Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/50

 fordable when the waters are low. To the east my rambles extended to the banks of the Mahicá inlet. This enters the Amazons about three miles below Santarem, where the clear stream of the Tapajos begins to be discoloured by the turbid waters of the main river. The broad, placid channel of the Mahicá separates the Tapajos mainland from the alluvial low lands of the great river plain. It communicates in the interior with other inlets, and the whole forms a system of inland water-paths navigable by small vessels from Santarem to the river Curuá, forty miles distant. The Mahicá has a broad margin of rich, level pasture, limited on each side by the straight, tall hedge of forest. On the Santarem side it is skirted by high wooded ridges. A landscape of this description always produced in me an impression of sadness and loneliness which the riant virgin forests that closely hedge in most of the by-waters of the Amazons never created. The pastures are destitute of flowers, and also of animal life, with the exception of a few small plain-coloured birds and solitary Caracára eagles whining from the topmost branches of dead trees on the forest borders. A few settlers have built their palm-thatched and mud-walled huts on the banks of the Mahicá, and occupy themselves chiefly in tending small herds of cattle. They seemed to be all wretchedly poor. The oxen however, though small, were sleek and fat, and the district most promising for agricultural and pastoral employments. In the wet season the waters gradually rise and cover the meadows, but there is plenty of room for the removal of the cattle to higher ground. The lazy and