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Entre Rios to Villa Montes. 
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Leaving Entre Rios,the road climbs into the hills 
to the northeast and from there on to the Pilcomayo 
river it winds in and out and up and down through 
lov/ broken ranges of mountains which run more or 
less in a north and south direction. These mountains 
are all rather heavily wooded and average from 5 to 
6,000 feet in altitude,! should say,though I took no 
aneroid readings. At this time most of the vegetation 
was without leaves, except in the bottom of the valleys] 
There is very little water in this whole sector(a 
distance of 155 kilometers),about three places on 
the road where small creeks of running water were 
present,at all of which were small settlements and 
military posts,the largest being at Canadas and 
Palos Blancos. The latter place is in a large ,nearl; 
level plain,surrounded by low.mountains and the 
trees are mostly rather low and tangles thorn scrub, 
the trees on the slopes of the mountains being 
always taller and with less undergrowth. 
We left Palos Blancos about 4 P.M.,but lost 
over an hour on the road repairing a brake drum and 
did not reach the Pilcomayo river until long after 
dark. The valley of the Pilcomayo is narrow and 
for most part precipituous,with manj'’ cliffs of 
imposing heighth with the road construction very 
heavy through that section. The river was muddy and 
slightly swollen from recent rains up in the mountain 
"'^e reached Villa Montes at 11 P."' 
Villa Montes . (alt. 2,000 feet) 
The ptesent town of Villa Montes was formerly known 
as San Erancisco (before the war),with the portion on 
the south side of the Pilcomayo river knows as San 
Antonio. The altitude(according to my instrument) was 
2,000 feet.,which is probably not far from correct. 
The town lies in a horseshoe shaped plain,with hills 
encircling it on the north eide and also hills running 
down parallell to river on south side of river. The 
mountains(running north and south) rise abruptly about 
three miles or less behind it(to west) and the 
■'^ilcomayo river has cut its way through this high 
range. There is much cleared land to v/est of town 
(mostly a flying field) and also a large area to the 
east,which has considerable low shrubbery. This area 
extends from rivei' across to hills to north. 
About a mile west of the town begin the foothills 
which extend back about two miles to the base of the 
main high range. These foothills are heavily wooded, 
