Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-06-10

~ EfTE VlNssWAhAaM plue III inc uiSloil4te.
TfM nEV4E9 / am on an ocean
| steamer eight hun
| bred miles from the Atlantic in the heart
| of South America. / just within
| a half mile of its south bank The shores
are lined with cacao orchards, and by the
| aid of my glass l can see the golden fruit
| from which our chocolate comes shining
out of the green leaves. Back of the or
| chards the lofty trees OF the mighty
Amazon forests and close to the shore are
the gray matched huts of the people The
opposite bank is wooded, but it is so far
away that it forms only line of soft navy
blue which fades into the lighter blue of
the sky.
In front and behind the steamer stretches
this mighty stream carrying the waters of
the northern and central Andes down to
the sea. 1t has in 1t the washings of more
than half continent, and is the down
spout of watershed half as large as the
whole United States. With it are mixed
the particles from the siuice boxes of the
gold mines Of the Bent and the Maranon.
Atoms of 1t have received bitter kisses
from the quinine trees of Peru and other
atoms have trickled from the soil of Ecua-
dor 1t has the DRAWINGS of the sacred
cities of the Incas, and 1t may contain
some of the washings of the diamond mines
of upper Brazil. 1t has passed through
countries of cannibals 1t has come from
wflds where the foot Of white man has
never trod, from mountains and valleys
and lofty plateaus and now is on its way
across the continent to Its great mother
the ocean.
The Extent of the Amazon.
I entered the Amazon by its lower mouth
south Of the island of Marajo. ! sailed
about that island. which itself is as big as
some of our states to the narrows, and
then wound in and out through a series of
Wonderful phanna1c int ba
Since then l have been steaming slowly up
against the current. have passed Obydos
and l am now going on to the point 900
miles from the Atlantic, where the Rio Ne
gro flows into the Amazon. Tomorrow l
shall go by the mouth of the Madeira, and
[ have already crossed the mouths of
tributaries as large as some of the great
rivers Of the world.
The Amazon receives into itself more
than 100 rivers. 1t has LOO branches, and
1t is unquestionabiy the greatest water sys-
tenn Of the globe. 1t has eight rivers, each
of which has a navgable length of more
than 900 miles.
In coming here 1 passed the Tocantins.
up, which you can steam for days into the
steamer, which, when we stop at Manaos a
few days from now, will be further inland
from the ocean than Chicago. There are
steamers from Manaos which will take YOU
1.Sao miles further on to Iquitos, Peru SO
that you can go by steam upon this river
2'S2o miles westward from the sea.
steamers going up that river 40 miles 1
could leave the Amazon before get to Ma
h n5 and go on steamboat far on up the
Madeira: There are, indeed, more than
1000 miles of steam navigation on the
Amazon, and its greater branches, and the
whole river system is estimated as having
waterways.
Many of these waterways, however. are
small. The whole valley is covered by the
rivers and streams, like a net. and when
you realize how large the valley is YOU he
gin to appreciate their extent
The Greatest Valley on Earth.
There Is no valley in the world like that
or the Amazon. 1t is 700 miles wide and
2,4oo miles long. 1t is wide as from New
YORK to Cleveland, and longer than from
Philadelphia to the Great Salt Lake II is
more like great sloping plain than a val
ley. It has not the high walls of other VAL
leys and its slopes to the north and south
are so gradual that 1t is said by one short
canal the water systems of all South Amer
lea could be connected. The Parane and
Paraguay system almost up to the
Amazon. You can go up the Paraguay and
its tributaries and by carrying your canoes
Few miles can put them in the tributaries
or the Amazon and float down to the At
lantc. The waters of the Amazon and
those of the orinoco, which flow into the
Atlantic at the northern part of South
America, are actually united by the CASH
qufare river, so that with a short canal con-
meeting with the Paraguay one could really
sail from the edge of the Caribbean sea to
the mouth of the Rio de la Plata
One Inch to the Mile.
The slope of the valley from the Andes to
the sea is very slight. Its fall in 1900 miles
is only 200 feet, or just about an inch to
the mile. You would hardly think the water
would flow at all with such a fall, but 1t
does flow and 1t carries with it vast quanti-
ties Of silt. Millions upon millions of tons
of mud are taken down by it every day into
the Atlantic. Tree trunks and bits of vege-
tation which grow only in the Peruvian
Andes have been seen floating in the ocean
four hundred miles east of the mouth of
the Amazon, and the waters are said to be
stained far as six hundred miles from
the mouth.
Here the color of the water is yellow It
is about as thick as pea soup, and I can
see not only trees and grass floating by me,
but great beds of vegetation, floating ISL
ands, which have been torn from the up
lands and are being carried down to the
sea. Some of these islands cover as much
as an acre. They rise and fall in waves as
our steamer goes by them. Now and then
they catch on snags near the shore and
carry them off.
How the Amazon Came to BE.
The greater part of the Amazon valley
was made up by the mud brought down by
the river. Biologists say that there was
originally wide strait here Joining the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans, South Amer
lea then consisted Of two divisions, the