. The Andes and the Amazon :|bor across the continent of South America. smallschooners which occupy about five months in the roundtrip between Ega and Para. The place is healthy (writesthe charming Naturalist on the Amazon), and almost freefrom insect pests; perpetual verdure surrounds it, the soil isof marvelous fertility, even for Brazil; the endless riversand labyrinths of channels teem with fish and turtle ; a fleetof steamers might anchor at any season of the year in thelake, which has uninterrupted water communication straightto the Atlantic. What a future is in store for the sleepylittl
. The Andes and the Amazon :|bor across the continent of South America. smallschooners which occupy about five months in the roundtrip between Ega and Para. The place is healthy (writesthe charming Naturalist on the Amazon), and almost freefrom insect pests; perpetual verdure surrounds it, the soil isof marvelous fertility, even for Brazil; the endless riversand labyrinths of channels teem with fish and turtle ; a fleetof steamers might anchor at any season of the year in thelake, which has uninterrupted water communication straightto the Atlantic. What a future is in store for the sleepylittle tropical village! Here Bates pursued butterflies forfour years and a half, and Agassiz fished for six months. Ega is the half-way point across the continent, but itsexact altitude above the sea is unknown. Herndons boil-ing apparatus gave two thousand feet, and, what is worse,the lieutenant believed it. Our barometer made it onehundred feet; but as our instrument, though perfect in it-self, behaved very strangely on the Middle Amazon, we do Baeometkic Anomaly. 241. not rely on the calculation. The true height is not farfrom one hundred and twenty-five feet, or one fifth the el-evation of the middle point in the ISTorth American conti-nent.* Taking on board salt fish, turtle-oil, and tiles, we * For a discussion of the barometric perturbations on tlie Amazon, seeAmerican Journal of Science for Sept., 18G8. 242 The Andes akd the A ma ton. left Ega two hours after midnight, reaching Coary atnoon. The Amazon began to look more like a lake thana river, having a width of four or five miles. Floatinggulls and rolling porpoises remind one of the sea. Coaryis a huddle of fifteen houses, six of them plastered with-out, whitewashed, and tiled. It is situated on a lake ofthe same name — the expanded outlet of a small riverwhose waters are dark brown, and whose banks are lowand covered with bushes. Here we took in turtles andturtle-oil, Brazil nuts and cocoa-nuts, rubber, salt fish, and
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