These droughts to a certain degree seem to be almost
periodical; I was told the dates of several others, and the
intervals were about fifteen years.)
OCTOBER 12, 1833.
I had intended to push my excursion farther, but not being quite
well, I was compelled to return by a balandra, or one-masted vessel
of about a hundred tons' burden, which was bound to Buenos Ayres.
As the weather was not fair, we moored early in the day to a branch
of a tree on one of the islands. The Parana is full of islands,
which undergo a constant round of decay and renovation. In the
memory of the master several large ones had disappeared, and others
again had been formed and protected by vegetation. They are
composed of muddy sand, without even the smallest pebble, and were
then about four feet above the level of the river; but during the
periodical floods they are inundated. They all present one
character; numerous willows and a few other trees are bound
together by a great variety of creeping plants, thus forming a
thick jungle. These thickets afford a retreat for capybaras and
jaguars. The fear of the latter animal quite destroyed all pleasure
in scrambling through the woods.
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