SAVAGE LIFE IN SOUTH AMERICA. 547 



used for blocks and bushings, is so full of resinous matter that it 

 will burn like a candle. 



Among the useful plants is the caraguatd, of the family of the 

 Bromeliacece, which grows generally within the range of the for- 

 ests, and from which the Indian obtains a strong fiber useful for 

 many domestic purposes. It is said to be the fiber known to 

 European manufacturers as Batista Anana. The caraguatd has 

 also a faculty of catching and retaining water, whereby the 

 Indians are afforded means of slaking their thirst in seasons of 

 drought. Among a hundred edible wild fruits may be named the 

 cliaftar ; the vinal; the guaydbo, a fine fruit; the ubagay, a pas- 

 sion-flower, which gives a large but rather insipid fruit ; and the 

 tnanduvira, a wild almond. Several Lacteas produce a fine fruit, 

 and the woods are full of the wild pineapple. 



The exploitation of the timber industry has occupied several 

 thousand people, and has been the means of reducing to a quasi- 

 civilization many hundreds of the aborigines. This has led to 

 the development of the Austral Chaco along the borders of the 

 Parana, where are now many small towns and large agricultural 

 colonies, prosperous beyond their own hopes, and connected by 

 rail and telegraph. Two of these colonies are owned by English- 

 men ; and the word of the proprietor of one of them is given that 

 the Indians are of the best laborers, being the most docile and 

 steady, although a trifle more indolent than the civilized work- 

 men. As I continued my ascent of the Bermejo, with but little 

 other interruption than was occasioned by the draught of my ves- 

 sel, I always found large masses of Indians at the low passes, 

 which are indeed their fishing-grounds ; at these points, which 

 were numerous in the upper Teuco, they would wait, evidently in 

 expectation of some catastrophe or something giving them a 

 chance to make an attack. They were usually on these occasions 

 made up with their war-paint, and many of them decorated with 

 ostrich-feathers, but they generally kept their arms out of sight, 

 though doubtless handily within reach ; and they would come to 

 us with articles for barter, consisting of dried fish, necklaces, a 

 few bows and arrows and war-clubs, the skins of wild animals, 

 and the animals themselves. I was never attacked, though often 

 threatened. 



It is a safe prediction that this region has a great future, pos- 

 sessing as it does an equable climate, tempered by the prevailing 

 southeast and southwest winds, with just enough of the warm 

 and relaxing weather to give a zest to the enjoyment of the other 

 kind and stimulate vegetable growth ; a climate which through- 

 out the whole extent of its territories suits admirably the sons of 

 southern Italy, and in its southern section has been proved to suit 

 the hardier men of England and the United States. The soil is 



