side of the Huallaga. It is a pity that this situation, so well adapted for the establishment of a small pueblo for the breeding and care of cattle, should be neglected. From thence to Mayobamba the greater part of the road is unusually bad, and so soft that the mud is generally knee-deep; and but few tambos or ranchos,* to shelter the traveller during the night from the heavy rains so frequent in these parts.

The city of Mayobamba possesses one of the finest temperatures in Peru; the thermometer indicates but little change, and is somewhat lower than that of Tarapoto. The city itself is situated on an elevated plain, about a league long, and from a quarter to half a league in width, of a dry, sandy, loamy soil: from whatever direction you approach the city it is necessary to ascend. During the rainy season the water from the adjoining hills settles on the surrounding levels, and at times causes some slight tertianas, but they are not common. The river, which is a few quadras from the town, comes from the N. W. and W. N. W., and parallel with the range of hills on the north. From about three leagues below the town it is navigable for eight dayst towards its source, and on its banks are situated the chacras and labrancas. The produce and manufactures here are the same as those of Tarapoto, with the exception of copaiva and wax, which are less abundant. On the borders of the river is abundance of sarsaparilla, and the palm which is used in the manufacture of hats. At a short distance there are mineral springs so strongly impregnated with sulphur that the leaves and branches of trees which fall on the margin, shortly become encrusted with pure sulphur. There is, also, a rich vein of salt situated only a few leagues from the city, in the range of hills which are on the north bank of the river. This range is a continuance of the range east of the river Huallaga, from Juana del Rio to the south of Chasuta, where it thence turns westward, and is an almost uninterrupted line of mineral salt. The first mines or works are situated between Uchiza and Tocache; and the rivers known by the names of Salinas fall from these hills, very much impregnated with salt.—

* Small huts, built for the convenience of travellers.

+ About three leagues is the general distance per day in ascending against the current.

At Pilluana, where the hills close upon the river Huallaga, the salt is exposed to view in large veins generally mixed with red sandy earth; though there are some flakes or veins of white, and chrystallized salt running through the mass: the same occurs again near Chasuta. In the road from Lamas to Mayobamba many of the streams which fall from the hills are strongly impregnated with salt; and one of the largest is known by the name of Cache-gacu (Salt River). This mineral production is an article of some importance to the people of Maynas; it is taken to the rivers Pastazo and Napo, and, with the poisons for the Pucuna,* is exchanged for gold-dust.

The valley of Mayobamba is of considerable length and width, bounded on each side by hills running nearly W. and N. W. Between Mayobamba and Rioja are two large rivers from the S. W., which, during the rainy season, bring down an immense body of water from the Cordilleras, which separate this part of Maynas from Chachapoyas.

Rioja, formerly called Santa Toribio, is a large pueblo about eight leagues from Mayobamba by the road; in its neighbourhood is a large extent of rich pasture, or pajonales, abounding in red deer. The produce here is the same as Mayobamba.

But with all these advantages the people of Maynas complain of great poverty. Since the contribution has been taken off, the natives have become, if possible, still more idle. The climate is such that clothing is only a secondary consideration; if a few plantains and yuccas are sown, it is all that he requires, the Morite furnishes him with the rest; he has, therefore, no inducement to work. His house costs him nothing, and as long as he can procure Masata† or Huarapa, which he manufactures without expense, he is in a

* A long tube, which the Indians use for shooting birds, &c., by blowing through it a small arrow tipped with poison, which they use with great pre

cision.

The Masata is prepared as follows: a quantity of roots of the Yuca are washed, peeled, and boiled, then pounded on a large wooden dish or trough, the person at work at the same time masticating his mouthful of the root, and squirting it among the mass. When all pounded, it is mixed with water and put into earthen pots; on the third day it begins to ferment and 's then intoxicating. When wanted for a journey, the mass is merely rolled up in plantain leaves, and a small quantity mixed with water in their mate or tutuma, the shell of calabash. When they wish to make use of it, the fibre and large pieces of the Yuca are squeezed out with the hand. The drink is thick and white like milk, and when slightly fermented has a subacid taste.

The expressed juice of Sugar-cane boiled with water and fermented. Another drink, called Viente-quatro, (Twenty-four), which is made by mix

continued state of drunkenness.

The few people of caste, or possessors of Chacras, who are inclined or willing to advance in agriculture, are prevented by the bad customs which have been allowed to prevail. It is with the greatest difficulty that labourers can be procured, as the people say they are now free and are not obliged to work. The consequence is that, frequently, work is left undone, or the season is in part passed before the ground is prepared, or the crops sown. Even when labourers are procured they receive two reals, their meat or food, and a bottle of aguardiente* daily; which for the few hours' work they perform, is an enormous imposition and tax on the agriculturist. Bee's wax, in the rough state, is always at a dollar the pound, tucuyas at two reals the vara, and lonas at one real the vara: neither of which, after paying all expences of freight, &c. to Chachapoyas or Caxamarca, realises more than half. Even the hats which are sold at three and four dollars in Mayobamba, are sold for much less in Chachapoyas.

The few who venture with sarsaparilla, tucuyas, hats, &c., to Taba-tinga, fare but little better: though they get their own nominal value for their goods, it is in effects, and they are obliged to take in return spirits, (gin) earthenware, iron, copper, and printed goods, &c., of the most ordinary class, all mixed together, many of which remain on their hands for years. The sarsaparilla the Brazilian buys from them at six dollars the aroles of thirty-four pounds, which he sells again at eighteen or twenty dollars in Para.

The produce of Maynas cannot, at any period, be expected to pay by the way of Chachapoyas and Caxamarca to the coast, from the length and badness of the roads. It is only by the river Amazons, and with the assistance of steam vessels ascending to Yuminaguas, that this part can be expected to improve. When that time comes Maynas, whose population is rapidly increasing, will then be the first and richest province of Peru. Though other provinces may boast of their mines, she possesses an inexhaustible treasure in her soil aren forests; and a cheap and expeditious mode of conveyance by hers, which can never be equalled by any of the provinces of the Cordillera.

ing the Huarapa and fermented_Masata: this is very intoxicating, and at the same time very pernicious. It receives its name from being drinkable in twenty-four hours time.

* Common rum, from the juice of Sugar-cane.

APHORISMS ON THE FRONTAL SINUSES,

AND THE EXTENT OF

THEIR INTERFERENCE WITH PHRENOLOGICAL OBSERVATION.

NUMEROUS and diversified inductions confirm the following Aphorisms. This being certain, their general accuracy is asserted; and no one has a right to impugn these statements, who has not devoted much time, labour, and expense, to a repetition of the inquiry on which they are founded.

I. Like all bones of the same kind, that portion of the skull which includes the Frontal Sinuses varies in thickness. Such variation, however, is neither so great nor so manifold as to prevent our distinguishing the general law of its development.

II. When its organization has not been disturbed, the Frontal bone, immediately above the nose, is nearly two lines in thickness, by the tenth year of life; by the fifteenth, it is two lines and a half; by the twentieth, it is three lines almost; by the fortieth, it is about three lines and a half; and by the fiftieth, it varies between three and a half and four lines. And whether the bone retains its original cellular structure, or has become hollow, this is the natural process, and these are the ordinary degrees of its thickening, between childhood and the adult age.

III. Till late in life, the bone's hollowness does not enlarge the distance of its external surface from that of the healthy brain.— Sometimes, after the tenth year, the space between the cranial plates is greater when no cavity exists; at other times it is ies when a cavity has supervened. Sometimes, a bony crest appears on the superciliary arch: this crest occasionally contains cellular texture; but most commonly it is hollow. It can be distinguished by experienced observers; and, exclusively of this, the bone, wh ther hollow or solid, preserves the usual thickness.

and

IV. During the fœtal and infantile states, the Frontal Cavities do not exist. After the seventh year, they begin to be perceptible, and continue to enlarge gradually till the latest stage of life. The

common gradation of their growth is determinate, and the exceptions to it are not more numerous or important than those exceptions which prove a general rule in any of the sciences or philosophy. By the tenth year, their horizontal diameter is scarcely half a line; by the fifteenth year, it seldom exceeds one line; by the twentieth, it is rarely one line and a half; by the fortieth, it approaches occasionally to two lines; and after the fiftieth year of man's life, it is about two lines and a half in extent.

V. The Frontal Cavities result from a natural process; but the causes of their formation, and its mode, remain among the desiderates of physiology. They depend apparently on simple absorption of the interosseous cellular texture; and with the progress of this absortion their dimensions increase. Not till life's decline does the internal plate of the bone recede inwards. It is quite improbable that the external table of the skull ever advances: were such a process certain, it would establish an anomaly from the regular order of organization.

VI. The Frontal Sinuses may be wide, and their depth, nevertheless, not more than was that of the bone's primitive cellular Structure. Their horizontal diameter may be one line; and, at the same time, that of the frontal bone itself, naturally, not more than two. Wherefore, the childish practice of poking these broad but shallow holes, from underneath, with a bit of wire, can never reveal the true distance of the bone's external surface from the brain. Finally, here, the deepness of these cavities may be, and often is, augmented by disease; and they have this much to do with old age that their greatest enlargement and old age are concomitant.

VII. Phrenologists admit that the Frontal Sinuses interfere with those parts of the skull which indicate the relative proportions of the organs of some of the perceptive intellectual faculties. This is the course after which the growth of these cavities usually proceeds. First of all, organic absorption gradually removes the cellular texture from between the tables of the frontal bone where it covers the organ of Individuality. Next, this absorption extends to the region of Size; then to that of Form; and then, in mature age, to that of Weight and the lower angle of Locality. Rarely, indeed, does it pass these limits of length and breadth, except in declining life and disease.