Standing on the eastern spur of the Andes, between 3 degrees and 4
degrees south of the equator, the eye of the traveller may see in
imagination a vast valley, clothed with a dense forest, stretching
towards the far-distant Atlantic. Behind him, on the west, tower the
lofty peaks of the Cordilleras; on his left, in a northerly direction,
appear the mountains and highlands of Venezuela and Guiana; while to the
south rise the serras and table-lands of the Brazils. It is the Valley
of the Amazon, in which more than half of Europe might be contained.
Down the centre flows a mighty stream, the tributaries of which alone
contain a bulk of water greater than all the European rivers put
together.
Upwards of five hundred miles away to the south of the spot where the
traveller stands, is the little lake of Lauricocha, near the
silver-mines of Cerro de Pasco in Peru, just below the limit of
perpetual snow--14,000 feet above the level of the sea. This lake has
the honour of giving birth to the mighty stream: its waters forming the
River Tunguragua, which, roaring and foaming in a series of cataracts
and rapids through rocky valleys, flows northerly till it reaches the
frontier of Ecuador. It then turns suddenly to the east, which
direction it maintains, with a slightly northerly inclination, for two
thousand miles--its volume greatly increased by numerous large streams,
each of which is by itself a mighty river--till, attaining a width which
may vie with that of the Baltic, it rushes with such fierce force into
the Atlantic as to turn aside on either hand the salt-waters of the
ocean. Thus the seaman approaching the shore of South America, when
still out of sight of land, may lower his bucket and draw up the
fresh-water which, it may be, has issued forth weeks before from the
sides of the Andes. The whole length of the river, following its main
curves, is but little under three thousand miles, while the tributaries
from north to south stretch over seventeen hundred miles.
The basin of the Amazon may be considered like a shallow trough lying
parallel to the equator, the southern sides having double the
inclination of the northern, the whole gently sloping eastward. The
channel of the river lies rather to the north of the basin, some hills
rising directly above its waters; while the falls of several rivers to
the south are two hundred miles above their mouths. Two thousand miles
from its mouth the depth of the river is never less than eighteen feet,
while many of its tributaries at their embouchures are of equal depth;
and at the junction of the great rivers the hollows of its bed attain a
depth of twenty-four fathoms. At Tabalingua, two thousand miles from
its mouth, it is a mile and a half broad; and lower down, at the
entrance of one of its tributaries--the Madeira--it measures three miles
across. Still further to the east its sea-like reaches extend to the
north for ten miles, with still wider lake-like expanses, so that the
eye of the voyager can scarcely reach the forest-covered banks on the
opposite side; while if the River Para is properly considered one of its
branches, its measurement from shore to shore, across a countless number
of islands, is one hundred and eighty miles--equal to the breadth of the
widest part of the Baltic.
After receiving the waters of numerous streams, many of which flow for
considerable distances parallel with its shores, and are united by a
network of channels, it is joined by its most considerable northern
tributary--the Rio Negro. This stream, rising in the mountains of
Venezuela, and passing amidst the Llanos, robbing the Orinoco of part of
its waters, has already, before it reaches the Amazon, flowed for a
course of one thousand five hundred miles. It is called the Negro from
its black colour. It is here not less than nineteen fathoms deep, and
three thousand six hundred paces broad. The next great affluent is the
Yapura, which, rising in the mountains of New Granada, takes a
south-easterly course for one thousand miles, its principal mouth
entering the Amazon opposite the town of Ega; but it has numberless
small channels, the streams of which, two hundred miles apart, flow into
the great river. The upper part of the Amazon is frequently called the
Solimoens, which name it retains as far south as the mouth of the River
Negro.
About sixty miles further east, its largest southern affluent--the
gigantic Madeira--unites its milky waters with the turbid stream of the
main river. One branch, the Beni, rises in the neighbourhood of the
ancient Cuzco in Peru, near Lake Titicaca, its whole extent from the
centre of the province of Bolivia being nearly the length of the Amazon
itself. At its mouth it is two miles wide and sixty-six feet deep; and
five hundred miles up it is a mile wide. Numerous islands are found in
its course: for nearly five hundred miles it is navigable for large
vessels, when a cataract intervenes. Were it not for this, there would
be a free navigation from the centre of the province of Bolivia to the
ocean, embracing islands the size of many of the Old World provinces,
and widening into broad lakes. The monarch of waters flows on between
its low forest-clothed banks till, four hundred miles from its mouth, it
reaches the Strait of Obydos, where it is narrowed to two thousand
paces. Through this channel its waters rush with immense force,
calculated at five hundred thousand cubic feet in one second--sufficient
to fill all the streams in Europe, and swell them to overflowing. No
plummet has hitherto sounded the depth of its bed at this point, the
force of the stream probably rendering the operation almost
impracticable.
Its last two great tributaries are the Tapajos, six times the length of
the Thames, and the Xingu, twice that of the Rhine; while further east a
narrow channel unites it with the River Para, into which flows the broad
stream of the Tocantins. This river, rising in the Minas-Geraes, six
hundred miles from Rio Janeiro, is one thousand six hundred miles long,
and ten miles wide at its mouth. Opposite to Para is the large island
of Marajo; and if Professor Agassiz is right in supposing that the
continent once extended much further to the east than it now does, this
island may properly be considered in the centre of the mouth of the
river, and the River Para might then properly be called one of its true
embouchures. But only a few of the streams which feed the Amazon have
been named. Numberless other rivers swell its waters, united to it by
countless channels which form a wonderful network throughout the whole
region, joining also many of the main rivers together, with the
intricate navigation of which the natives alone are acquainted.
These curious water-paths, or igarapes, as they are called, are often so
narrow that the branches of the lofty trees meet overhead, enabling the
traveller in his canoe to proceed for miles together sheltered from the
noonday sun. Here and there a glimpse of the sky can be discovered
through the umbrageous foliage overhead, while birds of gay plumage flit
to and fro, or sit perched on the branches uttering their strange and
varied cries. In the intervals, or sometimes forming the termination of
the water-path, numerous pools of various sizes exist--some a few yards
across, others expanding into lakes--filled mostly by the overflowing of
the main river during the rainy season. They are the habitations of a
great variety of fishes. Here several species of turtles and alligators
swarm in vast numbers; electric eels, too, abound in them, as well as
many of the other curious water-creatures of that region. Water-fowl
and various other aquatic birds dwell on their banks, while on the
surface of their placid waters float the wide-spreading leaves and
magnificent blossoms of the Victoria Regia, as also of other lilies and
water-plants.