To return to the river. The heat during the summer months is intense, the thermometer usually registering about 90° in the shade. The river continues wide and winding as it passes the Grand Chaco on the one side and the wooded plains on the other. The banks in places are straight as an even wall, and from the steamer look like embankments of masonry. The continual wash from the traffic that plies upon the river has its effect, however, shown by the gaps formed by slides and erosions. Endless swamps stretch for miles during the rainy season, and the many trees are only saved from complete submersion by the twisted cables of lianas which hold them firmly together. Flocks of small aquatic birds amidst the network of creepers and branches are silently alert, fishing for a meal. In many places fantastic and exaggerated tree trunks grow from the water’s edge, and grassy plains, barely rising above the river’s surface, extend for miles. Close by the shores alligators bask, with their ugly snouts just above the water, disappearing immediately they are disturbed by the wash from the passing steamers or the approach of small boats and canoes. On both sides of the river, cattle, horses, and ostriches graze in wild freedom upon the meadowland. Mud huts appear at intervals, and natives in dirty white, ragged garments loll under the shade of thatched verandahs. Many of the huts, constructed with the sides and ends of old kerosene tins and bits of packing cases, add a variety to the architectural styles [Illustration: TRAVELLERS ON THE STEAMER.] of these primitive habitations. Canoes with blunt prows and rounded sterns ply from shore to shore, and surround the steamers that come to anchor at a “port.” They carry odd cargoes, curious passengers and their belongings, bundles of many colours, old iron bedsteads and chairs, pots and pans, and household goods and chattels; domestic pets, monkeys, parrots, and dogs, all form part of their mixed freight. Trestle beds are the inseparable impedimenta of the German, Italian, and Spanish labourers, who move about from place to place with the characteristic restlessness of born travellers. These beds serve a double purpose, and are used as holdalls for all their owners’ baggage by day, and as their couches by night, when the fore deck of the steamer is transformed into an open-air dormitory. At Formosa, an important though small town on the Argentine side of the river, a large crowd assembles to witness the arrival and departure of the steamer. Cabs and wagonettes convey the passengers to and from the town, which lies at a little distance from the river bank, and the habitual quietude of the port is disturbed for a few hours or so.