The Headwaters of the Paraguay 99 



■future ; but the day was our own, and the day was pleas- 

 ant. In the evening the after-deck, open all around, 

 where we dined, was decorated with green boughs and 

 rushes, and we drank the health of the President of the 

 United States and of the President of Brazil. 



Now and then we passed little ranches on the river's 

 edge. This is a fertile land, pleasant to live in, and any 

 settler who is willing to work can earn his living. There 

 are mines; there is water-power; there is abundance of 

 rich soil. The country will soon be opened by rail. It 

 offers a fine field for immigration and for agricultural, 

 mining, and business development; and it has a great 

 future. 



Cherrie and Miller had secured a little owl a month 

 before in the Chaco, and it was travelling with them in 

 a basket. It was a dear little bird, very tame and affec- 

 tionate. It liked to be handled and petted; and when 

 Miller, its especial protector, came into the cabin, it would 

 make queer little noises as a signal that it wished to be 

 taken up and perched on his hand. Cherrie and Miller 

 had trapped many mammals. Among them was a tayra 

 weasel, whitish above and black below, as big and blood- 

 thirsty as a fisher-martin ; and a tiny opossum no bigger 

 than a mouse. They had taken four species of opossum, 

 but they had not found the curious water-opossum which 

 they had obtained on the rivers flowing into the Carib- 

 bean Sea. This opossum, which is black and white, 

 swims in the streams like a muskrat or otter, catching 

 fish and living in burrows whicTi open under water. 

 Miller and Cherrie were puzzled to know why the young 

 throve, leading such an existence of constant immer- 



