similar to that in passing over the Cambridgeshire fens, going down to Sandringham, though, of course, there are no Cambridgeshire dykes. We passed flocks of emus, and ostriches, and sheep, and herds of cattle and horses ranging, apparently wild, over the grassy and nearly treeless plain. The wire fences extend but a short distance, and most of the way there is nothing to prevent the animals coming on the line. Each engine has a huge projection in front called a "cow-catcher," which shovels and thrusts away from the train any stray animals who may chance to have so far forgotten themselves as to have wandered on to "the way," or fallen asleep upon it Most of us took turns in riding upon this projection, where it was very cool and pleasant to meet the air. The rain that had fallen in the morning had completely laid the dust, which at other times, rising from the dry black soil, is very troublesome to the traveller; this, however, as the grass grows over the line, will much diminish. The railway is to be pushed on to Bahia Blanca (444 miles from Buenos Aires), and ultimately to San Jose, the best harbour on the Patagonian coast. The ironclads which the Argentines are purchasing in Europe cannot get up the Plate to Buenos Aires, but either of these ports they could enter, and if it be necessary for them to establish a naval depôt it could be done there; but as ports for trade they both lie too far to the south, and away from the main river arteries. Railways on this flat country can be constructed at a comparatively small outlay. The 350 miles belonging to this company were laid at a cost of less than three millions sterling. The ordinary stock pays this year eleven per cent. It was built and is managed by an English company; so also is the Eastern Argentine railway and the submarine telegraph between Monte Video and Buenos Aires. All the Argentine State loans have been negotiated in London, and in the public and private undertakings more millions of English money are invested in the Argentine country than those found by all other investors put together. Railways, besides being here great civilisers, vastly improve the value of the land through which they run, on account of the facilities thus afforded for the conveyance of the hides and wool from the interior to the capital. At Las Flores and other stations, we saw a number of bullock waggons from which the wheels are removed for them to be placed bodily on railway trucks for transport, as the wool is said to travel best when thus packed; they are constructed entirely of hides belted over and bulging out at each end. On either side of

the railway there is a course of telegraph wires; those on one side belong to the Government, and those on the other to the Company.

Mr. Shennan (of whom we had heard so much when in the Britannia from Captain Fairfax, who had visited him here when senior officer on the South American station he had had command of H.M.S. Volage), with Mr. St. John was waiting at the Villa Nueva station with two waggonettes, one of them a four-in-hand, to drive us to the estancia Negrete, eight miles off. Right away over the springy turf, as through an interminable field, we drive; to the inexperienced eye there seem no marks by which to tell the road, but here and there in the distance are little clumps of trees and other landmarks, which are known well to the estanciero. The last part of our drive was by starlight; we saw the bizcachos (like large hares), each with his attendant owl, coming out in the dusk to sit beside his hole. They sleep by day, and make their appearance towards sunset; at first they sit by the mouths of their burrows, looking sleepy and drowsy, but after a bit become lively and active enough. They live in families like rabbits. Their bodies are two feet long, covered with grey fur, ears short, eyes large and black, faces a mixture of badger and guinea-pig, tails sometimes a foot long like beavers, only ending in a tuft of black hair. They have also black whiskers, and four long sharp gnawing teeth. There were also numbers of the tero-teros, a sort of large brown plover, only with a horn or spur at the tip of each wing. They rose circling and uttering their melancholy note. We arrived at Negrete at 8.30 P.M., suddenly coming upon this large European house in the midst of its plantations, right out in the middle of the pampas. After dinner turned in rather tired.

Jan. 2nd.-Early this morning we went out into the garden, and found to what a pretty house we had come, for it was too dark last. night to see anything of the grounds. It is only one story high, and is entered from a pillared portico on the exterior, and arranged like all houses out here, round a blue-tiled courtyard with a well in the middle, with iron framework for bucket over it. The water drawn from this well is deliciously cool, and similar water may be drawn anywhere "in Camp," (i.e. " in the country," as contrasted with the town) by sinking wells for about four feet below the surface. About the courtyard are many plants and shrubs, and on to it the bedrooms open. The garden has a fine lawn surrounded by eucalyptus or gum-trees, which seem to flourish everywhere here, and by willow, Scotch fir, poplar and acacia. There are beds of

English flowers, scarlet and variegated geraniums, heliotrope, lovely roses of all sorts, and rows of scarlet gladiolus. In the kitchen garden were apple and pear trees, gooseberries and currants, and plenty of English vegetables of every kind. After breakfast we sat quietly under a tree in the sunshine, observing the birds and insects. First came the brown oven-bird, a sort of pigeon, which builds its nest, of what is apparently mud, at the corners of the eaves of the house in the interior of each of them there is a division down the middle. Then came a large sort of wasp with huge wings, a formidable-looking creature, like the Jack Spaniards at Trinidad, but he doesn't come much into the house; there were multitudes of ants too, black and brown, as industrious as usual, but larger than those in England. Of the birds that were singing, one fellow, called ben-te-reo ("I see you,") from the note he constantly utters, is said to be the same as our Trinidad friend qui êtes-vous, and just as vociferous. At noon we read the Sunday church service, in the drawing-room; where all the furniture is English, and where there is a nice little library of English books and afterwards went for a drive, in two waggonettes, a little way over the pampas, to a 'rodeo' of 400 horses. These consisted of three herds of mares, with one stallion to each herd, who marshals his ladies and never lets them stray. They were driven into the 'rodeo' (or enclosure), from three different directions, by the gauchos; the head one of these was in a Zouave-like suit of black cloth; his broad leathern belt was completely covered with large silver coins, and the scabbard in which he carried his cutlass knife was one mass of silver; the bridle of his horse was silver and leather twisted together, all his horse-trappings were silver mounted, and beneath his stirrups there was a sort of hollow, cup-shaped appendage, turned topsy-turvy, also of silver. He was a fine, stalwart, grey-bearded old fellow, and had been in Mr. Shennan's service for very many years. We saw several colts lassoed out of this herd, which up till to-day had wandered wild on the pampas, and then, for the first time, saddled and mounted. The first taken in hand allowed himself to be mounted at once without much trouble. The gauchos sawed his mouth with the bit at first, and then rode off full gallop between two other mounted gauchos, whose trained steeds kept close alongside the other. The second colt that was lassoed occasioned more trouble than the first, and buck-jumped a good deal; however, he had to give in, for he had found his master. The tails of the mares, some of

VOL. I.

U

them, were like huge clubs, hard and stiff; we cut off a few as a relief to the animals. The hairs of the tail become completely matted and hardened together by means of devil's horns,' which are a kind of seed-pod, each side of which terminates in a large hook about three inches in diameter. These pods accumulate on the tails of the horses as they wander over the pampas. Driving home we stopped to examine the native way of drawing water. Over a tank-like well is suspended, from two crossed sticks, a large wooden scoop-ladle, with a square funnel-shaped handle, which, when tilted up, allows the water to run backwards through itself, and so down into the troughs outside for the cattle. In the well there was a green toad very aged, fat, and large. Then home to lunch. At 4 P.M. we went in another direction over the pampas, some of the party on ponies and the rest in a waggonette. Our course lay through myriads of tall thistles (which cover the ground for acres in some places and are one of the greatest nuisances of the settler), to a cattle rodeo, where there were 3,000 cattle, the largest number that had ever been driven together into one enclosure. A few gauchos rode after them, but no other living thing was visible for miles. It was a fine sight, like an English cattle fair, only that the animals seemed to have more character in their heads, and to be larger and stronger, though not so stout. Several of them were lassoed and bolassed. The lasso is thrown over the animal's horns, or the bolas round their fore or hind legs. The captured animal, in each case, falls on its side. The man who throws the lasso prepares himself, and his horse, for the shock which he will receive when thus brought up sharp. One of our officers tried to throw the bolas as he was galloping about on his steed, but he got them entangled all round the legs of his own horse and his own body, and nearly came to grief; it looks easy enough to throw, but requires much practice. We had thus a very pleasant day, spent quite unrestrainedly in the country. The tero-tero rose shrieking on every side; the prairie owls and the brown pigeon, which utters a cry like, but not the same, as ben-te-reo, alone enlivened the scene, and the only drawback was the flies, which swarmed everywhere.

Jan. 3rd.-After an early breakfast we started-most riding on ponies, and the rest in a waggonette-for a progress over the pampas to a lagoon, fifteen miles off, to shoot wildfowl. The warm, dry, light, fresh air of the pampas with the scent of the wild flowers, with which the grass was full, rendered the drive most enjoyable. The three different sorts of wild verbena, scarlet, white, and lilac,