from any likely habitat for a fern, I found three species of these plants on the damp sides of the wells. Two of them I had met with in the neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres, but the third I had never seen except among the mountains of Brazil. The greater part of the estancia consisted of very good land, and it had the great advantage of the river Clè for one of its boundaries, thus securing water for the cattle and a certain quantity of fresh herbage even in dry seasons. The undulations of the land were very slight, and very little wood was to be seen, except in the immediate neighbourhood of the river, the course of which was marked by large and handsome willow-trees. The dry weather and constant heat had injured the grass in some places; but there were few thistles, and in some directions the ground for miles together was covered with long waving grass. The house stood upon a slight eminence, so that, with its surrounding groves of ombù and paradise trees, it was conspicuous for a considerable distance across the camp. Large corrals for sheep, cattle, and horses were close at hand, and from the open door of the room assigned to the visitors we could overlook the proceedings of some of the peons. Old Bob fulfilled the duties of chambermaid to the best of his awkward ability, and generally came in to rouse us very early in the morning. Our room faced the east, and day after day we saw the huge ball of the sun rising in unclouded skies, and flashing its first rays across the level of the plains. CHAPTER XVII. LIFE AT LAS CABEZAS. TROPILLAS OF HORSES A PICTURESQUE BOY-VISITING THE THE morning after our arrival we were dressed early, and ready for our first gallop over the estate. Just as we walked round to the other side of the house, we found the peons driving into a corral the tropilla of horses from which we were to make our selection. The son of our host was reasonably proud of this part of the establishment, and was very particular about the tropillas, in some of which all the horses were of the same colour. It does not, at first, seem an easy thing to bring in horses which are at large upon these boundless plains; but the system adopted in the country does not leave any formidable difficulty. After the first violent and cruel treatment of the domador, or horse-breaker, the animals are arranged in tropillas of any size that may be required by the establishment. Each of them is accompanied by a madrina or mare, whom they learn to follow under all circumstances. The peons know pretty well in what part of the camp to look for her, and when found she is driven to the corral, the others accompanying her as a matter of course. When they have all got into the corral the bar is dropped, and those who want horses walk in amongst them on foot, and either by coaxing or with the aid of the lazo, capture as many as they require. The bar is then removed, and the rest of the tropilla with a thundering rush start forth again over their native plains. We had a tropilla of about forty or fifty roans to select from, three of which we led round to the house and saddled at the door directly after breakfast; but when on the point of starting, we were interrupted by the visit of a native gentleman who had ridden over about eight leagues for a morning call. He had an estancia in that neighbourhood, and was a very agreeable and well-informed man; but a boy whom he brought with him by way of a groom, I suppose, was one of the most picturesque little savages I have ever seen. His dark piercing eyes, with his sun-burnt face and bare legs, would have made a good subject for Murillo; and, though he could not have been more than twelve years old, he had all the bold and defiant bearing of a guerilla chief. His somewhat scanty clothes were shabby in the extreme, and for a saddle he had little more than a piece of old rug; but the stirrups were real curiosities. They consisted of nothing more than the heels cut off an old pair of boots, with holes bored through the middle to admit the strings by which they were fastened to the saddle. When he mounted, the string was held between the great toe and its neighbour, and he seemed perfectly satisfied with the contrivance. Our visitor remained for an early dinner, and it was not till late in the afternoon that we could start for a ride. At last, we had a delightful gallop to some of the distant puestos, where we looked at the sheep and took maté with the shepherds, returning home with the last of the light. In the course of the next few days we paid similar visits to many of the other puestos, and I was much amused by the variety of character and of race exhibited by their occupants. Most of them were natives, grave, serious-looking men, and much given to taciturnity, though not ill-disposed. One was a merry Irishman, burnt to a colour which would astonish his friends in Tipperary, and cherishing a swarthy help-mate who would astonish them still more. We found him sitting under the doorway of the hut, quietly cooling himself after a hot day's work, and playing with a coffee-coloured baby, while the Señora prepared the beef for supper. About a couple of leagues distant another flock was tended by John the German. We jumped off our horses at his door, and found him at home with his German wife and a group of genuine fair-haired, blue-eyed, German children. John was a most worthy fellow, and set a good example of prudence and industry to his neighbours in the camp. He filled up all his spare time by working as a shoemaker, and in a place where everybody was twenty miles from the nearest village he naturally found plenty of occupation. By this means he had been enabled to save all his pay as a puestero, and was beginning to get a small flock of sheep for himself; so that, considering the rapid multiplication of these animals, honest John has a fair chance of making his fortune and dying an estanciero. I was very much pleased with this family, and it was a great treat to see how all their faces brightened up when they found that I could talk to them a little in their own language, which they had probably not heard for many a long day, and could tell them something of what I had seen in their own country. The next puesto after this was occupied by a remarkably fine, handsome young Englishman; his whole appearance and manners were such that I could not help wondering what freak of Fortune could have reduced him to the position of a common shepherd. He was smoking a short pipe in utter solitude; but, though he had no furniture whatever but a truckle-bed and a couple of |