The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1892-10-14
ALONG THE AMAZON
"7tht Rain COMES DOWN IN
TERRIFIC CLOUoRuRsTs.

"o All Kinds of Animals
are Driven to the Highlands and Tree
T"Ps-A Tropical DeIuge.
1 he worst foundations of Louisiana
ana eastern Arkansas are but snring
ireshets compared with the monster
moods that visit the Amazon valley every
year with regularity equaled only bv
astronomical events and tax COLLECTIONS
The rainfall of northern Brazil is about
three times that of the webfootiest coun-
tles or Oregon, and III midsummer the
thunder showers that drench the woods
every afternoon resemble daily cloud-
burst. On the Northern Pacific no other
word would be applied to an at1nos-
pheric waterfall, darkening the air like
London winter fog for hours together.
ana swamplng house, if the roof
should leak, through an aperture of a
few square inches.
Rains of that sort are apt TO occur dav
after day for a series of weeks. and their
effect on the lowlands can only be i'm
perfectly indicated by the fact that the
Amazon river drains an area of more
than 2,O0O,OO0 square miles. The Mis-
slss1ppl, too, drains half the eastern
slope OF country larger than Brazil,
but its largest afiuents are dwarfed by
the third class tributaries Of the South
American father of waters.
Not such flowing lakes as the Rio
Negro and the Madeira, but the Purus,
the Yavari, the Qurua, the Hinge, the
PapaJoS and dozens of other streams
rarely mentioned or this side of the
isthmus enter the main river through
delta miles in width and deep enough
for the largest river steamers of the st.
Lawrence.
About the middle of summer these
streams begin to rise, those from the
southwest first. those from the northwest
and north a few weeks later, and a fort
night after the arrival of the second sup
plement the valley of the MaranOn, the
wild hog river" as the early colonists
called the Amazon, becomes a paradise
of swamp loving brutes. The tapis, the
peccari, the fish otter celebrate the pic
mic season of their summer life, and
herds of wild deer begin their westward
exodus. Near Monte Beira, in the
province (now state) of Matte Crosse,
the woods in midsummer get full of
game, as a hundred years ago the foot
hills of the southern Alleghanies swarm
ed with wild pigeons when the fores,..
of the north were buried in SNOW
A more than usually sudden rise of
the flood cuts off many of these fugi-
tives, who are thus reduced to the al
tentative of making for the highest ac-
cessible ground, farther east, till every
knoll becomes hill of refuge, crowded
with timid brutes, whose survival de-
ponds on their escape from the giant
cats and boas who may approach their
stronghold by swimming, if the water
should have submerged too large Il por-
ton of the continuous forest.
About two months after the begin
ming of the rainy season the deluge OF
the lowlands reaches its maximum.
Thousands of square miles are sub
merged so effectually that canoes can be
padded through forests apparently free
from underbrush, since only the taller
trees, with their network of climbing
vines, rise like islands above the surg
ing waters. The swollen rivers have
found new currents, and broad, CUR
Cling streams twist and eddy through
the leafy wilderness, tearing off whole
groups of trees, with all their roots, but
making amends by depositing hillocks
of driftwood, which soon get covered
with tufts of new vegetation.
The pressure of the surging flood
against these mounds of ailuvium soon
becomes enormous, but the deep rooted
stems of the adansonia and the canohC
tree may resist till new deposits of drift
wood consolidate number of mounds
thus forming good sized islands with {
down stream base of perhaps half a mile
but a narrow head DETECTING the cur
rent left and right, like the wedge
shaped front OF stout bridge pier. A
the time of their incipiency these new
islands may be tenanted only by rive
lizards, but necessity is the mother o
successful exploration as well as of IL
vention, and week after Its birth tn
driftwood hill swarIns with ANNA
refugees, hogs, deer and capybaris, jos
Ting each other in their struggle for
base of operations, thus often gettirr
noisy enough to attract the proving
carniyora.
The climbing talent of the great cat
caves them mo IfOlDlS Vi cling dbiOA
The iaguar and the ocelot become el
tirely arboreal, travelling like monkey
from branch to branch, and maxim
themselves at home i'll the tree tops
much so indeed that some of them 8
to housekeeping and raise a litter /
cubs i'll the cavity of a hollow tree.
Their larder is replenished by all sor
of pheasants and woodhens, who mai
their headquarters in the underbrusi
but who are now obliged to take Y
lodgings on the lower branches of the u
submerged trees. By climbing arour
the stem and rising suddenly in view {
ocelot can scare roost of gallinaceoi
fowl out of their wits and strike dow
two or three of the clumsy youngste
before the whole flock contrives to tai
wing.
A swimming deer in these submerg'
tancle woods has no chance at {
against the pursuit of an enemy tn
can leap from branch to branch
climb along the yiaductlike cables of t
great Llama vines, and jaguar would 4
begin to regret phenomenal deluge t
1900