Produced by Chuck Greif, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was made using scans of public domain works from the University of Michigan Digital Libraries.) [Transcriber's note: The accentuation and spelling of the original has been retained. This may at times seem variable: e.g., manati and manati. Greek transliterations appear between + signs. This symbol: [=o], which appears once to represent the letter o with a line above it. Italics are indicated by under-scores, as in this example: _NEW YORK:_. The illustrations are viewable in the XHTML version.] [Illustration: PALMS ON THE MIDDLE AMAZON.] THE ANDES AND THE AMAZON: OR, ACROSS THE CONTINENT OF SOUTH AMERICA. By JAMES ORTON, M.A. PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY IN VASSAR COLLEGE, POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y., AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, PHILADELPHIA. _WITH A NEW MAP OF EQUATORIAL AMERICA AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS._ _NEW YORK:_ HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 1870. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. * * * * * TO CHARLES DARWIN, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S., WHOSE PROFOUND RESEARCHES HAVE THROWN SO MUCH LIGHT UPON EVERY DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE, AND WHOSE CHARMING "VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE" HAS SO PLEASANTLY ASSOCIATED HIS NAME WITH OUR SOUTHERN CONTINENT, THESE SKETCHES OF THE ANDES AND THE AMAZON ARE, BY PERMISSION, MOST RESPECTFULLY Dedicated. * * * * * "Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my mind, none exceed in sublimity the primeval forests undefaced by the hand of man; whether those of Brazil, where the powers of Life are predominant, or those of Terra del Fuego, where Death and Decay prevail. Both are temples filled with the varied productions of the God of Nature: no one can stand in these solitudes unmoved, and not feel that there is more in man than the mere breath of his body."--DARWIN'S _Journal_, p. 503. PREFACE.