The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-06
By FRANK c. CARPENTER
<Copyright, 1915, by Frank G. Carpente
 Asi1ncinn Para euaV

xCopyrght, 1915, by Frank c. Carpenter)
 Asuncion. Paraguay. fS1VAM in the heart of another meat I%E land of infinite possibilities Sssrsse am in Paraguay. a country that tSs4sg lies midway between Manaos,
 the metropolis of the central Amazon river, and Buenos Aires, the great city at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. Of all the South American republics. Par aguay and Bolivia only have no seacoast. Bolivia is shut off from the Pacific by one of the greatest deserts on earth. It is land of snow-peaked mountains and lofty plateaus Paraguay Is only few hundred feet above the sea. It is a coun- try of perennial green It lies in the arms of amorous rivers that are always ready to carry her products out to, the ocean. It has soil of astounding fer tility, pasture lands as good as those of the pampas lands of Argentina, and 1t promises to be one of the bread lands and wheat lands of the future.
 In coming here from the Atlantic ocean l have travelled on steamers 1900 miles and the last 300 was on the Paraguay
 
 miles further north into the heart of Brazil. and there is a good cattle coun- try along both banks of the river all the way.
 Just opposite where l write these notes the Picomayo flows into the Para quay. and several hundred miles off in the op- posite direction is the Alto Parana, which enters the Parana proper at the Para guay's mouth. Each of these streams is enormous. l have written you of the Parana proper. 1t is double the size of the Ganges, three times that of the Dan tube and five times that of the Nile. The Alto-Parana is one of it's branches and it extends 600 miles from where it joins the Parana to its source in the Goyaz mountains of Brazil.
 The Pilcoma~o is about 1500 miles long. Ii rises in the Andes not far from the source of the Madeira, that mighty branch Of the Amazon and winds its way through ar unknown wilderness until it empties into the Paraguay opposite where I am now. The Pilcomayo forms the southern boundary of the Chaco the wild west Of the Paraguay republic, or rather 1t di- vices the Argentine Chaco and the Para guayan Chaco in half. It is a winding stream running through swamps, great forests and mighty pastures on its way from Bolivia down to the Paraguay. The Paraguay river proper is still greater stream. It is navigable from here almost 1c00 miles northward, and it is so long that if it were stretched upon the United States, with it's windings uncoied it would reach frem Boston to Denver and connect with those of the South Platte river, that little stream that washes the feet of the capital of Colorado.
 l was a day and a night in coming from the Parana proper to the mouth of the Pilcomayo. The Paraguay river is about as wide as the Mississippi above St Louis, and it's waters are of about the same color as those of our great river, before the muddy Missouri flows in. The stream is winding and its banks are a wilderness. For the most they yyyareo. .kmr'o G. zgkqtaoomfw part they are covered with jungle. You ride for miles without seeing a house. and the onlyyy yysyyiygyns of life are and the anly signs of life are the hirds that fly here and there along the shores and the great black alligators that h..sk upon the banks In the Argentine Chaco on the western side of the river there is but little else than virgin for est Bushy trees hang out over the water and, it is said, you cannot travel a mile hack from the banks without finding tapirs, pecearies, iaguars monkeys and wild hogs. On the oppo- site banks in Paraguay you now and then pass a small town and here and