13. From 1531 till 1823 Brazil was a colony of Portugal. In 1831 the father of the present emperor abdicated in favour of his son, then only five years of age. The empire was governed by a regency till 1840, when the present emperor was declared to have attained his majority. The history of his reign is written in the rapid development of the resources of the empire, the erection of public works, the growth of commerce, the abolition of the traffic in slaves, and the provision made for their gradual emancipation, the encouragement given to immigrants, and the establishment of a complete system of education.

LESSON LXVII.

THE AMAZON AND ITS BASIN. THE FORESTS.

1. This giant among the rivers of the earth takes its rise among the glaciers of the Cordilleras in Peru. After emerging from the Andes, swelled by many tributary streams, it winds its way through the vast savannas of Brazil till it has run a course of nearly four thousand miles to the Atlantic Ocean. Before reaching the sea the vast flood is fifty miles wide, and in mid-channel the opposite coasts are not visible. It seems more like a freshwater sea than a lake, and navigation is often dangerous on account of the tempests which overtake vessels before they can reach the shore.

2. Near its mouth a vehement struggle takes place between the river flowing down and the tide running up. During three days preceding the new and full moons— the period of the highest tide-the sea, instead of occupying six hours to reach its flood, swells to its highest limits in two or three minutes. Presently you see a liquid promontory twelve or fifteen feet high followed by a second and a third, and sometimes a fourth. The watery hills spread across the whole channel, and advance with amazing rapidity, rending and crushing everything in their way. Immense trees are sometimes uprooted by it, and sometimes whole tracts of land are swept away."

3. While the tide is felt four hundred miles up the river, the current of the river is perceptible two hundred miles out to sea, and such is the velocity with which the river pours its waters into the ocean, that navigators, after losing sight of land, may yet drink of its waters, its volume overlying—so it is said—the surface of the ocean for fifty leagues from shore.

4. For the last four hundred and fifty miles of its course it is never less than four miles wide, while the depth is so great that vessels may go up the channel for 2,000 miles and still be in forty fathoms of water. The river and its tributaries are navigable by steamers through an aggregate length of more than 25,000 miles, and by smaller craft for double that distance. The river is peculiarly fitted for navigation. The winds for six months in the year usually oppose the current, so that a vessel can either float down the river by taking advantage of the latter, or ascend by the aid of the sails. Flowing, however, through a region very scantily peopled, there are but few vessels seen upon its surface, as compared with such a river as the Mississippi.

5. Including its tributaries, the Amazon drains an area of two and a half millions of square miles, or more than a third part of South America, including a fourth part of Brazil. The chief tributaries of the Amazon are in themselves mighty rivers, having courses of 1,000 to 2,000 miles. The Ucayali, the largest tributary of the Upper Amazon, flows through the wooded plains of eastern Peru. This tributary has some claim to be considered the main stream, being 320 miles longer than the corresponding upper portion of the trunk river. The other main streams on the right bank are the Purus, the Madeira, the Tapajoz, and the Xingu. On the left bank the Rio Negro is the principal affluent.

6. The river and its tributaries abound in fish and turtles, while the alligators, which are also numerous, may be often seen floating on the surface like great logs of wood, or lying asleep on the muddy shores or sandpits, which here and there relieve the terrible monotony of the ever-umbrageous growth.

7. The region of the delta is but little raised above the sea-level. It is everywhere traversed by channels and creeks and lagoons of fresh water. Near the sea the

shores are covered with mangrove, relieved here and there by swamp-loving palms, and inland the plains are clothed with the lofty and impenetrable forest growth which distinguishes all the low-lying tropical lands of South America.

8. Characteristic of the valley of the Amazon above the delta are the wide grassy llanos; but patches of forest are seen here and there, and the banks of all the rivers are richly clothed. Further west are the selvas, or marshes, which the river periodically overflows, so that between the Madeira and the Negro, at the time of the annual rise, the river covers a great part of the adjacent country and has really no determinate limits.

9. Passing the mouths of the Madeira and Negro, we arrive at the great plain of the Upper Amazon, a level tract of country broken only by the great rivers, and better watered than any other region in the world. Here the forest entirely monopolises the ground to the entire exclusion of prairie. Nowhere else on the earth is there such a vast extent of unbroken forest.

10. Three features may be said to distinguish the Amazonian forests from the woodlands of Europe-the sprinkling of palms amid the masses of forest trees, the great diversity of species of trees, and the profuse growth of woody climbers. These climbing plants or "bush ropes "* have their roots in the earth, and, growing upwards with twining flexible stems, they cling to whatever they may find in their way and rear their scanty crown of foliage amid or above the leafy summit of the forest. This is their general character, but the diversity of their forms and manner of growth is infinite. Some assume the appearance of thin, cylindrical, woody stems, springing from the ground to a lofty bough, or clinging immediately to an adjoining tree and twining around and up it in innumerable folds. Others resemble ropes and cables, the thick woody fibres twisted like the * Called lianes by the French, and lianas by the Spaniards.

strands of hempen cordage, and the snake-like stems, varying from the thickness of a finger to that of a man's body, flourishing about in fantastic convolutions in midair, and finally losing themselves amid the topmost branches of neighbouring trees. Others, again, are broad and flattened like colossal ribbons, or indented and zigzag like wooden ladders. Often two or three of these monstrous growths, springing from independent roots, meet in mid-air and intertwine in the most varied and fantastic style on their way to the common goal-the free sunlight and air above the crowns of the erect forest trees, where alone they can unfold their leaves and develop their flowers and seeds. It is this varied interlacing, between the ground and the tree trunk, between tree and tree and branch and branch, which excites so much the wonder of the traveller, and causes that impenetrability which is always described as a characteristic of these tropical forests.

THE SOUTHERN STATES OF SOUTH AMERICA, BOLIVIA, ARGENTINE REPUBLIC, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND PATAGONIA.

1. Bolivia occupies a very peculiar geographical position. On the west she is almost cut off from the Pacific, while on the east Brazil interposes a vast extent of territory between her and the Atlantic. The short Pacific shore-line is nothing but a desert, whose changing sands render transit very difficult, and even dangerous, for man and beast. Here, shut up in the very heart of South America, is territory having an area seven times as large as England, and containing a population of over two millions.

2. The physical features of Bolivia are noted for their grandeur. The great chain of the Andes here branches out into mighty parallel ridges and spurs. The latter