MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Amazon source discoverer dies

An eccentric amateur explorer who claimed to have discovered the true source of the River Amazon, Sebastian Snow, has died in England, aged 72.

After centuries of speculation, it was in 1951 that Snow said he was able to prove that the source of the Amazon was the glacial lake, Ninococha, in the Cordillera Mountains of Peru, having answered an advertisement in the London Times newspaper to take part in a hydrological expedition. There had been dispute and controversy over the river's exact source since the first published discussion document, Father Christobal de Acuna's "Discovery of the Great River of the Amazons", suggested in 1641 three possible sources: the rivers Napo in Quito, Caqueta in New Granada, and the Maranon in Peru. By the mid nineteenth century, maps off the Andes showed the Rio Ucayali to be longer than any of these, and a Peruvian Army survey in the 1930's identified its longest tributary , the Tambo-Ene-Apurimac system, as the source. It was after the French explorers Bertrand Florney and Fred Mater suggested the true source was Lake Ninococha, that Sebastian Snow, with a fellow explorer, John Brown, reached the lake and with various instruments and dyes, said they had proved it to be the source of the world's biggest river. Astonishingly, Snow then navigated the river all the way to its mouth where the Amazon pours into the ocean. He set off with a young Peruvian named Pacchion who soon turned back, leaving Snow to press on alone. The Peruvian geographical society criticised his venture as "suicidal". After three days travelling Snow sold his only mule and thereafter carried all his equipment on his shoulders, a tall energetic man, looking lout of place, wearing thick spectacles, to combat bad eye-sight.

Remarkable rain forest solo journey

There followed one of the most remarkable of solo journeys through the rain forests of the Amazon. Despite dysentery, malaria, floods which delayed him for months, and damage to his rafts, which he repeatedly had to rebuild, Snow succeeded against all the odds, reaching the mouth of the Amazon ten months after setting off. On the way, he had to deal with sceptical native Indians who he said were extremely pleasant before drinking their local beverage called chechi, but not so pleasant afterwards! He lived off maize, roast monkey, bamboo shoots and snails. In his e