t countries in the world is totally neglected.

"Arrah!" said Barney, scratching his head and wrinkling his forehead
intensely, as all that we have just written, and a great deal more, was
told to him by a Scotch settler whom he found superintending a cattle
estate and a saw-mill on the banks of the Amazon--

"Faix, then, I'm jist as wise now as before ye begun to spake. I've no
head for fagures whatsumdiver; an' to tell me that the strame is
ninety-six miles long and three thousand miles broad at the mouth, and
sich like calcerlations, is o' no manner o' use, and jist goes in at wan
ear an' out at the tother."

Whereupon the Scotch settler smiled and said, "Well, then, if ye can
remember that the Amazon is longer than all Europe is broad; that it
opens up to the ocean not less than ten thousand miles of the interior
of Brazil; and that, _comparatively_ speaking, no use is made of it
whatever, ye'll remember enough to think about with profit for some time
to come."

And Barney did think about it, and ponder it, and revolve it in his
mind, for many days after, while he worked with Martin and the old
trader at the paddles of their montaria. They found the work of
canoeing easier than had been anticipated; for during the summer months
the wind blows steadily up the river, and they were enabled to hoist
their mat-sail, and bowl along before it against the stream.

Hotels and inns there were none; for Brazil does not boast of many such
conveniences, except in the chief towns; so they were obliged, in
travelling, to make use of an empty hut or shed, when they chanced to
stop at a village, and to cook their own victuals. More frequently,
however, they preferred to encamp in the woods--slinging their hammocks
between the stems of the trees, and making a fire sometimes, to frighten
away the jaguars, which, although seldom seen, were often heard at
night. They met large canoes and montarias occasionally coming down the
stream, and saw them hauled up on shore, while their owners were cooking
their breakfast in the woods; and once they came upon a solitary old
Indian in a very curious position. They had entered a small stream in
order to procure a few turtles' eggs, of which there were many in that
place buried in the sand-banks. On turning a point where the stream was
narrow and overhung with bushes and trees, they beheld a canoe tied to
the stem of a tree, and a hammock slung between two branches overhanging
the water.