June 1891.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 131 



parrots, added still further variety to the scene. The river 

 was at this time in high flood, and on its surface came 

 innumerable masses of various floating plants, from the inland 

 lagunas — large clumps of the beautiful Eichornia azurea, a 

 Pontecleria with a spike of purply-blue flowers, and immense 

 quantities of a species of Pistia were most noteworthy. During 

 this period of rapid progress I naturally got but few opportu- 

 nities for collecting, this being limited to the hour or so when 

 we stopped to cut fuel each morning. 



Soon, however, our progress began to be less rapid. We 

 arrived at a point known as Las Juntas, at which the river 

 divides into two ; and the more northern branch, which we 

 followed, we found much smaller than we had the main 

 stream, and our progress was almost from the first greatly 

 obstructed, chiefly by trees, whose trunks, stretching right 

 out across the stream, had to be felled to allow of further 

 progress. Somewhat later another difficulty appeared : the 

 rainy season was now well over, and the level of the water 

 in the river began to fall rapidly, until finally we came to 

 a full stop. The leader of the expedition now resolved to 

 build a dam across the river, and so accumulate enough 

 water to make advance possible. This was done, and by a 

 repetition of the operation some progress was made, although 

 extremely slowly and with immense labour. About the end 

 of May, however, another disagreeable fact began to make 

 itself apparent, and this was the approaching termination of 

 our supplies of provisions. It was finally decided to send 

 down for fresh supplies ; a canoe was built, and in it set out 

 Lieutenant Zorilla and a couple of men. Our military 

 escort, I should mention, had departed en masse some time 

 before. We were now left but a small party on board the 

 " Bolivia," and this number was destined to be still further 

 reduced. Captain Page's health had been failing for some 

 time, brought on, no doubt, by the constant hardship and 

 worry, and by the middle of July he became so much worse 

 that he decided to try to reach Paraguay in search of proper 

 medical treatment. He left us on the 20th of July ; and, as 

 we heard several months later, never reached the Paraguay, 

 but died upon the way. The ten men left on board the 

 " Bolivia " now spent a rather monotonous couple of months, 

 marked by considerable hardship from want of food and 



