WILLIAM BUTLER OGDEN, F.A.G.S.

Ships going to Pará, as a general rule, lay their course so as to make a land fall at or near Point Salinas Light, the reason being that off the Point lies the pilot-boat. Salinas consists of a few houses and the light-house, and is about thirty miles to the southward of Bragança Shol, which lies at the entrance of the Pará River. The pilots are all Indians, civilized, of course, and very good men in their way. They wear a blue uniform with brass buttons, and the sharpest of Brazilian sharppointed shoes, and altogether they are great dandies.

Having sighted Salinas and taken on our pilot about ten o'clock in the evening of a June day in 1888, our passengers were much surprised the next morning to find themselves rolling about outside Bragança Shoal, instead of being well up in the Pará River. It appeared that, being unable to find the light-ship stationed on the bank, the ship had come to anchor to wait for daylight. About five o'clock we commenced moving, and after several miles we passed a small Brazilian schooner at

anchor, which proved to be a temporary light-ship, the other being at Pará for repairs. This vessel at night showed a small light, visible, perhaps, three miles, whereas the shoal extended ten miles beyond. No trouble had been taken to send down word to the pilots, and ours, who had been on the station six weeks, was, of course, ignorant of any change.

As we moved up the river land began to appear on the south side, mostly a tangled mass of palms, with here and there a bit of sand gleaming in the tropical sun. The north shore is not visible till one gets quite a little way up, when the banks of Marajo Island appear, showing the same tangled mass of palms, vines and mangrove bushes, all struggling, fighting, killing each other even, in their endeavors to obtain a share of the life-giving sunlight. The river itself is full of yellow mud, which gives it a rather sullen look.

Standing on the bridge one begins to notice a faint, deliciously exhilarating perfume in the air, growing stronger the farther up the river we proceed. Take in all you can while you can, you will never have another chance unless you enter Pará River from the sea again. It does not exist in any of the other parts of Brazil and the breezes of Ceylon are the only things that approach it.

Small fishing boats pass by, rigged with two masts, and their bows and sterns at right angles to their sides, with the whole family as crew, most of them naked, their bronze skins glistening in the sun. Now and then up several brick

a palm-thatch hut appears, and farther and tile factories, the houses painted many colors and with red tile roofs. The little round fort appears in

sight with a few antiquated guns frowning from the battlements, looking as if they would explode if they were fired. They were fired some years ago when the Emperor paid a visit to his northern capital, and it is said that no powder being forthcoming from the maga zine or the town, the Emperor had to wait at the bar twenty-four hours while he sent up powder for his loyal, if careless, subjects, to salute him with.

A ship, on coming to anchor off Pará, is immedi ately surrounded by Portuguese boatmen, who, as soon as "pratique" is given, commence calling and shouting to the passengers to employ them in going ashore. Their boats are broad, very strongly built and capable of carrying great weight. Many of them are built in Portugal and imported into Brazil; those so built being considered stronger and better made. The boatmen themselves are almost entirely Portuguese, and as a rule are a very trustworthy and hard working lot of men. They come to Brazil with very much the same purpose that the Chinese have in coming to America, namely, to make enough money in a few years of hard and unremitting labor to enable them to return to Portugal and live in ease and enjoyment. They are very sober and frugal in their habits, and soon leave the water to become small shopkeepers and the like. Steam launches also come out filled with officials, foreigners, and the principal merchants of the place to look after business, but also to get iced drinks. Though there are so many foreigners in Pará, and so much foreign intercourse with the place, there is no ice made or imported there. There used to be an ice factory, but it died from lack of patronage; there not

being enough consumed by the foreigners to make it pay, the Brazilians using it hardly at all. It is rather trying on a freshly landed stranger to be in a place as hot nearly as New York in July or August and be unable to get a cool drink of water, beer, or anything, for love or money. It seems strange that the native water jars should not be made of porous clay like the "chattis" of India and, in fact, the Eastern world generally. After four or five days' enforced abstinence, however, one gets used to it, and after a month or six weeks ice is rather distasteful, if anything, or at any rate is not looked upon as a prime necessity.

The water opposite Pará is about a mile wide, but the other shore is several miles further, and not visible because of the large islands which intervene. In fact, between Manáos and the mouth of the Amazon the two banks are not seen save at Ita Coatiara and Obidos. It should be said here, perhaps, that the Pará is not a mouth of the Amazon, but rather of the Tocantins, although they are all connected by small channels. The tides here are so strong that at times it is impossible to pull boats against them, and it is at ary t'me a difficult task. For this reason steam launches are in great demand, and all the shipping-houses have them. Steamers wishing to go to sea must always wait the food tide.

To leave the shore at any time, permission must be had from the Custom-house officials, and after eight o'clock in the evening a small tax must be paid, in the shape of an internal revenue stamp, which must be delivered on board the guard-boat anchored in the stream.

The city of Pará, seen from the river, looks very