The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1902-11-28
FACTS ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA
There Are Many Things We Do Not
Know About Our NeighbOr
Country.


The United States was the first ma
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 its 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 its ethnology also
comes from them and the same may
be 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 $1,000 feet,
one of them 10000, and three others,
19,O00feet? How many Americans have
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
making the passage of the Uspalata
pass, 12,700 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
conc erned, is the heroic defense of the
Paraguayans in the war of 1S657O with
Brazil, Argentine and Uruguay, when
the population of Paraguay declined
from 10000 to 225, 900, and none but
women, old men and children were left
of people distinguished for their gem
tleness and amiability,
For the American naturalist, botan-
list, hunter and traveller no part of the
world should have more attractions.
Brazil alone has LOO 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-
reguazu 81 feet long; "a bats, including
the loathsome vampire (Phyllostoma
Spectrum), two feet in wing stretch.
that kills cattle and fastcns on sleeping
children; and 1880 distinct marine
creatures.
I Eight thousand species of beetles
have been recorded in Ecuador; in the
calambo it has a snake which Is do
mesticated and trained to patrol gar
dens, and in the fautero bird whose
song so resembles the sound of flute
as to deceive the practiced ear. Among
the apes of equatorial South America
is the bowler, which has developed a
kind of tribal organization under a
chief who leads a chorus of dismal
music, unlike that of any other animal,
and heard for miles at dawn and sun
set.
A curiosity of the plant world in
Peru is the Tamai caspi, or rain tree
which grows to height of 60 feet and
absorbs the humidity of the atmos-
phere in such abundance that in
droughts water drips from it's branches
So many strange things there are in
the animal and vegetable kingdom of
South America that no prudent person
would do more than suggest the wealth
of them, says H. E. Armstrong, in Aims
lies.
In the first quarter of the twentieth
century most of the exploration and
exploitation of South America will be
done by citizens of the United States,
because the commercial interests of
this country will point the way.