The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-06-11
It's Immense Volume of ate it's
Large and Numerous Tributaries
and its Floating Islands.
THE HOLLAND OF THE AMAZON
SOMETHING ABOUT THE PEOPLE OF
THE WORLDS GREATEST VALLEY.
Floods in the Rainiest Part of the
W~orId-CacaO Plantations and How
Chocolate Il Raised.

downright. 1899. by Frank G. Carpenter.J
ON THE AMAZON, May 3.-Afoat upon
the mighty Amazon, Steaming up the great
est river Of the world. Riding on and on and
on over a yellow inland sea, now coasting
shores lined with a tropical vegetation and
now so far out that the trees become hazy
lines Of blue in the distance.
I am on an ocean steamer eight hundred
miles from the Atlantic in the heart Of
South America. / an just now within a
half mile of its south bank. The shores
are lined with cacao orchards. and by the
aid of my glass 1 can see the golden fruit
from which our chocolate comes shining
out of the green leaves. Back of the or
chards are 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 a 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 norther and central Andes down to
the sea. 1t has in it the washings Of more
than half a continent, and is the down
spout of a watershed half as large as the
whole United States. With it are mixed
the particles from the sluice boxes Of the
gold mines of the Benz and the Maranon.
Atoms Of it 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. it has come from willis where
the foot Of white man has never trod, from
- H. --l 49,, vIotao,,
and now is on it's way across the conti-
nent to it's great mother. the ocean.
EXTENT OF THE AMAZON.
1 entered the Amazon by its lower mouth
south Of the Island Of Marajo. L 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 channels into the main stream.
Since then / have been steaming slowly up
against the current. 1 have passed Obydos
and L am now going on to the point 1000
l.miles from the Atlantic where the Rio
Negro flows into the Amazon. Tomorrow
1 shall go by the mouth of the Madeira, and
1 have already crossed the mouths of tribu-
taries as large as some of the great rivers
of the world.
The Amazon receives into itself more than
one hundred rivers. 1t has LOO branches,
and it is unquestionably the greatest water
system of the globe. 1t has eight rivers
each OF which has a navigable length Of
} more than 1000 miles.
In coming here 1 passed the Tocantins,
up which you can steam for days into the
steamer, which. when we stop ct Manaos a
few days from now, will be farther inland
from the ocean than Chicago. There are
steamers from Manaos which will take you
1850 miles farther on to Iquitos, Peru, so
that you can go by steam upon this river
z, $50 miles westward from the sea.
Manaos is on the Rio Negro. 1t has steam
ers going UP that river 40 miles. 1 could
leave the Amazon before 1 get to Manaos
and go on a steamboat far on up the
Madeira. There are, indeed, more than 5000
miles of steam navigation on the Amazon
and it's greater branches, and the whole
river system is estimated as having some
thing like $1,000 miles of navigable water
ways.
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 be-
gin to appreciate their extent.
There is no valley in the world like that OF
the Amazon. 1t is 100 miles wide and 2,4N
niles long. II - dS Wiut DIS lTOm NEW 10Th
to Cleveland. and longer than from Phila.
delphia to the great Salt Lake. 1t is more
like a sloping plain than a valley. 1t has
not the high walls Of other valleys and its
slopes to the north and south are so gradual
that it is said by one short canal the water
systems of South America could be con.
nected. The Parana and Paraguay system
run almost up to the Amazon. You can &c
up the Paraguay and its tributaries and BY
carrying your canoes a few miles can pui
them in the tributaries OF the Amazon and
float down to the Atlantic The waters Of
the Amazon and those Of the Orinoco, which
flow into the Atlantic at the northern par
of South America, are actually united by
the Cassiquiare river, so that with a short
canal connecting with the Paraguay one
could really sail from the edge of the Car
ibbean sea to the mouth of the Rio de Ia
Plata.
|, The slope of the valley from the Andes t.
the sea is very slight. Its fall in 1900 mile:
is only 200 feet. or just about an inch to tn,
mile. You would hardly think the water
would flow at all with such a fall. but 1t doe.
flow and it carries with it vast quantitie.
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 ocear
400 miles east of the mouth of the Amazon
and the waters are said to be stained as fal
as 600 miles from the mouth.
Here the color of the water is yellow. i
is about as thick as pea soup, and 1 car
see not only trees and grass floating by me
but great beds Of vegetation, floating islands
which have been torn from the uplands anC
are being carried down TO the sea. Some o
these islands cover as much as an acre
They rise and fall in waves as our steame
goes by them Now and then they catch OF
snags near the shore and wait there for tn
floods or heavy wind TO carry them off.
HOW THE AMAZON CAME TO BE.
!. The greater part Of the Amazon vale,
was made up by the mud brought down b,
the river. Biologists say that there wa
originally a wide strait here joining tn,
Atlantic and Pacific oceans. South Amer
!. lea then consisted of two divisions, In,
highlands OF Venezuela and the Guianas O,
the north and the great island of Brazil OF
the south. Then the Andes were thrown n,
-