Geography and Travel. 
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. 
America.— The Gran Chaco.— Capt. J. Page, of the Argentine 
Navy, has in the March issue of the Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc. described 
the Gran Chaco and its rivers, accompanying his description with a 
map. This tract of flat country, lying between the tropic and 29° S., 
extends eastward to the Parana and Paraguay, and westward to the 
province of Santiago del Estero. Its area is 180,000 sq. miles. About 
one-third belongs to Paraguay, and a small part to Bolivia, but the 
bulk is in the Argentine Republic. The Argentinian portion is di- 
vided into two governorships, the Chaco Central, between the Pilco- 
mayo and the Bermejo, and the Chaco Austral. The latter has 
extensive primeval forests, and is watered by many small streams. 
Across the entire Chaco, between 61° and 62° W., extends a depression, 
causing the waters of that part to be discharged into streams that find 
their way into the large river by first flowing away from the sea. The 
Pilcomayo has dark or brownish water, and runs southeast, parallel to 
the Bermejo, at a distance of about 130 .miles. It has never been as- 
cended, and the section between 61° and 62° W. is quite unknown. 
Both the great rivers are obstructed by narrow argillaceous beds, quite 
removable, and by fallen trees of indestructible wood, which fall into 
the river beds through the eating away of the banks beneath them. 
Neither stream receives tributaries throughout the lower and longer 
part of its course, but the impermeability of the subsoil prevents^undue 
absorption of the waters. At a spot close to 22° S. the Pilcomayo's 
main stream, after running due south, turns north, and then again 
southward, yet some minor branches flow tolerably straight on. It is 
here that the river has been lost to explorers. Capt. Page states that 
the expedition commanded by M. Thonar in no way elucidated the 
geography of the river. 
The upper waters of the Pilcomayo are in Bolivia, and it passes 
through the province of Caiza, the Bolivian Chaco, after leaving the 
mountains and before reaching the Argentine territory. The Bermejo, 
so called from the red tint of its waters, is formed by the aggregation 
of a number of small streams rising in the hilly interior of Bolivia and 
Argentina, and at Oran, lat. 23° S., where it receives the Zenta, be- 
