the village, just
visible inland, runs through a pretty dell. Back of the village, beyond
a low, swampy flat, rise the table-topped blue hills of Almeyrim. It was
an exhilarating sight and a great relief to gaze upon a mountain range
from three hundred to one thousand feet high, the greatest elevations
along the Amazon east of the Andes. Agassiz considers these singular
mountains the remnants of a plain which once filled the whole valley of
the Amazon; but Bates believes them to be the southern terminus of the
high land of Guiana. Their geological constitution--a pebbly
sandstone--favors the Professor's theory. The range extends ninety miles
along the north bank of the river, the western limit at Monte Alegre
bearing the local name of Serra Erere. Mount Agassiz, at Obidos, is a
spur of the same table-land. The Amazon is here about five miles wide,
the southern shore being low, uninhabited, and covered with coarse
grass. Five schooners were anchored in the harbor of Monte Alegre, a
sign of considerable trade for the Amazon. The place exports cattle,
cacao, rubber, and fish.

In four hours we reached Prayinha, a dilapidated village of forty
houses, situated on a low, sandy beach. The chief occupation is the
manufacture of turtle-oil. In ten hours more we were taking in wood at
Porto do Moz, situated just within the mouth of the Xingu, the last
great tributary to the Amazon. Dismal was our farewell sail on the great
river. With the highlands came foul weather. We were treated to frequent
and furious showers, accompanied by a violent wind, and the atmosphere
was filled with smoke caused by numerous fires in the forest. Where the
Xingu comes in, the Amazon is ten miles wide, but it is soon divided by
a series of islands, the first of which is Grand Island. Twenty miles
below Porto do Moz is Gurupa, where we took in rubber. The village,
nearly as inanimate as Pompeii, consists of one street, half deserted,
built on an isolated site. Forty miles below Gurupa we left the Amazon
proper, turning to the right down a narrow channel leading into the
river Para. The forest became more luxuriant, the palms especially
increasing in number and beauty. At one place there was a forest of
palms, a singularity, for trees of the same order are seldom associated.
The forest, densely packed and gloomy, stands on very low, flat banks of
hard river mud. Scarcely a sign of animal life was visible; but, as we
progressed, dusky faces peered out of