Omaha daily bee., 1899-06-11

steamers going up that river 470 miles. l
could leave the Amazon before l get to Ma
naos and go on a steamboat far on up the
Madeira. There are, indeed more than
5000 miles of steam navigation on the
Amazon and its greater branches, and the
whole river system is estimated as having
something like 1000 miles OF navigable
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 begin to
appreciate their extent.
The Greatest Valley on Earth.
There is no valley in the world Hike that
of the Amazon. 1t is 700 miles wide and
2, 400 miles Tong. 1t is as wide as from New
York to Cleveland, and longer than from
Philadelphia to the Great Salt Lake. 1t is
more like a great sloplng plain than a val
ley. 1t has not the high walls of other val
leys and its slopes to the north and south
are so graduaf that 1t is said by one short
canal the water systems of all South America
| could be connected. The Parana and Par
! aguay system run almost up to the Amazon.
You can go up the Paraguay and It's tribd-
taries, and by carrying your canoes a lew
| miles can put 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 porthern part Of South America are
| actually united by the Cassiquiare river, so
that with a shore canal connecting with the
! Paraguay one could really sail from the
edge Of the Caribbean sea TO the NOUN Oh
the Rio de la Plata.
The slope of the valley from the Andes
to the sea is very slight. It's fall in 1000
| miles is only 200 feet, or just about an lhcn
TO the mile. You would hardly think the
water would flow at all with such a taii'
| but 1t does flow and it carries with 1t vast
quantities of silt. Millions upon millions OF
| tons of mud are taken down with 1t every
day into the Atlantic. Tree trunks and bits
of vegetation which grow only in the Pc
ruvian Andes have been seen floating In
the ocean 400 miles east OF the mouth OF
the Amazon and the waters are said to be
| stained as far as 600 miles from the mouth.
Here the color of the water is yellow. 1t
is about as thick as pea soup, and l can
see not only trees and grass floating by me,
| but great beds of vegetation, floating Islands,
| which have been torn from the uplands 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 wait there for the
floods or heavy wind to carry them off.
How the Amazon Came to He.
The greater part of the Amazon valley
was made up of the mud brought down by
the river. Biologists say that there was
originally a wide strait here joining the At
lantic and Pacific oceans. South America
then consisted OF two divisions, the high
lands of Venezuela and the Guinas on the
north and the great island of Brazil on the
south, Then the Andes was thrown up out
of the sea at the west, The bottom of the
Amazon valley was raised, the waters OF the
ocean rolled back and this great Amazon
plain was formed.
During the centuries since then the waters
have been rolling down through 1t to the
Atlantic, loaded with mud. The city of
Para stands on land made of this mud, and
from 1t the great island Of Marajo has been
built up.
Every year there are floods which turn
this region into a vast inland sea. When
the water subsidies quantities of mud have
been left and thus year by year the delta
of the Amazon has been formed.
The delta of the Amazon is more wonder
full than Holland in its waterways. / saw
something of it when l passed about the
southern side Of the Island OF Marajo and
sailed through the narrow channel into the
main body of the Amazon on my way up
the river. The land here is cut up by nat