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Show PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 421 of the Amazons, are fir t met with below the cataracts of Mayasi. These unwieldy and slothful monsters generally prefer the more tranquil waters. According to my measurements, the Rio de Chamaya, from the Ford (Paso) de Pucara to the place where it enters the Amazon River below the village of Choros, has a fall (B) of 1668 (1778 English) feet in the short space of 52 English geographical miles. The Governor of the province of J aen de Bracamoros as ured me that letters carried by this singular water-post were rarely either wetted or lost. Soon after my return to Europe from Mexico, I received, in Paris, letters from Tomependa, which had been sent in the manner above described. Several tribes of wild Indians, living on the banks of the Upper Amazons, make their journeys in a similar manner, swimming down the stream sociably in parties. I had the opportunity of seeing in this manner, in the bed of the river, the heads of thirty or forty persons (men, women, and children), of the tribe of the Xibaros, on their arrival at Tomependa. The "Correo que nada" returns by land by the difficult route of the Paramo del Paredon. On approaching the hot climate of the basin of the Amazons, the eye is cheered by the aspect of a beautiful, and occasionally very luxuriant vegetation. We had never before, not even in the Canaries, or on the hot sea-coast of Cumana and Caraccas, seen finer orange trees than those of the Huertas de Pucara. They were principally the sweet orange (Citrus aurantium, Risso), and less frequently the bitter or Seville orange (C. vulgaris, Riso). Laden with many thousands of their golden fruits, they attain a height of sixty or sixty-four English feet; and, instead of rounded tops or crowns, have aspiring branches, almost like a laurel or bay tree. Not far from thence, near the Ford of Cavico, we were surprised by a very unexpected sight. We saw a grove of small trees, only about eighteen or nineteen English feet high, which, instead of green, had apparently perfectly red or rose-colored leaves. It was a new species of Bougainvillrea, a genus first established by the elder J ussieu, from a Brazilian specimen in Commerson's herbarium. The trees were almost entirely without true leaves, as what we took for ~eaves at a distance, proved to be thickly crowded bracteas. The appearance was altogether different, in the purity and freshness of the color, 36 |