e on scaffolds among the tree-tops, passing from place to place in
floating rafts or canoes, finding their subsistence on fish, on the
flesh of the _manatee_, on birds, beasts, reptiles, and insects, on the
stalks of huge water-plants and the fruits of undescribed trees, on
monkeys, and sometimes upon _man!_ Such Indians as have penetrated the
vast water-land have brought strange tales out of it. We may give
credence to them or refuse it; but they, at least, are firm believers in
most of the accounts which they have collected.

It is not to be supposed that the Gapo is impenetrable. On the contrary,
there are several well-known water-ways leading through it,--well known,
I mean, to the Indians dwelling upon its borders, to the _tapuyos_,
whose business it is to supply crews for the galateas of the Portuguese
traders, and to many of these traders themselves. These water-ways are
often indicated by "blazings" on the trees, or broken branches, just as
the roads are laid out by pioneer settlers in a North American forest;
and but for these marks, they could not be followed. Sometimes, however,
large spaces occur in which no trees are to be seen, where, indeed, none
grow. There are extensive lakes, always under water, even at the lowest
ebb of the inundation. They are of all sizes and every possible
configuration, from the complete circle through all the degrees of the
ellipse, and not unfrequently in the form of a belt, like the channel of
a river running for scores of miles between what might readily be
mistaken for banks covered with a continuous thicket of low bushes,
which are nothing more than the "spray" of evergreen trees, whose roots
lie forty feet under water!

More frequently these openings are of irregular shape, and of such
extent as to merit the title of "inland seas." When such are to be
crossed, the sun has to be consulted by the canoe or galatea gliding
near their centre; and when he is not visible,--by no means a rare
phenomenon in the Gapo,--then is there great danger of the craft
straying from her course.

When within sight of the so-called "shore," a clump of peculiar form, or
a tree topping over its fellows, is used as a landmark, and often guides
the navigator of the Gapo to the _igarita_ of which he is in search.

It is not all tranquillity on this tree-studded ocean. It has its fogs,
its gales, and its storms,--of frequent occurrence. The canoe is oft
shattered against the stems of gigantic trees;