ONE OF THE GREATEST NATURAL WONDERS.
IN the heart of South America, at the meeting place of three republics, Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, nature has chosen the site for a masterpiece of scenic grandeur to be compared only to the mighty Niagara in majesty, and pronounced by some of the few travelers who have seen it to be even greater than its North American counterpart. The Falls of Iguazu occur at the junction of Iguazu River with the Upper Parana, in a territory famous as the original locality of the Jesuit missions, established in the sixteenth century, the ruins of which may still be seen by those who visit the falls. About twelve miles above the falls the River Iguazu makes a sharp bend, almost at right angles, giving them greater extent and more varied character than those of Niagara, which to some degree they resemble. As the river makes the sharp bend already mentioned, the main volume of water rushes around the inner bank and is discharged into a long, narrow gorge, at one point making a clear plunge of 210 feet. Not all the volume of the river is received at this place, however, the rest of the water running out past it into the wide elbow formed by the bend, and circling along the further shore among many rocks and islands before reaching the edge of the cliff, over which the descent is made in two great leaps of a hundred feet each, in a vast semicircle of 3,000 feet. The total length of Iguazu Falls, if measured at the upper edge of the cliff, thru their broken contour, including intersecting islets, is twice as great as that of Niagara, including the intersection of Goat Island.11 The double fall of Iguazu is the most striking feature of that cataract, the rocky shelf or platform that divides the leap being in some places more than fifty yards wide and in others only a few feet. The roar of the waterfall is more impressive for the solitude of the spot and the eternal silence that reigns in the dense forests that mark its border, into which the white man has scarcely penetrated. For several miles before the falls are reached the river is a mass of huge, frowning boulders and whirlpools. It must be seen from different points to be appreciated in all its beauty.—National Geographic Magazine. THE JEWELS OF THE SEASONS.
THE emeralds brighten the Springtime ways,
The rubies and pearls make the Summer rose.
The opals are dreaming of Autumn days.
The diamonds are gleaming in time of snows.
—Woman's Tribune.