Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-11-12
REMARKABLE RIVERS.

| REMARKABLE RIVERS.
Streams That Present Unique and
Curtons Features ref Ink.
! New York sun.
A number of rivers that can be
found in almost any atlas possess re,
markable characteristics which entitle
them to rank among the natural cur>
iosities of the world. In Algeria, for
instance, there is small stream which
the chemistry of nature has turned in,
to true ink. 1t is formed by the union
OF two rlvulets, one of which is very
strongly lmpregnated with iron, while
the other meandering through q peat
marsh, imbibes gallo acid. Letters
have been written with this compound
of iron and gallo acid WHICH unite to
form the little river, In Columbia
there is river which, by admixture
with sulphuric acid, becomes so sour
that 1t is appropriately named Rio de
Vinagre, or Vinegar river. Many var
letles Of fish abound in the large Or
ange river of South Africa, until the
river passes through rocky region
containing copper ores below which
the river is said to be poisonous and
to kill every fish that will venture in
to it.
"China's Sorrow" is the name that
has been given to the great Hoang Ho
which rises IN the mountains of Thibet
and follows wonderfully circuitous
channel for twenty five hundred miles
to the sea. The waywardness of this
mighty volume of water makes the
river constant source of anxiety and
danger, instead of wealth, to 40, 900, :
900 of people inhabiting the central
plain of China. 1t is known to have
suddenly changed its course nine times
1t has moved It's mouth over 4 degrees
of latitude each time emptying its vast
floods in different direction and dig
ging new channel for itself where
scores of villages had stood. It has
changed the physical character of a
wide area, turning fertile regions into
a sandy waste or making shallow lakes
OF them, IN which nothing grows and
over which nothing can sail. Whether
it is within the power of the western
science to save this great plain from
disastrous overdoWs and changes of
the river bed is a question that has
been considerably discussed ia Eng-
land of late years,
Some recent explorers of Alaska tell
us that the Mississippi can no longer
be regarded as the largest river of the
North American continent. They
claim that distinction for the great
Yukon river, which, according to Mr..
Ivan Petroff, who spent two years ia
Alaska collecting materials for the
last census, empties into Norton sound
one third more water than the Miss
issippi pours into the Gulf of Mexico.
The Yukon basin comprises the most
of southern Alaska, and is mile wide
six hundred miles from it's mouth.
Many centuries before it was visited
Dy white men it very likely served as
the highway into the interior of tribes
who are believed to have crossed from
| Asia to this continent.
A very curious river is the
Webbe Shebyli of east Africa,
deep and rapid stream Astounding
in fish and crecodiles. Though it
flows for hundreds of miles through
fertile lands, the immense volume of
water never reaches the sea. A little
north of the equator the river loses it
self IN desert region few miles from
| the Indian ocean.
Very few great rivers have ever
been thoroughly explored by going up
stream. Travellers tried for two thous-
and years to fnd the source of the
Nile by ascending the river. By the
time they had reached the difficult
part of the stream their stores and
energy were exhausted and they could
go no further. 1t was only by SEEK
ing the fountain heads first by overs
land routes that Schwatka was able to
float down the Yukon, that Stanley
mapped the Congo, and that Spoke
solved the secret of the Nile.
A Kentuckian, while bunting in the
mountains OF that state last week,
happened to break open large rock,
disclosing the following legend on the
inside: HI. Rees, 1862" How this
inscription came to be on the inside
of the large stone is a mystery which
the local scientists are trying to un-
ravel.
Greatly to her surprise and to her
grocer, a Boston woman found a snake
six inches long in her milk one morn
ing last week.
The Oregon Salmon canning busis
ness was started at the suggestion of
George Francis Train, In humorous
speech delivered at Portland.
Fifteen years ago nearly all the pea
nuts used in this country wers inn
ported from Africa. They are largely
used to make alleged olive oil.
Mr.. Spargeon, the preacher who
long ago gave over the world and the
devil, has now played quits with the
flesh also. He has become a vegetar>
ian.