174 
THE UPPER AMAZONS. 
Chap. IIL 
whicli communicates with an extensive system of back- 
waters and lakes, lying between this part of the river 
and the Japura, 250 miles further west. The inhabi- 
tants of the Solimoens give the name of Cupiyo to this 
little-known interior water-system. A Portuguese, 
whom I knew very well, once navigated it throughout 
its whole length. He described the country in glowing 
terms. The waters are clear ; some of the lakes are of 
vast extent, and the land everywhere is level and luxu- 
riantly wooded. It is a more complete solitude than 
the banks of the main river, for the whole region is 
peopled only by a few families of Mura savages. The 
inhabitants of Ega, who are employed in the summer 
season in salting pirarucu, sometimes make their fishing 
stations on the sandy shores of one or other of these 
lakes. The largest of them, whose opposite or northern 
shore is said to be scarcely visible from the south side, 
is called Lake Mura, and is very seldom visited. 
A number of long, straggling islands occur in mid- 
river beyond Cudaja. We passed the mouth of the 
Mamiya, a black-water stream, on the 18th, and on the 
19th arrived at the entrance to Lake Quary. This is 
not, strictly speaking, a lake, but the expansion of the 
united beds of several affluents of the Solimoens, caused 
by the slowly-moving waters of the tributaries origi- 
nally spreading out over the flat alluvial valley, into 
which they descend from the higher country of the early 
part of their course, instead of flowing directly into the 
full and swift current of the main river. Henceforward 
most of the branch rivers exhibit these lake-like expan- 
sions of their beds. The same phenomenon takes a 
