The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-01-14
TINE ASPECT OF the AMAZON u.
A. Lecture by Professor Louis Agassiz, i'm
Brooklyn.

A. Lecture by Professor Louis AgassiZ, i'm
Brooklyn.
A large audience assembled on Saturday even.
ing in the Academy of Music, Brooklyn, to hear
. lecture by Professor Louis Agassiz, entitled
"Tbe Aspect of the Amazon" in pursuance of
an engagement with the Mercantile Library
Association OF that city. The research and eX.
perience which Professor Aeassiz has brought
to bear upon his late survey of Brazil ought to
command unusual attention, and attach more
than ordinary importance to his reflections and
observations on the great South American river
and region over which it traverses. At eight
o'clock the lecturer was introduced to the
audience by j. II. Kennedy, and proceeded to
deliver a lengthy lecture, OF which the following
is brief absract:-
To do full justice to his subject, he remarked,
he ought to use the painters brush rather than
the dry vocabulary of the naturalist: but, as he
was not an artist, he must use the tools he had
learned to manage as well as he could. Indeed,
to describe the richness of the tropics, to give
an idea of the variety OF the productions of
those regions, called into requisition the best
trained faculties of man. Those who had not
seen tropical countries were hardly prepared,
even by comparison, to form an accurate idea OF
the richness of nature where it was most protuse,
and where it presented its gTandest scenery; and
there was no tropical scenery richer than that
OF South America-at least as far as the variety
OF vegetation went The valley of the Amazon
especially was a wonder in ltself-a combination
OF rare water and vegetable growth. All other
rivers were diminutive when compared with the
Amazon.
The whole region was a submerged plain three
thousand miles long and from five hundred to
! seven khundred IN width, entirely occupied by
! the immens water basin through which the river
flowed from thelAndes to the Atlantic--the plain
santing from west to eastward, but so slightly
that il did not exceed two hundred and forty
feet for the whole length from the borders Of
the Para through to the coast. Over that plain
were innumerable ramifcations of these fresh
waters, to an extent that ought rather to require
the name of ocean than of river. Its front was
as broad as the whole width OF ireland. Thirty
miles away from the coast of Brazil, you could
see already the disturbed yellow waters of the
Amazon minglng with the clear blue waters of
the ocean. And yet there was a purity about
the waters of this river. 1t was one hundred
and fifty miles wide at its mouth, and the en-
trance into the great water system was by two
rlyers-the Para on the south, and the main
bianch of the Amazon, which was to the north.
Between the two was the island of Marajo
which was halt the width OF Ireland. de here
illustrated the outline OF the island, and position
| of the mouths of the rver. The eye could not
see from Cape North over to Salinas, or TO either
shore of this sland--the width being sixty miles.
! and requiring six hours OF steam Navigation 10
cross. Between the island and Para we're lnnu-
! merable small islands, and further inland there
were so many channels that 1t seemed as II the
ocean flowed by them ,and you could sail one thou
SAND and twelve miles up the channel before IT
really assumed the shape OF river. IL was not
| III you ascended above the junction OF the RIO
! Negro and the Amazon that the shores were
visible on either side. The tide motion was felt
not only at Para, but four hundred miles above.
The tributaries OF the Amazon were as colossal
as the Amazon itself. They were the Tocantins,
which entered above Pare, the Chingu, and
three on the southern side. Such combination
OF large rivers existed nowhere else; and what
was particularly remarkable was their relations
to one another. 1t flowed nearly along the
same line OF latitude under the equator, and
was therefore subject to the same climatic
Influences: Some of the features OF the Madeira
and the Rio Negro rivers were alluded to,
alter which the lecturer remarked that the
plain was an uninterrupted forest of great
the hat0het. The nils on the left aide of thf
banks seemed high, though none exceeded one
thousand feet in altitude. They were not nm
equal, but were perfectly fiat, and as level a.
the plain below. These owed their existence N
burrows or washings by the rains of Intervening
masses, and were at one time more extensive
} They were formed Of regular strata, and were