Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/279



LETTEE XT.

FROM ROZARIO TO CORRIENTES.

August 20, 1868.

My dear Z J

"Above Rozario/^ says the South Ame- rican Pilot, '^ there is nothing in the river to interest the stranger/^ A turn of the world has changed all that.

Before we go further let us cast a geographical glance at this Parana River, which has been compared with the Ohio of the United States. The total length is laid down at 2040 miles — namely 500 of the Brazilian Bios Grande and Paranahyba, 1000 of the upper stream to its junction with the Paraguay, and 540 before it becomes the Bio de la Plata. "We crossed in Minas Geraes, you may remember, its upper waters, known as the Bio das Mortes Pequeno. The stream between the mouth and the Misiones district is calculated to flow at 2J knots an hour ; but this rate appears to be exaggerated. It is by no means easy to average the current : it is rapid where high converging banks form narrows, and, of course, slowest between inundated shores. The annual diff"erence of its level is supposed to be twelve feet, but evi- dently this will not be the same in all places. Its low water is caused by the spring and winter of the southern hemisphere ; high water is in its summer and autumn. From this time to September it shrinks, and in October it sometimes falls one to four inches in twenty-four hours. It will wax lower till December, and about January ; when the thermometer shows its maximum (60Â° to 95Â° Fahr.) it will begin to flood. The stream is high and steady from January