Chap. III. 
CLIMATE. 
155 
lower lands were already under water, and the tearing 
current, two or three miles in breadth, bore along a 
continuous line of uprooted trees and islets of floating 
plants. The prospect was most melancholy ; no sound 
was heard but the dull murmur of the waters ; the 
coast along which we travelled all day was encumbered 
every step of the way with fallen trees, some of which 
quivered in the currents which set around projecting 
points of land. Our old pest, the Motuca, began to 
torment us as soon as the sun gained power in the 
morning. White egrets were plentiful at the edge of the 
water, and humming-birds, in some places, were whirring 
about the flowers overhead. The desolate appearance 
of the landscape increased after sunset, when the moon 
rose in mist. 
This upper river, the Alto-Amazonas or Solimoens, is 
always spoken of by the Brazilians as a distinct stream. 
This is partly owing, as before remarked, to the direc- 
tion it seems to take at the fork of the Rio Negro ; the 
inhabitants of the country, from their partial knowledge, 
not being able to comprehend the whole river system 
in one view. It has, however, many peculiarities to 
distinguish it from the lower course of the river. The 
trade-wind or sea-breeze, which reaches, in the height 
of the dry season, as far as the mouth of the Rio Negro, 
900 or 1000 miles from the Atlantic, never blows on 
the upper river. The atmosphere is therefore more 
stagnant and sultry, and. the winds that do prevail are 
of irregular direction and short duration. A great part 
of the land on the borders of the Lower Amazons is 
hilly ; there are extensive campos or open plains, and 
