THE LAST DAY’S FISHING. 103 
long passed oat of the divine fretfulness of 
youth, when every second not spent in actual 
fishing is an agony, it was very pleasant to rest 
after killing a fish, and to admire the easy and 
long casting of my companion, and to watch the 
river, with its abundant and exotic bird life. 
And indeed you want three in the canoe if you 
are out for big dorado : one to fish, one to gaff 
and one to paddle. I can assure you that it is 
one man’s job gaffing a forty pound dorado and 
then getting him into a cranky canoe : if you 
had to manage the rod as well it would be a 
longer and much riskier performance; whilst if 
the paddler is to gaff, he must either run you 
ashore or drop his paddle, the first of which 
may be excessively dangerous for the fish, and 
the second for you. No, we suffered no dis¬ 
advantage ; we worked admirably together; and 
we never lost a fish at which we had a chance 
with the gaff. 
It was five in the morning when we left the 
launch and paddled up to our destination. If 
anyone who reads this ever goes to the Alto- 
Parana—and any fisherman who gets the 
chance of going and does not go will regret it 
all his life—-let him on no account miss La 
Cueva del Toro, the Cave of the Bull. How is 
he to find it ? Why, easily : there is no one who 
navigates the Alto-Parana in all the three 
hundred miles which lie between Posadas and 
Puerto Mendez who does not know it. Ask 
