The Amazing Amazon

Not unworthily indeed has the Amazon been termed "the Mediterranean of the New World." Only af ter floating days upon days over its majestic tide does one reach a conception of its vastness It is in fact an immense water basin, rather than a river or system of rivers. The area actually covered by the water3 of the Amazon is estimated at 26,000 square miles, and this figure inereases at least by a fourth during llood time. At one time its depth is forty fathoms; at others it reaclies the marvelous deplh of seventy fathoms. Half a million of cubic feet of water pour every second through the narro ws of Obidos, and with such f orce does the Amazon enter the Ocean 600 miles below that fresh water may be found in the Atlantic at a distance f ar out of the sight of land. Several of its tributaries are over 1,500 miles in length "Within the boundaries of Brazil alone the Amazonian net work of ivers, canals and lakes offers 27,000 miles of steam navigation, distributed as follows : Amazon, 2,392 ; xu i tributarles, 20,513; secondary tribuí uies and lakes,. 4,142 ; total miles, 27,047. Twelve thousand miles are actually raversed by the vessels of the Amazon Navigation Steamship Company and other steamers. The basin of the Amazon is twice as large as the valley of the Mississippi, and "would hold forty-nine countries the size of England." It is said that the river nourishes twice as many species of flsh as the Mediterranean, and a laiger number than the Atlantic Ocean. All the rivers of Europe united do not produce 1 50 species of fresh water ftsh. A little lake near Manaos, called Lake Hyanuary, the surf ace of which covers hardly 500 square yards, contains moie than 200 distinct species, the greater part of which have not been observed elsewhere. ._