dian
montaria, in which was our friend and kind host, Senhor Honorio, who had
undertaken to provide for our creature comforts, and had the care of a
boatful of provisions. After an hour's row we left the rough waters of
the Rio Negro, and rounding a wooded point, turned into one of those
narrow, winding igarapes (literally, "boat-paths"), with green forest
walls, which make the charm of canoe excursions in this country. A
ragged drapery of long, faded grass hung from the lower branches of the
trees, marking the height of the last rise of the river,--some eighteen
or twenty feet above its present level. Here and there a white heron
stood on the shore, his snowy plumage glittering in the sunlight;
numbers of ciganas (the pheasants of the Amazons) clustered in the
bushes; once a pair of king vultures rested for a moment within gunshot,
but flew out of sight as our canoe approached; and now and then an
alligator showed his head above water. As we floated along through this
picturesque channel, so characteristic of the wonderful region to which
we were all more or less strangers,--for even Dr. Epaminondas and Senhor
Tavares Bastos were here for the first time,--the conversation turned
naturally enough upon the nature of this Amazonian Valley, its physical
conformation, its origin and resources, its history past and to come,
both alike and obscure, both the subject of wonder and speculation.
Senhor Tavares Bastos, although not yet thirty, is already distinguished
in the politics of his country; and from the moment he entered upon
public life to the present time, the legislation in regard to the
Amazons, its relation to the future progress and development of the
Brazilian empire, has been the object of his deepening interest. He is a
leader in that class of men who advocate the most liberal policy in this
matter, and has already urged upon his countrymen the importance, even
from selfish motives, of sharing their great treasure with the world. He
was little more than twenty years of age when he published his papers on
the opening of the Amazons, which have done more, perhaps, than anything
else of late years to attract attention to the subject.

There are points where the researches of the statesman and the
investigator meet, and natural science is not without its influence,
even on the practical bearings of this question. Shall this region be
legislated for as sea or land? Shall the interests of agriculture or
navigation prev