CHAPTER XVIII 
DOWNSTREAM. 
It was a sad moment when our journey down¬ 
stream began, but time was getting short, and 
there was still a visit to Asuncion, and the 
shooting trip to fit in, as well as a few weeks 
at an estancia in Uruguay, before we sailed for 
England. 
We had been fishing our way down the river, 
in leisurely fashion, but meant now to travel in 
real earnest. We had dropped down the river 
overnight, to a sheltered bay, where a spit of 
rocks and sand thrust itself out into the main 
rush of water. Behind that was calm water, 
with sloping banks of white sand, and at this 
place there was a wider margin than usual 
between the mont£ and the river. A small 
tributary, with tangled banks, wound through 
the thick undergrowth to flow into the bay : and 
very early that morning we pushed our way up 
it, hoping to get some shooting. 
It was just dawn when we started. The 
Irishman, with a hunter and his dog, whom we 
had taken on board the night before, had been 
