158 
TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. 
\Novemher^ 
with, flowering myrtles, tall Melastomas, and numbers of 
passion-flowers, convolvuluses, and bignonias. At the 
back of the town, a mile or two off, were some bare 
conical hills, to which I paid some visits. They were 
entirely formed of scoriae, and were as barren and unin- 
viting as can possibly be imagined. A curious tidal 
phenomenon was to be seen here : — the tide rises in the 
Amazon to considerably above Santarem, but it never 
flows up, the water merely rising and falling. The river 
Tapajoz had now very little water, and its surface was ' 
below the level of the Amazon at high water, so that the 
tide was every day seen to flow up the Tapajoz, while a 
hundred yards out in the stream of the Amazon it was 
still flowing rapidly down. 
It was now November, and as some rain had fallen, 
and gloomy weather had set in, we determined to start 
for the Rio Negro as soon as we could. Our canoe was 
at length ready, having taken us a long time to repair 
the bottom, which was quite rotten. After much delay 
the Commandante had procured us three Indians, who 
were to go with us only to Obydos, about three days up 
the Amazon, and had given us a letter to the authorities 
there, to furnish us with more. Mr. Spruce had set out 
for Obydos just a week before us, in a large canoe, 
the owner of which had offered him a passage. On our 
arrival we found him unpacking his things, and he told 
us he had only got there the night previous, having been 
ten days on a journey which is frequently performed in 
a day and a night : want of wind was the cause, and 
the owner of the canoe, who was with them, would not 
move at night. But to such delays the unfortunate tra- 
