284 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



Monte Video to about sixteen at Buenos Ayres, is 

 almost everywhere shallow and beset by sand or mud- 

 banks, between which run the navigable channels. 

 According to their draught, the ships that conduct 

 the extensive trade between Buenos Ayres and Europe 

 are spread over the space below the city, the larger 

 being forced to anchor at a distance of fourteen miles. 

 To avoid the banks, and to escape collision with the 

 ships in the water-way, in the midst of a fog so dense 

 was no easy matter. It is needless to say the utmost 

 caution was observed. We crept on gently through 

 the night, and at daybreak approached the anchorage 

 of the large ships. Our captain seemed to be perfectly 

 acquainted with the exact position of every one of 

 them, and, as with increasing light he was able to 

 recognize near objects, each in turn served as a buoy 

 to mark out the true channel. Soon after sunrise we 

 reached the moorings, about two miles from the 

 landing-place, and lay there for a couple of hours, 

 while the Buenos Ayres passengers and goods were 

 conveyed to us in a steam-tender. It was a new 

 experience to know one's self so close to a great and 

 famous city without the possibility of distinguishing 

 any object. 



At about ten a.m. we were again under steam and 

 making for the mouth of the Uruguay on the northern 

 side of the great estuary. The fog began to clear, 

 and finally disappeared when, a little before noon, we 

 were about to enter the waters of the mighty stream, 

 which is, after all, no more than a tributary of the 

 still mightier Parana.* Just at this point, signals and 



* The Parana, with its great tributary the Paraguay, drains an area 



