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Paraguay-mirim. This is an arm of the Paraguay, which, termi- 

 nating here, forms an island fourteen leagues in length from north to 

 south: it is the usual channel for canoes in times of inundation. 

 From the mouth of the Paraguay-mirim the river takes a southerly 

 direction to the mouth of the Taquari, navigated annually by flotil- 

 las of canoes and other craft, which come from St. Paul's to Cuiaba, 

 and even as far as the Register of Jauru, when their destination hap^ 

 pens to be Villa Bella. 



As this navigation is an object of great importance, from its con- 

 necting two distinct districts, the following compendious description 

 of the route pursued in it may not prove uninteresting. It is ab- 

 stracted from the diary of a man of science, who performed the 

 journey a few years ago, in the month of October, when the Paraguay 

 begins to retire to its own channel. The description may commence 

 at the Taquari, as the voyage from thence to Cuiaba and the Jauru 

 has already been detailed. The largest of the many mouths of the 

 Taquari in the Paraguay is in lat. 19° 15', and long. 54°. In the first 

 ten leagues of navigation, the channel of the river is lost, as it crosses 

 some large plains, covered with water to the depth of several feet. 

 This is contiguous to Taquari, a place where the river is much con- 

 fined. 



From this place it is twenty leagues to the resting-place of Allegre, 

 in lat. 18° 12', and this space contains, on both banks of the Taquari, 

 many entrances into the paths, which lead in time of the floods to va- 

 rious distant places on the Paraguay, Porrudos, and Cuiaba. From this 

 resting-place there are thirty leagues of navigation, on the course of the 

 rivereast to thefall of Barra, whereitis impeded and unnavigable above 

 II mile, though a part of it may be passed in half-loaded and part in empty 

 canoes. At the head of this fall the river Cochim enters theTaquari,and 

 the navigation here quits the latter for the Cochim. At its mouth it is 

 twenty fathoms broad, and a league upwards receives on its south 

 bank the Taquari-mirim, a river nearly as broad as itself. A little 

 above this confluence is situated its first fall, which is called Da Ilha, 



