A Tropical Voyage—Scenes and Sights on the Amazon A READER
who is interested in new ways of spending a holiday writes enthusiastically about the Amazon.
"No waterway in the world," he says, "makes so wide an appeal to the traveller—be he out for sport, pleasure or adven- ture—as the Amazon, which rises in the Andes, in Peru, and flows for 4,700 miles right across the South American continent, virtually following the course of the Equator. New wonders continually come to light, such as a new tributary of the great stream which has been discovered, or a hitherto unknown tribe of Indians that has been found within its dense primeval forests.
"The river is navigable for thousands of miles. Steamers go up to Iquitos, although this old Spanish settlement lies 2,700 miles from the Atlantic. The 7,000-ton steamers of the Booth Line regularly run to Manaos, which is situated in the heart of the primeval forest, just over 1,000 miles from the river's mouth. The journey to this point is full of novelty and wonder. The river is entered by way of Para.
"Although only eighty-two miles south of the Equator, Para is, for the tropics, a healthy enough city. It possesses a cathe- dral, a good European hotel, electric trams and newspapers. One of the sights of the city is the Bosque—an area of wild jungle which has been left untouched to serve as a public park.
"After Para the steamer proceeds through the Narrows, where for over a hundred miles the ship sails along deep winding water lanes between islands clothed to the water's edge in tropical vegetation. So narrow is the channel in places that the sides of the boat are touched by the branches of the overhanging trees. When darkness falls the silence is broken by the harsh cries of monkeys, and you become aware of the soundless but harmless electrical storms illuminating the dark jungle and the river.
"When the main channel is reached one is surprised to learn that it is some twenty miles across. The ship passes all kinds of quaint craft, from small native dugouts to the latest type of cargo steamer. Very strange are the floating islands. In the upper reaches portions of land, half-an-acre or so in extent, become detached and float away on the current Thus an island with trees and jungle growth will sail quietly by.
"A line of white and pink bungalows denotes the little township of Itacoatiara, the centre of the Brazilian nut industry. So the voyage continues until Manaos, a picturesque white city on the left bank of the Rio Negro, is reached. Here is a modern city, with magnificent public buildings, on the very edge of the primeval forest. No railways or roads lead out of Manaos. The river is the only highway to and from the outside world.
"The whole forest teems with life, though you encounter it actually only at rare intervals. Sometimes a huge ant-bear, so engrossed in tearing a dead tree to bits, fails to hear your approach, and continues his labours and laps up the swarming ants with his yard-long tongue while you watch him ; or it may be a lithe and graceful ocelot, or even his bigger brother, the fierce jagtihr, so intent on stalking an unsuspecting brush-turkey, a sleepy monkey, deer, or tapir, that your proximity is unnoticed ; or again it may be a flock of trumpeters feeding or dancing in some tiny open glade. Here is the home of the huge-billed toucan, the parrots, and the loud-voiced macaws ; here troops of monkeys pass their lives ; here are myriads of bright- hued birds ; here the slow-moving sloths spend their upside-down lives ; and here the fierce harpy eagles, the margay, the long-tailed cats, and the puma, find a happy' hunting ground.
"Few holidays offer such thrills and present such a series of surprises as an Amazon trip. And the fare from Liver- pool for the six weeks round cruise on a Booth steamer to Manaos, including all shore excursions, need not cost more than 190."
[We publish on this page articles and notes which may help our readers in their plans for travel at home and abroad. They are written by correspondents who have visited the places descritkd. We shall be glad to answer queries arising out of the Travel articles published in our columns. Inquiries should be addressed to the Travel Manager, The SPECTATOR, 99 Gower Street, W.C. 1.—Ed- SPECTATOR.]
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