CHAPTER IX 



DOWN AN UNKNOWN RIVER INTO THE EQUATORIAL 



FOREST 



The mightiest river in the world is the Amazon. It 

 runs from west to east, from the sunset to the sunrise, from 

 the Andes to the Atlantic. The main stream flows almost 

 along the equator, while the basin which contains its afflu- 

 ents extends many degrees north and south of the equator. 

 This gigantic equatorial river basin is filled with an im- 

 mense forest, the largest in the world, with which no other 

 forests can be compared save those of western Africa and 

 Malaysia. We were within the southern boundary of this 

 great equatorial forest, on a river which was not merely 

 unknown but unguessed at, no geographer having ever 

 suspected its existence. This river flowed northward to- 

 ward the equator, but whither it would go, whether it 

 would turn one way or another, the length of its course, 

 where it would come out, the character of the stream itself, 

 and the character of the dwellers along its banks — all these 

 things were yet to be discovered. 



One morning while the canoes were being built Kermit 

 and I walked a few kilometres down the river and surveyed 

 the next rapids below. The vast still forest was almost 

 empty of life. We found old Indian signs. There were 

 very few birds, and these in the tops of the tall trees. 

 We saw a recent tapir-track; and under a cajazeira-tree by 



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