Los Angeles herald., 1892-09-19
ALONG THE AMAZON.
WHERE RAIN COMES DOWN IN
TERRIFIC CLouDBURSTS.

AhO WOloI iiiuludllO1S VI lLOQiolbh,6
and eastern Arkansas are but spring
freshets compared with the monster
floods that visit the Amazon valley every
year with IA regularity equaled only by
astronomical events and tax collections.
The rainfall of northern Brazil is about
three times that of the webfootiest coun-
ties of Oregon, and in 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 atmos-
pheric waterfall, darkening the air like
a London winter fog for hours together,
and swamping house, if the roof
should leak, through an aperture of
few square inches.
Rains of that sort are apt to occur day
after day for 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 100000 square miles. The Mis-
sissippi, too, drains half the eastern
slope of country larger than Brazil,
but its largest affiuents 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 on this side of the
isthmus enter the main river through a
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 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 forests
of the north were buried in snow.
J 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-
pends on their escape from the giant
cats and boas who may approach their
stronghold by swimming, if the water
should have submerged too large 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 SUBJ
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 alluvium soon
becomes enormous, but the deep rooted
stems Of the adansonia and the canoho
tree may resist till new deposits of drift
wood consolidate number of mounds,
thus forming good sized islands with a
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. At
the time of their incipiency these new
islands may be tenanted only by river
lizards, but necessity is the mother of
successful exploration as well as of in
vention, and a week after its birth the
driftwood hill swarms with animal
refugees, hogs, deer and capybaris, jos
Ting each other in their struggle for
base of operations, thus often getting
noisy enough to attract the prowling
carnivora.
! The climbing talent of the great cats
saves them the trouble of emigration.
The jaguar and the ocelot become en-
tirely arboreal, travelling like monkeys
ofrom 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.
Their larder is replenished by all sorts
of pheasants and woodhens, who make
their headquarters in the underbrush
but who are now obliged to take up
lodgings on the lower branches of the un-
submerged trees. BY climbing around
the stem and rising suddenly in view an
ocelot can scare a roost of gallinaceous
fowl out Of their wits and strike down
two or three of the clumsy youngsters
before the whole flock contrives to take
wing.
A swimming deer in these submerged
tangle woods has no chance at all
against the pursuit of an enemy that
can leap from branch to branch or
climb along the viaductlike cables Of the
great llama vines, and a jaguar would not
begin to regret phenomenal deluge till
the waters had closed over the tops of
the tallest palms. San Francisco Chron-
icle-