TRIP TO THE AMAZON

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 12021, 26 December 1924, Page 2

TRIP TO THE AMAZON

NEW OFFER TQ TOURISTS. SIX WEEKS’ EXCURSION. OFF CIVILISATION TRACK. What would the adventurous sea-cap-tains of Elizabeth’s time have said if they had been told that their descendants would visit the virgin forests of Brazil in a tourist steamer? That is what has been happening this year, says a London paper. A British steamship company i a sending one of its finest vessels, a liner of 7000 tons, on a six weeks’- torn* from Liverpool, in the course of which she will sail up the Amazon river as far as Manaos, a comparatively new field for tourists. The Amazon is the largest, probably the longest, certainly the widest river in the world. It is ICO miles from bank to bank where the fresh water begins. More than once sailors shipwrecked in the estuary have imagined themselves in the open sea, and have suffered tortures of thirst until some desperate spirit among them has* drunk the water and found it sweet and fresh. The Amazon flows between magnificent forests, where the anaconda, gliding easily through lianas impenetrable to man, hunts tho prey that he will swallow alive. ■ Its yellow waters harbour tho turtle, the alligator, and giant fish. There are wonderful birds with shimmering plumage,„hug ebutterflies with gailv-coloured wings, queer native villages, monkeys that howl in the soundless electric storms, when the jungle is illuminated as if in some strange dream, a panorama of beauty that changes by, day and night; and, above all, the mystery of the eternl forest, whio heven to-day is so little explored that the traveller may find himself in land where the foot of a white man has never trod in 400 years. Strange tale®, are told of the tribes that live in the jungle, untamed and savage, keeping to themselves like the wild animals that are their neighbours. There is eVeu a tale of an English sailor who was rescued from starvation by natives of the river-land, and settled down among them and became their chief tali}. He was happy until the rubber traders came and robbed him of hie plantation, and sent him and liis tribe into the wilderness once more. No less than fifty thousand miles of the Amazon and its great tributaries are navigable by big steamers. Tho sea-tide that comes up into the mouth, of the main river for about 400 miles, working against the stream itself, produces the bore or wall of water known a« the Pororoca, which is sometimes very dangerous for smaller craft, and is said to have given the Amazon its name, which comes from the Portuguese version of an Indian word meaning boat-destroyer. But apart from this navigation is a simple matter, and vast wealth in rubber, nuts, and other produce is borne down the sream to the famous port. of Para, on the estuary of the Para river, on which the steamers from the Atlantic sail. But perhaps the mast remarkable feature of this strange land is that thole should bo found, a thousand miles from the main truck of civilisation. isolated in: the heart of the woods, 'air'the meeting ef.vbthe tWo mighty rivers, the Rio Negro and the Amazon itself, a fine modern town, the city of Manaos, with trams and electric light, theatres, shops, and other convenience*. Here is a good end to the good ship’s journey.