256 



A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



considered as dry land. It is true that in this oceanic 

 river-system the tidal action has an annual instead of a 

 daily ebb and flow, that its rise and fall obey a larger 

 orb, and is ruled by the sun and not the moon ; but it 

 is, nevertheless, subject to all the conditions of a sub- 

 merged district, and must be treated as such. Indeed, 

 these semiannual changes of level are far more powerful 

 in their influence on the life of the inhabitants than any 

 marine tides. People sail half the year above districts 

 where for the other half they walk, though hardly dry 

 shod, over the soaked ground ; their occupations, their 

 dress, their habits are modified in accordance with the 

 dry and wet seasons. And not only the ways of life, but 

 the whole aspect of the country, the character of the 

 landscape, are changed. The two picturesque cascades, 

 at one of which we took our bath the other morning, 

 and at this season such favorite resorts with the inhabi 

 tants of Manaos, will disappear in a few months, when 

 the river rises for some forty feet above its lowest level. 

 Their bold rocks and shady nooks will have become river 

 bottom. All that we hear or read of the extent of 

 the Amazons and its tributaries fails to give an idea of 

 its immensity as a whole. One must float for months 

 upon its surface, in order to understand how fully water 

 has the mastery over land along its borders. Its watery 

 labyrinth is rather a fresh-water ocean, cut up and di- 

 vided by land, than a network of rivers. Indeed, this 

 whole valley is an aquatic, not a terrestrial basin ; and 

 it is not strange, when looked upon from this point of 

 view, that its forests should be less full of life, compara- 

 tively, than its rivers. 



While we were discussing these points, talking of the 



