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The Amazon has its cradle high up among the peaks of the Andes, where the condor, the vulture of America, builds its nest. So vast is the basin of that great river, that all Western Europe could be placed in it without touching its boundaries! It is entirely situated in the Tropics, on both sides of the Equator, and receives over its whole extent the most abundant rains.
亞馬遜河的發源地在安第斯山脈的最高處，美洲禿鷲禿鷹也在那里筑巢。其流域十分廣闊，可以覆蓋整個西歐并仍留有富余。此外，整條亞馬遜河都處在熱帶地區，赤道兩側，凡其流經處降雨量無不豐富。
The swelling of the river, after the rainy season, is gigantic as itself. In some parts the water rises above forty feet; and travellers have even seen trees whose trunks bore marks of the previous inundation fifty feet above the height of the stream during the dry season. Then for miles and miles the swelling giant inundates his low banks, and, majestic at all times, becomes terrible in his grandeur when rolling his angry torrents through the wilderness. The largest forest-trees tremble under the pressure of the waters. Huge trunks, uprooted and carried away by the stream, bear witness to its power. Fishes and alligators now swim where a short while ago the jaguar lay in wait for its prey; and only a few birds, perching on the highest tree-tops, remain to witness the tumult which disturbs the silence of the woods.
雨季過后水平面漲到往常高度，部分地區高出40英尺，旱季時旅行者們甚至能看到上次漲水時樹干上殘留的水流痕跡高出50英尺。之后這位不斷膨脹的巨人會一英里一英里地淹沒它低矮的河岸，他那憤怒的激流在荒野中翻滾，他那一向莊嚴的氣勢變得可怕至極，他用水壓的沖擊令森林里最最高大的的樹木顫抖不堪，用水流將巨大的樹干連根拔起并沖到遠處，所有這些無不展現其力量之大，魚兒們和短吻鱷也會在此時游到不久前美洲虎埋伏等待獵物的地方，只有幾只立在樹梢高處的鳥兒們留下來觀看這擾亂了森林寂靜的喧鬧。
When at length the river retires within its usual limits, new islands have been formed in its bed, while others have been swept away; and in many places the banks, undermined by the floods, threaten to crush the passing boat by their fall, —a misfortune which not seldom happens, particularly when, along with the loosened banks, high trees fall headlong into the river.
當洪水最終消退至正常高度，當島嶼們被無情地沖刷殆盡，新的島嶼從河床中顯現。在有些地區，被洪水破壞的河岸會威脅甚至壓垮過往船只，這種不幸時常發生，尤其當松垮的河岸上有高大的樹木向前栽進河里。
The magical beauty of tropical vegetation reveals itself in all its glory to the traveller who steers his boat through the solitary mazes of the Amazon. Here the forest forms a canopy over his head; there it opens, allowing the sunshine to disclose the secrets of the wilderness; while on either side the eye penetrates through beautiful vistas into the depths of the woods.
熱帶地區的植被奇觀在駕船穿越亞馬遜迷宮的旅行者面前放肆地擺首弄姿。頭頂是森林之木鋪就的高大蒼穹，蒼穹縫隙處掠進的些縷陽光似乎正探頭窺視荒野的秘密，而另一處旅行者們的視線早已穿透撩人的遠景、探入森林深處。
