Dec. 1890.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 35 



to belong to Bignoniacise. So much for the ' Monta duro.' Along 

 the margins of the rivers, trees also occur, of a comparatively few 

 species, with soft timber. The two commonest of these are called 

 * Timbo bianco ' {PaulUnia ?), a rather ugly tree with Avhite flower 

 heads, and the ' Mandu vira ' (caesalpinioid). Also more or less 

 along the margin of the rivers runs a strip of bush and jungle — a 

 tangled mass of thorny bushes, covered veith creepers and twining 

 passion flowers. I should have liked to give you a longer and very 

 much better account of the vegetation here, but must plead as my 

 excuses, first, the earliness of the season, and secondly, my not 

 having any works of reference. 



"We arrived at this our present position upon June 12th, 

 having been brought to an absolute stop owing to the almost 

 complete dessication of the river. About that time our want of 

 provisions began to make itself felt, and it was finally decided to 

 build a canoe and send down for fresh provisions. Upon June 

 27th, Captain Zorilla, Page's second in command, departed in the 

 canoe, got down all right, and hearing that a revolution had broken 

 out, hurried ofi" to Buenos Ayres. Before going, he took no means 

 whatever of sending us the provisions ; in fact, he appears not 

 to have said a word to any one about our predicament. Then 

 Page himself became unwell, and he hurried off" down stream, 

 dying on the way upon August 4th, before reaching the mouth of 

 the river. Meanwhile our provisions were being gradually but 

 surely exhausted, even by our starvation rations. We were all 

 getting thin and extremely weak. Then towards the beginning of 

 September, the doctor, an intelligent and enthusiastic young Italian, 

 began to fall a victim to all the hardshijDS he had sufi'ered, and 

 finally, on September 8th, he died, my time having been a good 

 deal occupied in nursing the poor chap. We buried the doctor the 

 same afternoon by the margin of a little ' monte.' Then upon 

 the 18th of September Indians appeared — a party of twelve Tobas, 

 including two caciques, presenting themselves about sunset. 

 They were friendly, and after staying a couple of days, departed, 

 saying they would come again next moon. Of them more anon. 

 The next date, October 4th, will be a red-letter day to all of us, 

 for on it we were rescued from the death which was staring us in 

 the face, by a military relief party sent by the Argentine Govern- 

 ment. 



" I had been out with my rifle from early dawn looking for deer 

 along with Pool, our steward and photographer. We were return- 

 ing to the ship, tired and weary and devoured by mosquitoes, after 

 an unsuccessful hunt. As we got about a hundred yards from the 

 boat we heard an extraordinary sound, which so took our breath 

 away that it was a fraction of a second before we realised that it 

 was a bugle call, and that relief was at hand. We rushed off 

 towards the boat, reaching it just in time to hear the jingle of 

 accoutrements, and a moment later to see a file of men approach- 



