Paraná

“ 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) . ”

“ WRECK OF THE OLD CATHEDRAL.
boundary line between the republic of that name and the Argentine Republic, the River Plate is known as the Parana, and is so called as far as its source, which lies not far from that of the Amazon in the interior of Brazil, and is fed through a thousand channels by the rains of the tropics and{632} the melting snows of the Cordilleras. The Parana flows for one thousand two hundred miles through a country—the interior of Brazil—that has never been explored, and is inhabited by a race of savages who have so far resisted all attempts to invade their domain. ”

“ Green parrots screamed in and out of the orange-groves, the fruit of which was green in color even when ripe and of rather acid taste. Across the Paraná, as wide as the Hudson, Posadas, in the Argentine, lay banked up on the sloping opposite shore, in plain sight from any part of the town.
Life is free and easy in Paraguay, close to nature. Its women, in their loose gowns and bare feet, very erect from the practice of carrying loads on their heads from childhood, have a childlike simplicity, as well as an extremely graceful carriage. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is one of the largest cities south of São Paulo, and is situated at an altitude of 2,500 feet above sea level, thus giving it a pleasant and equable temperature. The city is comparatively modern with the usual public buildings of a capital, plazas filled with shrubbery and flowers, and a Botanical Garden of which the people are very proud.
Paraná is a rich state in natural resources. It was formerly united with São Paulo as one province, and the original inhabitants have many of the same qualities as the Paulistas. ”

“ At the present time it is difficult of access, because it is reached by ascending the Rio de la Plata and Paraná River, a journey of almost two weeks, or by a several days’ journey overland from Ponta Grossa, in the state of Paraná. Some day, when the means of communication become better, it will no doubt be visited by thousands of people each season. It still remains in all its primitive beauty, for the hand of man has as yet done nothing to detract from or add to what nature herself created. ”

“ The Parana river takes to the sea a greater volume of water than our great Mississippi. Near the place where the Iguassu river empties into the Parana are the famous Iguassu Falls which are twice as wide and fifty feet higher than Niagara Falls.
In the eastern part of Paraguay are great orange groves and all kinds of tropical fruits. The oranges are delicious and are so plentiful that they are fed to the pigs. As many as thirty are sometimes sold for a penny. Wheat and corn are grown and tobacco and cotton plantations are numerous. ”

“ My sympathies are with the Brazil, as far at least as her " mission" is literally, not liberally, to unlock the great Southern Mississippi; to “keep open and develop the magnificent water system of the Paraguay-Parana-Plate,” and to sweep away from the shores of its main arteries the Guardias and Piquetes, the batteries and the ridiculous little stockades which served to keep its waters comparatively desert, and to convert a highway belonging to the world into a mere monopoly of Paraguay. ”

“ Twenty hours later the Republica arrives at Parana, a handsome city, formerly the capital of the confederation. The removal of the seat of government to Buenos Ayres was a great blow to the prosperity of the old capital. Once the diplomatic corps had their residences there. The climate of the place is delicious, and under its balmy influence the orange tree flourishes in the open air and bears fruit of exquisite flavor. The country around Parana is very picturesque, and the town itself, though since it has ceased to be the Argentine capital it presents an appearance of emptiness, is very gay. ”

“ Many affluents are received from the States of São Paulo and Paraná, these generally flowing northwest or west; the Paraná itself flows southwest forming the western boundary of those States. A branch, the Tiété, in São Paulo, 700 miles long, is broken by 54 rapids and two falls. The Paranapanema in Paraná, 600 miles long, is navigable for 30 miles. The Iguassú, rising in the Serra do Mar in Santa Catharina and flowing west is hardly navigable for canoes. ”

“ It has passed in population Paraná and now has 48,500 inhabitants according to the latest estimate. It is the largest and liveliest town in Argentina east of the Paraná River and is connected by a bridge over the Uruguay River to Salto in Uruguay, which was only contemplated at the time of my visit to these cities three years before. A street-car line has been recently built and with its beef-canning establishments and as the center of a wine producing region, Concordia has some future, although the soil is sandy. This soil is much better adapted for fruit than for grain. ”

“ The immense pines of the Paraná, with straight trunks and wide, flattened crests, whose shape is rather reminiscent of that of a candelabrum with seven branches, cover with their sombre grey the wooded portions of the plateau from the Paranápanema to beyond the Uruguay. With their open foliage, pervious to the light, these woods resemble the pinewoods of Europe.
"To find the tropical forest once more we must push as far as the Serra Geral, whose southern slopes run down towards the prairies of Rio Grande, as on the east they descend towards the sea. ”

“ This territory is bounded on the North-East and South by Brazil, and on the West by Paraguay and the Province of Corrientes. It is sandwiched in between the rivers Paraná and Uruguay, but a very much smaller Paraná and Uruguay than we have seen further south.
Many parts of Argentina have been described as “The Garden of the Republic,” and many as its most picturesque region, but the latter description can surely only truthfully [201] apply to Misiones. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In this departure from the retired hamlet of Mbuyapey our traveler falls into the great highway that passes through the Missiones between Asuncion and Encarnacion on the Parana, in the south-eastern corner of Paraguay. It includes in its extent the towns and villages of Jesus, Yuti, Ibicuy, Quindi, Carapegua and Paraguari. The road presents a busy scene, for it is along this route that the troperos drive their herds of cattle obtained from the Argentine province of Corrientes, on the other side of the Parana. These drovers are free livers, and they spend their money lavishly in the villages. ”

“ From this centre Spanish adventurers pushed east to La Guayra, beyond the Paraná, and west into the Gran Chaco; and before long vast numbers of the less warlike natives were reduced to serfdom. The name Paraguay was applied not only to the country between the Paraguay and the Paraná, but to the whole Spanish territory, which now comprises parts of Brazil, Uruguay and the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, Entre Rios, Corrientes, Misiones, and part of Santa Fé. ”

“ A very important export, rather forestal than agricultural is called in Portuguese herva matte, the yerba mate of Spanish. Paraná is its special home where it grows wild in the forests, straying over into the neighboring States of Matto Grosso, São Paulo, Santa Catharina, and Rio Grande do Sul, and being native as we have seen to Paraguay, and to Misiones in Argentina. The trees or shrubs often grow in sections with the tall Paraná pines, the tree with the candelabra top, which is not only an ornament to the landscape but supplies good lumber, and pine kernels as large as chestnuts. ”

“ It is not easy to treat of the topography and geography of Paraguay. Some portions, — for instance, the Paraguay river and the Parana to the parallel of Villa Rica, and even to the rapids of La Guayra — have for three centuries been travelled over and surveyed. ”

“ The fine clays, grey and white, which form the soil of the Chaco, reach the left bank north of Corrientes, in the esteros of Neembucu. The red sandstone hills of the Asunción district rise like an archipelago out of this level bed of lacustrine deposits.
There is no obstacle to navigation in the entire stretch from Posadas to the falls of the Guayra on the Paraná and the Salto Grande on the Yguassa. Sixteen miles below Posadas the Paraná passes through a series of graduated rapids for about sixty miles (1,467 kil. to 1,558 kil. from Buenos Aires) wrongly called the Salto de Apipé. ”

“ Manual labour on the obrajes—The land of the bañados and the agricultural cantons of Corrientes—The timber-yards of the Chaco and the tannic-acid works of the Paraná—The exploitation of the maté—The forestry industry and colonization.
From the Andes of Tucumán and Salta to the banks of the upper Paraná in the province of Misiones the north of Argentina is now a vast timber-yard for the exploitation of the forests. It resounds everywhere with the axe. This exploitation of the forest is of early origin on the river; in the eighteenth century Buenos Aires was supplied with wood from the Paraná. ”

“ Las Corrientes, near the confluence of the Parana and Paraguay, on the east bank of the La Plata, 100 leagues north of Santa Fé and 250 of Buenos Ayres, is a small town well situated for the trade between Paraguay, Peru and Buenos Ayres. It contains a church, three convents, and a small population, who are formed into a militia, to defend the place against the Indians. This city is in 27° 32' south latitude, and 57° 50' west longitude. The trade carried on from this place with the capital is by means of the river, in fine tobacco, sugar, yellow wax, Paraguay tea, cotton, cloth and thread. ”

“ Although the banks of the wide Paraná are too distant and too flat to afford much scenic beauty, there is some interest in calling at various cities along the way, and in noting the gradual change from a temperate to a tropical clime, with the variation in verdure and animal life, especially of birds; higher up between narrowing shores or islands are fascinating stretches of forest, interspersed with pretty pastoral scenes. ”

“ Villa Encarnación, population 15,000 or less, opposite Posadas, is another city of commercial importance, as the junction of the railway ferry and of river transportation. Here there is a change of river boats, those of lighter draft being required for the Upper Paraná. ”

“ The chief rivers are the Paraná and its tributary the Salado. The climate is not unhealthful, and the rainfall is sufficient. The agricultural lands are found chiefly along the Paraná, where large plantations are situated. ”

“ The Tres Barras yards operate with the Paraná pine for which the southern States of Brazil are famous, ship it to many other parts of the Brazilian Union, and in 1915 arranged to supply Argentina alone with forty million feet a year.
S. Francisco port has entered upon a new life since the lumber business has been flourishing; a double row of settlements has sprung up beside the track of the railroad and agriculture is showing development in a region that has been steadily if slowly settled by the descendants of the early colony of Joinville. ”

“ For the middle and upper Paraná, Repossini estimated the volume of the traffic at 800,000 tons, of which quebracho was two-fifths.
The navigation of the Paraná is one of the chief sources of the prosperity of Buenos Aires. ”

“ I trust that I shall be forgiven if in this book, as well as elsewhere, I have taken the liberty of applying a single name, which has nothing about it so strange as that it should not long since have come into use.
39 The Paranà, with its great tributary the Paraguay, drains an area of more than 1,100,000 square miles; the basin of the Uruguay is reckoned at 153,000 square miles. ”

“ On the western side these highlands terminate with a more or less sharply defined edge, the country sloping gradually up to their bases in gentle undulations with open, ill-defined valleys; on the eastern side they send out broad spurs enclosing deep-cut valleys, and the whole country retains more of an upland character. The tributaries that flow westward to the Paraguay are consequently to some extent navigable, while those that run eastward to the Parana are interrupted by rapids and falls, often of a formidable description. ”