The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-02-05

Ten Thousand Islands, Some of
which Are Floating to the Sea.
Copyright. 1899 by Frank G. Carpenter.
ASCUNCION, Paraguay, Dec. H.
Ascuncion is in the very heart OF South
America 1t is almost as far inland in
a straigt lire from the Atlantic as Chi
cago: and the distance 1 had to travel
or the rivers to reach it is greater than
from Omaha to New York. Within the
past few months have penetrated the
basin of the Rio de la Plata to dis
tance of more than 1900 miles. At
Buenos Ayres l was almost 200 miles
from the sea, and i'll coming from there
to Asuncion, on the Parana and Para
quay rivers, I travelled LIS miles. On
the first day out we steamed by the
mouth of the Uruguay river in enter
ing the Parana. Eight hundred miles
further north we came into the Para
quay river upon which l Travelled more
than 800 miles. The Paraguay is still
naviga BILE by small steamers for 1,400
miles north OF this point, and just OPP
posite is the mouth of the Pilcomayo,
which rises In the Bolivian Andes, and
in tortuous course flows through 1900
miles of UNEMPLOYED wildS before it
empties into the Paraguay. The Para
ma itself is over 1000 miles long. 1t
rises in the mountains of Brazil and
flows a distance of more than 1000
miles before ii swallows up the Para
quay at about 500 miles from its mouth.
BASIS OF THE PLATE.
The river system Of the Plate, or OF
the Rio de la Plata. is one of the most
wonderful in the world. The volume
of the stream is greater than that Of
the Mississippi 1t is surpassed only by
the Amazon. 1t drains a basin more
than half as big as the whole United
States, and one which IN fertility Of
soil and salubrity of climate is only
surpassed by the basin of the Missis-
sippi. The basin of the Plate is over
1000 miles long. 1t is bigger than the
basin of the Mississippi, and it is a
question whether 1t has not more Gull
tivatable territory Upon it tens of
millions of cattle and sheep are pas
tured, and its wheat fields compete
with ours in the markets of Europe.
1t has the most extensive plains of the
globe, and it is a vast eXpanse of fairly
good land.
1t is a white mans country. The
basin of the Amazon is tropical and
malarious. That Of the Plate is largely
in the temperate zone. Its northern
parts are like Louisiana or Florida,
and in the south the summer climate
is as temperate as that of our Middle
states
1t is the Mississippi basin reversed,
the source Of its rivers being in the hot
country, where there are coffee and
sugar lands and rubber trees, and its
mouth in the rather cool lands of Uru-
quay and the Argentine, noted for their
fields of wheat and corn
This vast basin is formed in the
shape of a great horseshoe, with the
opening toward the Atlantic; the An
des and the strip of highlands which
crosses Brazil form the back and up
per rim of the shoe, while the slightly
sloping plains of Patagonia bourd it on
the south. In it are included the best
of the Argentine, all of Uruguay and
Paraguay and large portions of Bra
I'll and Bolivia. The most of it has
been built up by the Parana or Rio
de la Plata system, and today these
rivers are still at their great work of
earth building.
THE RIO DE LA PLATA.
You see this plainly in the Rio de la
Plata proper. 1t is more a great bay
of liquid mud than river. 1t is 120
miles wide at the Atlantic and mar
rows down to twenty-nine miles at
Buenos Ayres, which is $50 miles in
land. The width at Montevideo is
about sixty-five miles. The Rio de la
Plata is SO full of silt or mud that it
diScolors the Atlantic for many miles
out at sea. We noticed the change in
the color of the ocean long before we
entered its mouth, and the water
seemed to grow thicker as we sailed to
Buenos Ayres. The channel is fast
filling up with a sandy mud, and the
Eads jetty system is proposed. AS it
Is now, the rivers bring down $50 900
tons of mud a day, and the sediment
is SO great that all the water used by
Buenos Ayres is filtered by the city.
1t took our steamer twelve hours to
cross the Rio de la Plata to Montevid-
60, and from there to Buenos Ayres
the ride required one night. At Buenos
Ayres the steamers land you at the
new docks, and passengers are not
now taken ashore, as formerly, in carts
or on the backs of men. The port of
Buenos Ayres has, in fact as fine
docks and quays as any city of the
world. 1t has within the past ten
years spent $40, 600, 900 gold upon their
construction, and ocean steamers
drawing seventeen feet sail right into
great walled tanks, along which the
chief railroads have tracks; so that
the wool, grain hides sheep and cat
tie can be transferred directly from
the cars to the steamers which are to
take them to Europe.
UP THE PARANA.
II is at lneSe COCKS that you get
steamers which carry you far up the
rivers into the interior. There are riv-
er boats of all kinds lying at the
wharves. Some have just come in load
ed with oranges, wood, hides and wool.
and others are just starting out
There are sailing boats as well as
steamers, and you soon appreciate that
the interior traffic of the South Amer
lean continent is enormous.
There are two lines of steamers which
have weekly service between Buenos
Ayres and Asuncion, so that you can
take ship for any of the ports twice
week. There are steamers also which
go regularly every day or so up the
Uruguay for a distance of 500 miles,
and twice month Brazilian steamer
leaves for the province of Matte
Crosse. far in the interior of Brazil.
These ships carry you to Corumba,
where you change to a smaller steam
er, and in twenty days from the time
of leaving Buenos Ayres reach Cuvaba.
the capital of Matte Crosse, 1884 miles
from Buenos Ayres and 200 miles from
the Atlantic. The Parana is navigabIe
by steam for more than 1000 miles. and
were it not for a strip of falls and
rapids along the eastern edge of south
ern Paraguay, it could be navigated
for many hundreds of miles further
NOT AN OCEAN HIGHWAY.
The boats going up these rivers must
all draw not more than ten feet, and
those to the upper ports cannot have
more than from five to nine feet. Even