162 
THE GOLDEN RIVER. 
Why be in a hurry? The sun is hot, and fruit 
and tobacco are plentiful. Everyone, both men 
and women, smoke cigars and always have one 
in their mouths. I conclude the girls remove 
them before being kissed, but I had no oppor¬ 
tunity of finding out. The market was full of 
fruit and vegetables, parrots and macaws, and 
many birds strange to us. We explored the 
cobbled streets of the town thoroughly, saw the 
unfinished red cathedral that Lopez built for 
his intended coronation; drove out into the 
country round, clinging precariously to our 
seats, and shuddering at the huge nets of 
spiders that clung to every telegraph post. The 
spiders seem to live in colonies, in great cocoons, 
moored to the posts with thick cables of web. 
At dusk they wake to a horrible activity, prey¬ 
ing on the moths and insects attracted by the 
lamps. 
We were sorry when the time came to leave 
this picturesque country : but the men of our 
party were going for a shooting expedition into 
the Chaco, and we had decided to go back to 
Montevideo and wait for them at the estancia, 
making our way back to Posadas and so to 
Concordia, where we should cross the river 
Uruguay to Salto, and thence a night’s journey 
to Montevideo. 
