132 THE PARANA. [chap. vii. 



undulatory flighttoa short distance, and then turning round, 

 steadily gaze at their pursuer. Occasionally in the evening 

 they may be heard hooting. I found in the stomachs of 

 two which I opened the remains of mice, and I one day saw 

 a small snake killed and carried away. It is said that 

 snakes are their common prey during the daytime. I may 

 here mention, as showing on what various kinds of food 

 owls subsist, that a species killed among the islets of the 

 Chonos Archipelago, had its stomach full of good-sized 

 crabs. In India "'*■ there is a fishing genus of owls, which 

 likewise catches crabs. 



In the evening we crossed the Rio Arrecife on a simple 

 raft made of barrels lashed together, and slept at the post- 

 house on the other side. I this day paid horse-hire for 

 thirty-one leagues ; and although the sun was glaring hot, 

 I was but little fatigued. When Captain Head talks of 

 riding fifty leagues a day, I do not imagine the distance is 

 equal to one hundred and fifty English miles. At all events, 

 the thirty-one leagues was only seventy-six miles in a 

 straight line, and in an open country I should think four 

 additional miles for turnings would be a sufficient allowance. 



September 2^th and 'Tpth. — We continued to ride over 

 plains of the same character. At San Nicolas I first saw 

 the noble river of the Parana. At the foot of the cliff on 

 which the town stands, some large vessels were at anchor. 

 Before arriving at Rozario, we crossed the Saladillo, a 

 stream of fine clear running water, but too saline to drink. 

 Rozario is a large town built on a dead level plain, which 

 forms a cliff about sixty feet high over the Parana. The 

 river here is very broad, with many islands, which are low 

 and wooded, as is also the opposite shore. The view would 

 resemble that of a great lake, if it were not for the linear- 

 shaped islets, which alone give the idea of running water. 

 The cliffs are the most picturesque part ; sometimes they 

 are absolutely perpendicular, and of a red colour ; at other- 

 times in large broken masses, covered with cacti and 

 mimosa-trees. The real grandeur, however, of an immense 

 river like this, is derived from reflecting how important a 

 means of communication and commerce it forms between 

 one nation and another ; to what a distance it travels ; and 

 from how vast a territory it drains the great body of fresh 

 water which flows past your feet. 



For many leagues north and south of San Nicolas and 



* Journal of Asiatic Sac., vol. v., p. 363. 



