204 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS : NARRATIVE. 



stage. As an example of the poverty and the depreciated value of com- 

 modities, I may mention that when solicited by a fruit vender to purchase 

 some oranges, at one of the small villages at which we stopped, on hand- 

 ing her a Paraguayan five-cent piece, equivalent at that time to just five 

 eighths of one cent in our money, she gave me in return a bunch of 

 thirteen large oranges, which were as fine in appearance and flavor as 

 any I ever ate from the Indian River groves in Florida. They were 

 woven together in one cluster by the stems in such a tasteful manner as 

 to indicate that, if time were of any value whatever, the small pittance I 

 had exchanged for them would scarcely repay the owner for her trouble 

 and would leave her nothing for the fruit. Nevertheless, she seemed per- 

 fectly contented and quite pleased with the sale, and since I had allowed 

 her to fix her own price, I had no compunction in the matter. 



At San Bernardino I left the railway and went inland some miles to 

 the quaint little town of Itaguay, where I remained for some time, and, 

 although a tourist, I obtained an excellent room and good board at five 

 pesos, sixty-two cents per day. If any of my readers should ever feel the 

 need of a vacation spent amid quiet but comfortable and most interesting 

 surroundings, at an exceedingly moderate expense, let me commend 

 them to one of the country villages in Paraguay. During my short 

 stay in that country I intentionally forgot everything and fell suddenly 

 into the indolent manners and customs of the natives. Their ways 

 became my ways, and if I walked or rode in the forests it was to satisfy 

 not my mental, but physical desires and comforts. For once in my life I 

 conquered the propensity for collecting which for years had been the one 

 dominant and uncontrollable element within me. When I left Paraguay 

 on my return voyage to Buenos Aires, I took with me just one natural 

 history specimen — the shell of a large ground-snail belonging, I believe 

 to the genus Purpurea, and picked up by a companion, while we were 

 walking one day in the suburbs of Asuncion. These shells were very 

 abundant and quite handsome. Some will doubtless say that I wasted a 

 valuable opportunity in thus neglecting to collect in this most interesting 

 region. But I do not think so, for I had come here for another purpose, 

 and it had never been my nature to work in a half-interested manner. 

 It was either to be absolute rest or strenuous and unrelenting work. I 

 chose the former. Hence it is that I can say little of the fauna or flora 

 of the country. 



