Walter Goodfellow—Some Reminiscences of a Collector 415


like two distinct countries : the high Andean region called the Alti

Plano, which contains all the towns of any importance ; and the vast

Eastern province, all low lying and exceedingly unhealthy, stretching

right away to the Amazon. Few people know or ever visit this part,

and I see a writer who was recently there has called it the “ Green

Hell ”, Bolivia. It is mainly unexplored and inhabited by wild Indian

tribes, most of them very savage. The greater part is primeval forest

with some scrubby pampa.


The Plate River is not interesting, but when one reaches the

Argentine town of Corrientes the river takes a sharp bend to the right,

and from thereon is called the Parana, while directly in front is the

narrower Rio Paraguay. It is here where the interest begins, as from

now on one sees alligators in ever-increasing numbers daily. These

are not in hundreds, but thousands, a sight such as I had never met

with in any other part of the world and had not imagined could exist

in these days. Where the banks were narrow, they were practically

on the top of each other, never troubling to enter the water as the

steamer passed, if anything going higher up to escape the wash. The

banks are low and the country flat, so an extensive view is to be had

on both sides. In the wet season the river overflows its banks, leaving

lake-like expanses of water which gradually dry up. Around these

the alligators lie in thousands, and it was a common sight to see cattle

standing about among them, also hosts of Tree Ducks, Herons, Roseate

Spoonbills, and many other species of wading birds. This breed of

alligators seems to be comparatively harmless for reasons I do not

understand. Several times I saw fishermen standing in the water quite

near to huge specimens. Just before we reached Asuncion, the capital

of Paraguay, I noticed a small beach on the outskirts of the city,

on which a number were sunning themselves, so after we landed I lost

no time in finding my way there. I sat down and watched them for

some time, and then went forward to see how near they would let

me approach them. This was 8 feet before the nearest moved off

to the water. Farther up the river it was no uncommon sight to see

some basking in the sun with mouths wide open and almost obscured

by clouds of butterflies attracted to them. One could write pages on

these reptiles alone, and later I had much to do with them in Bolivia,



