The Headwaters of the Paraguay 131 



temperate regions of the far north, now in the cold tem- 

 perate regions of the south. These latter wide-wander- 

 ing birds of the seashore and the river bank pass most of 

 their lives in regions of almost perpetual sunlight. They 

 spend the breeding season, the northern summer, in the 

 land of the midnight sun, during the long arctic day. 

 They then fly for endless distances down across the north 

 temperate zone, across the equator, through the lands 

 where the days and nights are always of equal length, 

 into another hemisphere, and spend another summer of 

 long days and long twilights in the far south, where the 

 antarctic winds cool them, while their nesting home, at 

 the other end of the world, is shrouded beneath the iron 

 desolation of the polar night. 



In the late afternoon of the 5th we reached the quaint 

 old-fashioned little town of Sao Luis de Caceres, on the 

 outermost fringe of the settled region of the state of 

 Matto Grosso, the last town we should see before reach- 

 ing the villages of the Amazon. As we approached we 

 passed half-clad black washerwomen on the river's edge. 

 The men, with the local band, were gathered at the 

 steeply sloping foot of the main street, where the steamer 

 came to her moorings. Groups of women and girls, 

 white and brown, watched us from the low bluff; their 

 skirts and bodices were red, blue, green, of all colors, 

 Sigg had gone ahead with much of the baggage ; he met 

 us in an improvised motor-boat, consisting of a dugout 

 to the side of which he had clamped our Evinrude mo- 

 tor ; he was giving several of the local citizens of promi- 

 nence a ride, to their huge enjo5mient. The streets of 

 the little town were unpaved, with narrow brick side- 



