Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-09-03
ALONG THE AMAZON.
WHERE RAIN COMES DOWN IN
TERRIFIC cLoUDBURSTS.

by Water and All Kinds Of Animals
Are Driven to the Highlands and Tree
Tops-A Tropical DeIuge.
The worst foundations of Louisiana
Rnd eastern Arkansas are but spring
freshets compared with the monster
Hoods that visit the Amazon valley every
year with a 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
London winter fog for hours together,
and swamping a house, if the roof
should leak, through an aperture Of a
few square inches.
Rains Of that sort are apt TO occur day
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 100000 square miles. The Mis-
sissippi, too, drains half the eastern
slope of country larger than Brazil,
but its largest afiiuents 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
Papaios and dozens Of other streams
rarely mentioned on 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 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 !
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.
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 &C
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 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 food |
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 a number of mounds, |
thus forming good sized islands with a
down stream base Of perhaps half mile,
but 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 week after its birth the |
driftwood hill swarms with animal |
refugees, hogs, deer and capybaris, Jos
Ting each other in their struggle for a |
base of operations, thus often getting
noisy enough to attract the providing
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
from branch to branch, and making |
themselves at home in the tree tops-so
much so indeed that some of them 20
10 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 roost of gallinaceous