The
forest is of a different character from that of the lower tracts:
it is rounder in outline, more uniform in its general aspect--
palms are much less numerous and of peculiar species--the strange
bulging-stemmed species, Iriartea ventricosa, and the slender,
glossy-leaved Bacaba-i (Oenocarpus minor), being especially
characteristic; and, in short, animal life, which imparts some
cheerfulness to the other parts of the river, is seldom apparent.
This "terra firme," as it is called, and a large portion of the
fertile lower land, seemed well adapted for settlement; some
parts were originally peopled by the aborigines, but these have
long since become extinct or amalgamated with the white
immigrants. I afterwards learned that there were not more than
eighteen or twenty families settled throughout the whole country
from Manacapuru to Quary, a distance of 240 miles; and these, as
before observed, do not live on the banks of the main stream, but
on the shores of inlets and lakes.
The fishermen twice brought me small rounded pieces of very
porous pumice-stone, which they had picked up floating on the
surface of the main current of the river.
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