Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/481



AT AND ABOUT ASUNCION. 451

Fortunately for me, my good friend Dr. Newkirk, for- merly of Corrientes, had shifted his quarters further north. He had enjoyed an excellent practice, and in one month was able to clear 600/. Now he complained that the cli- mate, which to me appeared odious, was exceptionally healthy. Asuncion, situated in the southern third of the western length of Paraguay, is nearly on the parallel of Rio de Janeiro. Yet here, when we landed, the raw, uncomfort- able south wind, which prevails in the cold season, made me remember ague for the first time upon the river. It was presently succeeded by a burst of the tremulous molecular action called heat, damp and stifling as that of Panama, with a copious evaporation, which generally ends in fearful storms of thunder, lightning, and rain. At 3 p.m. 96Â° (F.) in the shade, and at 11 a.m. 97Â°, are not uncom- mon. The north wind, which prevails during the wet half of the year, is as full of misery as a norther at Buenos Aires. At the springs and changes of the moon, the people expect tempests and shifting of winds. Bad weather at these epochs sometimes lasts through the quarter. It is popularly said here, as in the Brazil, that summer and winter meet in one day, and that Paraguay combines the four seasons in twenty-four hours. Between midnight and 6 A.M., it is spring ; summer then extends to noon : the third quarter is autumn ; and from 6 p.m. to midnight it is winter. As in Sao Paulo, the whole season between March and September is the only time to travel. Furious tempests and torrents of rain are usual about the end and beginning of the year.

Dr. Newkirk occupied in Calle Liber dad the house be- longing to Dr. Stewart, formerly Physician-General to the Paraguayan forces. This gentleman had married a rich native, the niece of Colonel Baes, who brought him also a neat quint a or finca, and some half a dozen estancias^ large