ail in its councils? Is it essentially aquatic or
terrestrial? Such were some of the inquiries which came up in the course
of the discussion. A region of country which stretches across a whole
continent, and is flooded for half the year, where there can never be
railroads, or highways, or even pedestrian travelling, to any great
extent, can hardly be considered as dry land. It is true that, in this
oceanic river system, the tidal action has an annual, instead of a
daily, ebb and flow; that its rise and fall obey a larger light, and are
regulated by the sun, and not the moon; but it is nevertheless subject
to all the conditions of a submerged district, and must be treated as
such. Indeed, these semiannual changes of level are far more powerful in
their influence on the life of the inhabitants than any marine tides.
People sail half the year over districts where, for the other half, they
walk, though hardly dry-shod, over the soaked ground; their occupations,
their dress, their habits, are modified in accordance with the dry and
wet seasons. And not only the ways of life, but the whole aspect of the
country, the character of the landscape, are changed. At this moment
there are two most picturesque falls in the neighborhood of Manaos,--the
Great and Little Cascades, as they are called,--favorite resorts for
bathing, picnics, etc., which, in a few months, when the river shall
have risen above their highest level, will have completely disappeared.
Their bold rocks and shady nooks will have become river-bottom. All that
one hears or reads of the extent of the Amazons and its tributaries does
not give one an idea of its immensity as a whole. One must float for
months upon its surface, in order to understand how fully water has the
mastery over land along its borders. Its watery labyrinth is not so much
a network of rivers, as an ocean of fresh water cut up and divided by
land, the land being often nothing more than an archipelago of islands
in its midst. The valley of the Amazons is indeed an aquatic, not a
terrestrial, basin; and it is not strange, when looked upon from this
point of view, that its forests should be less full of life,
comparatively, than its rivers.

But while we were discussing these points, talking of the time when the
banks of the Amazons will teem with a population more active and
vigorous than any it has yet seen,--when all civilized nations shall
share in its wealth,--when the twin continents will shake