Copenhagen, shout their affectionate and proud farewell in the national anthem : Oh, Iceland, fire's twin-birth, Belovéd foster earth, Fair mountain queen ; Thy sons shall cherish thee, Over the swaying stretches of the North Atlantic, colder, more cheerless, more storm-roused than a threemonth since, away to the Faroe Islands again. And one evening, while our boat, sheltered behind the curving shore of a bold headland, waits for the fog to lift, the Faroese peasants on deck join hands and, in a circle, begin their national dance. In slow measure of step and voice, the dance and chant proceed. It is only a slower, heavier merry-go-round, such as we remember from our boyhood. The words are unintelligible, all save the refrain accompanying each verse, and the Icelanders on board are in equal ignorance. But a Faroese interprets; 'tis some old folk-tale, transmitted in oral strophes from a remote past. As the song proceeds, the motion becomes more energetic, more varied; the women remain, however, only solemnly stepping participants. And, with the fog veiling all of the Faroese mountains, save their base, trailing along the bay and diffusing through the atmosphere as intangible rain, the weird chant draws to its end and, for the last time, we hear that "Guthmundr raedr hvar vith drekkum naesta Jól:" Gudmund decides where we shall drink our next Yule-horn. SOME NOTES ON THE UPPER AMAZON. BY COURTENAY DE KALB. The following extracts from my notes, collected dur ing a journey which I made up the river Amazon in the winter of 1889-90, having special reference to the geography of the region, are submitted with the hope that they may prove of value by adding some new facts, and also by serving to correct a few cartographica errors which came within my observation. 1. Towns.--A. Towns which no longer exist, but are still represented on maps. CHIRRHUI; abandoned in 1876. SAN IGNACIO; obliterated many years ago. BORJA; destroyed by the Indians about 1825; par tially rebuilt by some Christianized Indians a few years later; finally abandoned in 1854 or 1855. There is not even a trace of a house remaining, and the forest has completely overgrown the site of the ancient pueblo. SANTIAGO; This town, which was on the west side of the eastern cordillera of the Andes, was destroyed at the same time as Borja, and has never been rebuilt. These two latter towns, together with Limon and others, formed a series of military posts to keep open communication with the towns in the valley stretching northward from the Amazon between the eastern and western cordilleras, i. e., the valley of the Santiago, where the Spaniards are said to have maintained extensive gold washings. B. Towns recently built, and not shown on the maps. ISLANDIA; on the Peruvian bank of the Rio Javary, four miles from the Amazon. POMBAL; on the Peruvian side of the same river, two miles farther up. CONCEIÇÃO; on the Brazilian side of the Javary, thirty miles above Pombal. NAZARETO MORÃO; on Brazilian territory, at the junction of the Rio Javary and the Rio Itacoahy (wrongly named Tecuachy by Stieler), ten miles above Conceição. SANTA CRUZ; four miles farther up, on the Peruvian side of the river. TRINIDADE; on the Brazilian bank of the Javary, fifteen miles farther on. NATIVIDADE; also on the Brazilian side, three miles beyond Trinidade. These towns on the Rio Javary have grown with great rapidity, owing to the abundance of rubber in the forests of this locality. The population along the Javary and its important tributary, the Itacoahy, has become so large that the regular monthly steamers from Pará to Iquitos always turn aside to land and receive cargo from the ports above mentioned. SAN ENRIQUE; on the east bank of the Rio Huallaga, about sixty miles from its mouth. SAN ISIDRO; on the north bank of the Amazon, about a half mile east of the Island del Baradero. San Isidro was named in honor of the patron saint of Peruvian agriculture, and must not be confounded with San Isidoro. PIEDRA LISA; on the north side of the Amazon, about one mile west of the embouchure of the Rio Pastassa. SHAPÁJA; about four miles west of San Antonio, on the south bank of the Amazon. It is named after a palm, bearing a large edible nut, which grows very abundantly on the "Alto Marañon," as that part of the Amazon west of the junction with the Rio Huallaga is locally termed. CARAVANCHÉL; on the north side of the Amazon, about five miles west of Shapája. PARINÁRI; formerly did exist, as the maps show, on the south side of the Amazon, but was destroyed by fire several years ago, and has been rebuilt, a mile or more to the westward on the opposite, or north, shore. ISLA DEL BARADERO; this large island is usually represented as dividing the current of the Amazon just below the mouth of the Rio Pastassa, and as having the main channel on the north side. This is wrong. The entire tide of the Amazon flows in an enormous bend on the south side of the island, while the channel on the north side is one of those canals, or "canoe paths," so common in the Valley of the Amazon, this one beginning in the Rio Pastassa a mile from its mouth, and leading by a very circuitous route of ten miles in length into the Amazon, just above San Isidro. The name of Baradero is obsolescent, being entirely unknown to all but a few of the oldest inhabitants. The current name for the island is LLUICHU, which signifies "a deer." RIO AICHI-YACU; usually shown as a large stream. flowing into the Amazon from the south, a few miles west of Barranca. This river should be called the Rio Potro, to which the Aichi-Yacu is tributary, being in fact the west branch of the Potro. RIO APAGA; instead of uniting with the Amazon at the elbow of the great southward bend west of the Rio Morona, empties into it immediately to the eastward of the bend, as shown in the accompanying cut. RIO CANGAZO; this river has never, to my knowledge, been noticed by any geographers. Within a few miles of the Andes the Amazon swings off toward the north, and then returns in a south-westerly course to the cataract, or PONGO DE MANSERICHE. Near the northern limit of this bend begins a wide canal, or "canoe path," which extends in a north-easterly direction to the Rio Morona. Along the north-west side of the triangular island thus formed extends a remarkably level ridge entirely disconnected from the Andean system. This ridge is called the SIERRA DE HERAGA. The Indians who annually cross over from the valley of the Santiago utilize it as a convenient overland route to the excellent |