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The Naturalist on the River Amazons by Henry Walter Bates
page 66 of 565 (11%)
the short local rivers have no sources and downward currents like
rivers as we generally understand them. They serve the purpose of
draining the land, but instead of having a constant current one
way, they have a regular ebb and flow with the tide. The natives
call them, in the Tupi language, Igarapes, or canoe-paths. The
igarapes and furos or channels, which are infinite in number in
this great river delta, are characteristic of the country. The
land is everywhere covered with impenetrable forests; the houses
and villages are all on the waterside, and nearly all
communication is by water. This semi-aquatic life of the people
is one of the most interesting features of the country. For short
excursions, and for fishing in still waters, a small boat, called
montaria, is universally used. It is made of five planks; a broad
one for the bottom, bent into the proper shape by the action of
heat, two narrow ones for the sides, and two small triangular
pieces for stem and stern. It has no rudder; the paddle serves
for both steering and propelling. The montaria takes here the
place of the horse, mule, or camel of other regions. Besides one
or more montarias, almost every family has a larger canoe, called
igarite. This is fitted with two masts, a rudder, and keel, and
has an arched awning or cabin near the stern, made of a framework
of tough lianas thatched with palm leaves. In the igarite they
will cross stormy rivers fifteen or twenty miles broad. The
natives are all boat-builders. It is often remarked, by white
residents, that an Indian is a carpenter and shipwright by
intuition. It is astonishing to see in what crazy vessels these
people will risk themselves. I have seen Indians cross rivers in
a leaky montaria, when it required the nicest equilibrium to keep
the leak just above water; a movement of a hair's breadth would
send all to the bottom, but they managed to cross in safety. They
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