The steamers and boats which set out from Manáos or Belém for the Interior, make the passage generally, over-charged with merchandise which by reason of accumulation and its defective packing suffers not rarely serious damages which has the result of bringing about a notable increment in prices. As a general rule the cargo being greater than the space requisite to its accommodation, makes the navigation extremely difficult, the steamers thus not being able to make head-way against the current, which flows at the rate of from 3 to 5 miles an hour, or desiring to diminish the expense in the consumption of coal, seek out the waters the less agitated and approach as much as possible the banks of the river. The want of minute hydrographic charts and the imprudence of the captains, as also of the masters of steam launches and other floating material, have, as a consequence, the bringing about of frequent strandings, which even though they may not cause damage to the cargo involve interruptions in the trip sufficiently prejudicial. The unloadings are made frequently on the banks of the rivers under little favorable conditions, by reason of the want of wharves; are very slow and occasion besides lamentable delays, very heavy expenses principally for the packages of great weight. One of the causes which most determine the dearness of transport in Amazonia, is the supply of combustibles to the steamers, these latter taking in coal only at the port of departure in Belém or Manáos, and this being consumed, purchase wood fuel along the route just as they require it, and for a high price, subjecting themselves thus to the delays incident to loading, at times very great. Coal mines in the basin of the Caquetá have been discovered, but so far it has not been possible to derive any benefit from them, owing to the want of the necessary studies and analysis, which only now the Federal Government is beginning to have made. For the betterment of this state of things the Federal Government also pretends to contract with a large public company for the establishment of coal depots and combustible oil, at the most appropriate points of the rivers on which the greatest movement takes place in the valley of the Amazon, so that the steamers may be supplied for prices according to a tabular statement previously approved for each year. The descent of the floating material by the rivers is much less onerous, as the consumption of combustibles is thereby considerably diminished, thanks to the current which gives an easy impulsion to the floating material; the trips are notwithstanding slow, much time being lost in picking up cargo, almost exclusively rubber, on the banks of the rivers.