Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-11-04
GIGANTIC AMAZON.
Ii Is the Greatest as Well as the
Stranuest of Rivers.

Il Is the Greatest as Well as the
Strangest of Rivers.
While the Amazon is the worlds
greatest river. if not in length at least
in the volume of water which flows
through it. it is the worlds strangest
river as well.
The few travellers and explorers
who have journeyed up this water
course to its many sources in the gla-
ciers of the South American noun
tains tell stories which are almost in
credible about the literal maze OF
streams which unite to form it, each
stream having it's birth in one of the
great ice masses. Yet few hundred
miles below, where they merge and
create the river, the temperature is
such that it works it's way through
perfect labyrinth of tropical vege-
tation.
ONLY the mariner can tell the place
where the Amazon really has lts
mouth. because the opening 1t has
made on the eastern coast OF South
America is so wide that it extends
over 100 miles A long distance be-
| fore one comes to the mouth OIL the
river however, one is really SalllnS
on the waters of the Amazon, be-
cause they force their way so far out
into the ocean. They say that 300
miles out at sea off the mouth of the
Amazon you can hoist bucketful or
fresh water out of the ocean from the
deck of a ship. such is the quantity OF
| its water that flows from that glgan-
tic basin.
Long after you have entered the ac-
tual river and have its banks north
and south of you if you are in mid
stream YOU will still be out of sight
of land, such is the breadth of the
vast channel The river stretches far
into the ocean and far up the coun-
try. Take map of South America
and look up a place called lqultos. IL
lies four-fifths Of the way across the
continent from east to west. Yet from
Iauitos there is a fortnightly service
of ocean going steamers to Europe,
which descend some 5000 miles OF the
river before they reach the sea.
1t is not only one branch of the Am
aZon, but many that are thus to be
regarded as the same as ocean hlgh-
wayS The southern branches OF the
Amazon are broken by rapids along
line where a low continental shelf
exists. Above these rapids, how
ever. there is again deep water.
Thus beyond the falls Of the Madeira
there are over 10000 miles of naviga-
BILE water on that river and It's
branches.
Not only Sir Martin Conday, but
other travellers who have ventured
nd a.
ries. say that here a curious woodland
tangle exists. To the surface of the
water the suns rays seldom reach.
and one may go many miles along
waterways where il is we'll nigh as
dark as night because the sky is Al
most completely shut out by the mass
of vines which interlace the trees and
are so thick with leaves. Deprived
of the sunlight, all is dark and rank
The damp air is laden with unhealth-
full vapor. The surface OF the water
in places where the current is too
sluggish to carry it away is covered
with scum and weed.
1t requires no little courage to eX-
plore these Businesses, for man real
ly takes his life in his hands, so un-
healthy are they. Occasionally, how
ever, one can see the upper portion
of the forest where there is a little
crevice in it's roof of vines. Above
this is really a scene of life and beauty
Birds and butterflies and other gor-
geous insects are flying from place to
place; flowers of hundreds of hues
and shapes are blooming from the
plants attached to tree, branch ana
trunk. While below all may be life
less and silent. above the height where
the mass Of vines overshadow the
river nature has created world OF
brightness and animation; but, as al
ready stated, it is almost entirely smut
out from human eye.
To attempt to break through this
canopy of vines which hide 1t from
II e lower world is almost impossible
because the vines grow so thickly, but
some naturalists have penetrated it
and say that the forests really have
two surfaces, the one above this artl-
ticial roof and the one below. That
which is above is barred from human
entrance its inhabitants are mostly
birds and insects that are radiant with
beauty unequalled in the world.
Whatever grows in the Amazon mud
strives with desperate internecine
struggle to reach this sky exposed
surface and there blossoms Beneath
where man can walk or float. all is
dark. Only here and there a titful
ray of sunlight struggles through.
Orchids blossom within this shadowy
region.
You can see these bright creatures
nitfully i'm the cavern below, but not
in all their glory. as they must be-
hold one another above. Sometimes
as they fit about beneath they will
chance To cross sunbeam Slanting
through hole in the vegetation;
then for an instant they flash into
view like an explosion of burning
color. 1t is thus that the great but
tcrnies are seen to the best effect.
No one can imagine what picture
they produce i'm their native haunts
as their wings flash and close and
flash again i'm the sunlight as they
fly.
No: this upper world of the ANA
ZOn forests has been closed to human
beings and promises to remain per
petual mystery unless with the aid
Of some aerial craft one may be able
to visit it.-ChamberS Journal.