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#25 The banks of the Japura River, in the province of Rio
Negro, today in the State of Para, at the time when the waters recede.
Latin translation by
Ben Hennelly
In etching #25 is seen the region of the upper Japura (most
Indians call this river Yapura), above the Cupatinensian waterfall (1), such as
it appeared as I traveled upstream in January, when the riverbed was
pretty well emptied of its waters. The banks of the river, which are
for the most part inundated when the water level is high, now are seen
free; in some places they present sloping sandy or clayey sides to view,
and in others, though less often, display a sandstone spread flat rather
like soil, whitish and granular. Buried here and there on the banks
lie pieces of wood dropped into the river, variously affected by rot.
In the soil, which is
not watered very fully by the river's waters, annual grasses shoot up
quickly, or other perennial species that grow in tufts put out their
numerous stalks, soon to flower. In corners, social species of Carludovica often appear in great number, whose bipartite leaves adorn the ground
with a cheerful green. In greater abundance here than in the river's
lower realm, one finds spiny, broadly woven and interwoven bushes of Smilax papyracea Poir. Grisenb., commonly known as Salsaparilha (2).
It thrives in the lowest spots along the river, and other twining bushes
together with dense bramble thickets, which, often bearing magnificent
flowers, are deprived of their foundation where the sandy bank gives
out, and bend down into the river's waters, now not very deep or clear.
Little islands emerge from the water in scattered spots, some lifeless,
others supporting shrubs or small trees not easily carried away by the
flooding. These are the principal things set before the kind reader
here. There is no reason for me to speak at length here about the nature
and character of the vegetation along the Japura
River; I refer the reader to the descriptions in my other publications (3).
I do add, however, that
it can be established that the vegetation along this river changes as
the level of the ground rises, so that, in this region that I myself
traveled through, two stages or steps might be established, in each
of which the vegetation exhibits a distinct character. In the lower
section through which Japura passes, from the river's mouth in the Solimoes,
the plant life is generally the same as along the Amazon
River, the deepest region of this same great valley. The banks
are adorned with the very same trees that compose the shoreline forest,
or Ygabo, along the Amazon's stream; such a forest
is also not altogether lacking along the Cupatensian waterfalls.
Solid rock comes to the
light almost nowhere here. Between the Cupatensian waterfalls
-- formed, as I said, from white, finely granular sandstone -- and the
great waterfall at Arara-Coara,
where the river cuts
through red, coarse-grained granite, the ground
rises a little; here and there living rock juts out, and the vegetation
gradually assumes another character. Smaller trees, with branches less
extended and narrower crowns, do not form a forest so impure, monstrous,
so defiled and polluted, as it were, as the forest right near the primary
river. Rather, it is similar to the forest the inhabitants name Ybyrete, the inland forest.
The foliage is brighter,
the shape of the trees more uniform. A great many epiphytes are seen, such as magnificent Orchideae and Aroideae,  Cyclanthaceae and Musaceae, including
that full Pacova Sororoca or Urania amazonica (4), many small, reed-like
palms and tree-like grasses, flowering Gesneraceae, Melastomaceae, Clusiaceae, Marcgraviaceae, Swartzieae, Brownea with its large,
scarlet flower and other splendid Leguminosae;
among the palms' tall trunks are numerous species of Iriartea, Bactris, Astrocaryus and Lepidocaryus.
This vegetation stays the same throughout the whole other stage, and
is altered only on the peaks of the mountains Cupati and Arara-Coara,
where already a humbler, wide wandering vegetation intercedes (even
species of Cinchona),
which can be compared with the vegetation, called Ceja de la montana by Spanish settlers, that sprouts up in elevated locations at sunset.
#25 of 42 expedition commentaries
 
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