southeasterly a thousand miles, enters the Amazon
opposite Ega, five hundred miles above Manaos. Its principal mouth is
three hundred feet wide, but it has a host of distributing channels, the
extremes of which are two hundred miles apart. Its current is only three
quarters of a mile an hour, and it has been ascended by canoes five
hundred miles. A natural canal like the Cassiquiari is said to connect
it with the Orinoco. The products of the Japura are sarsaparilla,
copaiba, rubber, cacao, farina, Brazil nuts, moira-piranga--a hard,
fine-grained wood of a rich, cherry-red color--and carajuru, a brilliant
scarlet dye.

Parallel to the Japura is the Putumayo or Issa. Its source is the Lake
of San Pablo, at the foot of the volcano of Pasto; its mouth, as given
by Herndon, is half a mile broad, and its current two and three fourths
miles an hour.

Farther west are the Napo and Pastassa, starting from the volcanoes of
Quito. The former is nearly seven hundred miles long, navigable five
hundred. The latter is an unnavigable torrent. One of its branches, the
Topo, is one continued rapid; "of those who have fallen into it, only
one has come out alive." Another, the Patate, rises near Iliniza, runs
through the plain to a little south of Cotopaxi, receives all streams
flowing from the eastern side of the western Cordillera from Iliniza to
Chimborazo, and unites near Tunguragua with the Chambo, which rises near
Sangai. Castelnau and Bates saw pumice floating on the Amazon; it was
probably brought from Cotopaxi by the Pastassa.

Crossing the Maranon, and going eastward, we first pass the Huallaga, a
rapid river of the size of the Cumberland, coming down the Peruvian
Andes from an altitude of eight thousand six hundred feet, and entering
the great river nearly opposite the Pastassa. Its mouth is a mile wide,
and for a hundred miles up its average depth is three fathoms. In July,
August, and September the steamers are not able to ascend to Yurimaguas.
Canoe navigation begins at Tinga Maria, three hundred miles from Lima.
The fertile plain through which the river flows is very attractive to an
agriculturist. Cotton is gathered six months after sowing, and rice in
five months. At Tarapoto a large amount of cotton-cloth is woven for
export.

The next great tributary from the south is the Ucayali. This magnificent
stream originates near ancient Cuzco, and has a fall of .87 of a foot
per mile, and a length nearly equal to that of the