Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1914-07-12

cans, each containing days provisions for
six men, made up by Fiala.
a Preparatory Word.
The trip proposed to take can be under
stood only if there is a slight knowledge of
South American topography The great
mountain chain of the Andes extends down
the entire length of the western coast, so
close to the Pacific ocean that no rivers of
any Importance enter it. All the rivers of
South America drain into the Atlantic.
Southernmost South America, including
over half of the territory of the Argentine
Republic, consists chiefly of cool, open
plains country. Northward of this country,
and eastward of the Andes, lies the great
bulk of the South American continent,
which is included in the tropical and the
subtropical regions.
Most of this territory is Brazilian. Aside
from certain relatively small stretches
drained by coast rivers, this immense region
of tropical and sub-tropical America east Of
the Andes is drained by the three great
river systems Of the Plate, the Amazon, and
the Orinoco. At their head waters, the Anna
zon and the Orinoco systems are actually
connected by sluggish natural canal. The
head waters of the northern affluents of the
Paraguay and the southern affluents of the
Amazon are sundered by a stretch of high
land, which toward the east broadens out
into the central plateau of Brazil.
Geologically this is very ancient region,
having appeared above the waters before
the dawning of the age Of reptiles, or, in
deed, of any true land vertebrates on the
globe This plateau is a region partly of
healthy, rather dry and sandy, open prairie,
partly of forest. The great and low-lying
basin of the Paraguay, which borders it on
the south, is one of the largest, and the still
greater basin of the Amazon, which borders
it on the north, is the very largest of all the
river basins of the earth
In these basins, but especially in the basin
of the Amazon, and thence in most places
northward to the Caribbean sea, lie the
most extensive stretches of tropical forests
to be found anywhere. The forests of trop-
ical west Africa, and of portions of the Far
ther-Indian region, are the only ones that
can be compared with them.
. The Great Brazilian Forests.
Much difficulty has been experienced in
exploring these forests, because under the
torrential rains and steaming heat the rank
growth of vegetation becomes almost i'm
penetrable, and the streams difficult of nav
igation; while white men suffer much from
the terrible insect scourges and the deadly
diseases which modern science has discov-
cred to be due very largely to insect bites.
The fauna and flora, however, are of great
interest. The American museum was par
ticularly anxious to obtain collections from
the divide between the head waters of the
Paraguay and the Amazon, and from the
southern affluents of the Amazon.
Our purpose was to ascend the Paraguay
as nearly as possible to the head of navga-
ton, thence across to the sources of one of
the affluents of the Amazon, and if possible
descend it in canoes built on the spot The
Paraguay is regularly navigated as high as
boats can go. The starting-point for our
trip was to be Asuncion, in the state of
Paraguay.
My exact plan of operations was neces-
sarily little indefinite, but on reaching Rio
de Janeiro the minister of foreign affairs,
Lauro Muller, who had been kind enough to
take great personal interest in my trip, in
formed me that he had arranged that on
the head waters of the Paraguay, at the