Paraná River

“ Above the falls, the Paraná is 4,500 yards wide, from which it suddenly contracts between granite walls 70 to 80 yards apart. Into this pass the water rushes with such tremendous fury, that clouds of spray arise and fall in perpetual rain over the neighborhood; the roar is such that no other sound can be heard, and the listener is made deaf by the thunder; even the very earth trembles, so that it has become desolate.
The Uruguay, a great river by itself, is almost insignificant in comparison. ”

“ At Corrientes the Parana abruptly diverges to the east, marking the northern boundary of Argentine territory, and separating the latter from Paraguay. From the river the port presents a spectacle of groups of rocks of some beauty, and of palms and orange-trees growing close to the water's edge. Beyond the foliage are seen the belfries of several churches built after the prevailing fashion. ”

“ After the Parana and the Amazon, it is the largest waterway in South America, and, for the volume of water it carries into the ocean, it ranks with the Mississippi, the Congo, Yang-tse-Kiang, and the Brahmaputra. Well have the natives of the lands through which it flows named it the Great River—for it is great in every way—great in the immense basin it drains; great in the tribute it carries to the ocean, and great in the number and magnitude of the rivers it counts among its affluents from the distant Cordilleras. ”

“ There is a strip of lowland along the coast that is subtropical, being low, flat and marshy. On these marsh lands rice has been very successfully cultivated during the past few years. West of the coast range of mountains the climate is more temperate, and there are some fine plateaus that extend as far as the Paraná River on the western boundary.
CUTTING RICE WITH AN AMERICAN HARVESTER.
Paranaguá is a thriving town of ten thousand or more, and has one of the finest harbours on the coast. ”

“ The latter word, also written Nembucu, is the name of a large estero lying to the east of the Paraguay, and it is translated " palavra larga," — a long word, possibly from the extent of the swamp. Between El Pilar and the Parana river, the surface of 7 to 8 Paraguayan leagues,* forming the Guazucua Department, is said to be all mud and water. The distance from Humaita is computed at fifteen miles along the land road, and seven leagues by the river. Between El Pilar and the Estancia de Yacare, where the Brazilian headquarters now are, is a seven- league march. ”

“ On the western side of the Atlantic ridge the country forms a series of ridges, or plateaus, making, as some one has characterized it, a colossal stairway. These sudden drops make many fine waterfalls as the waters rush onward toward the Paraná River. The states of São Paulo and Paraná are especially rich in these cascades and rapids, and thus furnish unlimited water power awaiting development. They [9] are no less interesting to the tourist, for nothing in nature is more interesting or fascinating than a fine waterfall, where the waters rush headlong in their precipitous course. ”

“ The Parana is a considerable river before it enters the Spanish territories, and after passing the frontiers of Brazil in about 24° 40' it flows in a south-west course through the colonies of the Jesuits, in a country of incomparable fertility and of a delightful aspect. It seldom overflows its banks, owing to the breadth and depth of its channel, and it is much more rapid than the Paraguay as it flows from higher ground: at its junction with the Paraguay it is nearly two miles broad, and incloses innumerable islands, which are overflowed in the annual inundations ”

“ The Parana and the Paraguay, together, are known to be navigable to Assumption, which is fifteen hundred miles above Buenos Ayres, to vessels drawing nine feet water, and there is every reason to believe that both those rivers might be navigated a thousand miles higher by iron steamers, such as those recently built at Birkenhead, by order of the East India Company, for the navigation of the Indus and the Sutlej, the former of which, when carrying guns and troops, draw only four feet water, the latter of which, when loaded in the same manner, not more than two and a half. ”

“ October 16th.—Some leagues below Rozario, the western shore of the Parana is bounded by perpendicular cliffs, which extend in a long line to below San Nicolas; hence it more resembles a sea-coast than that of a fresh-water river. It is a great drawback to the scenery of the Parana, that, from the soft nature of its banks, the water is very muddy. The Uruguay, flowing through a granitic country, is much clearer; and where the two channels unite at the head of the Plata, the waters may for a long distance be distinguished by their black and red colours. ”

“ Its principal tributaries afterwards are the Gualeguaychú, from the province of Entre Rios, and the Negro, the largest river of the Banda Oriental, soon after the junction of which it falls into the Plata with the Paranã, in about 34° south latitude. Flowing through a country the geological formation of which totally differs from that through which the Paraguay takes its course, its navigation is broken by many reefs and falls, only passable when the waters are at their highest, during the periodical foods, or by portages in the dry season. ”

“ South of its confluence with the river Paraguay, the Paraná washes the western foot of a series of sandstone bluffs for 30 miles.Thence for 240 m. the bordering hills are about 80 ft. high, but at Goya the country is almost on a level with the river. Near the boundary-line between Corrientes and Entre Rios the banks are very low on South-easterly Course of Paraná. both sides of the river, and continue so for nearly 100 m.; but farther down, for 150 m., the left bank is margined, as far as Diamante, by a range of hills from 125 to 160 ft. high, at times boldly escarped. ”

“ Europeans have been in the habit of looking on Buenos Ayres and Monte Video as the sole ports fitted for foreign commerce in the states of La Plata, whereas there is no doubt that the best ports are in the river Parana itself, which affords excellent positions for depôts of produce, and for loading or discharging vessels. Many such ports exist on the banks, not only of the Parana, but of the rivers Uruguay and Paraguay. In the Parana there is deep water, generally from five to twenty, and sometimes forty, fathoms, with good anchorage. ”

“ Thence its huge volume of water, further augmented by the Uruguay, rolls to the ocean, forming that wide fresh water sea known as the estuary of the Plate. The Parana runs for nearly 900 miles within the limits of the Argentine Republic, and of this 204distance quite 750 are navigable throughout the whole year for sailing vessels and steamers of 300 tons burden. It begins to rise owing to intertropical rains towards the end of December, and this continues up to the close of April. Below its confluence with the Paraguay the average rise is eleven to twelve feet. ”

“ SE. of Buenos Ayres city; rapidly built, it has continued to grow, and has now some handsome buildings, a college, and cotton and woollen manufactures; a canal connects it with the La Plata River.
La Plata River, a broad estuary in South America, from 28 to 140 m. broad and 200 m. long, with Uruguay on the N. and the Argentine Republic on the S., through which the Uruguay and Paraná rivers pour into the Atlantic; it is much exposed to storms; its best harbour is at Monte Video. ”

“ The river system of Argentina, which is perhaps the most remarkable physical feature of the country, next demands our attention. All the Argentine rivers find their way into the Atlantic, but all are insignificant compared with the marvellous confluence of mighty streams in the Plate estuary. The Parana rises in far-away Brazilian mountains, and is already a noble stream when it reaches the north-eastern confines of Paraguay. ”

“ Paraná is also the western terminus of a provincial railway system, which connects with Concepción and Concordia, on the Uruguay river, and with other important towns of the province. The mean annual temperature is about 66° F. and the climate is bracing and healthful. Its port of Bajada Grande, on the river shore below the bluffs, has the custom-house and a fine wharf for the accommodation of the Entre Rios railway and river craft. Paraná was founded in 1730 by colonists from Santa Fé and was at first known as Bajada (a landing place) . ”

“ Parana abandoned by the Caravan Government, 256
Parana river, dangerous for navigation, 250
Parana river, its chief lines of navigation, 224 ; geographical glance at the, 249 ; memorable flood of the, 415
Parsons, Captain, favourable impressions of, 330
Paseo de Julio, uneducated inhabitants of, 159
Paso la Patria abandoned by Lopez, 301
Paso Pucu, an important central point of the war, 357
Passenger steamer, foul play suspected to a, 135
Passengers' lives in the hands of drunken sailors, 406
Paysandu, population of, 209 ”

“ The river was now a really big river, and it seemed impossible that it could flow either into the Gy-Paraná or the Tapajos. It was possible that it went into the Canumá, a big affluent of the Madeira low down, and next to the Tapajos. It was more probable that it was the headwaters of the Aripuanan, a river which, as I have said, was not even named on the excellent English map of Brazil I carried. Nothing but the mouth had been known to any geographer ”

“ From Paraguay to the city of Rosario, islands are numerous, many of them of great area; and again below Rosario they soon increase in number and size until the Plata estuary is reached. Islands of Paraná. In flood-time the upper portion of the trees being out of water, they have the appearance of floating forests. Then the river often makes wild work with its banks, and builds up or sweeps away entire islands, leaving deep channels instead. Mouchez in 1857, searching for two islands the position of which he had fixed in the previous year, found in their place 25 and 32 ft. ”

“ The natural resources of the great valleys of the Parana, Paraguay, and Uruguay, merely require to be developed by the same means to make Monte Video and Buenos Ayres as flourishing as New Orleans, and to make the commerce of the River Plate rival that of the Mississippi. ”

“ The Igara Parana runs into the Issa where that river makes a horse-shoe bend, [11] the junction being on the inner side of the horse-shoe. The breadth of the stream at its mouth is 161 metres. The water is clearer than that of the Issa, and the current slower, never more than 3 miles an hour. Some 220 miles upstream there is an important waterfall, known as La Chorrera, or the Big Falls. The Igara Parana becomes vary narrow and most tortuous as it nears them, and is only 30 metres wide at its exit from Big Falls Bay. ”

“ In its general aspect the province forms a part of the great treeless plain extending from the Atlantic and La Plata estuary westward to the Andes. A fringe of small tangled wood covers the low river banks and delta region of the Paraná between San Nicolas and Buenos Aires; thence southward to Bahia Blanca the sea-shore is low and sandy, with a zone of lagoons and partially submerged lands immediately behind. The south-eastern and central parts of the province are low and marshy, and their effective drainage has long been an urgent problem. ”

“ Proceeding up the Paraguay River from its junction with the Alta Paraná it is about two hundred miles to Asuncion. The river twists around over its wide bed in a very capricious manner, and in flood times spreads over thousands of square miles of the llanos, or plains. One can travel several hundred miles farther by small steamers up into the great state of Matto Grosso, Brazil, which is twice as large as Texas, and perhaps of equal fertility. The unoccupied grazing lands of that state will, some day, support millions of cattle that will be demanded by earth’s teeming millions. ”

“ The Paraguai, or Rio de la Plata, arises between 5° and 6° S. latitude nearly in the middle between the two oceans, and in the same mountains whence the Madera comes, which empties itself into the river of Amazons. The Parana and Uraguai arise both in the Brasils; the Uraguai in the captainship of St. Vincent; the Parana near the Atlantic ocean, in the mountains that lie to the E. N. E. of Rio Janeiro, whence it 17takes its course to the westward, and afterwards turns south. ”

“ The river is never at low-water over its whole course. The real profile is always varied by slight movements of flood and ebb.
123 Observations of the sediment held in the water have been made at Campana, 32 miles from the estuary. At this point the Paraná only holds in suspension fine particles of clay, but sand travels slowly along its bed. The weight of the clay in suspension varies from 179 grammes per cubic metre in March during the flood, to 42 grammes at low-water in July. The stuff mostly comes from the Bermejo, which carries 5 kilogrammes of sediment per cubic metre. ”

“ It is about 680 m. long, but only navigable in the stretches between the many reefs, falls and rapids which interrupt its regular flow. Among its numerous affluents the principal one is the Rio das Mortes, rising in the Serra Mantiqueira. It is 180 m. long, with two sections, of a total of 120 m., which are navigable for launches. The main branch of the Paraná, the Paranáhyba, rises in about 15° 30′ S., on the southern slopes of the Pyreneos Mountains. It drains a little-known region of Goyaz and western Minas Geraes, lying upon the immediate southern watershed of Brazil. ”