Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-08-07
Geographic News
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society
Waterway Cinderella

Waterway Cinderella
Whatever the fate of the French
reparations proposal to set German
labor to work at improving The
Rhone, one thing is certain-hence-
forth the Rhonc will approach more
nearly to the Rhine's position as the
most important commercial water
way OF Europe" lays a bulletin
from the Washington, D.. c., head
quarters Of the National Geographic
Society.
THE Rhine has an initial advan-
Is re. 1t is inherently more navisa-
bic than the Rhone. The latter
J seems as coquetish as the Rhine IS
p;scid in her maturer miles. Cas-
c9ding in hoydenish fashion, falling,
from her cradle in an Alpine gla-
cier. more than 4,500 feet in a little
more than a hundred miles. the
Rhone broadens into the dazzling
beauty of Lake Geneva. Emerging
theretrom she disappears prankish-
ly under the rocks at Perte du
khone, but after emerging from
this s~ubterranean channel she be-
comes officially n~avigable' to her
mouth.
Not until the river passes Lyons
does 1t become a beast OF buroen
ana even from Lyons to Aries trail
tic is handicapped by swift currents
and numerous islands. shifting river
bed and shinsle banks. AT Ares
1t loses all sense OF elderly
sibility and goes preening itself INTO
the triangular delta which outlines
Camargue, the cowboy country OF
southern France
What hope then has Made
mciselle Rhone for rivaling the
staid Rhine, Fraulein Rhine? 1t 10
not the Rhine alone, but the canal
lied Rhine, which has stretched It's
trade tentacles over Central Europe.
! Likewise it is not the Rhone, but
q prospective ~canalized Rhone which
| France is planning to develope.
The Rhine and the Rhone may
| compare but, of course, cannot COM
pete. If a craft Is small enough 1t
may thread its way by water from
th5 Black Sea to the Mediterranean.
The Rhine and the Rhone have
canal connections. But the basin OF
the northern seas and that OF the
tideless Mediterranean are geograrh-
ically distinctive and are likely to
remain so. Therefore France is
treading on no neighbor toes when
| she hopes to make the Rhone a
| Rhine of the Mediterranean.
Much Romance; Little Legend
1.-The course of the Rhone teens
with romantic fact as does the
Rhine with legend. Yet travellers do
MOI follow the Rhone for any consid-
cradle distance as they do the Rhine.
Tho Rhone offers a geographical
range of appeal from the glaciers
| of Switzerland to the Africa in Eu-
rope scenes Of Camarsue. 1t Is only
a little more than 500 miles long,
Including the forty-five miles that
count as Lake Geneva. In a dis
tar ce little greater tina that from
New York City to Buffalo, it rockets
past snow clad mountains, courses
lthl ough the land of the walnut and
chestnut, flows on amid one of the
three greatest vineyards lands of
France, widens out in leisurely
fashion in the zone of the mulberry
tree, and then comes plump upon
the tropic rice of the swamps In
Camargue.
Travellers go along the Rhine.
They go across the Rhone. Han
nibal began the practice, you will re-
call. The seasoned wanderer in
Europe has stood s%pel!bound by the
memories of Geneva, city of Vol
taiie and Calvin and the Prisoner
of Chillon,' birthplace of the Red
Cross and home of the League of
Nations. He has visited the city of
looms when the great Lyons fair
was in progress; has explored the
dh'A4udlldH tSdSuIcS u AViS IlOL,
with it's palace of the Popes. Prob
ably he has touched the Rhone
where Saint Maurice nestles among
tho snow-topped peaks. n has
gone south to Aries. famous for a
synod, a Venus, and a bull-ring
which was n an amphitheatte.
Therefore, in his minds eye the
Rhone is a series of segments; the
Rhine Is more of a continuity.
Formerly great barges were
foeted from Lyons to Aries. These
were pulled UP the river again,
canal fashion, by painting horses.
Already considerable work has been
done in regulating the Rhone above
the delta, and a canal from the Gulf
of Fog to the main stream makes
the Mediterranean accessible for
rive navigation which otherwise
would have a difficult time in the
sluggish lower branches. Canals
connect the Rhone with the Loire
and the Seine g we'll as with the
Rhine"
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