Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/429



TO THE TEBICUAHY RIVER. 39v)

Yerbales or mate fields of the Misiones. As in sundry of the ueo-Latiu languapjes the feminine form denotes something larger than the masculine, cuchillo, and this knife-shape "would be opposed to Sierra, a saw-like ridgy range. Thence it flows southward, and bending west it drains the Laguna Ypoa, the '^ lucky lake," which appears to have two — an upper as well as a lower outlet. All declared it navigable for four leagues from the mouth with a width of 200 to 400 metres. Others asserted that canoes have landed men at Villa Rica. This may be the case at certain seasons, but lately a light-draught Monitor grounded about five leagues up, and was not got off without difficulty. Our home papers boldly asserted that " the Tebicuary is navigable for many miles above Villa Rica."

After the Linnet had roosted we crossed in the gig the mouth of the Tebicuary. It was boiling and swirling as if very deep, and the flood rushed violently around the tree- trunks that formerly stood upon its banks. As usual, at the confluence of the various tributaries, there are shoals and gatherings of fish, the young ones being probably brought down by the smaller streams.

Striking over to the right jaw of the great affluent we landed upon the only quay, a few stakes, piles, and boards found useful at high river. The ground is here a false delta, or rather an island bearing the name of Fortin : it is formed in the south by the Tebicuary proper, and northwards by a carrisal wet with the percolation of the same stream.

At the angle where the Fortin fronts the Paraguay river, was an eleven-gun battery, in which the defenders had copied the invader. Here we saw gabions for the first time ; there were traces of sod-revetted embrasures, not mere platforms en barbette; curtains were raised behind to traverse side shots, and epaulements prevented the works being raked