348 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July i, ioio. 



ambitions as a butterfly hunter. It was his first visit to the trop- 

 ics and he was gathering everything insectiverous that he could 

 catch. Like a wise man. he had secured the help of the crew, 

 and it was an object lesson to those who venture upriver without 

 mosquito bars to review a night's accumulation. There were 

 enormous beetles, moths, gigantic praying mantis, ichneumon 

 flies, and bugs unclassified by the score. Then in the daytime 

 came the shy, quie'k moving butterflies in blue, yellow, and green, 

 and thin waisted wasps and hornets, all of which kept him busy. 



The course for many years was by Breves, the principal set- 

 tlement on the island of Marajo, at one time the center of the 

 rubber trade. There the channel was so narrow that an anchor 

 was let go and the boat swung round before it could head right 

 to go on. One of the river pilots, however, once asked per- 

 mission to take a b at through another channel that he had 

 discovered — the one we were in — and since then the old passage 

 had been abandoned. 



Almost from the start we secured the use of a' pair of power- 

 ful glasses, the property of the Captain, which gave us glimpses 

 into the jungle that were fascinating. We could pick out rub- 

 ber trees nearly every time, particularly where they had been 

 tapped. I had long been wondering whj it u;h that the Hevea 



THE COURSE FROM PARA TO MANA0S. 



I do not feel that in the foregoing I have given a clear idea 

 of our course, or what we saw before we emerged into the 

 Amazon. Let me put it briefly. 



We went north from Para, with Oncas island on the left, 

 heading for Point Musqueiro on the mainland, then west and 

 south in the Para river, passing Caprin light on the southwest. 

 Xext came Mandilhy, which also has a light; then through Jaraca 

 channel, with Muru-Muru island on the left, where one out of 

 every three steamers gets stuck in the mud ; by the village of 

 Antonio Lemos, where is situated the cable station ; past the 

 village of Gurupa, by Baxio Grande island, and at last we were 

 in the Amazon. 



The river was now three miles wide, instead of a few hun- 

 dred yards. The jungle was more open, the clearings larger, 

 and off to the north the eye was delighted by the tree crowned 

 heights of the Sierra Jutahy. One wondered why those broad 

 mesas were not the site of a healthy breeze swept city. We 

 still kept close to the shore, sometimes on one side, then on the 

 other, to avoid great shoals that form and disappear almost 

 1 vernight. Occasionally there was a break in the forest wall 



PANORAMA OF "VILLA NOBRE," A BEAUTIFUL FAZENDA NEAR BREVKS. 



was able to withstand the inundations and still be thrifty. A 

 very cursory examination of the Amazonian soil tells the whole 

 story. It is an almost impervious, waterproof, clay, which would 

 take months to saturate, and then would not be waterlogged. 



That afternoon we ran through an extremely heavy shower 

 and looked back on the biggest, most gorgeous, double rainbow 

 I have ever seen. With nightfall came the great frog concert, 

 varied by the screaming of nightbirds and the chirping of in- 

 numerable insects. Sitting on deck, pajama clad, enjoying the 

 gentle breeze caused by the boat's progress, with the dusky 

 loom of the jungle on either side and the "gorgeous Southern 

 Cross" above us, the scene was. in tourists' phrase, "one to inspire 

 sentiments of awe." I always admired this last phrase until 

 I actually saw the Southern Cross. I had read of it as a 

 blazing aggregation of stars of the first magnitude, holding the 

 center of the Cerulean dome. The "intermediate" geography 

 that I first studied had a half page illuminated picture Of it. 

 When finally, after much searching, I saw it, I was filled with 

 awe at the imagination that could see beauty in that little shrink- 

 ing, out-of-plumb collection of blear eyed stars, let alone mak- 

 ing a constellation of it. It is an insult to. Orion and all of 

 his family. 



and we would see vast savannahs, grass covered, their light 

 green surface standing out in bold relief against the dark green 

 background of the forest. 



Speaking of floating debris, the bow of our boat caught a 

 log which jammed crosswise and held in that position, and we 

 pushed it upstream. It gathered everything that came its way, 

 and the result was that in a couple of hours the sturdy engineers 

 were not only forcing the boat upstream, but a floating island 

 a quarter of an acre in extent, made up of logs, driftwood, 

 grasses and floating wreckage of all sorts. After a time it grew 

 to be such a burden that the engines were reversed and we 

 ran backwards until clear of it to avoid making an island that 

 might dam the river. 



The banks of the river were now strongly marked and from 

 6 to 10 feet high above the water level. On every tree that 

 fringed the edge, and indeed on the thick growing shrubs and 

 vines, could be seen the distinct highwater mark of the previous 

 season in the shape of mud stains. This line showed that the 

 river had still 10 feet more of rise to reach last year's level, 

 and by the -way it was coming up it would undoubtedly do it. 

 More and more we saw the work of the floods. Great stretches 

 of devastated forest, covered with rank reeds and grasses, huge 



