Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/137

 creek became dry with the continued subsidence of the Cuparí, the time of rising shifting a little from day to day. I pointed out the circumstance to Joaõ Aracú, who had not noticed it before (it was only his second year of residence in the locality), but agreed with me that it must be the "maré." Yes, the tide! the throb of the great oceanic pulse felt in this remote corner, 530 miles distant from the place where it first strikes the body of fresh water at the mouth of the Amazons. I hesitated at first at this conclusion, but on reflecting that the tide was known to be perceptible at Obydos, more than 400 miles from the sea; that at high water in the dry season a large flood from the Amazons enters the mouth of the Tapajos, and that there is but a very small difference of level between that point and the Cuparí, a fact shown by the absence of current in the dry season; I could have no doubt that this conclusion was a correct one.

The fact of the tide being felt 530 miles up the Amazons, passing from the main stream to one of its affluents 380 miles from its mouth, and thence to a branch in the third degree, is a proof of the extreme flatness of the land which forms the lower part of the Amazonian valley. This uniformity of level is shown also in the broad lake-like expanses of water formed near their mouths by the principal affluents which cross the valley to join the main river.

August 21st.—Joaõ Aracú consented to accompany me to the falls with one of his men, to hunt and fish for me. One of my objects was to obtain specimens of the hyacinthine macaw, whose range commences on all