Madeira and Mamoré Railway—Ocean steamers can ascend to the
first rapid—Brazilian outposts—Difference between high and low
water below the rapid—Rainfall—Temperature—Scenery—Marks on
rocks—Glossy black deposit on rocks—Trees of the forest—Brazil
nuts—Alligators—Peixebois, pirahybas, pirarucus, and other
fish—Tapirs, how shot—Onças, and other animals—Birds, wild
turkeys, ducks, etc.—Insects, mosquitoes, ants, etc.—Snakes,
etc., etc.
From San Antonio the railway commences that is in course of construction
by the Madeira and Mamoré Railway Company. This line, which is to run
upon the eastern side of the rapids, has for its object the establishment
of communication between the navigable waters of the Mamoré and Guaporé
or Itenez in Eastern Bolivia, and the Madeira and Amazon in Northern
Brazil. The length of the line will be about 180 miles, and it is
estimated to cost £6000 per mile, with a metre gauge. At foot of the
rapid of San Antonio the river forms a bay on the right or eastern bank
of the river, on which the wharf and terminus of the railway will be
built. For eight or nine months of the year, ocean-going steamers could
ascend the Madeira and make fast alongside the bank, but for three months
of the dry season, August to October, steamers that do not draw more than
three to four feet will have to ship the produce brought down by the
railway to San Antonio, and tranship into the ocean steamers either at
Manáos, Serpa, or Pará.
My object being to describe a route of travel, it would be out of place
to remark at length upon the commercial importance of the enterprise
of the Madeira and Mamoré Railway; I would therefore claim attention
for it principally on the ground that it will afford means of rapidly
passing the barrier placed by the falls of the Madeira River in the way
of navigation from Bolivia and the province of Matto Grosso, in Brazil,
to the Amazonian outlet to the Atlantic Ocean. No doubt exists in my mind
that the railway will draw to itself a very considerable and important
traffic, as it will open up provinces in Bolivia and Brazil that at
present have no means whatever of exporting their valuable products of
either mineral or agricultural industry.
San Antonio bears a bad reputation for ague and fever, but I lived there
for nearly two years and did not suffer any serious attack, and the place
is rapidly improving now that a somewhat extensive clearing has been
made. A Brazilian outpost, or “destacamento,” with about thirty soldiers
under the charge of a captain-commandant, is maintained, the next
destacamento being on the river Itenez, in the province of Matto Grosso.
The Madeira River below the falls has a total difference of forty-eight
feet and a half between the highest flood water in the rains, and its
lowest water in the dry season. The highest water is generally reached in
the month of March, while the lowest obtains in September. The rainfall
at San Antonio, according to measurements taken by me in 1872 and 1873,
may be said to be about ninety inches per annum. There are six months
of dry season, from May to October inclusive, and from January to March
seems to be the wettest quarter. The heat, at times, is great in the dry
season, the thermometer sometimes rising, to 95° Fahr. in the shade; but,
speaking generally, the temperature is not nearly so high as might be
expected from the latitude of the place, the highest and lowest average
temperatures for the year being 82° to 88° at day, and 69° to 75° at
night.
[Illustration: SAN ANTONIO—RIVER MADEIRA (LOOKING DOWN STREAM).]
At San Antonio on the railway side, or right bank, of the river, the land
is hilly, and the islands forming the rapid have a pleasing look, as they
are covered with foliage. Below the settlement is a spit of rock running
out into mid river, and uncovered at low water. On these rocks are many
peculiar grooves or marks on the sloping surfaces; they are about a
finger’s depth, and cross each other at different angles, while some are
quite distinct and separate from the others. It has been suggested that
these marks are the work of some of the tribes of the district, but my
opinion would rather be, that they have been caused by glacial action.
At the rapid of Ribeirão there are some carvings on rocks uncovered at
lowest water only, that represent animals, birds, and circles or squares,
and these of course are due to human agency; but the occurrence at all
the rapids, and the great number of the straight grooves, decidedly
favours the view that they are not the result of manual labour. The rocks
at all the rapids are covered with a glossy black substance, which seems
to be a deposit left by the waters during floods, and possibly enamelled
by the sun’s heat during the dry season. If I recollect rightly, Humboldt
noticed this deposit on the rocks of the upper waters of the Orinoco, and
defined it to be a deposit left by the flood waters of the rainy seasons,
but as I have not his “Travels in South America” at hand to refer to, I
may be incorrect in this reference.
The forests are of lofty trees, many being of very valuable timber for
house building and for railway purposes. Rubber trees are plentiful, also
Brazil nuts and cocoa trees, the latter in a wild state but yielding very
excellent fruits. Sarsaparilla, vanilla, copayba and annatto abound, also
fustic and other dyewoods, while many of the barks and bejucas or sipoys
might be utilized as fibres. The Brazil nut tree _Bertholetis excelsa_
is perhaps the handsomest tree of the forest, its dark green foliage
showing to great advantage over the top of its neighbours. The fruit when
fresh is very agreeable and sweet, being very different to the nut as
sold dry and tasteless in London.
Of fish and game, the forest and the river yield an abundant supply to
the settler or traveller. Besides turtle in any quantity, alligators are
in great numbers. The former is a favourite food of the Indian labourers
of Brazil and Eastern Bolivia, who are also not at all averse to a dish
of the latter; and I can vouch for the fact that the tail of a young
alligator not more than three or four feet in length is a most excellent
dish, being as nearly like filleted sole as can be imagined. When the
reptiles grow to a larger size, the flesh has a very repugnant flavour
and smell of musk. Amongst fishes may be mentioned—the boto, which has
the shape of a large porpoise, but is white-coloured and has a snout or
proboscis about a foot in length. The peixeboi and pirahyba are very
large, many being seven and eight feet in length; they, as well as the
botos, are only killed for the oil that can be extracted from their
carcases by boiling. Pirarucus of very large size and weight are found
principally in the back waters or lagoons bordering on the river, and are
much sought after for salting down, in which state they form the staple
food of the settlers on the Madeira. I have heard that a fair-sized
pirarucú will give from five to six Brazilian arrobas (of 33 lbs. each)
of salted fish, and as I have seen them over ten feet long and eighteen
inches to two feet in diameter, I can give them credit for yielding such
a large quantity of solid food. The pescado, a fish with scales, and to
be caught from one to three feet in length, is the best eating fish in
the river, and is equal in flavour to fresh cod or bream. This fish is
curious from the fact of its having two stones situated in the broad
bones at the top of the head, just above the eyes. The tambaqui, dorado,
surubi, pintado, and the joão may also be named as good eating fish,
while the fisherman will often wish heartily that the palometa fish could
be exterminated at once and for ever. This fish is flat and small, seldom
passing a foot in length, but has a very large mouth for its size, full
of the sharpest possible teeth, with which it not only takes the bait
from the hook without any danger to itself, but has also been known to
take a good-sized piece out of a bather’s leg.
The only large animal in the country is the tapir, sometimes called
the “anta,” and sometimes the “gran bestia.” He is a very timorous and
inoffensive animal, and must be shot at night-time, the practice being
for the huntsman to set up what is called a “chapapa,” or raised platform
of poles, sometimes placed in the fork of a conveniently situated tree.
This platform must command the pool of mud where the tapir comes for
his nightly bath and supper of succulent roots; and some hunters place
a candle or small lamp near the pool, the light of which attracts the
stupid beast. A moonlight night is, however, the best for the sport, if
such it may be called, and as soon as the animal shows, the contents of
one barrel are generally sufficient to bring down the game. The tapirs
are as large as a fair-sized Brazilian bullock, and the flesh is much
like beef in taste. There are also “onças,” a species of small jaguar,
and tiger-cats of small size; wild pigs, or peccaries, in great number;
capybaras, or river hogs; squirrels and other small rodents, monkeys in
great variety, small deer, sloths, ant-eaters, armadillos; “lapas,” or
“pacas,” a rodent whose flesh is capital eating; and “lobos,” or otters,
of great size and fierceness.
Besides numerous small birds of great beauty in their plumage, such as
toucans, humming-birds, “carpinteros,” and “campaneros” or bell-ringers,
there are hoopoes, or “ciganas,” which are uniformly reckoned as unclean,
and the ever-present forest scavenger, the vulture, or “souchu,” called
“urubu” in Brazil and “samura” in Central America. A more pleasant and
useful list would comprise—“pavas” and “guachacas,” species of wild
pheasants; “mutuns,” or wild turkeys; “perdrices,” or wild partridges;
“patos royales,” or black ducks—the finest duck in the world; “marecas,”
or Orinoco geese—a brown duck equal, I should think, to a canvas-back;
sheldrakes, snipes, widgeons, teal, herons, storks, and numerous other
water fowl. From this list it may be seen that the locality offers plenty
of occupation for the sportsman who is content with small game, and is
not ambitious of leaving his name on the roll of the mighty hunters of
“greater game.”
The insect plagues of the district have still to be mentioned; and
certainly, when one looks back upon the sufferings undergone from the
attacks of these brutes, one is tempted to wonder greatly why such
plagues exist. Many fine arguments have been brought forward by the
advocates of the theory that everything in nature has its use, in order
to prove that some good results from the existence of a mosquito, but
I who have suffered for years from these pests have hitherto failed to
discover any benefit in their attacks, and cannot see the excellence
of the design that exposes a human body to be the breeding ground of a
“gusanero,” a beast of a fly that attacks you, you know not when, till
after three or four months you know that he has done so, by the swelling
up of the bitten part into a fair-sized boil, from which issues a maggot
of perhaps an inch and a half in length. I have heard it said that the
bite of a mosquito is beneficial, as it thins the blood of a dweller in
swampy tropical regions; but if this were so, they might be arranged to
carry out this beneficial design without causing exquisite pain to the
party operated upon; but the theory is an incorrect one, for there are
spots on the banks of the Amazonian rivers where there would be much less
fever if the countless hosts of mosquitoes or “carapanas,” “gusaneros,”
“marigueys” and “tavernas,” could be exterminated. The ant tribes are
also very numerous and objectionable, coming raiding at times in such
numbers that there is nothing left to do, but, snatching up your clothes
and bedding as quickly as you may, make tracks to a new location. The
larger ants are very venomous, their bite causing intense pain, equal
almost to that caused by scorpions or centipedes, which, also, are pretty
numerous in the dead wood and rotting leaves of the forest. Snakes,
also, are plentiful, the deadly coral snake, and a yellow and black
fellow called the “tiger,” being the species most frequently met with.
The former is seldom seen more than about a foot in length, while the
latter is frequently met with eight or ten feet long and four to six
inches in diameter. A list of these insect and reptile plagues gives a
rather horrible idea of the district, but the annoyances are lost sight
of in the excitement and pleasure caused by travelling through new
solitudes and territories so far removed from all civilization; and at
nightfall, when on the march, one lays down perfectly at one’s ease on
an outstretched hide, without giving a thought to any of the venomous
creatures that possibly pass over the sleeper just as they would over
a log of wood intervening in their path. A good mosquito-net, or bar,
as it is sometimes called, is a perfect safeguard to the intrusion of
any of these creatures, provided that the falling sides and ends are
well secured from being raised by wind during the night: but I would
especially advise a traveller to avoid the ordinary net that outfitters
and others always recommend so strongly. The mariguey of the Madeira is
about the size of a midge, and will lodge on the net, and having walked
inside will torment the inmate beyond belief. The only materials that
circumvent him entirely, and yet allow for ventilation, are ordinary
figured muslins, or a thin blue unglazed calico with a small check
pattern, both of which can be had in Pará at moderate prices.