. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. s FEANCISCO BASIN". 157 Fig. 60.—Paulo Affonso Falls. Scale 1 : the Rio Verde. But the largest affluent is the Rio Grande, which joins the main stream at the point where it begins to bend round to the north-east. Through its Rio Preto tributary, its Sapâo sub-tributary, a lake with double discharge, and the Rio Sorano, the Rio Grande offers a continuous waterway from the S. Francisco to the Tocantins, and consequently to the Amazons. The engineer Moraes has proposed to construct a canal to divert the Rio Preto into one of the upper af
. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. s FEANCISCO BASIN". 157 Fig. 60.—Paulo Affonso Falls. Scale 1 : the Rio Verde. But the largest affluent is the Rio Grande, which joins the main stream at the point where it begins to bend round to the north-east. Through its Rio Preto tributary, its Sapâo sub-tributary, a lake with double discharge, and the Rio Sorano, the Rio Grande offers a continuous waterway from the S. Francisco to the Tocantins, and consequently to the Amazons. The engineer Moraes has proposed to construct a canal to divert the Rio Preto into one of the upper afflu- ents of the Parnahyba, and thus contribute to relieve the distress of the inhabitants of Ceara during periods of long drought. Below thePtio Grande the S. Francisco has still to descend 1,300 feet before reaching the sea. Where it begins to be deflected abruptly eastwards, its level is lowered through a series of dangerous steps, forming the upper stages of the great Paulo Affonso Falls, justly re- garded as the " wonder of Brazil" Above the falls the stream whirls along amid a labyrinth of islands, reefs, and isolated rocks, so close toffether that at low water a plucky jumper might leap from step- ping stone to stepping stone right across the current, although even then it discharges over 35,000 cubic feet per second. During the floods its volume is increased probably fivefold, for at this point the S. Francisco, already within 60 miles of the sea, has received all its great affluents. As it draws near the' falls the stream ramifies into several channels between three elongated islands and some neighbouring islets, all formed of a compact mass of gneiss. At the lower extremity of the group, the channels, which varying. .1,100 Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Reclus,
Size: 1278px × 1954px
Photo credit: © The Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthor, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectgeography
