Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/399

 Purús, the first met with in ascending the Solimoens. I gleaned very little information concerning the Jutahí, which was not visited much by traders, but, as far as I could learn, its banks were peopled by nearly the same wild tribes as those of the next parallel stream, the Juruá, about which I gathered a good deal from my friend John da Cunha, who ascended it as far as it was navigable on a trading expedition. The Juruá flows wholly through a flat country covered with light-green forests, and its waters are tinged ochreous, by the quantity of clayey and earthy matter held in suspension, like those of the Solimoens. At the end of the navigation there is a road by land to the Purús, the two great streams being there only about thirty or forty miles distant from each other. The Jutahí must be a much shorter river than the Juruá, for, as Senhor Cunha told me, the Coníbos, an advanced tribe of agricultural Indians living on the banks of the Juruá near its source, have at that point a direct road by land to the Ucayáli, which must pass to the south of the sources both of the Jutahí and Jauarí, the two rivers lying between the Juruá and Ucayáli. Eight distinct tribes of Indians inhabit the banks of the Juruá, all of which, except the most remote (the Coníbos) pass overland to the Jutahí. Each tribe has its peculiar language, and to a great extent, also its peculiar customs. I heard, however, of no new feature in Indian character or customs, except