The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

EASTERN STATES SOUTH OF THE AMAZONS. 135
Maranliao, is scarcely known except as a frontier stream. The more copious
Grajahu, swollen by the Mearim on the right and by the Pindare on the left bank,
enters the sea through a broad estuary in which is situated the island of S. Luis
de Haranhao. The Itapicuru, so named from the mountains where it rises, falls
into the same estuary, and is the largest river in the State of Maranhao, accessible
to small steamers for 340 miles from its mouth.
The Parnahyba, or " Bad River," if such be the true meaning of the word,
owes its evil reputation, perhaps, to its unhealthy valley, or more probably to the
difBcult and dangerous navigation of its shallow bed. Yet in length and the
extent of its drainage area it surpasses all the rivers of West Europe. During
an upper course of over 370 miles it receives all the waters descending from the
42*20 '
0to5
Fathoms.
Fig. 47 —Paknahyba Delta.
Scale 1 : 1,000,000.
Depths.
6 to 10
Fathoms.
10 tathoms
and upwards.
25 Miles.
e5toF breenwich
northern slopes of the divide—Mangabeiras, Gurgueia, Piauhy, and Dois Irmiios.
But, imlike the Amazons, it enters the sea, not through an estuary, but through a
ramifying delta advancing far beyond the normal coastline.*
The Jaguaribe, which collects nearly all the running waters of Ceara, is far
less copious than the Parnahyba, and, despite its numerous affluents, is navigable
onlj' for 15 miles of its lower course. In 1815 its mouth was completely closed by
the bar, and all the shipping were caught like fish in a net.
From the mouth of the Parnahyba to that of the S. Francisco the coast is
fringed by a reef, or by several perfectly regular lines of reefs, some of coralline,
some, notably the famous Pernambuco reef, of different origin. Probably in the
whole world there exists no other natural formation which has more the appear-
* Length of the Parnahyba, 930 miles ; drainage area, 130,000 square miles.