EXPLORATION IN SOUTH AMERICA.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14985, 4 June 1914, Page 4

EXPLORATION IN SOUTH AMERICA.

BOOSETELT'S JOURNEY.

AN ADVENTUROUS TRIP.

(trou ova own conu»<ieo: r vvTt). SA-S FR..NGT3CO, M-y 10. After five mouths spent in South America, the larger poition of the time in the wildest and parts of I3ra_.il, Colonel Roo-.e-.it is on his way back to tho United States. Many sensational stories havo been written about the former President's experiences in Latin America. He has been reported drowned by tho capsizing of a canoe in the rapids of tho Paraguay, killed by savago natives, stung to death by a venomous serpout. While tho report of death has been "greatly exaggerated," the strenuous colonel has hail sufiK-ient adventures to fill to overflowing one of those outdoor books he knows so well how to make interesting. A perhaps moro useful result of hi?, visit to South America is the access of knowledges this country gains regarding the customs and governments of the Latin-American Republics. Mr Roosevelt has been regularly mailing to two magazines his impressions of the countries ho has visited, and it is safe to say that nothing heretofore written concerning South America has been so widely read. Whilo partly a hunting expedition, it was far more a journey in tho interests of natural history and science Mr Roosevelt is quoted in a telegram from Para, Brazil, whence ho has just sailed for the United States, as saying that the naturalists of tho party collected moro than 2100 birds and roammals, a fow reptiles, batrachians, and fish, all from regions not formerly'* traversed In- any collector. Many aro of species not heretofore known to science. The most important result {•A the expedition, hbwefver, in tho opinion of its leader, was tho geographical. "We havo put on the map a new river. 10C0 miles long," ho states, *'but it is too much broken up by rapids to bo navigable, except in the lower parts. The river takes its rise in the high uplands of tho western part, of tho State of Matto Gros.e, just north of tho 13th parellel of the south ...T.iule, and between longitude 50 and 60 west. It flows in general duo north." It has been sneerincdy said that tbe nolite people of "Brazil, wishin-; to flatter Mr Roosevelt into the belief that he was a discoverer, took him to this river, which they knew 'about all along, and told him'he was indeed its discoverer. But there is no limit to tho meanness of tho things the Colonel's enemies in America will say about him. The new river is called tho Duvr'n. and hi point of volume is like the Rhine, the Elbe, or tho Hudson. Thero is not a trace of it on any hitherto published map, and the- only pooplo who,know of its existence, according to Mr Roosevelt, wero a few rubber men, who knew tho mouth, and the wild tribes of tho interior, who livo along its sides. Tho roughness of the almost unbroken series of rapids of which it consist, may be conceived from tho fact that in six weeks of steady labour, logging their way along its Course, tho party mado not more than an average of two miles a day. Provisions ran out, and the members of the expedition lived largely on tropical fruits. Speaking of the experience, the ex-Presidont said:— "Of tho seven, canoes with which we started, five wero lost in the rapids. One of our men was drowned, and two others, including my son Kermit, narrowly escaped in the same manner. Kormit was saved by clutching an overhanging branch. Under the strain one man went mad. He finally murdered ono of his companions, and fled into the wilderness, where, I suppose he met his death. I had a sevoro bout of fever, with temperatu#o of 105 degrees, and whilo working aiound a canoe in the rapids, bruised m y leg, which developed a bat! abscess, but T am now practically all right." Tho Colonel lost 55 pounds in weight during tho expedition, and other accounts from Para describe him as very weak. Ho expresses great enthinnpstn over the beauty and richness of the regions tbron__h which "the exrodit'on passed. Tt is T-j. in+ention to deliver a lecture before the Royal Geoexaobiml S<v>icty of London, when, it is said, he will contradict tho accuracy of pot.© of the statelier*-, rrnde by Henry S.-.vn;?e Landor, ths B-itish e-rntorer, in re«rard to the int A nT, of P'-n?"!! w'ncli traversed by 1.-ando*- in IPIOII. AntKonv F.nla, fJio explorer, was with tbe R'-o'-. v.lt .eTPe'-ition in ita fiff-*-. stages, and i« now brrlr in "\"W York. Hf d«s?. _ ih'xt Kormit T.on«evolf .« m. <" . of oose . wire, an. $wvk bo "ii trvprher t 1 ". his f. jf j^i-l, r. +hin<r is ~<.*_jT.V».' Tn n hunt- for *.<■-«- ™+« R>v~<„ v „it, r _*,j v; c en ,, on l *'»c nrn*iK->-*- r»"d n-tr*"*- in +*""ir ">"--! i'iirrlr». ".V T i«'l "■*•/. rv,! .«*1 nnA ~~*"~H. Sr.-Ml. *->—„ <,!,* ~. +T,p >» v;„u *♦«•_.. •«+•,,.;- -.„**,,%,<-'. w *.. f „„ n fr, S VW C tbo.- n---- „r.d 1n ~> t--.r<_ . 'r>,.r"}nci- in i-n-i. r..«r.->c. T.nf 0-.IT; ~v,.J T?-e l.»«<-"'i»-i- 1.-!'. a dry pb'cr. ..«...,.n*.,.,.*;,,,^!.