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Cornugaya Directory 08
Page 04
More interesting to me than the river itself were the wonderful effects
of the ever-changing light in the sky. I saw no more the wonderful
radiations which had given me so much pleasure in Matto Grosso, but we
beheld here a great haze of delicate tones up to a great height and a
light blue sky above it. The clouds seemed to possess no well-defined
form, but were more like masses of mist, the edges blending gradually
with the blue of the sky. Only to the west was there an attempt at
globular formation in the clouds. The clouds of heavy smoke which rose
and rolled about over the landscape helped to render the otherwise
monotonous scene a little more picturesque.
The water of the stream was of a dirty yellow, and very turbulent owing
to the strong wind that was blowing and the violent current. Proceeding
up stream, we then came to a hill 300 ft. high on the right, which ended
abruptly in an almost vertical red and yellow cliff plunging into the
water. On the opposite side of the river, along the narrow neck, were
lowlands, quite open and scantily wooded, over which rose great columns
of black smoke, caused by the natives burning down the forest in order to
prepare the land for their plantations. It was at this point that the
entire volume of the Amazon could be gauged at a glance. As you looked up
stream a long bluish line of low forest could be perceived over the
gradually expanding deep yellow river. Dozens upon dozens of columns of
smoke were visible. When night came the effects of those forest fires,
with the reflection of the light upon the low clouds and in the water,
were very weird and beautiful.
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