CHAPTER XIII 



THE DELTA OF THE PARANA 



"Wenn du am breiten Flusse wohnst, 

 L Seicht stockt er manchmal auch vorbei; 

 Dann, wenn du deine Wiesen schonst, 

 Heruber schlemmt er, es ist ein Brei. " Goethe. 



Translation 



If you live on the broad river's brim, 

 It often runs shallow where once was a flood; 

 Then when you Ve planted your meadows so trim, 

 The river comes up and smears them with mud. 



'"PHE morning of the second day of October dawned 

 clear and bright. Dr. Santiago Roth had in- 

 formed me on the previous evening that he had com- 

 pleted all the arrangements for an excursion to the 

 delta of the Parana, and had requested me to meet him 

 at the railway-station in La Plata at an early hour, 

 which he named. I was promptly on hand and we 

 were soon in Buenos Aires. We rattled across the city 

 in a cab and reached the Retire Station, where we 

 were joined by Dr. Bade and Professor Lucien Hau- 

 mann-Merck, both of the Faculty of the University 

 of Buenos Aires, both young, learned, and enthusiastic, 

 the one a chemist, the other a biologist. With Dr. 

 Roth, the head of the Geographical and Geological 

 Survey of the Province, to act as chaperon, and with 

 two such good fellows, full of information, to help 

 make up the party, I was sure that I should learn much 



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