352 Extracts from the 



and so thither they went, and there the cartridges are still. 

 I remained for a week at the Hotel de Londres, and then 

 went to live at Palerma, a suburb of the city, where there 

 is a fine park and zoological gardens. Buenos Aires is a very 

 European-looking city. The streets all run at right angles 

 to one another and are equidistant. The city is thus divided 

 into blocks of 150 yards square, each containing a hundred 

 numbers. The numbers upon the houses in one set of 

 streets indicates their distance from the river, those upon 

 the other series their distance from a central street, the Biva- 

 davia. In this way it is impossible for a person to get lost, 

 for all he has to do is to go to the nearest corner, when the 

 number of the house on each side gives him the ordinates of 

 his position, one giving the number of squares distant from 

 the river, the other the number of squares distant from Biva- 

 davia, the central street of the city. The houses and public 

 buildings are built of brick covered with stucco, which gives 

 them a very unsubstantial appearance compared with the 

 great buildings at home. The architecture, on the whole, is 

 extremely disappointing. The houses in the city are several- 

 storeyed, in the form of hollow squares, the patio or court- 

 yard in the centre being open to the sky. The houses in the 

 suburbs are one-storeyed, and either in the form of a quad- 

 rangle or simply a straight row of rooms, opening en suite 

 and also by French windows on to the patio. Passing along 

 most of the important streets of the city are tramways, which 

 are very well patronized, the inhabitants never walking if 

 they can help it. This is due partly to the execrable pave- 

 ment. Bough cuboidal masses of stone are used for paving the 

 streets, but the contractors have invariably scamped the work, 

 laying down the paving blocks without any foundation, so that 

 in a short time the condition of the streets is worse than if 

 there were no pavement at all. Add to this the utter failure 

 of the drainage system, which causes the streets after a heavy 

 thunder-shower to be converted into rushing torrents. In 

 the centre of the city is a large square, the Plaza Victoria, 

 and in this are situated the chief public buildings — the 

 Government House, Cathedral, Congress Hall, &c. 



