The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

EIVEBS OP PARAGUAY. 301
becomes more decided, and the water flows, not in a rocky bed, but over layers
of tosca, an extremely tenacious white clay, probably saline, for the Pilcomayo
discharges brackish waters into the Paraguay.
It was long supposed that its mouths had frequently shifted ; but lateral
channels, false rivers and creeks may possibly have wrongly been taken for
branches of the Pilcomayo. The present mouth joins the Paraguay three miles
below Asuncion, opposite the Lambare bluff. But in 1721 the chief branch was
Fig. 128 —View taken on the Pilcomayo.
stated to be "nine leagues," or about 26 miles away. The Kio Oonfuso, which
reaches the Paraguay 22 miles above Asuncion, is a different river, and not an arm
of the Pilcomayo, as shown by its much more saline water. But when in flood
the two streams may perhaps communicate through the intervening bafiados. On
the other hand the Araguay-Guazu, explored in 1886 by Fernandez for 440 miles
from its confluence with the Paraguay, probably branches off from the Pilcomayo
about the middle part of its course. Both streams resemble each other in their