Life in La Plata 239 



rope as do the cattlemen on our western plains. As, 

 now and then, a party of them came by me on a lope, 

 my mind involuntarily carried me back to the plains of 

 western Nebraska and of Wyoming, and the mesas of 

 our southwestern states, where just such riders, on just 

 such errands bent, used to be a few years ago a daily 

 sight. The days of the cowboy on our plains are 

 numbered, but the guacho of Argentina still has a 

 future before him, as the day of the small farmer has 

 not yet dawned in the land. The "small farmer" in 

 Argentina is to-day a man with only about five thou- 

 sand acres in his possession. One ranch of which I 

 heard is larger than the State of Rhode Island. 



The transportation of crops from the land to the 

 railways is effected by means of peculiar wagons, the 

 like of which I have observed nowhere else. They have 

 but two wheels, about eight feet in diameter, and are 

 drawn by seven or eight horses harnessed abreast, or 

 by three or four yokes of oxen. In such vehicles, very 

 different in appearance from our 'prairie-schooners,' 

 the grain is brought to the railways, thence to be trans- 

 ferred to the great elevators at the ports, whence it is 

 carried to the markets of the world. 



Just as in our western country, so here in the camp 

 the store at the cross-roads is a place of concourse. I 

 have already spoken of the store which we found in the 

 swamps of the Parana, and save that the buildings 

 were not perched upon piles, and the customers did not 

 come to them in boats, the stores which I found scattered 

 here and there on the pampa were just like it in the 

 medley of wares represented upon the shelves and in 

 the character of the goods displayed for sale. 



A pleasant incident during my stay in La Plata was 

 to be invited to join a party of students and their 



