Omaha daily bee., 1899-06-11

cut out OF the woods a clearing Just about
big enough for a hut and a garden. The
hut is made of poles and palm leaves and
the garden consists of a few banana plants,
an orange tree or so and some palm trees.
TIL huts are matched with palm leaves.
They are so rude hat the wind whistles
through them and the roof merely serves to
keep out the rain and the sun.
They are built close to the edge of the
river. Naked babies play on the shore in
front Of them and barefooted men and wo-
men, many OF whom are mulattoes or ne
groes, stand and look at the steamer as it
goes by. The most of these people are
rubber hunters, a few own cacao orchards,
but all seem to be thriftless and poverty
stricken.
Many of the people can live in their huts
only a part of the year. They have to go
to the higher lands during the floods. The
Amazon valley Is the rainiest region of the
world. 1T is estimated that a million and
a half cubic feet of rain falls upon 1t every
day the year through. This is an average OF
seventy-two inches of rain per annum In
other words, if the water lay where it fell
the whole valley would be covered with rain
so deep that it would hide the crown of the
average mans head.
In many parts of the valley 1t rains every
day. In Para 1 had to make my appoint
ments to call after the usual afternoon
| shower, and here, further up the Amazon,
| the air is full of moisture and mist. Every
thing is rusty. My knife has rusted in my
pocket. l have kept my revolver well oiled
and if I leave my gun loaded over night
! it is sometimes so damp that 1t will not go
! off in the morning. My camera is freckred
with rust and my typewriter looks as though
it came from a junk shop,
The greatest rains arc In the winter. In
| November and February the Amazon rises
from thirty to fifty feet above its usual
! level. AT this time a vast part OF the valley
is flooded and thousands of square miles
are covered with water for months. Many
of the islands are submerged. The water
flows in and out among the tops of the trees
and the valley for a thousand miles and more
Is a vast inland sea from fifteen to 10 miles
wide.
AS you go UP the river you see here and
there long stretches OF meadows which are
made by these floods. The trees Will not
grow upon the lands where the waters lie
for months. The result is the pasture fields
of the Amazon, which are indeed vast In
extent. have seen many herds or cattle
on my way here and I am told that there
are thousands p~astured on the Island OF
Marajo.
They Go About in Boats.
The people OF the Amazon rely entirely
upon boats for getting about. Every hut we
have passed has had two or three BOATS ued
to It's wharf. Some were dugout canoes
others we're fatboats, and at one OF two
large houses we saw steam launches. Some
OF the rowboats are painted in bright oolors'
and not a few have canopies or covers over
them, under which their owners can crawl
to keep out of the sun.
AS we passed the huts the people usually
ran out of them and dragged the boats up on
the banks. Sometimes they jumped into
their boats and rowed them out from the
land to prevent the waves made by the
steamer from overturning them and filling
them with water.
There are no roads in these Amazon Tor
ests. The only paths are those which go
from one rubber tree to another. These are
too rough and winding for the people to
use in the way OF travel and they lead to
no particular place. The only roads are
the streams. The people go visiting in
boats. They carry their cacao and rubber to
market in boats. relying entirely upon this
method Of getting from one place to another.
We made quite a stop at Obydos coming
up the river. The Amazon here is narrowed
TO a channel a little more than a mile wide.
Through this trough the immense body OF
the Amazon sweeps with great force. The