Arizona silver belt., 1893-04-08
AMAzONTAN FLOODS.
FEATURES OF THE ANNUAL DEL, UeE OF THE GREAT RIVER.

Then the wild Hog River" Becomes n Paradise of Inc swamp Loving Brutes. Floating islands Filled with Refugees
 of the Brute Creation.
 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 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 a daily cloud burst. On the Northern Pacific no other word would be applied to an atmospheric waterfall, darkening the air like Lon. don winter fog for hours together, and swamping a house, if the roof should leak, through an aperture of n few equare inches.
 Rains of that sort are apt to occur day after day for a series of weeks, and their NilfNh hli Aut lhMiuiiiAn Adti tt OllA1 llll- perfectly indicated by the fact that the Amazon river drains an area of more than 10000 square miles, The Mis sissippi, too, drains half the eastern slope of a country larger than Brazil but it's largest afiiuents are dwarfed by the third class tributaries of the South American father of waters.
 Not such flowing lakes only as the Ris Negro and the Madeira, bat the Purus, the Yayari, the Qnua. the Hingo, the Papajos and dozens of other streams rarely mentioned on this side of the isthmus, enter the main river through a delta miles n width and deep enough for the largest river steamers of the St. Lawrence.
 About the middle of summer these streams begin 10 rise, those from the southwest first. those from the north west and north a few weeks later, and a fortnight after the arrival of the second supplement the valley of the Maranon, the ''wild hog river" as the early c0lonists called the Amazon. becomes a paradise of swamp loving brutes The tspis, the peccari and the fish otter cele- brate the picnic season of their summer life, and herds of wild deer begin their westward exodus Near Monte Beira, in the province (now statp) of Matso Crosse, the woods in midsummer get full of game as a hundred years ago the foothills Of the Southern Alleghaniea swarmed with wild pigeons when the forests of the north were buried in snow
 A more than usually sudden rise of the food cuts off many of these fugi tives, who are thus reduced to the alter. native of making f,H the highest acces- sible ground, further cast. till every knoll becomes q hill of refuge, crowded with timid brntes whose survival de. | pends on their escape from the giant cats and boas who may approach their strong. hold by swimming, if the water should havo submerged too large a portion of the continuous forest
 About two months after the begin. ming of the rainy season the deluge oi | the lowlands reaches its maximum. Thousands of square miles are sub merged SO efreciually that canoes can be padded through forests apparently free from underbrush, since only the taller trees, with tleir network of climb. ing vines, rise like islands above tho surging waters. The swollen rivers have found new currents; the broal ! gurgling streams twist and eddy through the ieafy wilderness, tearing off whole | groups of trees, with all their roots, bu; making amends by depQsiting hilloch. of driftwood. which soon get covered with tufts of new vegetation
 The pressure uf the surging food against these mounds of alluyium soou becomes enormous, lut the deep rooted stems of the adansonia and the canoho tree may resist til new deposits of drift. wood consolidate a number of mounds thus forming good sized islands, with 8 down stream base of perhaps half a mile but narrow head defecting the cur. rent left and right, like the wedge shaped front of a sJout bridge pier. Al the time of their incipieucy tbose new | islands may he tcnauted only by river lizards, but necessity is the mother oi successful exploration, as well as of in vention, and week after is birth the driftwood hill swarms with animal refu gees, hogs. deer and capybaris jostling l each other in their struggle for base of operations, thus often getting noisy ! enough to attract the proving car 1 uivora.
 The climbing talent of the great cat: saves them the trouble of emigration The jaguar and the ocelot become en tirely arboreal travelling like monkeys from branch to brauch and making themselves at home in the tree tops-st mach indeed that some of them go te housekeeping and raise litter of cub. in the cavity of a hollow tree.
 Their larder is replenished by all sort of pheasants and wood hens, who make their headquarters in the underbrush but who are now obliged to take uI lodgings on the lower branches of tht unsubmcrged trees. By climbing around the stem and rising suddenly in view ar oceiot can scare roost of gallinaceou, fowl out Of their wits and strike dowf two or three of the clumsy youngster. before the whole flock contrives to talk, wing-San Francisco Chronicle.
 Information Wanted.
 Do birds thinkf" asks writer 1T