ElVERS OF PAEAGUAY. 



801 



becomes more decided, and the water flows, not in a rocky bed, but over layers 

 of tosca, an extremely tenacious white clay, probably saline, for the Pilcomayo 

 discharges brackish waters into the Vavaguay. 



It was long supposed that its mouths had frequently shifted ; but lateral 

 channels, false rivers and creeks may possibly have wrongly been taken for 

 branches of the Pilcomayo. The present mouth joins the Paraguay three miles 

 below Asuncion, opposite the Lambaré bluff. But in 1721 the chief branch was 



Fig. 128. — View taken on the Pilcomayo. 





■t^-ii 



Vf'- 



stated to be " nine leagues," or about 26 miles away. The Ptio Coufuso, which 

 reaches the Paraguay 22 miles above Asuncion, is a different river, and not an arm 

 of the Pilcomayo, as shown by its much more saline water. But when in flood 

 the two streams may perhaps communicate through the intervening banados. On 

 the other hand the Araguay-Guazu, explored in 1<^86 by Fernandez for 440 miles 

 from its confluence with the Paraguay, probably branches off from the Pilcomayo 

 about the middle part of its course. Both streams resemble each other in their 



