THE CHACO. 
16T 
Parana, and when you got through the trees 
which fringed them you found open park-like 
country. 
The features which strike you in the Chaco 
are its flatness, and the wonderful way in which 
wood and plain are mixed together. The 
country looks as though it had been planted. 
You get woods of all sizes, from forests several 
miles long, down to little spinneys, not fifty 
yards across, from which you half expect to 
see a pheasant or a rabbit emerge. What adds 
to their artificial appearance is that the woods 
end abruptly, and do not merge gradually into 
the plain. On the edge of them and scattered 
over the plains, giving its distinct character to 
the district, are the palm groves. The tops of 
the palms are green, but the dead lower leaves 
do not fall off, and hang down, withered 
and yellow, giving the landscape a sun-dried 
tropical appearance. On the other hand, the 
plain, with its bright green grass, studded with 
innumerable flowers, with a brave south wind 
blowing over it, and with patches of water and 
reeds, seems to belong to the temperate regions. 
It is this contrast which sticks in the memory. 
You look across a couple of miles of what might 
be an English hayfield, covered with yellow 
flowers which might be English buttercups, with 
a light wind sweeping and shaking them, and 
at the far side are tropical palms, first a few 
standing out, then a regular grove, with their 
