Evening star., 1924-12-07
guazu Falls Niagara In the Heart Of South Americ

with a thrill how close in crossing
at TINS stage Of water we can ap-
proach the precipice edge. where
Union Fall, marked by its SPRAY
| cloud, drops its great volume of
| water over 200 feet into Devils
| Ihroat. From the. Brazilian boat
landing we climb to the top of the
| nigh hill on which the Brazilian
| hotel is built. Our road parallels
| the Devils Throat Rapids of the
Iguazu and at intervals as we as
cend. paths cut through the forest
| and dense underground diverge to
| falIs viewpoints. The tropical for
| est which our road traverses is T1ch-
er in animal and vegetable life than
any we have heretofore seen in
| South America
| Flowers, Parrots and Butterp,e.,
HIKE and there, scattered through
| the forest, are great hardwood
trees lepacho, jacaranda or rosewood
| we see cedars, laurel, palms and
bamboos, flaming flowers, orchids ana
strangling parasites; tree ferns, wild
oranges, vegetable sponge vines, and
areas OF ground carpeted with tiny
! DIue, white and yellow flowers Here
we disturb an early morning confer
ence or brilliantly colored parrots "a
| or 80 of them, who, discoveri<5 ju-
tTuders, dispersed quickly from the
one great tree in which they had as
sembled with a whirr OF wings ana a
scoldlng, squawking chatter Of iudie--
nant remonstrance. The woods are
full of monkeys. but we caught no
glimpse of any. Ponce pointed out to
| US the fresh footprint of a bobcat in
| the mud of the road. Jaguars and
T. " yc H..
| FlVidly colored butterflies which
frequent the falls region are in great
est profusion, perhaps, on the Bra
lillian side of the Iguazu. Some have
translucent or transparent wings and
curiously shaped and marked bodies.
Some tiny ones show exquisite color
ing and markings in yellow. brown
and blue. One rare butterfly is all
| In white, opalescent in coloring. An
other, often mounted as an alluring
ornament, is of metallic shimmering
| iridescent tints of blue.
Brazilian Falls Hotel.
| THE Brazilian hotel has the finest,
highest site in all this region.
1t even looks down upon the hill
across the 1guazu on which the red
rooted bungalow Argentine hotel is
built. 1t oVerlooks an extensive area
OF bed and forest-clothed valley of
the Iguazu above and below the falls
and far back on the plateau over
whose precipitous edge the Iguazu
falls.
The Brazilian hotel is in design a
pretentious structure, two-storied in
central section of front with one
stored wings on two sides of a cen
trail court But the gabled second
story is finished only up to rafters
and only one of the two large front
rooms is usable, the single public
room Of the hotel. Some small bed
| rooms in one wing have been COM
pleted sufficiently to be used.
Seen from the Argentine side or
| close at hand, the Brazilian hotel
| looks TO be an unfinished or deserted
| structure-a camouflage house of the
Hollywood movie type. but abandoned
| by its maker before even the illusion
was perfected. Doubtless at some
| time it will be completed.
1t has in its present condition few
visitors from the Brazilian side, and
its immediate function is largely to
serve as lunch station for day ex-
cursionists from the comfortable, well
equipped, little hotel on the Argen-
tine side.
For lunching and excursion pur-
poses there is aerial communication
between the two hotels. When ex-
cursionists are to cross the river
from the Argentine hotel to Brazil
shots corresponding to the number
of intending visitors are fired at a
fixed hour in front of the Argentine
hotel and noted at the Brazilian no
tel on the hilltop on the other side
of the IguaZu.
The lunch notice was effective in
our case, and we enjoyed an excellent
meal of wild pig, roast chicken and
oranges from the trees in the garden
of the hotel. The hotel care-taker-
in whom 1 think the entire hotel force
is concentrated-kills the wild pig
which he serves in the adjacent
woods with a shotgun.
Fine Views From Brazil.
THE lofty trees of the forest on
- the Brazilian hillside shut out
completely from the hotel view of
DEVILS Throat Chasm and its falls.
But of the San Martin group of falls
the view, though somewhat remote,
is in its completeness the most sat
isfactory of all that are enjoyed
The first large fall visible from
top to bottom is Bossetti. which we
have already seen at its brink and at
its foot. From the Brazilian view
point it's two drops merge into one
with fine effect. Next we see San
Martins many cataracts and it's great
main fall.
The last fall visible in the sweep
ing view from the Brazilian hotel is
Three Musketeers, broad, shallow,
Picturesque series of parallel cat
aracts. Its waters almost combine
and produce a single fall in the upper
of its two drops, but diverge in the
second drop into three, perhaps four,
falls, making way for dArtagnan, in
addition to Athos, Porthos and
Aramis. Or the upper fall, with its
near merging of waters, may be typi-
cal of the coming together in unbeat-
able unity of the Three Musketeers
may symbolic their divergence of
ways Twenty Years Cor more)
After"
Three Musketeers and Others.
A S we retrace our steps from the
Brazilian hotel to the boat land
ing place we diverge from the road at
intervals to viewpoints of the falls to
which paths have been cut First we
get closer view of Three Musketeers
than is obtained from the hotel
Then after a scramble through the
woods and over rocks we see pic
turesque Belgrano. 1t is viewed to
advantage only from a few points on
the side of the Brazilian hotel hill,
and not many visitors see it and ap-
preciate it. Next we enjoy a series OF
general views of the falls of Devils
Throat, both Brazilian and Argentine,
Floriano, Union, Rivadavia, Belgrano
and Three Musketeers; and lastly we
look into DEVILS Throat from pro-
jecting rocks at the side of Florjano