36 
SANTAREM. 
Chap. I. 
fordable when the waters are low. To the east my 
rambles extended to the banks of the Mahica inlet. 
This enters the Amazons about three miles below San- 
tarem, where the clear stream of the Tapajos begins to 
be discoloured by the turbid waters of the main river. 
The broad, placid channel of the Mahica separates the 
Tapajos mainland from the alluvial low lands of the 
great river plain. It communicates in the interior with 
other inlets, and the whole forms a system of inland 
water-paths navigable by small vessels from Santarem 
to the river Curua, forty miles distant. The Mahica 
has a broad margin of rich, level pasture, limited on 
each side by the straight, tall hedge of forest. On 
the Santarem side it is skirted by high wooded ridges. 
A landscape of this description always produced in me 
an impression of sadness and loneliness which the riant 
virgin forests that closely hedge in most of the by- 
waters of the Amazons never created. The pastures 
are destitute of flowers, and also of animal life, with 
the exception of a few small plain-coloured birds and 
solitary Caracara eagles whining from the topmost 
branches of dead trees on the forest borders. A few 
settlers have built their palm-thatched and mud-walled 
huts on the banks of the Mahica, and occupy them- 
selves chiefly in tending small herds of cattle. They 
seemed to be all wretchedly poor. The oxen however, 
though small, were sleek and fat, and the district most 
promising- for agricultural and pastoral employments. 
In the wet season the waters gradually rise and cover 
the meadows, but there is plenty of room for the 
removal of the cattle to higher ground. The lazy and 
