The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1892-09-28
MONSTER FLOODS ON THE AMAZON.
Thousands of Square Miles Annually Sub
merged, Only Tall Tress Being Visible.

The worst inundations of Louisiana
and eastern Arkansas are but spring
freshets compared with the monster
floods that visit the Amazon valley
every year with regularity equaled
only by astronomical events and tax
collections. The rainfall of northern
Braxil is about three times that of the
webfootiest counties of Oregon, and in
midsummer the thunder showers that
drench the woods every afternoon re-
semble daily cloudburst.
Rains of that sort are apt to occur
day after day for series of weeks, and,
the San Francisco Chronicle says, their
effect on the lowlands can be only i'm
perfectly indicated by the fact that
the Amazon river drains an area of
more than two million square miles.
The Mississippi, too, drains half the
eastern slope of a country larger than
Brazil, but its largest aff1uents are
dwafted by the third-class tributaries
of the South American father of waters.
Not such flowing lakes only as the Rio
Negro and the Medera, but the Purus,
the Yavari, the Qurua, the Hinge. the
Papajos and dozen of other streams
rarely mentioned ON this side of the
isthmus, enter the main river through
a delta miles in with 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 north
west and north few weeks later and
fortnight after the arrival of the
second supplement the valley of the
Amazon becomes paradise of swamp
loving brutes. The tapir, the peccari.
the fish otter, celebrate the picnic sea-
son of their summer life, and herds of
wild deer begin their westward exodus.
Near Monte Beira, in the province
(now "state") of Matto Crosse, the
woods in midsummer get full of game,
as hundred years ago the foothills of
with wild pigeons when forests of the
north were buried in snow. A more
than usually sudden rise of the flood
cuts off many of these fugitives, who
are thus reduced to the alternative of
ground farther east, till every knoll be-
comes hill of refuge, crowded with
timid brutes, whose survival depends
on their escape from the giant cats and
boas who may approach their strong
hold by swimming if the water should
have submerged too large a portion 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 SUBJ
merged so effectually that canoes can
be padded through the forests ap-
parently free from underbrush, since
only the tallest trees, with their net
work of climbing vines, rise like
islands above the surging waters. The
swollen rivers have found new cur
rents, and broad, gurgling streams
twist and eddy through the leafy
wilderness, tearing off whole groups
Of trees with all their roots, but max
ing 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 alluvium soon becomes
enormous, but the deep-rooted stems of
the abansonia and the canoho tree may
resist till new deposits of driftwood
consolidate number of mounds, thus
forming good-sized islands, with a
downstream base of perhaps half a
mile, but narrow head DETECTING the
current left and right, like the wedge
shaped front of a stout bridge pier.
The climbing talent of the great cat
saves them the trouble of emigration.
The jaguar and the ocelot become en-
tirely aboreal, travelling like monkeys
from branch to branch, and making
themselves at home IN the tree tops;
SO much so, indeed, that some of them
go to housekeeping and raise a litter
of cubs in the cavity of hollow tree.
A swimming deer in these sub
merged tangle woods has no chance at
all against the pursuit of an enemy