Arizona republican., 1910-03-31
WORLDS GREATEST RIVER.
Its Source and Mouth-Rapids in Its Course-Wealth Along Its Banks.

While the Amazon is the world g greatest river. if not in length at least in the volume of water which flows through it. II is the worlds strangest river as well.
 The few travellers and explorers who have journeyed up this water course to it's many sources in the glaciers of the South American noun tains tell stories which are almost incredible about the literal maze of streams which unite to form it, each stream having its birth in one of tile great ice masses. Yet q few hundred miles below. where they merge and create the river. the temperature is such that it works it's way through a perfect labyrinth of tropical vcgeta- tion.
 only the mariner can tell the place where the Amazon really has it's mouth. because the opening it has made on the eastern coast of South America is SD wide that it extends over loo miles A long distance before one comes to the mouth of the river however. on, is really sailing on the waters of the Amazon. says Chambers Journal. because they force their way out SD far into the ocean Thcy say that 900 miles out at sea. off the mouth of the Amazon. you can hoist a bucketful of fresh water out of the ocean from the deck of the ship. such is the quantity of its water that flows from that gigantic basin.
 Long after you have entered the actual river and have it's banks tu north and south of you. if you are i'm midstream 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 uu the country Take map of south Amer ica and look out place called Iquitos IL lies four-fi'thS of the way across the continent from east tp west Yet from Iquitos there is a fortuightly ser vice oi ocean going steamers tu Eu- rope. which descend some @0o0 miles of the river before they reach the sea
 l. is not only one branch of the Amazon but many that are thus to be regarded as ;he same as ocean high ways. The southern branches of the Amazon are broken by rapids along a line where a low continental shelf exists Above these rapids. however. there is again deep water Thus be yond the falls of the Madeira there are over 10000 miles of nayigable Wa ter on that river and it's branches. and these only await the making of short railway less than 200 miles long to be brought int" connection with the other highways of the world
 Away in this remote part of the South American continent nature has been indeed generous, for in addition to the wealth of rubber there are known To be deposits of gold and other precious minerals. IL is said that near ly every one of the glacial streams washing down the foothills Of the mountains carries sand laden with gold which has been accommodating in its bed for centuries, but as vet none has been secured by the miner. owing to the distanc, tp these streams be ing SD great and to there being no route by which machinery or tools for getting the gold can be taken to these places.
 Not only Sir Martin Conway but other travellers who have ventured along the upper river and its trihu- taries say that here a curious earthly paradise really exists. To the surface of the water the suns rays seldom reach; and orc may go many miles along waterways where it is well nigh as dark as night. because the sky iS almost 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
 Above this is really a scene of life and beauty. Birds and butterflies and other gorgeous insects are flying from place to place: flowers of hundreds of hues and shapes are blooming from the plants attached to tree. branch and trunk. This upper world of the Amazon forests has been closed to hu- man beings and promises to remain a perpetual mystery unless with the aid of some aerial craft one may be able to visit it.