The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-08-17
COPYRIGHT. 1898. +


consists Of over thirty thousand
square miles of forest, in which
the trees spring directly from the
water. Only in the upper or western
parts is any land to be found. and,
nevertheless, it is paradise of life and
| beauty. You can wander in a canoe
for weeks, and even for months,
amidst the confusion of its winding
! sylvan channels. It is like vast city
with trees for its houses and meandcr
ing waterways for its streets. The
various branches of the great river run
into and out of each other, rejoining
and interlacing in such way as to
make the most wonderful and extern
sive labyrinth of forest and water i'm
aginable.
Every day new wonders of animal
and vegetable life will delight the eye.
The trees are covered with fruit and
blossoms in profusion; their branches
are laden with Towering orchids and
| other epidendrons, and dashed together
by creeping vines and lianas until the
whole forest becomes almost imper-
vious to the sight, from the very rank
ness of its magnifcence. Here is the
home of countless monkeys, squirrels,
sloths and porcupines: and of gorgeous
parrots, tOucanS, humming birds and
myriad others of brilliant plumage.
The great blue and yellow macaw flies
screaming hoarsely overhead. The
bright scarlet ibis sits upon the tree
tops. The snow-white egret stands
pensively upon some withered limb low
down by the water, her whiteness rem
dered yet more conspicuous by the fresh
green of the foliage behind her. The
jaguar, too, makes his home in these
watery islands, and often does his saw
age roaring startle the quiet air as he
lmpatiently calls to his spotted mate
across the stream. The tree boa lives
amongst the branches, and the enor-
nous anaconda. the American Goliath
of serpents. stretches his scaly length
on some floating log or lies coiled
above the water upon some overhany-
ing limb.
Rare is the trace OF mans dominion;
yet he is here; but not as we know
him, welding for power or pleasure,
fire and steam and lightning. Here he
is naked and simple and fresh from ma
ture like all around him-a little ad-
vanced. indeed, raised just step above
the monkeys, that frisk and chatter
and swing themselves from branch to
branch of the forest. Yet he has a
house of aboriginal architecture-the
prototype of our proud cathedrals-a
platform raised on posts above the
water, covered over with a few gi-
gantic palm leaves to shield him from
the rain and the sun. Beneath this
the still primitive Indian swings in
his Melted hammock. and calmly looks
out around and beneath him upon the
forest and the flood. Were it possible
to conceive that beyond this waterv
forest country mankind had never ex-
listed, the simple Indian of the delta
would still take his place as lord of
creation, for he inherits most won
derful invention from his ancestors. a
discovery which has had consequences
most momentous to humanity, and that
is the art of making fire. He still uses
the original method of his forefathers.
On the surface of small dry Stick. |
generally the fowerstalk of the |
finite" palm, he makes a circular de- |
preston into which he places the end |
OF another piece slightly pointed. Set
ting the former horizontally on
the floor Of his hut, he twirls the up- |
right one around rapidly between his |
joined palms. pressing it forcibly down |
wards into the socket as it revolves. In |
from one to two minutes the perpeu- /
dlcuiar one begins to smoke. When |
the FUMES increase to certain degree |
and show certain blueness of color |
he knows that spark is at its point.
linen he takes it up, and, blowing
gently on it with his breath. that s,ecl,
Of fire becomes larger, until the whole
lower end of the porous stick is one
mass of glowing charcoal This does
not break into flame. To produce that
he must use finder, in which he
places the smoldering fresticll. and.
by little flaming with palm leaf.
the whole mass goes readily ablaze.
This has always been and is to-day the
only method OF making fire in the
delta Excepting where perehance once
In ten years stray box of matches
hnds its way for over the whole re-
Eion neither fints nor any other stones
are to be found, unless those brought
from great distance
But even the Indians are few and
scattered in the orinoco delta. Some
times you may travel for days without
seeing single ranch. Now and then
you may catch a glimpse OF a canoe
around a benz OF the stream. and per-
ceive it disappearing up some en-
powered channel. Leaving no trace be-
hind to tell whence il came or whittier
L went.
\ few years ago 4 .To11g American
named Graham found his way to the ]
West Indies. He stayed for time in
Port o. Spain the pretty capital of The /