The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1914-05-15
7. R. SPEAKS OF
BRAZILIAN TRIP
Party Spends Sixty Days Canoe
ing Down River.
Kermit Has Nnrrou Escape-One
Man Goes Mad, Kills An
other Ar70us Kill Dog.

Para, Brazil - Colonel Theodore
Roosevelt in an interview with the
Associated Press on board the steamer
Dunstan, on which he had just arrived
from Manos, gave many interesting
details of his exploring trip through
the wilds of Brazil. He said:
1.-The expedition has proved signal
success. It was undertaken originally
for the American Museum of Natural
History.>
During our trip George K. Cherry
and Leo Miller, the naturalists, COL
lected more than 2100 birds and man.
mails and few reptiles, batrachians and
fish, chiefly from the regions not hith-
erto traversed by any collector, and
many presenting specimens hitherto
unknown to science.
| THE most important part of our
trip was geographical. In the explor-
alton of an unknown river we have put
on the map river nearly 1000 miles
long, the existence of which is not
limited at on published maps. The up
per part of its course was unknown to
anybody except the wild Indians along
its banks, while the lower part was
known to few rubber men only. The
river takes its rise in the high uplands
of the western part of the state of
Matte Crosse, just north of the 18th
parallel of south latitude.
eve embarked in latitude IL de-
grees minute south and longitude 80
degrees Is minutes west.
1.-THE river ran with many doublings
and twistings almost due north into
the river Madeira, where its entrance
was at about degrees 80 minutes
south latitude.
eve were 60 days in canoes. In
latitude Z degrees south we passed the
last rapids and reached the steamer,
when we were but SO hours from Ma
naos.
''In latitude 10 degrees SO minutes
south we struck the mouth of a big
affiuent flowing from the right, and in
latitude 9 degrees 40 minutes south we
came to the mouth of another big afflu-
ent flowing from the left.
"The Duvida river in point of vol
ume is like the Rhone, the Elbe or the
Hudson, but is too much broken up by
rapids to be navigable except in the
lower parts. In about Z degrees 80
minutes south latitude it joins another
river practically the same size, flow
ing from the right.
''From about II degrees 48 minutes
to 10 degrees 48 minutes, south lati-
tude, the course Of the Duvida is al
most an unbroken series of rapids,
there being no clear days run without
rapids. This was the hard part of our
journey.
1--WE were during six weeks at
steady labor slogging our way, on an
average making not more than a
couple of miles day. The last part
of this time we were living on half
rations.
1.-TWO sets of rapids were at the bot
tom of canyons, where the river Glove
it's way through mountain chains.
'Of the seven canoes with which we
started, five were lost in the rapids.
One of our men was drowned and two
others, including Kermit, narrowly
escaped death by drowning.
'Under the strain one man went
mad. He finally murdered one of his
comrades and then fled into the wild
erness.
1--WE saw no Indians, but twice
heard them. While Colonel Rondon,
the chief of the Brazilian mission, was
out alone hunting, his dog was killed
by arrows. The dogs death probably
saved Colonel Rondon's life"