Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk, "Lettre de N. Horstman à M. La Condamine", Great Britain, Edmond Herbert Hills, ed. Imprimé au Foreign office, par Harrison and sons, 1903 – Brazil.
So-called because of inorganic sediments carried by the river.[51]Alfred Russel Wallace mentions this peculiar coloration in "On the Rio Negro," a paper he read at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on 13 June 1853, in which he says: "[The Rio Branco] is white to a remarkable degree, its waters being actually milky in appearance." Humboldt attributed the color to the presence of silicates in the water, principally mica and talc.[1]
