Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/254



224 UP THE PARANA RIVER TO ROZARIO.

ness in keeping engagements seems hereabouts to be a chronic disorder.

The delta proper^ or to speak more correctly, the paral- lelogram of the Parana river^ has a base line of thirty miles subtending the embouchure of the Uruguay, and forming the minor estuary of the Plate, which connects itself with the ocean by means of the larger fluvial estuary and the sea-gulf. The apex, Diamante, below which offsets the Rio Paranancito, lies 178 direct miles from the mouth, and thus the true delta would contain some 5350 square geographical miles. There are several false deltas, especially that formed by the Ibicuy or upper waters of the Parana Guazu, which leaves the Parana de las Palmas at Villa Constitucion. A smaller division still is bounded by the Parana Guazu and the Parana de las Palmas with the little town of S. Pedro for its apex.

There are two chief lines of navigation up the delta of the Parana. The course that lies straight ahead from the outer roads, and best fitted for small steamers and sailers drawing five to six feet, is the Parana de las Palmas, classic waters so called in 1526 by their first navigator, Cabot, of Bristol, who explored them with a caravel and three little ships. In these days its palms are too rare to give it a name; at least, we shall not see them till some way up. You run down the northern railway, twenty-one miles long, to the Tiger's foul stream, where certain wealthy citizens have built handsome country houses, and where dwarf docks, shipbuilding yards, a railway station, workhouses and offices are beginning to procreate a town. The Tiger's river is about ten years old — the English boat-club has known it for seven or eight years. A sudden freshet made it take the place of its south-western neighbour, the Rio de las Conchas mentioned by all old travellers ; and like the latter^ it feeds the Rio de Lujan, alias Corpus Christi. After a