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London: Longman & Co.
THE STATES

OF

THE RIVER PLATE.

BY WILFRID LATHAM.

SECOND EDITION,

WITH A MAP,

LONDON :
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1868,
ABOS
i325

)BLi
PREFACE

TO

THE SECOND EDITION.

 

WITH NATURAL TREPIDATION, yet not without some de-
gree of confidence, I comply with the requests of
several friends, and adopt the suggestions of more than
one of the leading British reviewers, in presenting to
the public a second edition of ‘The States of the
River Plate,’ with additional descriptive and other matter,

and a second Book comprising three treatises, viz.
1. Circumstances of colonization and physical condition
as determining the character of the populations
and affecting political and social institutions.

2. Historical sketch and personal experiences.

3. Political and industrial development and _ social
modifications, resulting from immigration and

improved means of locomotion, &c.
vi PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

I send the book forth with some hesitation, for my
ability may have proved unequal to my will, and the
scantiness of the time which pressing out-door avocations
has left to me at irregular intervals may have interfered
with the well ordering of the matter, as it has necessarily

interfered with its completeness and amplitude.

But my confidence is grounded on the conviction that
the consideration extended to my first essay will be
accorded also to the present volume, inasmuch as my
aim has been to furnish accurate and useful information
on matters and events of general and special interest. To
the accomplishment of this task I have taken nothing on
trust, relying only on actual experience and on my
knowledge of the conditions, circumstances, and events

treated of, briefly to state facts and draw deductions. —

Buenos Ayres, 1867,
PREFACE

TO

THE FIRST EDITION.

1

THE AuTHOR of this work presents it to the public, not
as the production of a traveller, or with any preten-
sion to: the detail, interesting or amusing, which usually

makes up works descriptive of foreign countries.

He presents himself as a plain thinker on subjects
of material interest connected with the country in which
he has resided or been in relation with for, more or
less, twenty-four years, and in which there are settled
a very large number of British subjects and their families,
towards which there is a continuous stream of emigrants
from Europe, a large portion of whom—especially those
possessing small or moderate capitals— entertain most
erroneous ideas of the country, its industries, and the
work that is before them; between which and Great
Britain there are very important commercial relations,

a
vill PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

and in which there is a very large British capital

invested.

His object in writing this work has been truthfully
and intelligibly to describe the country, its resources,
and climate, with a view to its industries — pointing
out various channels for the advantageous employment
of capital, fields for labour, and its remuneration, and
to usher in the dawn of a more advanced and more
sound system of working those industries, by explaining
the principles which should regulate the practice of
parties engaged, or about to engage, in them; and he
claims from the ‘lettered’ public that consideration
which they may fairly accord to a writer whose daily
avocations are the practice of the industries of which he

treats.

Buenos Ayres, 1866,
CONTENTS.

BOOK I,

PART I.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS . ‘ ‘
Description oF A SCENE AT THE SALADEROS .
AsPECT OF CAMPO AND CAMP-FIRES .

Burning oF Prairies . 5 :

Tue Lire or a Fiocx-Master on SHEPHERD .
Doust-Storm .

THUNDER-SToRM . ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ;
SHEEP . ‘

Carrie .

Tue Events on A CatTte Estancia
Marxine 7 - .

Hunting WILD-CatTie .

Tue Horse oF THE PaMPAs .

Sports oF HorseMen

Racine .

TILTING AT THE RING

PART II.

SHEEP-FARMING

PART III.

Diseases OF SHEEP: THEIR T'REATMENT .

PAGE

61

96
x CONTENTS.

PART IV.

Tue Scrence or Hicu-cuass SHEEP-BREEDING .
Detaits or MAnaGEMENT s

.

PART V.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE UTILISATION OF RivER PLATE BEEF
Proper CONDITION OF ANIMALS FOR KILLING .

PART VI.

AGRICULTURE ‘ : 2 ‘ . . ‘ ¢ .
Tur TuisTLe, SePpo CaBALLO, ABROJO, AND Poisonous HeErss

PART VII.

Tue River Puate sas A FIELD FOR THE EMPLOYMENT OF
CAPITAL AND LaBour : ‘ ‘ é : 3

BOOK II.

CIRCUMSTANCES-.OF COLONIZATION AND PuHysicaL CONDITION as
DETERMINING THE CHARACTER OF THE POPULATION AND AFFECT-
ING POLITICAL AND SoctaL INsTITUTIONS . ‘

PART I.

HistToricAL SKETCH AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES .

PART II.

PoLtticaL AND TypIvipuAL DrEvELopMENT AND Socrat Mop1F1-
CATIONS, RESULTING FROM IMMIGRATION aND Improvep Loco-
MOTIVE Factuitizs, &c 2 F 7

APPENDIX . ‘ : ‘

PAGE

100
118

138
153

161
188

211

239

257

313
345.
BOOK IL

INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE.
PART L
GENERAL.

THE counrriss of the River Plate or Rio de la Plata are
those of the Banda Oriental or Republic of the Uruguay,
a small State on the northern bank of the Estuary or. Rio
de la Plata, whose chief city and port is Montevideo ;
and the Argentine Republic, on the southern bank,
extending south, west, and north, and comprising four-
teen provinces, viz. Buenos Ayres, Santa Fé, Cordoba,
Mendoza, San Juan, Santiago, Tucuman, Salta, Rioja,
Catamarca, San Luis, Jujuy, Entre-Rios, and Corrientes ;
its chief city and port being Buenos Ayres.

The Banda Oriental lies on the southern limits of, and
is bourided by, the Brazilian Empire ; its eastern coast is
washed by the Southern Atlantic, its southern shores by
the River Plate, and its western by the magnificent River
Uruguay—a semicircle of sea-board and navigable rivers.

The Argentine Republic extends south to the Indian
territory and Patagonia, north to Bolivia and Paraguay ;
and is bounded to the west, in its whole length, by the
Cordillera. The Ocean, the River Plate, and the magnifi-
cent Rivers Parana and Uruguay constitute its other
boundaries, the Paranda separating two of its provinces—
Entre-Rios and Corrientes—from the rest; the River
Uruguay separating the Argentine province of Entre-Rios
from the Banda Oriental. These territories comprise a

B2
4 STATES OF THE RIVER PLATE.

range of temperate climate, from a temperature border-
ing on cold to the south, to the tropical towards the
north; with an extensive sea-board, and an internal
and arterial system of rivers counted among the finest in
the world.

A very extensive commerce is carried on between
‘these countries and the various nations of Europe, North
America, and the Brazils, while a very large and impor-
tant interior or coasting trade extends over hundreds of
miles of river coast in the La Plata, Parana, and Uruguay,
where the great depth of water admits of vessels of con-
siderable burthen and draft, the Parana being navigable
for over a thousand miles. Numerous vessels course
these rivers, carrying passengers and goods; and their
number is constantly augmented by steamers built here
or brought from England or the United States.

The foreign commerce consists in imports of the staple
productions of the various countries of Europe and Ame-
rica, of England, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden,
Spain, Portugal, Italy, United States, Canada, and Brazil,
comprising cotton, woollen and silk goods, hardware, iron,
wines, spirits, oils and fruits, lumber, tar, naval stores,
sugar, rice, flour, furniture, jewellery, &c. &c.

The exports are chiefly of animal products, of which,
in due course, I propose specially to treat. Minerals and
vegetable products are also exported.

The delicious and salubrious climate, the extreme
fertility of the soil, the wide “range and capabilities of
production, and the unsurpassed adaptability of these
countries for stock breeding, as well as the extent of their
river system, render them eminently favourable per se to
receive an European emigration, and offer many oppor-
tunities for the advantageous investment of European
capital.
GENERAL.—-MONTEVIDEO. 5

The natural richness and extent of their resources, the
facilities of water transit, and the paramount desire for
progress which animates the influential portion of the
population, their commercial tendencies, the unfeigned
welcome and protection extended to foreign settlers, and
the full recognition of the advantages derived from immi-
gration and foreign enterprise are in themselves guarantees
both to settlers and individual or Stock Exchange invest-
ments. Moreover, the recognition and thorough com-
prehension on the part of the governing classes, of the
importance and policy of national good faith, is a feature
which must necessarily weigh with capitalists, and pro-
duce its fruits in the development of the incalculable
resources of the country.

Land and stock are to be had at comparatively low
figures, and constitute advantageous investments for in-
dividuals and companies.

Railways, steam navigation, canalisation, mining and
other undertakings, worthily claim the attention of the
Stock Exchange.

Wages are high, and employment far in excess of the
supply of labour. These, accompanied as they are by
cheap beef, are the greatest inducements that can be
offered to the industrious classes.

Montevideo, the capital of the Banda Oriental (or Re-
public of the Uruguay), is situated near the mouth of the
River Plate. It is a well-built city, on a rocky promon-
tory, forming one side of the bay, and offering a safe and
commodious harbour, capable of containing several hun-
dred vessels.

The population of the city, which, from the water,
displays a very imposing and handsome view, is estimated
at 60,000 souls, comprising people of almost every
nationality in Europe, the United States, and Brazils, the
6 STATES OF THE RIVER PLATE.

foreign element, in which the Italian portion predo-
minates, considerably outnumbering the natives.

The commerce is large and increasing.

There is a noble hospital, a cathedral and other churches;
there is also an English Protestant church. Forts com-
mand the entrance of the bay from the mainland and an
island in the bay ; and there are several moles and jetties,
a custom-house, lighthouse, and other public buildings.

The country of the Banda Oriental is undulating, with
spurs of hill ranges here and there. It is well wooded
in some parts, but the timber is of no great size. It is
remarkably well watered: through the heart of the
country flows the Rio Negro, into which innumerable
tributaries empty themselves, as seen on the map. This
river and its affluents stand to the country in a relation not
unlike that of the arterial system in the human frame,
a main trunk with ramifications extending everywhere,
vivifying and fertilising.

The face of the country, as I have said, is undulating.
Rocks and boulders crop out of the higher parts, and rich
soil, luxuriant herbage, and broad stretches of wood-
land descend to and in parts follow the courses of the
rivers and brooks. On the borders of the Rio Negro
and its tributaries, great quantities of sarsaparilla grow,
with which the waters are more or less impregnated.

Certain points of these rivers are, in consequence, visited
by invalids.

IT.
BUENOS AYRES.

Buenos Ayres is a large and handsome city, the streets
intersecting each other at right angles, equidistant, and
forming blocks of houses of about 140 yards square. The
GENERAL.—BUENOS AYRES. ~ T

extension of the city during the past few years, and the
number of magnificent houses built, many of them meriting
the denomination of palaces, may well astonish the spec-
tator. It possesses several large and handsome theatres,
an opera-house, concert-hall, club-houses, exchange, cus-
tom-house, and other public buildings: the cathedral
is a large and handsome building, with a noble com-
posite facade, and there are many large and solidly built
churches.

The population is estimated at 200,000 souls, and as it
comprises representatives of almost every civilised nation
in the world—about half its population is foreign—there !
is a perfect babel of tongues. English, French, German,
Italian, Portuguese, salute the ear at every step: every-
where may be seen foreign banks, commercial houses,
shops, wholesale and retail general stores. Every trade
and calling is pursued with perfect liberty by foreigners
of every denomination. Many ship-building yards exist,
where steamers and other vessels for the river-trade are
built ; and there are an English church, Scotch Presby-
terian, American and German churches ; an Irish Roman
Catholic chaplain and several assistants; the British
hospital, a large and well-regulated establishment ;
the Italian hospital, a remarkably handsome building ;
an Irish hospital; the convent and schools of English
and Irish sisters of mercy; British newsroom ; library ;
English daily newspapers; a cricket club, and a race-
course.

There are three lines of railways in the province of
Buenos Ayres, gradually extending farther and farther
into the country—one to the north, taking the line of the
principal northern traffic, and the others to the west and
south—all opening up the most important trading districts
in their respective directions.
8 STATES OF THE RIVER PLATE.

Another railway—the Central Argentine—is in course
of construction, not in the province of Buenos Ayres, but
with its terminus in the province of Santa Fé, at a port
called Rosario, and taking its line through the province of
Cordoba to the city of the same name, the focus of com-
munication with the northern and north-west provinces.
The importance of this line of railway cannot be over-
estimated. At Rosario, several lines of steamers from
Buenos Ayres call, touching en route at several ports on
both banks of the Parané above and below Rosario.
Each of the several ports is a distinct centre of trade,
to which goods are shipped from Buenos Ayres, and
the produce of these districts is forwarded to be shipped
per steam or river craft to Buenos Ayres or Monte-
video.

The port of Buenos Ayres is an open roadstead, with
inner and outer roads, divided by a sand-bank, or bar,
with good anchorage in both. The vessels are discharged
by, and loaded from lighters, which land and receive
cargo at moles or jetties, or are beached, and their cargoes
taken from or to them in high-wheeled carts, or at wharfs
on the banks of a small river, the ‘ Riachuelo,’ in the
vicinity of which are situated the chief ‘ Saladeros,’ killing
and salting establishments for hides, tallow melting, &c. ;
also barracas, or warehouses. River craft, with produce
from the several ports of the Rivers Parana and Uruguay,
frequently lie alongside or discharge their cargoes at once
on board the foreign vessels in the roadsteads.

The articles of export, both from Montevideo and
Buenos Ayres, are chiefly animal products—hides, dry and
salted, jerked beef, bones, horns, tallow, hair, wool, skins,
ostrich feathers, &c. Tobacco and some other vegetable
products are also exported, but in comparatively insignifi-
cant quantities ; also copper and other minerals. This

-
GENERAL.—-BUENOS AYRES. 9

class of products will doubtless form a comparatively
larger proportion of the exports than at present, when the
communication with the interior provinces is established
by means of the railway now in course of construction,
and by the canalisation of rivers which flow thence to the
Parana.

The scene at the ‘Saladeros,’ in the killing season, is
strange indeed to European eyes. Herds of fine semi-
wild cattle, consisting of several hundred head, are
driven in from the country by mounted herdsmen,
looking as wild as the cattle they drive—the affrighted
animals bellowing and making desperate attempts to
break away as they approach the pens—the mounted
herdsmen swinging their lassos and dashing at the cattle
on flank and rear, to close them into a compact phalanx,
so as to force the foremost on. If there is the slightest
break in the mass, from an inequality of pressure, through
which an animal or two can contrive to turn, there is
a wheel and a stampede: and then away go the gaucho
drivers, as if fleeing before the galloping, maddened
herd ; but, with their fleet horses, crossing and recrossing
in front and on the sides, they gradually close up the
ranks, succeed in turning the cattle again, and so work
them till they get them into the pens (corrals) of tall hard
wood posts, six to eight inches in diameter, by eight or
ten feet high, ranged alongside each other, and bound
together by cross bars securely lashed. Occasionally,
indeed frequently, a knot of two, three, or half a dozen
animals will break away from the lot, and then away
go the skirmishers with lassoes whirling in the air, at
headlong gallop to come up with the runaway beasts.
As it would be a vain attempt to turn them, the lasso
is thrown, the noose goes over the animal’s horns, the
well-trained horse answers to the rein, and galloping to
10 STATES OF THE RIVER PLATE.

one side, comes suddenly to a stop; the animal is swung
round, a second lasso is thrown by another horseman;
one takes one side, the other the other; the enraged
beast rushes to and fro, but he is checked by the lassos ;
and so, by the dragging of the lasso-men and his own
mad rushes, he is worked on to the remainder of the herd.
At other times, he is hamstrung by a third person, and
left until, the herd being penned, they return to kill and
skin him.

The process of penning the cattle being in due course
achieved, the slaughter commences, and the operation is
effected as follows :—

To the corral or pen, there is a narrow neck, eight to
ten feet long, closed with cross bars at the end, the lower
bar being sufficiently high to admit a low truck to be run’
under it, in and out, with its burthen; the top bar consists
of a roller. By this neck there is a stage, on which stands
the lasso-man ; the truck being run in, the lasso-man takes
the noose and coils of the lasso, and, swinging it, throws it
over the horns of one of the animals ; a horseman outside
has the end of the lasso attached to the saddle (recado)
of his horse: the signal is given as soon as the lasso is
cast, the horseman moves rapidly on; the lasso running
on the roller bar draws the animal into the neck of
the pen and on to the truck, bringing the horns ‘ taut’
against the roller bar. The slaughterer stands on the
stage, knife in hand: as soon as the animal is in the
position required, he introduces his knife behind the
horns, and divides the spinal marrow at its junction with
the head. The animal instantly collapses; the lasso is
loosed from it, and the truck is run out on a tramway
which occupies the centre of a flagged platform, under a
shed, along which, on each side, are ranged the flayers.
The dead animals are cast off the truck to the flayers
GENERAL.—BUENOS AYRES. ll

in turn. The hide, being taken off, is doubled up and
taken to the salting-house, where it is stretched on the
pile of hides, and salt cast over it with shovels; mean-
while, the carcase of the animal is cut up and carried
to another salting-house, where the meat is sliced
into thin flakes and laid in a pile, with salt. The fat
and the bones, with that portion of the meat which is
unsuitable or cannot be conveniently cut into flakes,
goes to the vats, and is steamed to extract grease and
tallow.

When the beef has lain in salt a sufficient time, it is
taken out and hung on rails (tendales) in the open air
to dry; thence it is removed and built into large piles,
square or round (in the open air), and covered with tar-
paulins until ready for shipment. The meat thus prepared
is known as ‘jerked beef,’ and is chiefly shipped to, and
consumed in, the Brazils or Havannah.

The business of preparing hides, tallow, and beef, is one
of the most important carried on in the province of Buenos
Ayres, Entre-Rios, and Santa Fé, and in the Republic of
the Uruguay.

The hides of the animals slaughtered for the consump-
tion of the town or country are nearly all staked and
dried.

At the ‘Saladeros,’ mares in large numbers are slaugh-
tered, the hides salted, and the carcases steamed for
grease. The tallow and grease having been drawn off,
the refuse matter—bones and beef fibre—is removed;
the shank, shin, and other large bones are picked out for
shipment; and the smaller bones and beef fibre are used
as fuel for the furnaces of the steaming apparatus, to the
extent required, the remainder being made into large heaps
and burned. The ash from this and from the furnaces is
the bone-ash of commerce. The manes and tails of mares,
12 STATES OF THE RIVER PLATE.

and the tails of cattle, furnish hair, &c., for shipment.
The hoofs and horns are likewise shipped.

The killing grounds for the supply of beef to the towns
present an animated and singular scene:—A large open
space, with lines of pens, or ‘ corrales, into which the
cattle of the different dealers are drawn. The butchers
purchase and select the animals they require out of the
pens; all are mounted on well-trained horses. To take
out the selected animal, a lasso-man enters, throws his
lasso, and darts out of the corral, half dragging, half
chased, by the bellowing animal, while others keep back
the rest of the cattle. Another and another is selected,
lassoed, and drawn out : away they go with the lasso-men,
the animal either rushing after them or on some of the
groups, and followed by other horsemen at full speed, until
they come near enough to throw the second lasso, which is
cast over the horns or on the hind legs, and the two, taking
contrary directions, bring the animal to a stand or throw it
over. One of the men dismounts ; the horse, knowing his
work, keeps the lasso ‘ taut,’ while the man approaches
the animal, and, according to its position, either hamstrings
it as a preliminary, or at once ‘piths’ it, by introducing
the knife behind the horns. The flaying then commences,
care being taken that the carcase remains on the hide, on
which it is cut up, so that the meat is not soiled. There are
three or four flayers to each animal—sometimes as many
as sixty or eighty animals undergoing the operation of
flaying and cutting up at the same time. These flayers,
wild-looking fellows, dressed or half-dressed in various
bright colours, scarlet predominating; the gaily capari-
soned horses of the butchers, many of them glistening
with silver trappings; rude carts, ruder-looking drivers,
and various coloured horses; the background of pens,
still half full of cattle, all contributing colour and artistic
GENERAL.—URUGUAY. 13

grouping, make up, if not a pleasingly picturesque and
gay scene, at least, illuminated by the oblique rays of the
morning sun, a very sparkling and brilliant one, and
altogether novel to Europeans.

The ‘ emissaries’ of the sausage-makers, dogs and swine,
serve as the scavengers, aided by clouds of gulls and
hawks, while the snow-white and grey plumage of the
swooping whirling thousands of the winged inhabitants
of the Pampas, ever moving in the sunlight, adds not a
little to the brightness and singularity of the effect.

Ii.

The aspect of the country or ‘campo’ of Buenos Ayres,
and its geological character, is wholly different from that
of the Republic of the Uruguay, or Banda Oriental.

The province of Buenos Ayres, excepting far away
south, where there is a spur, or high range, is one vast
level plain—a rich alluvial soil without wood—except
here and there, where one or two trees, or a small planta-
tion, mark the site of an ‘estancia’ house, or a ‘ puesto’
or station. A solitary ‘ombt’ tree, with its enormous
trunk and great arms, its dark green and dense foliage,
affords, here and there, shade to a group of cattle or
horses, or to the weary traveller ; otherwise the plain is
clothed in rich herbage, watered by sluggish streams,
shallow lakes and pools, and covered with vast herds of
cattle, horses, and flocks of sheep.

I cannot enneeive anything more exhilarating than a
gallop across the plains of Buenos Ayres on a bright,
clear morning, or in the cool of the afternoon or evening;
a cloudless sky of deep azure, an atmosphere marvel-
lously light and pure communicating a sense of indescrib-
14 STATES OF THE RIVEK PLATE.

able buoyancy and pleasurable existence—a soft breeze
flowing, as it were, over the vast plain, boundless as an
ocean—contribute to engender an irresistible feeling of
joyous freedom.

One of the effects of the climacteric influences on resi-
dents in the plain is to render them comparatively inde-
pendent of what in England are called comforts. Men
seem to revel in mere existence; life is pleasurable to
them for itself, and this frequently renders them careless
of accessories and prone to take things easily, often too
much so. Asitis easy to live, and wants are few, there is
a disposition to eschew exertion. The sense of the expanse
doubtless contributes to this; there is no obstacle, all is
open and wide; resistance stimulates to exertion, and
something within reach is needed to excite action and
develop energy. When the plain fades away in the far
distance, and the long vista presents no objects but such
as are insignificant in relation to the expanse, a con-
sciousness of impotence is engendered, tending to produce
a disinclination to effort.

In the ‘ campo,’ the horse is man’s companion and re-
source, the one thing that leads him to motion, which
carries him through space and shortens it. No one is a-
foot in the plain; from comparative infancy to old age,
every one rides; all work is done on horseback, and
only with the stimulus of the animal movement is energy
awakened.

The ‘ campo ’—a plain—has its own peculiar beauties
and aspects, varying with the season. The unbroken
carpet of short green herbage of the winter is changed
to vast sheets of colour in the spring. Luxuriant grasses,
tangled clover (spotted medick), with its broad leaf of
rich green and black spot, are intermixed over vast tracts
with the young variegated-leaved thistle, remarkable by
GENERAL.—-URUGUAY. 15

its large green and white foliage; a little later on, the
wild flowers mingle with the tall grasses or overtop them,
forming immense sheets of colour. Acres upon acres are
brilliant with scarlet vervain, gorgeous in the light, or
purple or white verbena. Leagues of a rich purple flower,
the‘ flor morada’ (a plantain), change to bright rose as the
setting sun casts its warm oblique light upon it. The tall
‘biznaga’” may be seen, with its head of clustered white
florets; the branching many-flowered camomile, and
numberless others, white, pink, yellow, &c.

From these broad lines or sheets of colour, we enter on
the great thistle camps. There are two varieties of thistle,
the one annual, tall, variegated, broad-leaved, known in
the garden in England, and growing in this country to the
height of eight or ten feet, in dense array, impenetrable
except in the cattle track. These beds of thistle extend
leagues and leagues, and at the time of flowering, as far
as the eye can reach, present an almost unbroken sheet
of rose-purple flowers. In some districts, a day’s ride
along a road or track, on either side of which stretches this
forest of thistles, leaves the traveller still with the same
forest stretching to the horizon. Thousands of cattle
browse unseen amongst the thistles, working tracks through
them, feeding on them and the grasses which grow up
with them. On the lower lands and edges of pools, the
thistles do not grow. About midsummer they seed,
wither, and fall, a heavy rain and a stiff breeze quickly
knocking them down, while the soft stem breaks up under
the action of the sun and rain. The cattle and sheep
grow fat as they feed on the oleaginous seed and withering
leaves. In the autumn, other grasses, distinct in variety,
which spring up and cover the ground, obliterate almost
all trace of the fallen thistles. In the autumn and winter
the thistle seed germinates, and the tender leaves of the
16 STATES OF THE RIVER PLATE.

plants, with the various grasses, are fed on by the cattle
and sheep.

The other variety of thistle has a life of several years;
this variety is in fact the wild artichoke, and has the
same colour and foliage as the cultivated plant: the stem
is stout and hard, and makes excellent fuel. This also
occupies large tracts of country; the cattle, horses and
sheep feed on the young leaves, and, by breaking down
the plant with their hoofs, reach the heart, which is
palatable ; they also bite off the thistle head and feed
upon the seed.

There are other tracts of country which, lying low,
produce a coarse reedy herbage and Pampa grass, which,
growing tall and spreading, affords shelter for whole herds
of deer, numberless partridges, large and small; and in
the marshy ground and pools, congregate myriads of wild
ducks, plovers, cranes, spoonbills, flamingos, geese, swans,
wild turkeys, and snipe in the season.

The tracts of land covered by the tall sedgy grasses
are called * pajonales ;’ such portions of them as do not
lie too low are converted into excellent pasture lands
by burning; on a clear dry winter’s day they can be
fired with ease, and without danger. I have seen a
‘pajonal’ fired, and aided in firing -it in fifty different
parts, of a winter’s morning—the flames rising to a con-
siderable height, and travelling with the course of the
wind until some break is reached or some green patch
restrains them. These fires will sometimes continue
through the night, producing a singular effect.

In the summer time, on the great thistle beds, when
the light dry stems are like so much touchwood, there
is great danger of fire; from time to time much damage
is done by the accidental igniting of the dry annual
thistles.
GENERAL.— CAMPO FIRES. 17

These ‘ campo’ fires are often very serious affairs. The
dry thistles standing or leaning over, intersecting each
other at different angles—the long dry grass and trefoil,
laid and entangled, extending over leagues of plain heated
by the sun—are ripe for conflagration. A careless fellow
strikes a light for his cigar, and heedlessly throws down
the match, or drops the live ash or the end of his cigar,
and instantly the grass ignites, and, if there is a breeze, as
instantaneously starts into a blaze, which, spreading right
and left,soon acquires the breadth of hundreds or thousands
of yards, as it sweeps onward, crackling and roaring.
Terrified cattle, mares and sheep, fly before it, or are
driven by affrighted shepherds and herdsmen, enveloped
in curling waves of smoke : sometimes many are encircled
and lapped in the flame. As it sweeps onward, here and
there a taller blaze leaps up, and in a few minutes sinks ;
denser masses of smoke then roll up, and interfolding,
chase each other to the clouds as some thatched ‘ puesto’
is consumed.

Neighbours congregate, anxious and fearful; ‘Trair
yeguas! ’ (bring mares) is the cry ; wild mares are ‘ balled’
or ‘ lassoed ’ and stabbed ; two mounted lasso men attach-
ing themselves to the fore and two to the hind legs, drag
the carcase along some distance ahead of the face of the
on-marching fire ; another and another follow on the same
track, brushing away the dried vegetation, moistening the
ground with the carcase juices, and leaving a cleared belt
over which the flame does not pass ;—the fire is stopped ;
but over the leagues it has traversed lies a soft carpet of
black and grey charcoal dust, out of which arise little
wreathing jets of white smoke ascending from tufts of
strong weeds or from cattle droppings, which continue to
smoulder, and from which, from time to time, lap out
feeble tongues of flame in answer to the wooing breeze.

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