Evening star., 1924-12-07

strength with every mile of Its west
ern course.
After 440 miles of separate distinc-
tive existence, it merged with Alto
Parana. and, as part of the Parana
and then of La Plata, flowed ma
jestically, after over l,o00 miles OF
long and useful life, into the great
ocean. Its waters, starting in Brazil
divided Brazil and Argentina, then
Argentina and Paraguay, then ira
versed Argentina and finally howeo
past Uruguay on the way TO the At
lantic Its waters course described a
distorted semi circle-a vast irregu-
lar loop.
Icuazu's Spectacular Plunge.
THE great event of the Iguazu's
distinctively individual career
was its plunge over the precipitous
edge of the Brazilian plateau just
before the junction of the Iguazu and
the Alto Parana.
Most of the great rivers or So1th
America have descended from this
plateau and flowed to the sea either
through the Amazon or La Plata.
Most of these deScentS have been ac-
complished gradually, through Sc
ries of rapids, with occasional short
drops in cataract. The Alto Parana,
for example, descendS at La GuaEra,
not MANY ltIIlNS i.Oi lil al Oiti
the mouth of the IgUa2u. in fierce
rapids and Is comparatively short
cataract drops. which so far : ac-
Cessible are descr. bed and pictured
in the Pan-Arnerican bulletin CT Feb
ruary, 1918.
The descent OF the Iguazu is the
most spectacular Of all the water de-
scents from the plateau. Ii falls at
some points in enc and iI most
points in two drops. a rocky plat
form of widely varying width, and
often heavily wooded. intervening at
many points, about halfway between
the top and the bottom Of the pTeci-
pice. Where this latform is wide
and thickly wooded many of the cata- :
racts disappear in il. traverse it un-
seen and with equal secrecy make
their second drop into the river rap
ids below the falls. One following
trails through the tropical vegetation
comes across these picturesque truant
cataracts as they make either their
first or their second drop or traverse
as rapids the intervening platform.
The Iguazu. above the falls. with
the stream at low water a haif-mile
wide, glides lazily toward the edge
of the precipitous plateau, but. be-
fore descending. it broadens and shall
lows, and so widely distributes its
waters that its balf-nlile width is
more than doubled when it falls over
the precipice. And il spreads thinly
and interruptedly over two miles of
contour sweep, If intersecting islands
are included in the measurements.
Vast Contour Sweep of Falls.
A FEW miles above the falls. while
the river is still in Brazil. the
Iguazu makes a sharp bend, and, as
it nears the precipice edge and the
Argentina boundary line. it divides
into two currents. one. much the
deeper, hugg!ng the Brazilian bank
and rushing into the end of a deep,
harrow canyon, one side of which is
Brazilian and the other Argentine:
the other current and the rest of the
volume of the river rushes in a vast,
irregular semi-ciTcle on the Argen-
tine plateau among rocks and islets
before leaping from its precipice in
one main fall and innumerable cata-
racts in two drops to the bottom of
the chasm.
Midstream, from the lip of the falls
precipice, a large island fSan Mar
tin), corresponding to Goat Island at
Niagara, and Livingstone and Cata-
ract Islands at Victoria Falls, pro-
jects itself in long. peninsula shape,
descending gradually to the river
level below the falls. This island
separates the two channels or cur
rents Of the Iguazu, just described. 1t
is heavily wooded, and so projects
itself between the two sections of the
falls that each is hidden from the
other, and, except from an airplane,
one cannot at the same time fully see
both.
Contradictions in Names of Falls.
MOST of Iguazu's scores of low
Ava water cataracts are nameless, and
there is some confusion and contradic-
ton in the names assigned to the great
falls thought worthy to be named both
in the Brazilian-Argentine canyon and
in the Argentine semi-circle. The Argen-
tine photographs and descriptions give
no other name than Garganta del Diablo,
the DEVILS Throat. to the highest, deep
est fall of them all, where the main cur
rent of the river drops into the head of
the narrow Brazilian Argentine canyon.
But the DEVILS Throat, while peculiarly
appropriate as the name of the canyon
with its hell of roaring, raging water
and its clouds of spray smoke, is not the
name of waterfall at all. The dividing
line between Brazil and Argentina
passes through this fall, so that each
nation claims part of it. Oakenfull,
the statistical encyclopedia writer about
Brazil. in his meager references to
Jguazu Falls speaks of Union Fall, and
until more picturesque name is agreed
upon this may be used to designate the
Brazilian-Argentine fall.
Many Cataracts; Few Names.
There are several other fine cataracts
in Devils Throat canyon than Union
Fall. First on the Brazilian side comes
Floriano; cfon at the low-water stage
a series of slender, fiimy cataracts lead
ing up to the wide sweep of Union Fall
with raging waters in the canyon at
its foot, over 200 feet below, and clouds
of spray rising above 1t in the air. On
the Argentine side of Devils Throat
ChaRm are the minor but fine falls of
Rivadavia, Belgrano, Moreno and Three
Musketeers, In the San Martin section
OF Iguazu the name San Martin is given
TO the main fall, which begins at the
side Of San Martin Island and which in
flood sweeps grandly and continuously
over q broad sector of the semi-circle,
but which at low water is composed of
n spectacular main fall and of series
of beautiful cataracts separated by jslets
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