92 
THE GOLDEN RIVER. 
unbearable without veils, and disagreeable in 
them. But in spite of the glitter and the heat, 
two more great fish were captured out of the 
same stream before the sun sank in a glory of 
gold and flame, and instantaneously the quick 
night was drawn like a curtain across the 
heavens. We paddled back in the sweet sudden 
coolness, the air musical with the merry 
orchestra of the frogs, the surface of the river 
gleaming opal and blue-black; whilst our eye 
constantly sought our two prizes lying in the 
canoe, and lingered lovingly over their breadth 
and colour. They weighed thirty-three and 
a half and thirty-nine and a quarter pounds. 
The total for the day was four fish, which 
averaged thirty-five and a half pounds each. 
Old dorado fishers will smile at the idea of 
four fish being called a good day. Much larger 
numbers are caught, twenty fish a day for two 
rods being nothing unusual. Most of these big 
bags, however, are made below falls, where the 
fish are collected. There are some well-known 
places of this kind on the Uruguay: I believe 
there are similar spots on the Iguazu, below the 
Falls, though I never fished there: there must 
be places at the foot of the Guayra rapids, 
though probably no one has ever penetrated to 
them : and doubtless there are many others. 
But on the stretch of the Alto-Parand which we 
fished, whether it was that we did not hap on 
the right places, or that the fish are scattered, 
