The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-05-27
TEDDY TELLS
OF NEW RIVER
Challenges World to DisprOve
His Achievement in
South America
SAYS PRESENT MAPS
ARE WHOLLY WRONG
Proclaimed by Great Audience of
Scientists at Washington as Discov-
erer of River 1000 Miles Long -
Hardships of Trip Vividly Told.

0Cle0G1SIS db WaSnlHSG ION dS .DlSCoN-
erer of River 1000 Miles Long =
Hardships of Trip Vividly Told
WASHINGTON, May q. - Pro-l
claimed last night, before great au
dience of scientists from many cities,
as "'the discoverer of river in South
America 200 miles long, Col. Theo-
dore Roosevelt assured the national
geographic society that he had put this
river on the map, and challenged all
the photographers in the world to dis
prove his achievement. The colonel
had appeared before a Washington au-
dience on previous occasion as an eX-
plorer, but never as d discoVerer, and
he was cheered to the echo as he de-
clared that the photographers and geo.
graphars of all nations were wrong IN
their maps Of the wilds of Brazil,
wherein he found and traced the
''Duvida river or as now more ia
miliarly known, ''the River of Doubt.
| Scientists, the colonel declared, had
attempted to dispute his discovery.
Tracing on a blackboard with piece
of chalk the river of his finding, he
declared emphatieally: 81 say I'VE put
it on the map and l mean what ] say.
No map has ever yet shown this river.
Scientists said we might have traversed
the river Tapaio jose or the river Madeira,
but the fact is that some of our party
went down one river and some went
down the other, while we went down a
river in between them which no map
i maker ever saw. | can direct any man
where to find this river and rivers stay
: pat, so that the discovery we have made
= may be verified.
: The colonel described in detail the
f hardships of his trip into the Brazilian
. wilds and particularly the hardshlp'
endured in navigating the rapids OF
"The river of Doubt In the upper
part of the river, he said, the rapid:
r were so severe that it required IL day
I for the party to traverse one degree
from 11.45 south to 1915 south. Dur
ing that hazardous trip they lost near
f ly all their food and belongings.
5 No One Asks Questions.
z, At the close of his statement, Co
f Roosevelt offered to answer any ques
: tion which anyone in the audienc
light ask. After pause, durin
which no questions were propoundet
- he said: @ No questions are asked m
!, to my face. "
; Col Roosevelt made his talk from
|. big temporary stage, fitted with MAJ
q Of South America, a big stereoptico
/. screen and blackboard upon whic
k. was drawn a scale chart OF a part {
if the Amazon river, with its tributarie
= Madeira and TapajoM. The cha
y showed the new water course DESERT
: ed by Col. Roosevelt in dotted lines.
y When the colonel reached the pla
.r form a chorus of cheers greeted hin
- He was introduced by President Gro
- venor of the National Geographic ;
I'd ciety, and applause broke out again
x he reached from the stage to shaI
n hands with Mai.-Geu. Leonard Woo
~ and Chief Justice White of the suprer
- court.
~ He said he had built upon the wo
% done by South American explorers pa
u ticularlv during the last eight yea
So He characterized his South Americt
4f expedition as a zoo-@eographic
= comaissance, - and said that exhaust
- investigation work could not be do
properly by the first expedition to pc
~. citrate the wilderness.
~ The colonel said the work of cal
~. Spanish explorers who discovered
Amazon river made ''the cxplorati
" of our day seem like childs play
added that these explorers also disco
cred the mouths of several tributar
G of the Amazon. "Some of these rive
- were not known beyond their mout
- for centuries, - said the colonel, "eN
"a what they knew of the mouth of
for river | am going to speak about v
0l all wrong"
it's. Dr.. Muller Suggestion.