ch, the distance from the
Atlantic coast by the courses of the Amazon being one thousand eight
hundred and eleven miles. From the Brazilian frontier the main stream
of the Amazon was surveyed and its tributaries examined by the
Commission up to Borja, where the river rushes from a narrow gorge of
the mountains and leaps into the lowlands. Borja is in latitude 4 deg.
31' 37" south, longitude 77 deg. 29' 43" west of Greenwich. From the
Atlantic coast to Borja, a distance of two thousand six hundred and
sixty miles, the Amazon is navigable, without serious obstruction or
difficulty, for either river or sea-going steamers of several hundred
tons burthen.

It would take many long years to make a thorough survey of the waters
of the Amazon, which is, in fact, more of an inland sea than a river,
with hundreds of branches forming a network of communicating channels
extending for sixty or seventy miles on each side of the main stream.
At the height of the annual floods the whole country, with the
exception of the highest land, on which the towns are invariably
built, is covered with water, forming a vast swamp and jungle,
traversed in every direction by navigable channels, which at the
season of low waters become rivers or natural canals.

The principal object for which the Commission presided over by Tucker
had been instituted was accomplished when the main channels of the
river and of its affluents was traced from the Peruvian and Brazilian
frontiers to the head of navigation of the main river and of its
tributaries, so as to show the nearest approach by water
communication to the eastern terminus of the trans-Andean railway.
This duty having been executed, Tucker was ordered to proceed to Lima
for conference with the Government as to the results of the
explorations and surveys he had made.

After consultation with Tucker, Senor Pardo, the President of the
Republic, directed that charts of the surveys made by the
Hydrographical Commission should be published in New York, and that
Tucker and two members of the Commission should be detailed to prepare
the work for the press and superintend the engraving of the plates.
The other members of the Commission returned to their homes, having
completed the duty for which they were engaged.

There were some changes from time to time in the Peruvian
Hydrographical Commission of the Amazon, but the following list of its
members may be taken as correct:

President--John Randolph Tuck