OCR Text |
Show The Amazon. This great river rises in the little Peruvian lake of Louriocha, just below be-low the limits of perpetual snow. For jm miles it Hows swiftly through a dee) valley. Then turning sharply eastward, it runs J.Ouo miles across the great equatorial plains. Two thousand miles above its mouth its width is a mile and a half, increasing to over ten miles at the head ot the delta where it divides, and, alter running 4u0 miles, presents a lront of 1 jO miles upon the ocean. For a great distance it is bordered by side channels, or bayous, as they are called upon the Mississippi, named by the Indians igarap-s, or canoe paths. From Santarem, the principal town above Para, one may paddle a thousand thou-sand miles parrailel to the river without once entering the stream. For twenty-five degrees of latitude every river that flows down the eastern slope of the Andes is an affluent of the Amazon. It is as though all the rivers from Mexico to Oregon united their waters in the Mississippi, a half score of these tributaries arc larger the Danube excepted than any European river out of Russia. The volume of its waters is greater even than the breadth of the river would iudicate. At Nauta, 2,2'X) miles from its mouth, the depth is forty leet, increasing rapidly as it approaches the ocean. The largest ocean steamer could doubtless steam 2.2im miles up the Amazon. The vegetation of the valley is ex uberaut. There is abewilderiug diversity diver-sity of grand and beautiful trees, a wild, unconqnered race of vegetable giants draped and festooned bycrcep ing plants. The moment you land upon the shore, you are confronted by a .-olid wall of vegetation, throuffh which, if you wish to proceed, vou mu.-t hew your war with axe or niach-eta. niach-eta. Palms, of which thirty varieties art) noted, constitute the majority of trees. Then 'here arc "cow trees'' a hundred and fifty feet high, yielding a milk of the consistency of cream, used for tea, coffee, and cusatrds. The 'yauahn,'' or rubber tree, though of a different species from that of the Fast Indies, produces a gum which constitutes consti-tutes most of the rubber of commerce. Agassiz puts this tree forty or eighty feet high, in the samo class with the milk-weed of our American patures. Of ornamental wood there i no end. loremo-t among thejj is the ruoria-pinitna, ruoria-pinitna, or t rtoise-she!l W'Xk). the most beautiful in grain and color in the world. Kuough of this is wate J every year to veneer ail the dwoliings of the civilized world. For many years to come the export of the Amazon Valley Val-ley must bo mainly the products of it- forvsK Vet, st ran My rnough. timber is now one or' the i:hi f articles of import at l'ara. A city cf J,joi inhabitants lyinj on the vei e of a great lorest, bu s pine boards irotu tar away Maine. This lolly will in til-, rvme to an end. Contrary to all tht we urght evr-eet. the climate cf the Amazon Valfcy i uuiprrare rather than tropical. It is more c, ;ai than in any other region of the world. |