252 To the River Plate and Back 



fragments as would have filled the hollow of a man's 

 hand which had not been restored to their places, and 

 almost all of these were inside pieces, the omission of 

 which would not be noticed, and which in fact were 

 already replaced by cement. When the work was done 

 we invited Dr. Tschernychew, the Director of the 

 Museum, to examine it, and he expressed his entire 

 satisfaction. The next time we went through with the 

 task of swinging the big thing into place we took the 

 precaution to lock the doors, and to ask some of 

 the higher officials of the Museum to stand by the 

 ropes. Since then we have invented a contrivance, 

 which enables us to dispense with the assistance of 

 helpers, and makes the repetition of such an occurrence 

 impossible, as we believe. 



Everything went well in Argentina. At last the 

 replica stood in place, its head pointing to the rotunda, 

 and we were able to tell the cabinet-makers to apply 

 the finishing touches to the beautiful bases. These were 

 made of the wood of the southern walnut (Juglans 

 australis) which resembles the lumber of our own black 

 walnut, but appears to be somewhat denser, finer 

 grained, and not quite as dark in color. The tree 

 grows on the foot-hills of the Andes. 



Having completed the work of installing the speci- 

 men, it became my duty, as the representative of Mr. 

 Carnegie, to report to the President the accomplish- 

 ment of the errand upon which I had been sent. I 

 had received through Mr. Garrett, the Minister of the 

 United States, an intimation that it would be the 

 pleasure of the President to receive me on the after- 

 noon of October I5th, at three o'clock. In company 

 with Mr. Garrett, I repaired to the Executive Mansion 

 at the appointed hour. We were cordially welcomed 



