Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1930-11-28

Society. Washington. D. c.
IN RAIL is so huge-it is a quar-
ter of a million square miles larg-
- er than the United States-and
is made up of so many diverse
regions that the average visitor can
do little more than acquaint himself
with limited area. But modern trav-
ell methods have at least greatly
stretched the area that can be COW
cred by brief tour. Now many trav-
elers from the United States to South
America go by airplane, skimming
along over the Atlantic coast of the
great republic.
The first familiar feature of Brazil
that the air traveller sees is the ANA
zon. At its mouth the big river, $50
miles wide between its capes, colors
the sea and dilutes its salt for so
miles offshore. Men in small fishing
boats, venturing out of sight Of land,
figure how far out they are by tast-
ing the water.
The rise of the river near Para in
flood times is often so feet. Then vast
areas of forest are completely mum
dated. Snow in the Andes begins to
melt in August, but this delta does
not feel the rise till six months later.
With a valley covering 2722000
square miles, and containing about
5000 miles of navigable water COM
munications, 1t is easy to see why 1t
takes the big river six months to rise
and six months to fall. Also, the
slope Of the vast valley from the foot
Of the Andes to the Atlantic is only
about $50 feet. This is why tides from
the sea are felt up the Amazon for
600 miles. Sometimes three or four
tides are riding the river at once,
like big waves far apart.
Looking at maps, one observes the
Amazon delta does not run out to sea
ON land bridges, as do the Nile, the
Gauges and the Mississippi. 1t car
ries prodigious loads of mud, and ge-
Ologists say its delta o1ce extended
300 miles past its present mouths.
But now the ocean Is rapidly eating
into the continent. And from the air
you see how this goes on. By an odd
freak of nature, the sea is driving in
land huge waves of white sand. These
big dunes In many places have bur
led the trees. Elsewhere you can see
dead trees, once covered with sand
and killed, and then exposed again to
the advancing sea waves-washing
them out by the roots.
Rush of the Amazon Bore.
And the Para, or south coast, Of the
delta, you notice, is higher and drier
than the coast of Brazilian Guiana,
north of the Amazon delta. Around
Maraca island and the mouth Of the
Araguary river the famous Amazon
bore is at its best. When it runs In
its roar can be heard six miles. It's
speed is ten to fifteen knots an hour,
and anything in its path is swept
away.
Look down on all these mud banks,
rip tides and shadows, and you see
why shippers dread navigation in
these waters. Changes in coast out
lines are constant; shoals and flats
form only to be washed away. Mud
banks which few years ago barely
showed above the sea are now COW
cred with trees. Bad lights and buoys,
lack Of good charts, ever shifting cur
rents bring many ships to grief.
Even the many small native trad
ing boats, their cabins matched over
and their sails made Of blue cotton
cloth, have their own troubles here
with wind, tide, and mud.
San Luis from the air is COM
pact, red-roofed town of many patios
and narrow streets. 1t was first
fort built by the French and named
after Louis XIII. The town is on an
island, and railway connects it with
the mainland. 1t is a thriving place.
You see new buildings going up-along-
side wonderful old houses with fronts
Of fancy glazed tiles, and marble
statuary lifted above their patio gates.
Scenes Along the Coast.
At the mouth of the Amazon and
north Of it Brazil is very damp. But
once you quit the Amazon delta, and
get well on your way down the slop-
ing coast toward the great shoulder
Of northeast Brazil, like magic the
soaking jungles and mud flats change
to parched and sunburnt land, with
mile-long sand dunes bare and for
lorn as the shores of Suez. If you
placed few camels under the lonely
clumps of coeonut trees-which you
see being smothered by sand dunes
often 60 feet high-you would get as
good desert picture as any from
Bagdad to Cairo.