The River Sea: The Amazon in History, Myth, and Legend

The stream that begins as a trickle of water on an Andean peak in Peru ends in an estuary on the coast of Brazil so broad that it contains an island the size of Switzerland, the Ilha de Marajó. Here, the Amazon discharges some 4.2 million cubic feet of water per second into the Atlantic Ocean.

In order to lend some perspective to the vast flow, which is almost beyond the scope or comprehension of the layman, the compilers of The Smithsonian Atlas of the Amazon relate it to the yearly wa…