266 To the River Plate and Back 



and subsequently, when I met on the train an en- 

 thusiastic resident of the town and fell into conversation 

 with him, I had the sin of my omission more vividly 

 impressed upon me. He is a banker in Rosario and 

 did not hesitate to inform me in a good-natured way 

 that for a gentleman from North America to have 

 come so near one of the really great commercial centers 

 of South America, and only to have peeped at it from 

 the railway-station, was a very singular procedure. 

 I could only retort by saying, "Eh bien! I have been in 

 Paris four times during the past three years, and each 

 time only stayed long enough to get breakfast and 

 change cars. ' 



When leaving Rosario the locomotive was attached to 

 what had been the rear of our train in coming up from 

 Buenos Aires, and the window of my compartment 

 henceforth faced to the east and not to the west, as it 

 had up to this time. As the sun gradually declined I 

 watched the shadow of the train creep out over the 

 level plain. I have crossed the prairies of Minnesota 

 and the Dakotas, of Kansas and Nebraska, of Manitoba 

 and Alberta ; I have traveled over the steppes of Russia ; 

 but in none of them have I seen such absolutely level 

 lands as those which lie between Rosario and Irigoyen. 

 The horizon is that of the ocean; an upturned clod 

 attracts attention; a hut looks like a house; a tree 

 looms up like a hill. After leaving Rosario stops became 

 more frequent. Just after one of these, as the train 

 was slowly beginning to get under way again, we came 

 up to a herd of cattle on the road alongside of the rail- 

 way track; a young woman on horseback was trying 

 to drive them toward the village we were leaving. For 

 some reason or other the horse she was riding took 

 fright. He reared and plunged and began to buck, but 



