s; it will not keep in any other form. It can
not be very nutritious, as it contains little gluten. All bread and
butter are imported from the United States and England. The captains of
Brazilian steamers are their own stewards; and in the midst of other
business in port, they stop to negotiate for a chicken, or a dozen
eggs, with an Indian or Negro. The "Icamiaba" left Tabatinga with only
three first-class passengers, besides our own party. On no Amazon
steamer did we meet with a lady passenger. Madame Godin, who came down
the river from the Andes, and Mrs. Agassiz, who ascended to Tabatinga,
were among the few ladies who have seen these upper waters. But how
differently they traveled! one on a raft, the other on the beautiful
"Icamiaba."

Between Tabatinga and Teffe, a distance of five hundred miles, is
perhaps the most uncivilized part of the main river. Ascending, we find
improvements multiply as we near the mountains of Peru; descending, we
see the march of civilization in the budding cities and expanding
commerce culminating at Grand Para. The scenery from the deck of an
Amazonian steamer, if described, appears monotonous. A vast volume of
smooth, yellow water, floating trees and beds of aquatic grass, low,
linear-shaped, wooded islets, a dark, even forest--the shores of a
boundless sea of verdure, and a cloudless sky occasionally obscured by
flocks of parrots: these are the general features. No busy towns are
seen along the banks of the Middle Amazon; only here and there a palm
hut or semi-Indian village half buried in the wilderness. We agree with
Darwin (speaking of the Plata), that "a wide expanse of muddy water has
neither grandeur nor beauty." The real grandeur, however, of a great
river like this is derived from reflecting upon its prospective
commercial importance and its immense drainage. A lover of nature,
moreover, can never tire of gazing at the picturesque grouping and
variety of trees, with their mantles of creeping plants; while a little
imagination can see in the alligators, ganoid fishes, sea-cows, and tall
gray herons, the ichthyosaurus, holoptychius, dinotherium, and
brontozoum of ancient days. Here and there the river is bordered with
low alluvial deposits covered with feathery-topped arrow-grass and
amphibious vegetation; but generally the banks are about ten feet high
and magnificently wooded; they are abrupt, and land-slides are frequent.

A few minutes after leaving Tabatinga we passed the