The summit of the hill is grassy
table-land, of two or three hundred acres in extent. The soil is
not wholly clay, but partly sand and gravel; the village itself,
however, stands chiefly on clay, and the streets therefore after
heavy rains, become filled with muddy puddles. On damp nights the
chorus of frogs and toads which swarm in weedy back-yards creates
such a bewildering uproar that it is impossible to carry on a
conversation indoors except by shouting. My house was damper even
than the one I occupied at Fonte Boa, and this made it extremely
difficult to keep my collections from being spoilt by mould. But
the general humidity of the atmosphere in this part of the river
was evidently much greater than it is lower down; it appears to
increase gradually in ascending from the Atlantic to the Andes.
It was impossible at St. Paulo to keep salt for many days in a
solid state, which was not the case at Ega, when the baskets in
which it is contained were well wrapped in leaves. Six degrees
further westward, namely, at the foot of the Andes, the dampness
of the climate of the Amazonian forest region appears to reach
its acme, for Poeppig found at Chinchao that the most refined
sugar, in a few days, dissolved into syrup, and the best
gunpowder became liquid, even when enclosed in canisters.
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