156 
THE UPPER AMAZONS. 
Chap. III. 
long stretches of sandy soil clothed with thinner forests. 
The climate, in consequence, is comparatively dry, many 
months in succession during the fine season passing 
without rain. All this is changed on the Solimoens. 
A fortnight of clear, sunny weather is a rarity : the 
whole region through which the river and its affluents 
flow, after leaving the easternmost ridges of the Andes, 
which Poppig describes as rising like a wall from the 
level country 240 miles from the Pacific, is a vast 
plain, about 1000 miles in length, and 500 or 600 
in breadth, covered with one uniform, lofty, imper- 
vious, and humid forest. The soil is nowhere sandy, 
but always either a stiff clay, alluvium, or vegetable 
mould, which latter, in many places, is seen in water- 
worn sections of the river banks to be twenty or 
thirty feet in depth. With such a soil and climate, 
the luxuriance of vegetation, and the abundance and 
beauty of animal forms which are already so great in 
the region nearer the Atlantic, increase on the upper 
river. The fruits, both wild and cultivated, common to 
the two sections of the country, reach a progressively 
larger size in advancing westward, and some trees which 
blossom only once a year at Para and Santarem, yield 
flower and fruit all the year round at Ega. The climate 
is healthy, although one lives here as in a permanent 
vapour bath. I must not, however, give here a lengthy 
description of the region whilst we are yet on its 
threshold. I resided and travelled on the Solimoens 
altogether for four years and a half. The country on 
its borders is a magnificent wilderness where civilized 
man, as yet, has scarcely obtained a footing ; the culti- 
