are inclined to hold, with Bates and others, that the
Para River is not, strictly speaking, one of the mouths of the Amazon.
"It is made to appear so on many of the maps in common use, because the
channels which connect it with the main river are there given much
broader than they are in reality, conveying the impression that a large
body of water finds an outlet from the main river into the Para. It is
doubtful, however, if there be any considerable stream of water flowing
constantly downward through these channels. There is a great contrast in
general appearance between the Para and the main Amazon. In the former
the flow of the tide always creates a strong current upward, while in
the Amazon the turbid flow of the mighty stream overpowers all tides,
and produces a constant downward current. The color of the water is
different; that of the Para being of a dingy orange-brown, while the
Amazon has an ochreous or yellowish-clay tint. The forests on their
banks have a different aspect. On the Para, the infinitely diversified
trees seem to rise directly out of the water, the forest-frontage is
covered with greenery, and wears a placid aspect; while the shores of
the main Amazon are encumbered with fallen trunks, and are fringed with
a belt of broad-leaved grasses."--_Naturalist on the Amazon_, i., p.
3-5.]

Here are six tributaries, all of them superior to any river in Europe,
outside of Russia, save the Danube, and ten times greater than any
stream on the west slope of the Andes. While the Arkansas joins the
Mississippi four hundred miles above New Orleans, the Madeira, of equal
length, enters the Amazon nine hundred miles from Para. But, vast as are
these tributary streams, they seem to make no impression on the Amazon;
they are lost like brooks in the ocean. Our ideas of the magnitude of
the great river are wonderfully increased when we see the Madeira coming
down two thousand miles, yet its enormous contribution imperceptible
half way across the giant river; or the dark waters of the Negro
creeping along the shore, and becoming undistinguishable five miles from
its mouth. Though the Amazon carries a larger amount of sediment than
any other river, it has no true delta, the archipelago in its mouth
(for, like our own St. Lawrence, it has its Bay of a Thousand Isles) not
being an alluvial formation, but having a rocky base. The great island
of Marajo, in physical configuration, resembles the mainland of Guiana.
The delto