THE URUGUAY AND PARANÀ. 41 The and thenceforth unite in the common name. highest waters of the Paraguay are about the latitude of 13° south, above Cuyaba, in the Brazilian province of Matto Grosso; while the Paranà comes from latitude 16° south, in the province of Goyas. The importance of the whole river may be seen in the fact that the Paraguay is now navigated by a steamer without difficulty as far as Cuyaba, about 2,000 miles from Buenos Ayres, in the heart of one of the most valuable and productive districts in the whole world, which only requires steam communication to develope its immense resources. Steamers have long been running up the river as far as Asuncion in Paraguay, which is 800 miles from Buenos Ayres, and while I was in the country the first steamer penetrated to Cuyaba, Lieutenant Page having previously ascended in the 'Waterwitch' as far as Albuquerque and Corumba. All these huge rivers are fed by many powerful branches, and united form the estuary called the Rio de la Plata. The width of this vast expanse I have already alluded to: it is a great pity that the depth is not more in proportion. There is good reason to believe that the water was formerly much deeper, but large vessels are now always obliged to lie in the outer roads about four miles from the city, and those that draw more than sixteen feet are frequently obliged to remain at nearly double that distance. The outer are separated from the inner roads by a dangerous bank, and all vessels except quite small craft must make a long circuit to enter them. The Rio de la Plata is a grand sight with all its fine array of shipping, but if it were half as wide and twice as deep as it is at present, it would be ten times more useful. I shall have more to say about these rivers in due course, but as the quarantine officers have now released us, we will go on shore in a whale-boat. very On the 16th the wind was still blowing hard from the south-west, and dead against us; but as soon as we were signalled to lower the hateful yellow flag, some boats came off from shore. I and some half dozen other passengers jumped into one of them, and good as the boat was, we had hard work to beat to windward in rough water; but soon after noon we landed at the end of a long and excellent pier. The shallowness of the water used to prevent boats from getting to the shore, and the old-fashioned way was to finish the last few hundred yards in high-wheeled carts: the pier, however, almost always prevents the necessity of this very disagreeable and risky proceeding, which is only resorted to when the water is exceptionally low. CHAPTER III. LIFE AT BUENOS AYRES. I OFFICERS-STREETS CIVILITY OF CUSTOM-HOUSE HAD the pleasure of being met by my cousin, Mr. Parish, the English Consul, with whom I walked along the pier, preceded by my goods on the heads of a couple of active darkies. At the shore end is a neat building, like a summer-house, where passengers' luggage is examined by the custom-house officers, and I at once conceived a pleasing impression of the place from the great civility with which this operation was performed; certainly I have seldom been so well treated in Europe and I may truly say that this favourable impression was daily confirmed more and more during a residence of several months. The 'general brightness and cleanliness of the city are very striking, especially to those who have last come from the tropical dirt of Brazil. The lofty domes and white towers of the churches. and Cabildo stand out in clear relief against the pure blue sky, and the marvellous freshness of the air has a most exhilarating effect on the system. The main part of the city stands upon the same level as the wideexpanding Pampas, about fifty feet above the river, and as every street towards the river ends in a steep incline, each shower washes the place thoroughly, and carries off all impurities into the capacious bosom of the La Plata. Two sets of streets at right angles to each other, and 150 yards apart, divide Buenos Ayres into a system of equal squares exactly like a chess-board. The official plan of the city gives thirty-one streets running east and west, and twenty-nine running north and south; many of these are incompletely built over towards their extremities, but the principal streets are thus about two and a half miles in length. The quadras or squares are of course not hollow squares, but blocks of houses facing outwards to the streets. All the older houses and great part of the newest consist of only one floor, and are arranged in two or three courtyards or patios, into which the various rooms open. Many, however, are now built upon the more familiar plan of altos or upper floors, with lofty front and elaborate decorations. One remarkable feature in the country is, that on the Buenos Ayrean or right bank of the river there is not a particle of rock for hundreds of miles, nothing but alluvial soil; you may look upon the surface for many days' journey, or you may dig to the depth of many feet, but you will never find a stone as big as a marble to throw at the head of any of the troublesome and savage dogs that fly at you; whilst on the Montevidean side of the river you find abundance of gneiss and granite without the slightest difficulty. The whole country from the eastern slopes of the Andes to the banks of the Uruguay appears to be an immense alluvial deposit, brought down by innumerable rivers, and covering the bed of an ancient sea, whose former presence may be inferred from the numerous beds of marine shells, and probably also from the saltness which still characterises a large proportion of the inland streams. In the island of Martin Garcia, opposite the point where the Paranà pours its waters into the Rio de la Plata by the Guazu channel, is quarried the granite with which the streets of Buenos Ayres are paved and the best houses are built, though plastered brick is the most usual material for the latter. This island is very near the Montevidean, or Banda Oriental, side of the river; and as all vessels, except small craft, are compelled by the shallowness of the water to keep close to it on their passage up or down the Paranà, it is carefully fortified, and looked upon by the Buenos Ayrean Government as a Western Gibraltar. The stone is brought over in a rough state, and great pains are taken in paving the streets with blocks, which contain on an average about a cubic foot; but the surface, |