Omaha daily bee., 1899-02-05

of the Argentine. all Of Uruguay and Para
quay and large portions Of Brazil and Bo
lvia. 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 LIN Plata.
You see this plainly in the Rio de la Plata
proper. 1t Is more a great bay of liquid
mud than a river. 1t is 120 miles wide at
the Atlantic and narrows down to twenty
nine miles at Buenos Ayres, which is $50
miles inland. The width at Montevldeo is
about sixty-fve miles. The Rio de la Plata
Is so full Of silt or mud that 1t 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 ac
We sailed to Buenos Ayres, The channel is
fast filling up with a sandy mud and the
Eads jetty system is proposed. AS 1t Is
now, the rivers bring down a quarter of q
million tons OF mud 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 Montevideo and
from there to Buenos Ayres the ride re-
quired 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 az
fine docks and quays as any city of the
world. 1t has within the last ten years
spent $50 900 gold upon their construs-
tion 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
cattle can be transferred directly from the
cars to the steamers which are to take them
to Europe.
Up the Parnna.
1t Is at these docks that you get steamers
which carry you far up the rivers into the
interior. There are river boats of all kinds
lying at the wharves. Some have just
come In loaded with oranges, wood hides
and wool and others are just starting out,
There are sailing boats as we'll as steamers
and you soon appreciate that the interior
traffic of the South American continent Is
enormous.
There are two lines of steamers which
have weekly service between Buenos
Ayres and Asuncion, SO that you can take
a ship for any of the ports twice week.
There are steamers also which go regularly
every day or SO up the Uruguay for dis
tance OF 800 miles, and twice a month a
Brazilian steamer leaves for the province OF
Matto Crosse, far in the interior of Bra
I'll. These ships carry you to Corumbia,
where you change TO a smaller steamer,
and in twenty days from the time of leay-
ing Buenos Ayres reach Cuyaba, the cap
ital of Matte Crosse, 2,5O4 miles from
Buenos Ayres and 2,7O0 miles from the At
lantic The Parana is navigable by steam
for more than 1900 miles, and were it no.
for strip Of falls and rapids along the east
ern edge of southern Paraguay it could be
navigated for many hundreds Of miles fur
ther.
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 then they are
liable to be grounded in the sand by low
water You frequently see statements that
ocean steamers car go by the Parana far
into the interior of South America. This
Is not true. Steamers of sixteen feet can
go up the river as far as Rosario, a dis
;ance OF 500 miles from Buenos Ayres and
about 500 miles from the Atlantic, but above
this ships would stick fast in the mud. As
Il is. our steamer, the Saturno, which was
at the time drawing only ten feet of water,