Brazil, the Amazons and the coast .. . f the floods, as on theraised Amazonian borders. We observe, what has oftenbeen noticed elsewhere, that there are two types of vegeta-tion, marking the high and low varzea banks ; * on the for-mer, for instance, the urucury palm t grows abundantly, buton the lower ground its place is taken by the javary. X As it * Or high varzea, and low ygapo. + Attalea excelsa. X Astrocaryum javari. THE MAECURU. 353 generally happens that there are high banks on one side, andlow ones on the other, we commonly see the two kinds ofpalms collected on opposite shores. Rarel
Brazil, the Amazons and the coast .. . f the floods, as on theraised Amazonian borders. We observe, what has oftenbeen noticed elsewhere, that there are two types of vegeta-tion, marking the high and low varzea banks ; * on the for-mer, for instance, the urucury palm t grows abundantly, buton the lower ground its place is taken by the javary. X As it * Or high varzea, and low ygapo. + Attalea excelsa. X Astrocaryum javari. THE MAECURU. 353 generally happens that there are high banks on one side, andlow ones on the other, we commonly see the two kinds ofpalms collected on opposite shores. Rarely, a point of lowterra firme comes down to the river, and then the picture ischanged altogether ; thick forest takes the place of the palmsand bamboos ; the grass disappears along the waters edge,and great branches reach out over it, leaving shady depthsbeneath. We pass the little settlements of Ciiriniatd and Pcry,each with three or four thatched houses ; after this there areno more signs of habitation until we reach Lake Maripd, six. miles above the Paituna. The lake communicates with theriver by a little, swift-flowing igarape, which is too shallowfor our canoe ; so one of the men explores along the bankuntil he finds two fishermen, into whose small boat we crowd,the gunwale hardly an inch above the water. A quarter of amile up the igarape, we emerge into the lake, one of thosebeautiful sheets of water that are forever surprising the trav-eller, when he looks only for dry land or shallow varzeapools. Lake Maripa is almost surrounded by terra firme : 354 BRAZIL. ridges, fifty or sixty feet high, rising steeply from thewater in half a dozen places ; but between them there aregreat tracts of varzea meadow and woods, stretching back farinto the interior. At least one great island of high land iscut off, between the lake and the river. The whole regionis but another illustration of what we have seen on the Cu-rua : terra firme and varzea mingled in inextricable confu-sion, as if
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbrazild, bookyear1879
