The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-05
THE PARHNA AND ITS ISLANDS
SOUTH AMERICAN RIVER BOATS AND
HOW THEY ARE MANAGED.
Strange Sights on the Paraguay River
Monkeys, Parrots and Jaguars
and CFOcOdiIes Galore.
[copyright 1899, BY Frank G. carpenter.l


from the Atlantic as Chicago; and the dis
lance I had to travel on the rivers to reach
it is greater than from Omaha to New
York Within the past few months l have
penetrated the basin of the Rio de la Plata
to a distance of more than 1900 miles At
Buenos Ayres l was almost two hundred
miles from the sea, and in coming from
there to Asuncion on the Parana and Par
aguay rivers l Travelled lis miles. On the
first day out we steamed by the mouth of
the Uruguay river in entering the Parana.
Eight hundred miles further north we came
into the Paraguay river. upon which | trav-
eled more than three hundred miles. The
Paraguay is still navigable by small steam
ers for 1,400 miles north Of this point, and
just opposite it is the mouth of the Pilco-
mayo, which rises in the Bolivian Andes
and, in a tortuous course, flows through
1850 miles of unexplored wilds before it
empties into the Paraguay. The Parana
itself is over two thousand miles long. 1t
rises in the mountains of Brazil and flows
| distance of more than 1900 miles before it
swallows up the Paraguay at about eight
| hundred miles from it's mouth.
The river system of the Plate, or of the
Rio de la Plata, is one Of the most wonder
full of the world. The volume of the stream
is greater than that of the Mississippi 1t
is surpassed only by the Amazon. 1t drains
basin more than half as big as the whole
United States, and one which, in fertility of
soil and salubrity of climate, is only sur
passed by the basin of the Mississippi The
basin of the Plate is over two thousand
miles long. 1t is bigger than the basin of
the Mississippi, and it is a question whether
it has not more cultivabe territory. Upon
it tens of millions of cattle and sheep are
pastured and its wheat fields compete with
ours in the markets of Europe. 1t has the
most extensive plains of the globe. and it is
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. It's northern paris are like Louisiana
or Florida, and in the south the summer
climate is as temperate as that of our mid
die States.
1t is the Mississippi basin reversed the
source of its rivers being in the hot coun-
try, where there are coffee and sugar lands
and rubber trees, and it's mouth in the
rather cool lands of Uruguay and the Ar
gentine, noted for their fields of wheat and
corn.
This vast basin is formed in the shape of
d great horseshoe, with the opening toward
the Atlantic; the Andes and the strip of
highlands which crosses Brazil form the
back and upper rim of the shoe, while the
slightly sloping plains of Patagonia bound
it on the south. In it are included the best
of the Argentine, all of Uruguay and Para
quay and large portions of Brazil and Bo-
livia. The most of it has been built up by
the Parana or Rio de la Plata system, and
to-day 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 100 miles wide at
the Atlantic and narrows down to twenty
nine miles at Buenos Ayres, which is 1870
miles inland. The width at Montevideo is
about sixty-fve 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 sandy mud and the
Eads jetty system is proposed. As it is
now, the rivers bring down quarter of
million tons of mud a day, and the sedi-
ment 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 Montevdeo, 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 as
fine docks and quays as any city of the
world. 1t has within the past ten years
spent $50, O09 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
it 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 wharyes. Some have just come
in loaded 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 American continent is enor-
nous
| 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 a week.
There are steamers also which go regularly
every day or so up the Uruguay for a dis
lance of five hundred miles, and twice a
month a Brazilian steamer leaves for the
! province of Matte Crosse far in the interior
of Brazil. These ships carry you to Corum-
ba where you change to smaller steamer,
and in twenty days from the time of leaving
| BGenos Ayres reach cuvaba, the capital of
! Matte Crosse, 1854 miles from Buenos Ayres
and 2,7O0 miles from the Atlantic The
4 Parana is navigable by steam for more than
1,200 miles, and were it not for strip of
| falls and rapids along the eastern edge of
southern Paraguay, 1t could be navigated
for many hundreds of miles further
NOT AN OCEAN HIGHWAY.
The boats going up these rivers must not
draw 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.
Vott f~ac.,ev,41Sr sn.a ntefaaar4o ,,.1.,.