Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1913-04-30


rying rather noisily on, and so
necessarily but very little of the life
of the great river is seen. Passing
through the narrows above Para, the
forests can almost be touched on eth
er side OF the steamer. but after that
one shore is always very distant
There Is something mysterious
about the river; canoes laden with for
est produce. a brightly plumaged
maccaw perched on their prov, come
smoothly to the town; river steamers
with their burden of evil smelling rub
Der. a few brilliant orchids tied to
the wheelhouse, make fast to the
wharves, and always there is that
sense of the unknown, the bright, the
elusive. A desire TO overcome this
feeling of remoteness, writes a CORE
spondent OF the London Times. de-
termined me to embark in a canoe
and journey out on the yellow waters
of the Amazon and through dim for
est hung channels to the black wa
ters and white sand strewn beaches of
the Rio Negro
The difficulties ! encountered we're
immense. All my Brazilian friends
warned me of the dangers and hard.
ships of such a voyage. and / found
that prohibitive prices were asked
for the hire OF even the most insult
able craft. Eventually | secured a
boat. and built tolda or hood over
one end, took my provisions on board,
hoisted sail and set of My crew
consisted of a Portuguese boatman
and Japanese.
Pests of the River Amazon.
Sailing slowly down the river. the
boat kept very close to the bank and
sid along noiselessiy AS the day
wore on the wind died down and the
heat became intense. black fly
called motuca appeared In great num-
bers and inflicted painful bites. We
landed to light fire and cook lunch.
Small. dry sponges hung in the
branches of the shrubs that had been
long submerged. yellow butterflies
were drinking in companies of SO or
more at little pools left on the slop-
ing shore. Huge yellow and black
hornets came around US and at first
frightened us. but we soon learned to
look on them as friends when we
found 1t was the motuca flies that
they were hunting. not us. Otter hard
ly had motuca settled when II was
pounced upon and borne of.
All insect pests were said to be far
worse on white water rivers than on
black water ones, so we fastened TO
leave the Amazon, so as If possible
to sleep that hight on the shores of
one. of the lakes lying between that
river and the Rio Negro A breeze
sprung up and took us up the river
SLOWLY enough, as the current com
ing down was very strong, but when
we turned up a stream leading to the
Rio Negro our progress ceased, the
sail was lowered and we took out the
oars
II proved to be very hot work. Shut
in by the immense forest trees, no
breath of wind came to US. and we
were very happy to come to a small
lake with a place on its shores free
from brushwood on which we could
camp. My companions slung their
hammocks from branches OF trees.
carefully arranging their mosquito
nets to protect them at night A lit
tie way from them, yard from the
waters edge, placed my mattress
and cased 1T IN with a mosquito net
on poles cut from the forest We
then strolled off in search Of the I'M
known
There is a curious atmosphere. of
suspense or hush. IN the Amazon for
eat; the light only reaches one after