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 affluents extends many degrees north and 

 south of the equator. This gigantic equatorial river 

 basin is filled with an immense 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 toward 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, stiU 

 forest was almost empty of life. We found old Indian 

 signs. There were very few birds, and these in the tops 



271 



