The day before reaching Corumbá we passed an interesting old landmark. It is the fort of Coimbra, built on a rocky hillside with a cluster of thatch-roofed huts nestling against the base. As Coimbra is near the Bolivian border, the fort figured prominently in several of the bloody controversies of bygone years between the neighboring republics. CHAPTER XIV HUNTING EXCURSIONS ALONG THE UPPER PARAGUAY Corumbá is a very hot, dusty town built on a high, rocky elevation on the west bank of the Paraguay. The settlement bears the unenviable reputation of being the rendezvous for fugitives from justice from many climates, but we saw nothing of the lawlessness and disorder said to prevail, and the treatment we received was all that could be desired. The heat at midday was great, but frequently a breeze came up at night. Rows of low, spreading mimosa-trees lined some of the streets and cast a welcome shade; their branches were covered with clumps of gorgeous scarlet flowers. A railroad in course of construction will soon connect Corumbá with Rio de Janeiro. There is also a cart trail leading through the heart of the chaco to Santa Cruz, Bolivia; to travel over it is a difficult undertaking, the ox-drawn carts requiring a minimum of thirty days for the trip. During the rainy season a large part of the country is inundated, when the caravans must, of course, suspend their activity. I met two men who had made this journey but a short time before. One night a party of Indians attacked and killed all the members of a caravan, stopping only a half-mile distant from the spot where one of these men and his family had made their camp. The tribes along this route are the Penoquies, Guaranokas, and Potoreras, and they are said to be of a treacherous, hostile disposition. As there was little zoological work to be done in the immediate vicinity of Corumbá, we moved to a place called Urucúm, about nine miles away. The road lay through scrub growth and forest, and was all but impassable on account of the deep mud and rocks. Numbers of native cabins are scattered along the wayside; some of the occupants conduct dairy-farms, and the cows carry bells tied to the tips of their horns.