THE MIGHTY AMAZON.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 594, 24 August 1909, Page 5

THE MIGHTY AMAZON.

A BOLD SCHEME. A NEVy PACIFIC-ATLANTIC ROUTE, RAILWAY AND RIVER. (By Telcgraph.-I'ress Association -Oopyrlihl I (Rec. August 23, 9 5 pm.) 1 London, August 23. r The ,Governmont of tho South American Republic of Peru has granted a Gorman firm a provisional concession for tho construction of a railway from Tayta, on the Pacific coast of Peru, to a point on tho Amazon near Iquitos, whence navigation may be obtained via that river to tho Atlantic If this scheme is carried out, it will bo tho opening up of a new direct touto from the Pacific to tlio Atlantic, through the heart of tho South American Continent, for which tho great natural waterway of tho Amazon will be utilised for at least three-fourths of tho distance. , It is estimated that tho railway project will cost three millions sterling. INTERNAL "OCEAN HIGHWAY." GOLDEN TERRITORY 01? THE INCAS "From Iquitos thero is a foituightly servjeo of ocean-going steamers to Europe, which descend somo three thousand miles of the river before they reach the sea. It is not only one branch of the Amazon, but many that aro thus to be regarded as equivalent to ocean highways " These sentences by Sir Martin Conway throw quite a 6tarthng light on the potentialities of the gMat river which, fed in tho first place from the glaciers of the Peruvian and' Bolivian Andes, almost cuts South America m tiyo with a navigable line of waterway. Over the strip, including the Andine ranges, where the navi-1 gable river does not reach, it is proposed to build a railway; thus linking Pacific and Atlantic by a now arterial thoroughfaie. The great centres on the Amazon are Man-1 aos, a flourishing city approximately about 1000 miles from the mouth; and Iquitos, vvhioh is at.ileast ■ 1500, miles farther..up than Mauaos. While over 2500 m.iles from tno parent ocoan, the Atlantio, Iquitos is only about 600 miles from the' Pacific seaboard, A 6 the cablegram shows, it is somewhere in tho vicinity of Iquitos that railwav and navigable river are to i.'iWhetherV^neprWntlscheme'fis;,carried' out or.not, the eiploitationrof the great.basm of the"i Amazon■"■-ianuot.-.-'.be'■ .very.'.long, .delayed."Coflcel'sugar^and:cocoa}grbw/lnxuriantly; and in; the riverbeds "are richgold-bearing gravels, 'In'lthe words;of Sir-Martin Opnway,: f hdre ■gihiated'oneYof.tub, great l remaining'goldfields, ■I'pr'aoticaUy^un'worked^ Ihcas.■- ; >jJv;.Twenty,years, hence the, Amazon; basin/will; be ; ;vveil; known,vas ,w-elr ; known, ;r*r. ■ haps,'''■ajrMhttU Itorday,: "and it' m\l bring,;to> literat'are--'and'rbinance : ;a:ne.W group of .sub-; : supply; ■of wealth thftt dan scarcely be exaggerated..', ;;!,