New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-10-24
Ara.slz and the Amazon.
From the Philadelphia nedgor.l

ttFoui Ing IntiRnelpnla ieugeE.l
| Professor Agassz, it has been known for some
| time, thinks that the valley of the Amazon will
| one day support so many millions of people that
the valley of the Mississippi will be nothing to it.,
although the latter lies in the temperate and the
| former in the torrd zone. On the evening Of the
9th inst he gave some of his reasons for this view
| in public lecture. The facts he presented We're
most striking. He set out on this journey with
| every advantage that wealth, science and good
/ will could afford. His expenses, and those of six
| assistants, were paid by Mr.. Thayer, of Boston.
| Other assistants volunteered, and thus sixteen
| persons formed this most remarkable of scientific
/ expeditions. Of two steamship companies, one
/ gave his expedition free passage to Rio, and the
| other placed steamer at his disposal for whole
| month.
The United States government sentya circular to
all naval officers on the station to render the
| expedition all the service in their power; and the
| emperor of Brazil treated them with an imperial
| hospitality that arranged for the accomplishment
| of all their desires. A ship of war was placed at
the service of the professor for several months on
| the Amazon. He consumed $500 gallons of alco-
hol preserving the specimens brought away, and
was even able to bring home fossil palm tree, to
| enable botanists to throw light upon the former
vegetation and climate of those American tropics.
Humboldt, when he attempted to enter Brazil from
the waters of the 0rinoco, was stopped on the
frontier and forbidden to enter, as man whose
principles were pernicious to society and nimical
| to religion. Strange contrast!
The banks of the Amazon form peculiar speci-
| gions in Africa or Asia. There are no hills FOE
| two hundred miles clear away across the continent
to the foot of the Andes and the river is four thou
sand miles long, running from west to east, the
| valley being eighteen hundred miles wide and of
the most amazing fertility full of vegetable matter
and irrigated by rivers where ships Of war can sail
| for hundreds of miles. The climate averages but
| 81 degrees, though right under the line--72 de-
grees being the lowest, and IS degrees the highest
ever known. The river runs just opposite to the
trade winds, and thus makes this one of the most
mild and healthful of all tropical regions Yet it
has bad name owing to the bad arrangements of
the Brazilian government (which sends out to
these regions young officers, who misrepresent the
climate to get away. All his company went
and returned with comfort, and are now enjoy
ing better health than usual. The woods are full of
timber of the most valuable varieties. One hun
dred and seventy-eght different kinds Of
timber were counted in q small region,
The river is not open at present. but soon will
be. There is not saw mill on this nOblest Of
rivers. In August and September the SHOWS of
the Andes melt, but the lower section does not
feel the rise till the following March, and the river
is highest from June to October. The rise is frsm
thirty TO sixty feet; sometimes the whole basin is
under water, and the forests may be navigated.
1 This river has no delta like the Nile, the Ganges
or the Mississippi-not for want of mud, for it is
| OF sort of half coffee, half cream color, and
| tnges the ocean far out to sea. Instead of form
ing land. the sea is constantly encroaching the
shore. The river once extended three hundred
miles beyond its present mouth and belt of that
breadth has been swept away. Whether this is
owing to the sinking Of the coast, the force of
the current undermining, as at Niagara Falls, is
not certain; but rivers now empty into the Atlantic
that used clearly to be tributary to the Amazon.
AS to the prospect of this river soon being open
to q profitable American commerce, it must be
borne in mind that whatever may be
the mldness of the climate for the tropics,
yet feyers would appear certain to pre-
vail. Fish lis abundant in the river, but 50 are
aligators; and serpents, jaguars, bears, panthers
and other wild animals are equally abundant The
tides at the fun Of the moon are more wonderful
than in the Bay Of Fundy. They do not rise so
high, but much more suddenly, sweeping along
like mighty wave or tongue of water, ten or
twelve feet high uprooting trees and sweeping
vessels most destructively. Still, where money IS
to be made difficulties will be overcome aud the
interests both Of the United States and the Bra
lillian government are too closely connected With
the opening up Of that vast region to leave any
doubt but that under the present enlightened en-
peror of those vast, rich and important regions,
the valley Of the Amazon will be opened to pro-
life commerce and settlement.