The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-03-22
4 GEOGRAPHICtL BLUNDFR.
The Large Tocantins River IL Not n Part II
Amazon system.

A remarkable blunder with regard To one II
the large rivers Of South America has been
common in school and other Biographies for
years and has given an incorrect impression of
the mighty stream near whose mouth the city Of
Para stands. The Tocsnuns river has been
regarded as merely a tributary OF the Amazon
instead Of haing, as II Is. an independent river
basin. \ geography Just published in England.
for example, SAYS that the Tocantins forms a
part Of the Amazon system, heins only divided
from il by some islands" Another British school
geography published last year gives the area Of the
Amazon basin and includes the Tocantins in il
The French Biographies likewise make the Tocsn-
tins a part Of the Amazon system.
Writers on geography are only Just beginning
to trsa, the Tocantns as an independent hydro
graphic basin. II rises far To the south and has
a tributary. the Araguaya, which Ii even larger
than the Tocsntins The Joint streams form one
Of the great rivers n the continent. with a width,
for a long distance, Of two or three miles. but the
river is so impeded by rapids tina, II Is not available
fr navigation until II widens into the great estuary
on which Para sta nds, Not a drop Of water from
the Tocantins nver mingles with the Amazon
until both rivers are lost, In the ocean. The Tocan.
tins reaches the Atlantic about forty miles east
Of the nearest delta branch II the Amazon. The
chief reason why the erroneous Identification oi
the Tocantins system with the Amazon basin
has so long been perpetuated seems To he that
the Tocantins basin is closely related with that II
the nrst Amazon tributary to the vast, inasmuch
as both flow from the same slope and in the same
direction.
While, however. no water from the Iocantin-
enters the Amazon q little water from the Amazon
does enter the TOcanuns through several narrow
arms Of the Amazon delta. This phenomenon,
however. does not make the two rivers belong
u the same System. It's not uncommon for water
channels 10 connect two distinct river systems
with one another but We do not say because the
CaSiquiare unites the Ornoco and the Rio Negro
Ihlolo How both TO the Congo and the Zambasi,
that the Orinoco and the Amazon, and
the Congo and the Fam best, belong
10 the same systems It IN, therefore. not
correct 10 say that the Tocantins is A pan of the
Amazon system because it has a water connection
through the little Breves nver and smaller streams
with the Amazon. Naturalist ia les and other
Amazon enter rocantns through the
Breves, but Bates told Of a larger water junction
batween the two river systems a little further
south. This WAS a blunder due 10 the small
progress exploration had made. for the river o.
which Bates spoke IL a long trough filled with
Turaniins water with a few little tributaries Of
Its own.
Geographical writer's are JUS, beginning TO give
tn. Tucantins its proper place a. an independent
nver system. The Increment GsO1rdphiGne Of
Brussels had a long article in its last number
pointing out the blunder NJ Reclus, in his des-
cnption of The TOcantins in the | UNIVERSAL Georgia
ply. several years ago, treated the system as a dis
tinct basin and was one 81 the first geographical
writer's to give a correct idea Of IL