Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1913 — To Explore the Amazon Valley [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

To Explore the Amazon Valley

Preparations are being made by the University of Pennsylvania to send an expedition to . the Amazon valley for the purpose of collecting information relative to the aboriginal inhabitants and to explore the forests where these primitive peoples still roam untouched by civilization. It is expected that the expedition will be one of the best equipped that has ever left the United States for scientific purposes. A steam yacht has been provided and furnished with all the apparatus which can contribute either to the comfort and safety of the members of the expedition or to the prosecution of the scientific inquiries for which the expedition was organized. This steamer is 132 feet in length and, drawing only six and one-half feet of water, is designed to navigate even the smaller tributaries of the great main basin of the Amazon for many thousand of miles. Explore Tributaries First. A definite plan of campaign has been mapped out for the expedition and the itinerary of the steamer has been determined up to a certain point. Leaving Philadelphia in January, the steamer will proceed to Para and there make final preparationsforKnexteffdedcrufseon the great river system. It is proposed, first, to explore the tributaries which flow from the north and which have their sources in the mountains on the borders of Brazil and the Guianas. In these almost unknown regions live representatives of the great Carib stock, of whom practically nothing is known, as well as representatives of the equally Important Arawak stock. The next region to be . explored is that which is drained by the Rio Negro with its affluents, the Rio Branco and

the Uaupes. Finally, an effort will be made to reach the isolated tribes that inhabit the vast unexplored forests between the Rio Madeira, the Rio Tapajos and the Rio Purus. In each case the steamer will proceed as far as possible up the affluents and canoes will be used to reach the less accessible headwaters. Since the tribes, as a rule, live some distance from the rivers. It will be necessary for the members of the expedition to penetrate into the forests and to remain in the native villages long enough to make the necessary observations and .to make collections to illustrate the condition of the native arts. These collections will then be carried by whatever means of conveyance the natlves can provide., to the steamer, which dll thus become a storehouse of ethnological material until such

time as the collections can be conveniently embarked at Manaos for shipment to New York and Philadelpphia. Brazil to Co-Operate. It is proposed' that while th*e exploring parties are engaged with the natives in their distant haunts, the party in charge of the steamer will conduct hydrographic surveys of the rivers and their tributaries. In this way a great deal of geographical information will be obtained which will be useful from a scientific standpoint, as well as from practical considerations. The government of Brazil, always interested in whatever pertains to scientific investigation, has indicated its readiness to co-operate with the University of Pennsylvania in order to secure the success of the expedition and to make its labors most effective. The important results which may be expected from this undertaking will bring as much credit to Brazil as to the University of Pennsylvania, and will secure for both scientific and practical results of the very greatest permanent value. The valley of the Amazon is one vast forest, where modern civilization has never penetrated and where the only industry connected with modern life that has taken root is the extraction of rubber from the native forests. Neither agriculture nor mineral wealth has attracted the white man’s enterprise.

A TRIBUTARY OF THE AMAZON

Yabahana Indian.