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Show RIVER OF WONDERS men disobeyed this rule once, and was never seen after he dropped over the side. We lay at anchor at the time." "It was probably a small fish that got him," remarked Capt. Beck. "A small fish In the Amazon, about six or seven Inches long, attends school In thousands. They dart at a man under un-der the surface and bite him in hundreds hun-dreds of places and he never rises." "A 'bacu' got him, I think," rejoined Capt. Couch. "A bacu is a black fish, about six or seven feet long, with no teeth, but with rows of suckers In each long jaw. The bacu scoffs men alive." The talk turned to natural phenomena, phenom-ena, and Capt. Beck said the difference differ-ence between high and low water at Manaos was about 42 feet. There Is an old story about a crew that was dying of thirst when Its ship anchored in the mouth of the Amazon and the skipper didn't know It, and another captain, anchored near by, bellowed bel-lowed through hia trumpet, "Let down your buckets; you're in the mouth of the Amazon." "Is that story true?" Capt. Couch was asked. "It Is," he replied. "I learned at school that the Amazon carried fresh water seaward, and I put it to the test once. I was 167 miles from the mouth of the Amazon. I noticed that the water wa-ter was discolored around the ship. I dipped some up and tested it In the hydrometer. That water dipped from the ocean was three-fourths fresh." up to catch the Cunarder for Liverpool, Liver-pool, denied that the mosquito was a pest or peril on the Amazon. He said that for about three days in the navigation navi-gation of the river It was necessary to shut up the passengers and use the mosquito ports, but this was the only stretch in the long Journey out and back for nine weeks in which there waa any mosquito fighting. "There Is something worse than the mosquito," said Capt. Couch. "I refer to the vulture bat, which always attacks at-tacks either your bald head or the soles of your feet. It always bites you in the tenderest spots and draws blood." Capt. Couch did not say how the vulture vul-ture bat was circumvented. "Yes," said Capt. Beck, continuing the dialogue, "there's another pleasant little habitue of the Amazon, the 'smell bug.' If you smell him once you never forget him. He's brown, less than an inch long and half dead when he comes aboard on feeble wing. I've seen them cover the deck seven Inches deep, and we had to shovel them overboard." over-board." Everybody took a fresh swallow of claret after this story and Capt. Couch turned to again. "It's against the rules of the company com-pany for any man to go overboard for a swim In the Amazon. One of our Ship Captains Tell of Strange Experiences on Amazon. Pesta Assail Travelers on 2,150-Mile Journey to Iquitos Ravages of Vulture Bat and Fish That Are Dangerous. Chicago. The emergence of Colonel Roosevelt from the interior of Brazil directed public attention more than ever to a journey probably the most weird and picturesque In the world, says the New York World. It is 2,150 miles from the mouth of the Amazon to Iquitos, where the government gov-ernment of Peru maintains a large dockyard, barracks, iron works, machine ma-chine shops, etc., and an inland navy consisting of two gunboats. If one wishes to travel from the Pacific Pa-cific side of Peru to Iquitos, only five hundred miles apart, he ascends the west coast in a steamer, crosses the Isthmus of Panama, embarks at Colon tor New York and transship here for Iquitos up the Amazon. Few have any idea of the tremendous tremen-dous volume and. coloring of the Amazon Ama-zon current,' Its influence upon the Atlantic, At-lantic, the immense distance it carries nearly fresh water Into the brine of the ocean, "Its serpentine windings, its overhanging vejetation( its rapids, its wild life, its pests, perils, pleasures and all sorts of strange sights. Some Df the tributaries of the Amazon are mightier than the Mississippi. Two Booth line skippers, Capt. O. U Beck and Capt. J. W. Couch (the booths relieve their master mariners by sending them on leave to England after ji certain number of trips into the South American Interior, gave a sort of duet in the narration of the wonders of the Amazon on board of their ships, their peculiar cargoes, their eligibility to fly the American Bag if they chose, and their adventures adven-tures on the river of rivers. They characterized Alexander P. Rogers' description de-scription of the country as faithful and dncere. While they were talking In the cabin 3f the Denis longshoremen were shoveling shov-eling out of the holds 1,600 tons of 3razil nuts at the old Robert pier in Brooklyn. Only 2,600 tons of the nuts vere imported during the year 1913. Captain Beck, who was just packing |