Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v1.djvu/255

 arms or back waters of the Amazons, which are called in the Tupí language Paraná-mirims or little rivers. By keeping to these, small canoes can travel great part of the distance without being much exposed to the heavy seas of the main river. The coast throughout has a most desolate aspect: the forest is not so varied as on the higher land; and the water frontage, which is destitute of the green mantle of climbing plants that form so rich a decoration in other parts, is encumbered at every step with piles of fallen trees, peopled by white egrets, ghostly storks, and solitary herons. In the evening we passed Almeyrim. The hills, according to Von Martius, who landed here, are about 800 feet above the level of the river and are thickly wooded to the summit. They commence on the east by a few low isolated and rounded elevations; but towards the west of the village they assume the appearance of elongated ridges, which seem to have been planed down to a uniform height by some external force. The next day we passed in succession a series of similar flat-topped hills, some isolated and of a truncated-pyramidal shape, others prolonged to a length of several miles. There is an interval of low country between these and the Almeyrim range, which has a total length of about 25 miles: then commences abruptly the Serra de Marauaquá, which is succeeded in a similar way by the Velha Pobre range, the Serras de Tapaiuna-quára, and Parauá-quára. All these form a striking contrast to the Serra de Almeyrim in being quite destitute of trees. They have steep, rugged sides, apparently clothed with short herbage, but here and there exposing bare white