St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-08-23
FACTS ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA
There Are Many Things We Do Not
Know About Our NeighbOr
Country,

ton TO recognize the independence OF
the South American republics, and over
them it raised the aegis of the Monroe
doctrine almost so years ago; yet, COM
pared with the Europeans, we in Amer
lea are profoundly ignorant about
South America. We know almost moth
ing of it's scenic wonders, for we do not
visit them; our share in it's exploration
is insignificant; what information the
world has of it's fora and fauna has
been CLEANED by Europeans mainly;
our knowledge of it's ethnology also
comes from them and the same may
oe said of the history OF it's people in
the nineteenth century (from Amer
lean sources almost no account of the
rise of the Spanish republics can be
had); and it is European and not Amer
lean capital that has opened up it's
wildernesses, built its cities and rail
roads and established it's industries.
How many Americans have seen
Ecuador's avenue of volcanoes" 20 Of
whose mighty crests exceed L., 1000 feet,
one of them 10000, and three others,
heard of the Paulo Alfonso falls, on
the Rio San Francisco, with their de-
scent of 300 feet and volume Of 10000
cubic feet per second; or of the seven
falls of Guayra, on the Parana, which,
in combination during the rainy sea-
son, challenge the grandeur of Nj
agara?
How many Americans are familiar
with Gen. San Martins achievement in
the passage of the Uspalata
pass, 1900 feet above sea level, with
an army of 5000 men, infantry, cavalry
and artillery, in the war of independ-
ence in 1917? The Great St. Bernard.
over which Napoleon led an army, is
5000 feet lower than Uspalata. And
writ in water, so far as most of us are
is the heroic defense of the
Paraguayans in the war of 1S65-7O with
Brazil, Argentine and Uruguay, when
the population of Paraguay declined
from 100000 to 225, 5000, and none but
old men and children were left
of people distinguish he'd for their gen.
tleness and amiability.
For the American naturalist, botan-
ist, hunter and traveller no part of the
world should have more attractions.
Brazil alone has 100 species of birds,
many of splendid iridescent plumage;
no less than so kinds of apes; so vari-
cites of snakes, including the water
BOA, which swallows horses and men;
eight species of alligators, the yaca-
81 feet long; "a bats, including
The loathsome vampire (Phyllostoma
Spectrum), two feet in wing stretch,
hat kills cattle and fastcns on sleeping
children; and 1880 distinct marine
creatures.
Eight thousand species of beetles
lave been recorded in Ecuador; in the
it has a snake which is do
nesticated and trained to patrol gar
lens, and in the fautero bird whose
;ong so resembles the sound of flute
is to deceive the practiced ear. Among
he apes Of equatorial South America
S the bowler, which has developed a |
ind of tribal organization under
hief who leads a chorus of dismal |
music, unlike that of any other animal,
nd heard for miles at dawn and sun
ct.
A curiosity Of the plant world in
'eru is the Tamai caspi, or rain tree,
which grows to height of 60 feet and
bsorbs the humidity of the atmos-
here in such abundance that in
water drips fromit branches.
% many strange things there are in
he animal and vegetable kingdom of
outh America that no prudent person
'ould do more than suggest the wealth
f them, says H. E. Armstrong, in Aims
els.
In the first quarter of the twentieth
,ntury most of the exploration and
solicitation of South America will be
one by citizens of the United States,
ecause the commercial interests OF
lis country will point the way.