GO 
THE AMAZON AND MiVDEIRA RIVERS. 
Uis two companions contrived to save tlicir lives, and to escape 
starvation on one of tire islands, until a descending liolivian boat took 
tliem up and brought them to Manaos. Eut a.s they were uneducated 
mestizoes, Avho could give but an imperfect account ot this remarkable 
voyage, and as Maldonado’s diary was lost with him, the only scientific 
result Avas the certainty that the Madre de Dios is an affluent, not 
of the ruri'is, but of the Deni, and consequently of the Madeira, 
Above the Caldoirao, on the right bank, is a row of hills of about 
1 80 to 200 feet in height, extending to the South-east in an unbroken 
line as far as the eye can reach. It is doubtless a branch of the Serra 
da I’aca Nova, Avhoso principal chain Avo Avere to see tarthcr up, and 
Avhosc eastern division forms, under sundry local names, the chief wator- 
.shed between the tributaries of the Amazon and of the Paraguay. 
Below the next fall, the Salto no Girao, the canoes Avere again 
unladen on a fa\mnrably situated spot, and, together Avith the cargo, were 
conveyed for nearly 1,000 yards on land, through a dense virgin-forest 
Avhose undergroAvth consists partly of cacao-bushes. The total slope of 
20 feet is concentrated ’ on four points, while the Avidth of the river, 
though very unequal on account of the jagged rocky banks, may be 
generally estimated at 760 yards. Gigantic drifted trunks lying on 
the tops of the rocky cones, or suspended amid the branches of the trees 
on shore, showed the height of the floods in the rainy season ; while 
the dark-broA\Ti rocks partly coAmred by white lichens, the foaming 
AVTiter rushing through narrow channels, and a profusion of light 
graceful palms, with curiously leaved creepers depending from them 
and enveloping them in a dense green veil, which only noAV and again 
permits a glimpse into the dark interior of the forest, combined to 
impart to the scenery a charm Avhich Avas only heightened by the 
reflection that no human hand had ever disturbed its primeval luxuriance. 
At the upper end of the fall, an old mulatto, who accompanied 
the expedition as hunter, shoAved ns the spot where eight years ago 
ho and his comrades had been attacked by the Caripunas. He 
related that they had a cargo of salt* for Mato Grosso and were 
* ■\VTiilo in the sea-ports a t)ag of salt of about 60 Ih. fetches two or three milreis, 
it is worth fifteen to eighteen in the cattle-hr ceding districts of the interior, some 
1.50 to 200 leagues from tlie Atlantic; and, especially before the regular steam 
navigation on the River Plato and the Paraguay, it was weU worth while transporting 
it there, oven in small canoes and avvi the rajiids of the Madeira. 
