Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v1.djvu/256

 patches. Their total length is about 40 miles. In the rear, towards the interior, they are succeeded by other ranges of hills communicating with the central mountain chain of Guiana, which divides Brazil from Cayenne.

As we sailed along the southern shore, during the 6th and two following days, the table-topped hills on the opposite side occupied most of our attention. The river is from four to five miles broad, and in some places long, low wooded islands intervene in midstream, whose light-green, vivid verdure formed a strangely beautiful foreground to the glorious landscape of broad stream and grey mountain. Ninety miles beyond Almeyrim stands the village of Monte Alegre, which is built near the summit of the last hill visible of this chain. At this point the river bends a little towards the south, and the hilly country recedes from its shores to re-appear at Obydos, greatly decreased in height, about a hundred miles further west. Twenty-five miles to the south-west of Monte Alegre, high land again appears, but now on the opposite side of the river. This is the northernmost limit of the table-land of Brazil, as the hills of Monte Alegre are the southernmost of that of Guiana. In no other part of the river do the high lands on each side approach each other so closely. Beyond Obydos they gradually recede, and the width of the river valley consequently increases, until in the central parts of the Upper Amazons, near Ega, it is no less than 540 miles. At this point, therefore, the valley or river plain of the Amazons is contracted to its narrowest