Letters from Mr. J. Graham Kerr. 261 



On passing into the Pilcomayo — this '' gran rio del Norte/^ 

 as some one calls it — we found it an insignificant stream, 

 some sixty yards in width, and with about three fathoms of 

 water in it. The banks of the river were high and steep, 

 clothed, however, with a protective growth of rank grass and 

 other vegetation, and betraying no symptoms of that intense 

 erosive activity so characteristic of its fellow stream the Ber- 

 mejo. Its course is extremely tortuous, its current very 

 slow, about a quarter of a mile per hour. This extreme 

 tortuosity proved a great hindrance to navigation, some of 

 the bends being extremely abrupt. The waters of the river 

 were dark and still, reflecting in their surface the innu- 

 merable Kingfishers of all three Argentine species, which 

 darted hither and thither. So much for the appearance of 

 the river at its mouth. 



For the first week or so we made fairly good progress, 

 frequently, however, having to wait for the other and larger 

 vessel, the ' General Paz,' which accompanied us as an escort. 

 She experienced great difficulty in getting round the turns, 

 owing to her length, 120 feet. At last, upon March 18th, 

 the ' General Paz ' was quite unable to proceed further, and 

 so Capt. Page decided to leave her behind. So we took on. 

 board the ' Bolivia ' the captain of the ' General Paz,' her 

 doctor, and twenty-five of her soldiers, along with a couple 

 of officers. All these additions to our number of course 

 made us draw much more water, and also proved a great 

 strain on the engine. So at last it was found necessary to 

 leave the soldiers behind. They were accordingly put ashore 

 on April 1st, except half a dozen, who remained on board 

 to assist in cutting fuel, &c., and to supplement our very 

 weak crew. In the nearly three months since then we have, 

 I believe, not made fifty miles in a straight line. 



I said that even at its mouth the Pilcomayo was extremely 

 small compared with what one would expect it to be from 

 the length of its course and the extent of its draining area. 

 Its size has been continually diminishing, until now — some 

 300 miles by river from the mouth, and say one fifth of the 

 way to the Bolivian frontier — we have a mere brook, from 



