The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-12-07
, 1913, by Frank G. Car
penter.) }
,.--i-aaA..a 4

=
~ about starting upon his expedi-
tion into the tropical interior of South
America. He will have already visited
the civilized sections of the three
greatest countries of our sister con-
tinent, and will have delivered ad-
dresses in Argentina Chile and Brazil.
He will have travelled over the vast
coffee plantations about Sac Paulo'
will have ridden with the gauchos or
cowboys over the pampas of Argentina,
and will have hunted the wild Ameri-
:. can ostriehes in the desert of Pata-
gonia He will have climbed the Andes,
have crossed over into the progressive
bull moose country of Chile, and have
made his way by rail north and south
through that shoestring republic. lie
will, in short have seen the best In
modern progress that South America
has to offer, and will be ready for that
part of the continent which today Is
practically as wild as 1t was when
Juan de Soils first made his way up
the Rio de la Plata, and when Pinzon
discovered the mouth of the Amazon.
South America has the greatest river
basins on earth and it Is in the basins
of the two largest of them that Mr..
Roosevelt is to travel. The whole east
ern and central half of the continent Is
composed of enormous river valleys
and plains and plateaus. The Orinoco
river, beginning in Venezuela, is long
er than from New York to Omaha, 1t
flows north and its head waters are
in Brazil so near those of the Rio Ne
gro that you can carry canoe across
from one stream to the other and
starting in at the Caribbean sea- cross
Venezuela and Brazil and come out
into the Atlantic ocean. The Rio Negro
enters the Amazon 1000 miles from its
mouth. 1t flows In just below the
city of Manaos, and It's black waters
may there be seen moving along side
by side with the yellow waters of the
Amazon. They flow together for some
miles before they mix, and then the
black disappears. 1t Is now 15 years
since l went 1000 miles up the Ama-
zon and entered the mouth of the RIO
Negro The latter is an immense stream
and at its mouth 1t seems as large as
the Amazon itself.
There are high bluffs lining the banks
and little farther up the stream is a
succession of lakes, some of which are
from 20 to so miles wide. The water of the
Rio Negro are black as your hat,
while those OF the Amazon are as yellow
as those of the muddy Missouri. ] re-
member that our steamer cut the joining
of the waters, so that you could look
down over one side of the vessel into a
nd Mt
one of pale gold
II is not far from the mouth of the
Rio Negro that the Madeira flows into
the Amazon, and one can go up that
river during the rainy season about as
far as from New Orleans to st. Louis.
This is to the falls of San Antonio. by
taking boat around the falls he could
go into the BENZ and Mamore, two of the
branches which reach to Bolivia, and by
a short portage from the Mamore get
into the Pilcomayo. which flows into the
Parana system. | have seen the Pilco-
mavo where 1t enters the Paraguay r1ser
in the Gran Chaco. some distance above
>. the Argentine boundary, and have traV-
e!ed up the Paraguay almost to the pla-
team of Matto Crosse, where rises the Tap
aios river, another tributary of the Anna
zon. which is about 1900 miles long.
passed the mouth of the Tapajos when
travelled ,p the Amazon in 1898. 1t is
about 500 miles from Para and about an
equal distance from Manaos and the
mouth of the Rio Negro.
It has not been reported as yet which
of these courses ex-President Roosevelt
will take in making his way from the
Parana system to that of the Amazon.
He might go up the Parana and Para
quay and enter the Pileomayo,- but 1t IS
more probable that he will travel up the
Paraguay river to its source and thence
trek across country and go into Tapajos
and float down that. stream for 200 miles
into the mighty Mother of Waters He
can go almost to the source of the Tapa-
Jos by the Parana system, and can reach
Cuyaba, Brazil. which is not far from
there, by steam. That town is just about
as high above sea level as is the surface
of Lake Superior, and there are comfort
able steamers which go about 110o miles
north from Buenos Aires to Asuncion, the
capital of Paraguay, and smaller boats
Above Cuyaba the Paraguay narrows
but it can be navigated by canoes for a
distance of $50 miles farther. l am told
there are many rapids, however, and
that portage will have to be made around
some of them. The town of Diamantina
is not far from Cuyaba, and 1t will prob
ably be at that place that the Roosevelt
party will cross to the headwaters of the
Tapajos.
The Tapajos has a branch, called the
Arinos, which rises near there Roosevelt
and his party will go down the 4,rinos
into the A1to-Tapajos and will have to
carry their boats around the rapids and
cataracts at Maranhao Grande, after
which they can get large vessels which
will take them down the broad and deep
stream which leads from there into the
Amazon at the town of Santarem.
The valley of the Tapajos is very pic
turesque, 1t has high bluffs along the
lower river but they disappear within a
few miles of the Amazon, and one comes
out. as it were. into a great flowing in
land sea which extends from there to
the ocean. few miles above Santarem
Is the narrowest part of the lower Anna
zon. This is at the town of Obidos.
remember when I went up the great river
that we were often out of sight of land
until we reached ObidOS, and that the