58 UP THE PARAGUAY [chap, n 



ibis ; at the same time we saw behind them, farther 

 inland, other trees crowded with the more delicate 

 forms of the shining white egrets. 



The river now widened, so that in places it looked 

 hke a long lake ; it wound in every direction through 

 the endless marshy plain, whose surface was broken 

 here and there by low mountaiQS. The splendour of 

 the sunset I never saw surpassed. We were steaming 

 east toward clouds of storm. The river ran, a broad 

 highway of molten gold, into the flaming sky ; the far- 

 off mountains loomed purple across the marshes ; belts 

 of rich green, the river-banks stood out on either side 

 against the rose hues of the rippling water ; in front, as 

 we forged steadily onward, hung the tropic night, dim 

 and vast. 



On December 15 we reached Corumba. For three 

 or four miles before it is reached, the west bank, on 

 which it stands, becomes high rocky ground, falling 

 away into cliffs. The country round about was evi- 

 dently well peopled. We saw gauchos, cattle-herders — 

 the equivalent of our own cowboys — riding along the 

 bank. Women were washing clothes, and their naked 

 children bathing on the shore — we were told that cay- 

 mans and piranhas rarely ventured near a place where 

 so much was going on, and that accidents generally 

 occurred in ponds or lonely stretches of the river. 

 Several steamers came out to meet us, and accom- 

 panied us for a dozen miles, with bands playing and the 

 passengers cheering, just as if we were nearing some 

 town on the Hudson. 



Corumba is on a steep hillside, with wide, roughly- 

 paved streets, some of them lined with beautiful trees 

 that bear scarlet flowers, and with well-built houses, 

 most of them of one story, some of two or three stories. 



