The cross-country ride through the provinces of Entre Rios and Corrientes on the way to Posadas will give a view of the fertile pampas and their rich agricultural products, of enormous herds of cattle, and of the wooded banks of the Uruguay; through Misiones, of a pretty rolling country. The towns are generally small. At last accounts a day and a half was required for the journey.
Posadas, capital of the territory Misiones, is a thriving town of 10,000 inhabitants, destined to more rapid growth, now that it has through railway connection with Buenos Aires, and, after crossing the Paraná, with Asunción; the whole section will share in the prosperity promoted by better transportation facilities. The three hotels of Posadas, one of which, terms, $2.00 a day, is called fairly comfortable, will be sure to improve. There is a fine Government Building on the principal plaza and other public edifices, a beautiful promenade with native and exotic trees. The river is here about a mile and a quarter in width.
Iguassú Falls. To visit the Iguassú Falls one sails from Posadas in a boat of moderate size 100 miles up the Paraná to the mouth of the Iguassú, and half a mile up that stream to Port Aguirre, where a building, called a hut, serves as hotel, store, and post office. As the Alto Paraná separates Argentina from Paraguay, the Iguassú separates it from Brazil, flowing from the east, from its source in the mountains near the Atlantic. Twelve miles more one proceeds on mule or horseback, a four hours’ ride. By 1915, so rapidly are improvements made, doubtless there will be an automobile traveling a good road; and a primitive establishment on the edge of a rocky gorge will have been transformed for the globe trotters into a large hotel with luxurious accommodations. Perhaps, however, the tourist who arrives before the pristine beauty of the wild surroundings are converted into artificial adornment may enjoy equally well the magnificence of the spectacle. From the inn near the Falls, a public spirited and wealthy lady of Argentina has had a roadway constructed, 65 feet wide, more than half a mile along the bank of the stream to the top of the Argentine Fall. For the river, here a mile and a half in width, double that of Niagara, also has two falls, the Brazilian farther up nearer the other shore. In the midst of this primeval tropical forest, the roar of the great cataract is startling; on the other hand it may seem still more startling to approach through an absolutely silent forest quite to the edge of this tremendous cataract, the wind sometimes unaccountably carrying the noise in an opposite direction. Above the Falls the river is very wide; taking a sharp turn it makes three leaps, the last about 200 feet, where unequal erosion has given something of a horseshoe shape. Zigzag paths cut in the cliff lead down to several beautiful view-points. When the stream is low, it may be crossed above the Falls by canoe and wading, to a point called the Garganta del Diablo, the Throat of the Devil, close to the Brazilian Falls; the traveler with steady nerves leaning over the precipice, in the midst of howling waters and showers of spray, may there have a glorious view of the foaming abyss beneath. In low water the Brazilian and Argentine Falls each measure a quarter of a mile along the edge. Separated by masses of rock in some places covered with forest, they are then quite distinct; but when the river is high they are practically one, the whole measuring nearly two miles across, indeed a worthy rival of Niagara, as figures show, in the midst of wild and delightful scenery.
Comparing this with the other two great cataracts of the world, Victoria and Niagara, the African fall leads in height with a leap from 210 to 360 feet, that of the Iguassú is 196-210 feet, and Niagara but 150-164. The width of the Victoria is slightly more than Niagara’s; the Iguassú with its 13,123 feet has more than double the breadth. In the volume of water also the Iguassú is greater with 28 million cubic feet a minute to 18 million for each of the others. Our great Niagara thus seems outdone by both, while in the magical beauty of the surroundings there is no comparison. The Argentine Government is already awake to the necessity of preserving from spoliation by the greedy and destructive hands of men this one of the world’s marvels for the admiration and enjoyment of posterity, and is planning for the development here of a great National Park, foreseeing that visitors will come from all parts of Europe and America when aware of the attractions and that the comforts of travel will be supplied.
One having the spirit of the true explorer may continue up the Alto Paraná River, now dividing Paraguay from Brazil, 125 miles farther, to the foaming cataracts of La Guayra, sometimes called the Seven Falls and said to be the mightiest on earth. Above these is a great lake from which the water emerging comes down over precipices through a narrow gorge at one point but 250 feet wide. The waters drop in one leap after another 310 feet, descending into the gorge below with a force so tremendous as to form a maelstrom by the side of which the Niagara whirlpool is a quiet spot. They are calculated all together to have a force of 4.3 million horsepower, from a mass of 13,000,000 cubic feet a minute. Four hundred miles farther up stream are the Uberaponga Falls.
Ruins. One who delights in these will find a further attraction in the territory of Misiones. Not so ancient as the Inca and other remains in Peru and Bolivia, they still have an interesting history. Here in Misiones, and in neighboring regions of Brazil, occurred the earliest and most successful attempt yet made for the civilization of native tribes, instead of their extermination or exploitation, ruthlessly practiced for centuries in most parts of North and South America. The earliest settlements of the Indians made by the Jesuits were in the countries of Paraguay and Brazil; but as a result of the attacks of the Portuguese, who carried the Indians off into slavery, the Jesuits migrated to the south shores of the Alto Paraná and to the region along the Uruguay, taking with them their protégés, who through humane treatment had become submissive to their influence. Thirty villages were ultimately established, which in 1732 were in a prosperous condition with 30,362 families. Envy thus arose from which and other reasons the Jesuits were expelled from the colonies as also from Spain in 1768. Bereft of their leaders the Indians, happily domesticated and employed, soon began to scatter, and in 1817 the villages were destroyed. The ruins of these large establishments, surrounded and overgrown by thick woods, are mute, impressive witnesses of the criminal folly of man and of the destructive power of nature.
A FRACTION OF THE IGUASSÚ FALLS
Such ruins exist at Apostoles, a railway station 35 miles from Posadas, though the best preserved are at San Ignacio Mini, 11 miles from Santa Ana, 1½ miles from the bank of the Paraná.