Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1890 — A CREAT RIVER. [ARTICLE]

A CREAT RIVER.

The Amazon One Hundred Miles Wide *t Its Mouth. The Amazon,! j? iis Para river be included at tbe southern channel, isIOO miles wide at its month. Para itself, the northernmost city of Brazil lies at the gateway of the most wonderful river system in the world. It is the commercial depot and distributing point for 40,000 milea of Bavigable water. The Amazon water-shea embraces twenty-five degrees of longitude. Its western sources are in the Andes of Peru and Ecuador, only a few leagues from the Pacific. Its northern tributaries traverse the borders of Guinea and Colombia, while midway the headwaters of the Negro mingle with those of the Orinoco in the western spurs cf the Sierra de Pacaraima.. On the south the Madeira has innumerable sources in the mountain levels of Bolivia." while the Tapajos, the Xingu. and the Tocantine penetrate the central provinces of Brazil. If a comparatively small group of southern provinces be left out of the account, the Amazon, with its tributaries, forms the water system for an area larger than that of the United States. It furnishes the only means of communication between the smaller centers of population in fully one-half of the vast territories of Brazil. Between most of its leading tributaries are broad stretches of impenetrable forests which have never been explored by white men. It is the Amazon alone that renders any form of government possible in the heart of South America. Within the range of the 40,000 miles of navigable water settlements have been made, rubber farms opened, and magistrates empowered to conduct local administration. Para, lying at the southernmost outlet of the Amazon, less than 100' miles from the sea, is the metropolis of this wonderful valley. It is a city with perhaps 50.000 inhabitants, aud with as much commercial enterprise as is possible under the equator. The commerce of the Amazon is nominally carried on under the Brazilian flag. Foreigners are not allowed by law to own steamers or sailing vessels employed in inland navigation; and hence it is necessary for the English capitalists who control the carrying trade of the river to assign their interests to Brazilians. There are forty steamers owned by an English line, which receives a large mail subsidy from the Brazilian government for plying between various ports and villages on the main tributaries; aud m return for this financial support it is well satisfied to fly’ the national flag. Another company has 4iight steamers under similar conditions; and there are as many as a dozen more on the river and its tributaries which sail under the Brazilian flag. These sixty steamers are gradually opeuiug the Amazon valley to commerce. Only the smaller vessels are now running beyond Manaos at the junction of the Negro, Jbut next year the largest English vessels will make regular trips to Yquitos. 8,700 miles from the coast.

Some of the tributaries are only navigable for long distances at high water during certain months of the year, but the lower villages on their banks are visited by steamers as often as ouce or twice a month. This river trade is almost completely in the hands of the Portuguese merchants and the mercantile houses represented at Para. Mauaos, with a population of 15,000. is the most flourishing town west of Para. The other settlements, with few exceptions, are straggling villages inhabited mainly by negroes, Indians, and half-breeds. The forests of the Amazon, consistibg mainly of hard wood, are not available for commercial requirements. The finest of rosewood and mahogany are used there for firewood. Even if there were a demand for the hardwood lumber at Para, it could not be logged and brought to market on a large scale, owing to the density of the woods and the lack of roads and clearings. The one tree whiehis a source of wealth in these immense forests is the rubber tree. It is found everywhere, from the low-lying delta opposite Para to the Tapojos, the Madeira, and the Negro, and probably thousands of miles beyond those great tributaries. In the interior roads are impracticable, and the rubber trees that are milked He along the rivers, where the farms can be approached. The,milk can only be drawn at certain levels of the river' for the trunks of the trees are often fifteen or twenty feet under water after the rainy seasons. When the. conditions are favorable the bark of the trees is tapped and the milk drawn off in cups to be compacted and rolled together layer by layer like a snowball. It is then cooked or smoked over a lire made of Bticks—a process that involves contraction in cooling and imparts elasticity to the substance -and then it is ready for shipment to Para and New York. The operation of such farms and the opening of new veins of trees in the trackless swamps and forests require the employment of native labor under the most inclement conditions of equatorial heat and rains. If there be any quarter of the world where nature seems to command inaction and indolence, it is these vast stretches of the Amazonian forest. Nowhere else can existence be sustained with so small au expenditure of effort. On an acre of cleared land beans can be raised in sufficient quantity to keep soul and body together with the adventitious aids of nuts and fruit from the woods. A torpid, somnolent existence seems to be the imperious requirement of the Climate. The Indians, halfbreeds, and negroes in the villages can live, if-they choose to do so. wait what may lie descrilted as the of human labor involved in obtaining a livelihood. They instinctively resist all appeals to ambition and The effort 1 * of rubber fanners aud agents to induce them to share in the dangers and luhor involved in exploring the forest and striking new veins of rubber trees are onliuarity futile: and the employment of even the poorest classes of labor is carried on under almost insuperable difficulties.—A, T. i'rUmue. A sheet of eork one pound in weight will support the body of a man in water.