Across Unknown South America | Page 2

several high mountain ranges, quite as
high as the Andes, may be noticed extending from north to south
between the rivers Madeira, Tapajoz, Xingu, Araguaya and Tocantins.
Those high ranges are merely the work of imaginative cartographers,
who have drawn them to make the map look pretty. They do not exist. I
have left them in order to draw the attention of the reader to them. The
position of the Arinos-Juruena is from 1 to 1½ degrees farther west
than it is there drawn, and should be where I have marked the red line
of my route.
(f) Everything that was of interest pictorially, geologically, botanically,

or anthropologically was photographed or sketched. Astronomical
observations were constantly taken to determine the positions of our
camps and places of importance.
Botanical and geological collections were made, but unfortunately had
to be abandoned.
(g) During the journey the head waters of the following important
rivers were visited: The Rio Vermelho, Rio Claro, Rio Araguaya, Rio
Barreiros, Rio das Mortes, Rio S. Lourenço, the Cuyaba river, the
Xingu, the Paranatinga, the Paraguay river (Paraná), the Rio Arinos, the
Secundury.
(h) The entire course of the river Tapajoz was studied, and also the
entire course of the Amazon from its mouth almost to its birthplace in
the Andes.
(i) Useful vocabularies were drawn up of the following Indian
languages: Bororo, Apiacar, Mundurucu, Campas or Antis.
(k) The expedition has furthermore shown that it is possible with poor
material in the way of followers to accomplish work of unusual
difficulty.
(l) That it is possible for people in a normal condition of health to go at
least sixteen days without food while doing hard work.
(m) That it is possible to cross an entire continent--for one entire
year--in the company of dangerous and lazy criminals without any
weapon for protection--not even a penknife--and to bring forth from
such poor material remarkable qualities of endurance, courage, and
almost superhuman energy.
(n) Last, but not least, on that expedition I was able to collect further
evidence that a theory I had long held as to the present shape of the
earth was correct. I had never believed in the well-known theory that a
continent, now submerged, once existed between America, Europe and
Africa--in other words, where the Atlantic Ocean is now. That theory

has found many followers. In support of it one is told that such islands
as Madeira, the Canaries, the Azores, are the topmost peaks of a now
partly submerged range of mountains which once stood upon that
vanished continent. It is also a common belief that Northern Africa
underwent the contrary process, and was pushed up from under the sea.
That is why--it is said--the Sahara Desert, which was formerly, without
doubt, an ocean bed, is now dry and above water.
One has only to look at any map of the entire world to see what really
happened to the earth in days long gone by. Let me first of all tell you
that there never existed a continent between Africa and South America.
In fact, I doubt whether there is as much as a square mile between those
two continents more submerged to-day than it was thousands upon
thousands of years ago.
Here is what really happened. The earth at one period changed its
shape--when, is merely guesswork, and is of no consequence here--and
the crust of the earth--not the core, mind you--split into two great gaps
from Pole to Pole, with a number of other minor fissures. In other
words, the earth opened just like the skin of an over-heated baked apple.
The African and American continents, as well as Australasia, with New
Guinea, the Celebes Islands, the Philippine Archipelago and China,
which before that event formed part of one immense continent, thus
became divided, leaving North and South America isolated, between
the two great Oceans--the Atlantic and the Pacific--which were then,
and only then, formed.
It is easy, by looking intelligently at a map, to reconstruct the former
shape of the world. You will notice that the most western portion of
Africa fits exactly into the gap between North and South America,
while the entire African coast between Dahomey and the Cape Colony
fits in perfectly in all its indentations and projections into the coast line
of South America. The shores of Western Europe in those days were
joined to North America, and find to-day their almost parallel and
well-fitting coast line on the east coast of the United States and Canada.
On the opposite side of the world, the western side of South America,
the same conditions can be noticed, although the division of the two

continents (America and Asia) is there much wider. Fragments were
formed, leaving innumerable islands scattered in the Pacific Ocean,
half-way between the actual continents of Asia, Australia and