174 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
of a river forming the eastern boundary of the so- 
called "island." The southern boundary of the 
island — or, more properly, series of islands — is a 
long winding channel called the Furo de Uraria, 
or sometimes Parana-min' dos Ramos, which, leav- 
ing the Madeira in about 4° S. lat., runs parallel to 
the Amazon through about three degrees of longi- 
tude and joins that river near Villa Nova, in 2^° S. 
lat. . . . The region between the Uraria and the 
Amazon is literally sown with lakes, which com- 
municate by short channels, some with the Amazon, 
others with the Uraria. About midway of the 
Uraria a channel branches off to the Amazon, and 
this is considered the upper mouth of the Ramos ; 
while the Uraria thence to the Madeira is often 
called the Furo de Canoma, from the principal river 
that enters it. . . . 
The Uraria bears some resemblance to the Casi- 
quiari — the celebrated channel uniting the Orinoco 
to the Rio Negro — not only in its length and other 
dimensions, but in some of its other features ; and 
as I shall have to describe them both, my readers 
will be enabled to make the comparison for them- 
selves. 
Our little vessel was destined to traverse so 
much of the Uraria as bears the name of Ramos," 
to look up some of M. Gouzennes's creditors there ; 
while that gentleman himself proposed proceeding 
up the main river as far as to the upper angle of 
the Madeira and Amazon, where there is another 
great region of lakes and channels called the 
Uautas. 
We had passed below Villa Nova at least three 
outlets of the Ramos ; but we entered it, a few miles 
