The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-01-13
AMAZONIAN FLOODS.
FEATURES OF THE ANNUAL DEL
uGE OF THE GREAT RIVER.

Ineu inc WIN hoH River becohes
Paradise Of the swamp Loving Brutes.
Floating Islands Filled with Refugees
of the Brute Creation.
The worst foundations of Louisiana
and eastern Arkansas are but spring
freshets compared with the monster
floods 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 atmospheric
waterfall, darkeping the air like Lon
don winter fog for hours together, and
swapping 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 lowlauds can be only i'm
perfectly indicated by the fact that the
Amazon river drains an area of more
than 1000, 600 square miles. The Mis-
sissippi, too, drains half the eastern
slope of a country larger than Brazil,
but its largest affluents are dwarfed by
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"t wv ''t'"''o uAte, '''o oeSlii
nin6 W tiie i"iHH SEASON the uel"ee
~ ith''S iS"e4es i's liza Aiiii"ii'
iiio"s@''os u squ@,o ililes aie su1
me- seu 30 elieet"aiis enat eahoes cai
~ p"""le't tu."'!sh forests apparent
10y itoni uilo,'i ~ . sh' siiice o.ily "
.''itSt Viee0' N4'it S'4Sil l,e'Nuih VI oiiiiip
- ''lt"S' itSo i'Nr -, isl'ii''9 apoNe VI
suiH'hs waters. me sWolleh river
nave louuu new CURRENTS the proad
gurgiing streams twistand eddy throug1
the leafy wilderness, tearing off Who'll
groups of trees, with all their roots, bu
making amends by depositing hillocli
Of driftwood. which soon get covere
with tufts of now vegetation.
The pressure of the surging foo
against these mounds Of alluvium 500
becomes enormous. but the deep roote
stems of the adansonia and the canoh
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 mile
but narrow head detecting the cui
rent left and right, Like the wedg
! shaped front of a stout bridge pier. A
the time of their incipieucy these ne,
islands may be tcnanted only by rive
! lizards, but necessity is the mother {
/ successful exploration, as well as of il
driftwooa hill swarms with animal ref,