Climate and Procluctiona.—Paraguay enjoys the advantages of the intertropical rains. The rainy season occurs in the months when the sun is in the southern hemisphere. The rains are far leas abundant than nearer the equator, but sufficient to bring the fertility of the soil into full action. Except in the marshy districts the climate is said to be very salubrious. At Assuncion the ordinary summer tempe rature is 85° Fehr., but it sometimes reaches 100°. In winter it falls to 45'; hut the temperature depends greatly on tho direction of the wind : north winds are hot ; south or south-east, cold; westerly winds seldom occur, and never last more than two hours.
The natural productions of Paraguay include those of temperate and intertropical climates; and cultivation might embrace a wider range. But the long interruption of foreign intercourse and subsequent unsettled state of the country have prevented all chance of progress in agriculture, all the operations of which are still carried on in the rudest possible manner. The principal articles cultivated as food are maize, batatas, mandioc, yucca root, and beans. The cultivation of the sugarcane, tobacco, and cotton is rather extensive. Coffee and cacao grow luxuriantly ; and the mulberry tree is indigeneous. The principal fruit-trees are oranges and figs. The vegetables chiefly grown are onions, capsicums, and garlic. Water-melons and musk melons are abundant and good.
Paraguay possesses great wealth in its forests, which contain numerous species of lofty timber-trees, and dye-woods for tanning and other purposes. Several of them produce gums and India-rubber, and others are used for cabinet-work. All the vessels that navigate the rivers Paraguay and Paramt are built of timber supplied by the forests of this country, and the ropes are made of the fibres of different native plants. The most remarkable of the trees is that which yields the famous herb called ‘rnat6,' or Paraguay tea, which is in general Use in all the southern countries of South America as a beverage. The country which separates the yerbales (or forests from which the leaf is procured) from the Paraguay is without cultivation, and covered with thorny trees intersected by marshy grounds.
As Paraguay does not contain such extensive prairies as those which occur in all the surrounding countries, the number of horses, mules, and cattle is not so great, but it is sufficient for the internal consumption. Most of the animals peculiar to South America are
found in this country ; and the monkeys commit great depredations in the fruit-trees and corn fields. Various kinds of birds, as parrots and parroquets, pheasant., toucans, humming-birds, and cockatoos, are numerous. The royal duck, or pato-real, is nearly as large as a goose, with a red and varied plumage. Wild bees are found in great numbers in the woods, and both honey and wax constitute articles of export. The large ants of this country have attracted the attention of naturalists on account of the extensive habitations which they build. The mineral productions are not known.
The manufactures are only of the comparatively few articles required for domestic consumption ; and are carried on in the most primitive manner. The cotton for instance "is cleaned and spun by hand, and generally wove by itinerant manufacturers who carry about on horseback a portable loom, which they tie to a tree wherever it may be requisite to set it up for use." The commerce of Paraguay might become of great importance were personal security established in the country, and the energy of the inhabitants directed to peaceful pursuits. The country is extremely fertile in itself, and capable of furnishing very varied agricultural pro ducts the extensive forests supply immense quantities of valuablo timber ; and her rivers are the highways to a great portion of the mining regions of Bolivia and Brasj:. Before its independence Paraguay exported goods to L'ueuoa Ayres alone amounting in value to above 350,000l., consisting of 8,000.0001ba. of mat& 1,000,0001bs. of tobacco, besides cotton, sugar, molasses, spirits, &c. During the dictatorship of Francis in Paraguay the foreign trade, and even that carried on with the neighbouring provinces, was almost entirely destroyed ; and not much progresa has since been made towards its restoration, notwith standing that treaties have been made with the Argentine Confedera tion, Brazil, and Bolivia, for the opening of the Rio de Is Plata, the Pavan[, and the Paraguay to each other's flags, and also permitting the free navigation of the rivers by foreign vessels. The chief exports at present arc of math, timber, sugar, cotton, tobacco, and hides.