The Naturalist on the River Amazons | Page 7

has a right to expect of the general reader.
The personal narrative has been left entire, together with those
descriptive details likely to interest all classes, young and old, relating
to the great river itself, and the wonderful country through which it
flows,--the luxuriant primaeval forests that clothe almost every part of
it, the climate, productions, and inhabitants.
Signs are not wanting that this fertile, but scantily peopled region will
soon become, through recent efforts of the Peruvian and Brazilian
governments to make it accessible and colonise it, of far higher
importance to the nations of Northern Europe than it has been hitherto.
The full significance of the title, the "largest river in the world," which
we are all taught in our schoolboy days to apply to the Amazons,
without having a distinct idea of its magnitude, will then become
apparent to the English public. It will be new to most people, that this
noble stream has recently been navigated by steamers to a distance of
2200 geographical miles from its mouth at Para, or double the distance
which vessels are able to reach on the Yang-tze-Kiang, the largest river
of the old world; the depth of water in the dry season being about seven
fathoms up to this terminus of navigation. It is not, however, the length
of the trunk stream, that has earned for the Amazons the appellation of
the "Mediterranean of South America," given it by the Brazilians of
Para; but the network of by-channels and lakes, which everywhere
accompanies its course at a distance from the banks, and which adds
many thousands of miles of easy inland navigation to the total
presented by the main river and its tributaries. The Peruvians,
especially, if I may judge from letters received within the past few
weeks, seem to be stirring themselves to grasp the advantages which
the possession of the upper course of the river places within their reach.
Vessels of heavy tonnage have arrived in Para, from England, with
materials for the formation of shipbuilding establishments, at a point
situated two thousand miles from the mouth of the river. Peruvian
steamers have navigated from the Andes to the Atlantic, and a quantity
of cotton (now exported for the first time), the product of the rich and
healthy country bordering the Upper Amazons, has been conveyed by
this means, and shipped from Para to Europe. The probability of
general curiosity in England being excited before long with regard to

this hitherto neglected country, will be considered, of itself, a sufficient
reason for placing an account of its natural features and present
condition within reach of all readers.
LONDON, January, 1864.

CHAPTER I
PARA
Arrival--Aspect of the Country--The Para River--First Walk in the
Suburbs of Para--Birds, Lizards, and Insects of the Suburbs--
Leaf-carrying Ant--Sketch of the Climate, History, and present
Condition of Para.
I embarked at Liverpool, with Mr. Wallace, in a small trading vessel,
on the 26th of April, 1848; and, after a swift passage from the Irish
Channel to the equator, arrived, on the 26th of May, off Salinas. This is
the pilot-station for vessels bound to Para, the only port of entry to the
vast region watered by the Amazons. It is a small village, formerly a
missionary settlement of the Jesuits, situated a few miles to the
eastward of the Para River. Here the ship anchored in the open sea at a
distance of six miles from the shore, the shallowness of the water far
out around the mouth of the great river not permitting, in safety, a
nearer approach; and, the signal was hoisted for a pilot.
It was with deep interest that my companion and myself, both now
about to see and examine the beauties of a tropical country for the first
time, gazed on the land where I, at least, eventually spent eleven of the
best years of my life. To the eastward the country was not remarkable
in appearance, being slightly undulating, with bare sandhills and
scattered trees; but to the westward, stretching towards the mouth of the
river, we could see through the captain's glass a long line of forest,
rising apparently out of the water; a densely-packed mass of tall trees,
broken into groups, and finally into single trees, as it dwindled away in
the distance. This was the frontier, in this direction, of the great
primaeval forest characteristic of this region, which contains so many
wonders in its recesses, and clothes the whole surface of the country for

two thousand miles from this point to the foot of the Andes.
On the following day and night we sailed, with a light wind, partly
aided by the tide, up the Para river. Towards evening we passed Vigia
and Colares, two fishing villages, and saw many native canoes, which
seemed like