Semi-weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1852-1853, 1852-03-31
THE VALLEY OF THE AMAZON.
BY LIEUT.. NJ. F. MAURY.


From very able article in the November number
of the Southern Literature Messenger. extract the
following fine description of this valley:
Of more than twice the size of the Mississippi
valley the valley of the Amazon is entirely intetro-
pical. An everlasting summer reigns there. Up to
the very base of the Andes the river itself is naviga
BILE for vessels of the largest class. The PennsylVa
MIA "A may go there.
A natural canal through the Caciquiari connects it
with the Oronoco. Giving drainage ana fertility to
immense plains that cover two millions square miles,
it receives from the North and South nnun cradle tr
butaries, which, it is said, afford inland naviga
ton, up and down, of less than 70 80 thousand
miles in Stretched out in continuous line
the navgable streams of that great watershed would
more than encrce the earth around at its largest
grth.
may say, that from the mouth to the of the
Amazon piled up above the other, and spread out,
Andean-hke, over sieppe after steppe, in beautiful,
unbroken succession, all the climates, and all the
soils, with the capacities of production that be
found between the reg OF everlasting summer and
eternal snow.
The valley of the Amazon is the place of produce
ton of India rubber, article of commerce which
has no parallel the increase of demand for it.,
and except in the history of great staple,
since the invention of the cotton GIN We all reco-
lect when the only uses to which India rubber was
applied to rub out pencil marks, and make trap
balls for boys. But it is made into shoes and
hats caps and cloaks, footballs and PURSES ribbons
and cushions boats, beds, tents and bags, pon;eons
armies across rivers, cdmelS
ing ships shoals. 1t is also applied to variety
of other and purposes, the mere enumeration of
which would make tedious. New applications of
it are continually being made. Boundless forests of
the Saringa tree found upon the banks of this
river; and the expectation of this gum from the mouth
of that river. is daily becoming a business of more
and more value extent, and importance. In 1867,
ponoons for the British army in India and tents for
the American army in Mexico, made in New
England from the India rubber of the Amazon. 1t is
the best in the world.
The sugar cane is found here In its most luxuriant
growth, and of the richest saccharine development.
It requires to De planted but once in 20 years.
There produced, also, of excellent quality. and
in great prousion coffee and tobacco, rice and ndi
60, and cotton with Drugs, of virtues the most
rare dyes, of hues the most Brilliant and spices Of
aroma the most exquisite.
Soils of the richest loan and the finest auvions
are there. The climate of India, of the Moluccas, and
the Spice Islands, all there. And there, too,
lying dormant, are the boundless agricultural and
mineral capacities of the East and West all clustered
together. If commerce were but once 10 spread its
wings over that valley, the shadow of it would be
like the touch of magclans wand-those immense
would spring at into life and activity
In the fine imagery of their language, the Indians
call the Amazon the 6 King of Rivers. Ii emPties
into the Ocean under the Line.