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The beds of Tabatinga clay, which are here intermingled
with scoria-looking conglomerate, are in some parts of the
declivity prettily variegated in colour; the name of the town in
the Tupi language, Ita-coatiara, takes its origin from this
circumstance, signifying striped or painted rock. It is an old
settlement, and was once the seat of the district government,
which had authority over the Barra of the Rio Negro. It was in
1849 a wretched-looking village, but it has since revived, on
account of having been chosen by the Steamboat Company of the
Amazons as a station for steam saw-mills and tile manufactories.
We arrived on Christmas Eve, when the village presented an
animated appearance from the number of people congregated for the
holidays. The port was full of canoes, large and small, from the
montaria, with its arched awning of woven lianas and Maranta
leaves, to the two-masted cuberta of the peddling trader, who had
resorted to the place in the hope of trafficking with settlers
coming from remote sitios to attend the festival.


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