CHAPTER XII. 
THE RIVER OF MISFORTUNE. 
The Alto-Parana runs in its upper course 
through a deep valley, and here it is joined by 
many tributaries. Nearly all of these, flowing 
as they do from a high plateau, have falls not 
far from their junction. Fish run up and lie 
at the foot of these falls, and such rivers afford 
good fishing. Such a tributary is the Iguazu, 
with its famous falls : and not far below its 
mouth, but on the Paraguay bank, another 
lesser river flows into the Parana. It is 
seventy or eighty yards wide, small by South 
American standards, though big by ours. Its 
falls are some way inland; we never saw them, 
though their thunder got louder and louder. 
The river is slow and sluggish at its mouth, 
but as you progress it becomes faster, until, 
two or three miles up, you can get the canoe 
no further. Here there is typical dorado water, 
racing rapids, rocks and tumbled streams. 
It was on the 17th of October that we 
anchored off its mouth. It was a steamy 
evening after rain, the air full of intolerable 
