly wind, which during 

 the whole of the summer months blows pretty steadily up the 

 Amazon, and enables vessels to make way against its powerful 

 current. Sometimes we had thunder-storms, with violent 

 squalls, which, as they were generally in the right direction, 

 helped us along the faster ; and twice we ran aground on 

 shoals, which caused us some trouble and delay. We had 

 partly to unload the canoe into the montaria, and then, by 

 getting out anchors in the deep water, managed after some 

 hard pulling to extricate ourselves. Sometimes we caught fish, 

 which were a great luxury for us, or went on shore to purchase 

 fruit at some Indian's cottage. 



The most striking features of the Amazon are — its vast 

 expanse of smooth water, generally from three to six miles 

 wide ; its pale yellowish-olive colour ; the great beds of aquatic 

 grass which line its shores, large masses of which are often 

 detached, and form floating islands ; the quantity of fruits and 

 leaves and great trunks of trees which it carries down, and its 

 level banks clad with lofty unbroken forest. In places the 

 white stems and leaves of the Cecropias give a peculiar aspect, 

 and in others the straight dark trunks of lofty forest-trees form 

 a living wall along the water's edge. There is much animation, 

 too, on this giant stream. Numerous flocks of parrots, and the 

 great red and yellow macaws, fly across every morning and 

 evening, uttering their hoarse cries. Many kinds of herons 

 and rails frequent the marshes on its banks, and the large 

 handsome duck {Chenalopex juhatd) is often seen swimming 

 about the bays and inlets. But perhaps the most characteristic 

 birds of the Amazon are the gulls and terns, which are in great 

 abundance : all night long their cries are heard over the sand- 

 banks, where they deposit their eggs, and during the day they 

 constantly attracted our attention by their habit of sitting in a 

 row on a floating log, sometimes a dozen or twenty side by 

 side, and going for miles down the stream as grave and motion- 

 less as if they were on some very important business. These 



