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Interesting facts on the topic “South America”
For the first time, he proposed to name the German geographer Martin Waldzemüller, discovered by Christopher Columbus, by the name of Amerigo Vespucci in 1507, at first the name only concerned the Southern continent, and later spread to the North. The first who crossed the Isthmus of Panama and set foot in 1513 on the American coast of the Pacific, proclaiming him the possession of Spain, was the Spanish conquistador Vasco Nunez Balboa. His messages became the impetus for the search for an unknown sea by the expedition of F. Magellan. The first crossed South America in 15-12 from the west to the east along the Amazon River Francisco Orellana. For this he had to build two ships. During one of the skirmishes with local tribes, the Spaniards thought that they were fought by long-haired women in short skirts. They decided that this is the country of the militant legendary Amazons. Therefore, the river was named Rio de Amazonas, and later – just Amazon. In the Pacific Ocean to the
west of the coast of South America, there are two small islands – Juan Fernandez, discovered by a Spanish navigator in 1563 and named after him. However, more interesting is the name of each of the islands: one is Robinson Crusoe, the second is Alexander Selkirk. According to legends, more than 300 years ago, an English ship “Five Ports” passed by this archipelago. It is not known what exactly happened, but the captain landed the boatswain Alexander Selkirk on the deserted island, leaving him with provisions and a musket. Four years the boatswain lived on the island, collecting fruits and hunting wild animals. Only in 1709 the British robber ship “Duke” took a man from the island. About this story learned English writer Daniel Defoe, and 10 years later in London came out the novel “Robinson Crusoe”, which you read in foreign literature. In 1578 the English navigator Francis Drake skirted South America not along the Straits of Magellan, but a new one, which was later named after him. The Drake Passage is the widest in the world. It separates South America from Antarctica. The Amazon
is the most full-flowing river in the world. It takes out to the Atlantic Ocean about 7000 km3 of water per year. more than 1 billion tons of sand and silt. Yellow waters of the Amazon are noticeable in the ocean at a distance of 300 km from the coast. The width of the river in the lower reaches reaches 15-20 km. The mouth of the river stretches for 600 km in length and 230 km in width. In the basins of the rock Amazon and Orinoco, in their shallow bays the world’s largest water lily grows – the Victoria Regia. Its leaves reach a diameter of two meters and can withstand a weight of up to 40 kg. The flowers of the quiz regii make up 35 cm in diameter. Within two days of flowering, they change color from white to bright pink. The longest cones grow in araucaria of the Brazilian – the coniferous tree of South America. In the savannas of South America, there are termites that are relatives of cockroaches. Eat termites mushrooms. To do this, they bring rotten parts of different plants to the special rooms in the termites, on which grow mushrooms. Thus, they grow food for themselves. Hummingbirds are the smallest birds in the world. Some species are the size of our bumblebee. They feed on hummingbirds with insects or nectar of flowers. Despite the small size, hummingbirds are very warlike birds. They attack even large birds and drive them from the territory they consider their own. In the Amazonian forest, giant ants live up to 7 cm. They move by a chain, devastating everything around. After them, only feathers, bones of birds and snakes, egg shells remain.
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From the history of discovery and research in North America Long before the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, Normans visited the inhabitants of the Scandinavian Peninsula. In the X century. they led Eirik Raudi from the island of Iceland set off across the expanses of the ocean to the west and reached an unknown land – the island of Greenland. A thousand years ago, […]...
