DOWNSTREAM. 
159 
terrible to the Irishman, whose protests as to 
the lashings of disinfectants he had used were 
swept aside. It was now a question of where 
on earth to put it, till the shooting trip was 
over and it could be retrieved. Then it struck 
us that perhaps Jerman, whose home was in 
Posadas, might not object to giving it 
shelter. c Why not?’ he said cheerfully, 
when approached on the subject, and went off 
humming, with it over his shoulder, the skin 
cleaving a ready way for him down the street. 
More than likely, another smell or two made 
little difference in the atmosphere of Jerman’s 
house. 
It was from Posadas, a few days later, that 
we started by train for Asuncion, the capital of 
Paraguay. Our railway carriage was hitched 
on to the mail train, and we crossed the Parand 
early in the morning by ferry, in two sections, 
and landed in Paraguay, where we started 
afresh on another line. It was warm and 
pleasant sitting out at the back of our carriage, 
watching everything we passed. It is a 
beautiful country of open grass spaces, and 
groups of trees, reminiscent of private parks 
in England. Oranges everywhere, each tiny 
rancho being surrounded by trees, and little 
patches of maize and tobacco. Wild flowers 
grew in profusion, and bushes of the scented 
Paraguayan jasmine, with its two coloured 
flowers of blue and mauve. For the most part 
