The river here is very broad, with many islands, which are low and wooded, as is also the opposite shore.

The view would resemble that of a great lake, if it were not for the linear-shaped islets, which alone give the idea of running water.

The cliffs are the most picturesque part; sometimes they are absolutely perpendicular, and of a red colour; at other times in large broken masses, covered with cacti and mimosa-trees.
The real grandeur, however, of an immense river like this is derived from reflecting how important a means of communication and commerce it forms between one nation and another; to what a distance it travels, and from how vast a territory it drains the great body of fresh water which flows past your feet.
For many leagues north and south of San Nicolas and Rozario, the country is really level.

Scarcely anything which travellers have written about its extreme flatness can be considered as exaggeration.

Yet I could never find a spot where, by slowly turning round, objects were not seen at greater distances in some directions than in others; and this manifestly proves inequality in the plain.