144 A BOOK-LOVER'S HOLIDAYS 



were the lines of great two-wheeled carts, each 

 dragged by five mules, three in the lead, with 

 two wheelers, or else perhaps drawn by four 

 or six oxen. For the most part these carts 

 were carrying wool or hides. Occasionally we 

 came on great pastures surrounded by wire 

 fences. Elsewhere the stony, desolate land lay 

 as it had lain from time immemorial. We saw 

 many flocks of sheep, and many herds of horses, 

 among which piebald horses were unusually 

 plentiful. There were a good many cattle, too, 

 and on two or three occasions we saw flocks of 

 goats. It was a wild, rough country, and in 

 such a country life is hard for both man and 

 beast. Everywhere along the trail were the 

 skeletons and dried carcasses of cattle, and oc- 

 casionally horses. Yet there were almost no 

 carrion birds, no ravens or crows, no small 

 vultures, although once very high up in the air 

 we saw a great condor. Indeed, wild life was 

 not plentiful, although we saw ostriches — the 

 South American rhea — and there was an oc- 

 casional guanaco, or wild llama. Foxes were 

 certainly abundant, because at the squalid 

 little country stores there were hundreds of 

 their skins and also many skunk skins. 



Now and then we passed ranch-houses. 

 There might be two or three fairly close to- 



