AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 47 



These computations were made from observations taken in 1880, but 

 they are equally good at present, owing to the very slight variations in 

 the daily readings for any year. 



In regard to the seasons, it will be borne in mind that, being south 

 of the equator, they are exactly opposite to those of the United States, 

 viz: Spring, September, October, November; summer, December, Jan- 

 uary, and February; autumn, March, April, and May; winter, June, 

 July, and August. The seasons, however, run into each other so 

 imperceptibly that in reality the year here may be divided into two 

 seasons; the warm, which extends from October to April, inclusive, 

 i. e., seven months; and the cool, which extends from May to Septem- 

 ber, inclusive, i. e., five months. 



GENERAL BUILDING-. 



In regard to the construction of the buildings of this country, the 

 houses, in the early days of its history, met the necessities of the people 

 in a very primitive way. No particular consideration was given to the 

 modern idea of comfort. Very little wood entered into their construc- 

 tion. Mud bricks and a very poor article of mortar were the principal 

 ingredients, and the style was the old-fashioned one-story, shambling 

 house, with a flat, or "azotea," roof, also of brick, constructed after the 

 manner of the Moorish dwellings of early Spain, with a court in the 

 center. As this was before the era of coal shipments from England, 

 and there was little wood in the country nearer than the Gran Ohaco, 

 they made no fireplaces or other provision in the houses for fires; and 

 the inhabitants, in a comfortless way, when the winter was upon them, 

 huddled around an iron Eraser a of smouldering charcoal set in the mid- 

 dle of the room, or went without fire altogether. But with the opening of 

 the coal trade with Great Britain, and the utilization of the upper river 

 forests, there has gradually been a great change in the architecture and 

 conveniences of the houses of Buenos Ayres, and during these late 

 years, in their general appearance, in their internal arrangements, and 

 in the use of fireplaces, grates, stoves, and furnaces the houses remind 

 one of the dwellings and business blocks of the cities of the United 

 States. 



As to the extent to which general building is carried on in Buenos 

 Ayres at the present time, it may be said that this branch of industry 

 is at present somewhat depressed. There is no activity in house build- 

 ing, ship-building or railway-building. In all these interests the coun- 

 try for the last three or four years has been so severely affected by the 

 financial crisis, which has not only caused the Government to default, 

 but many business men to go into bankruptcy, that there has been a 

 decided let-up in all classes of construction. Indeed, during the 

 "boom" which preceded the crisis, building of all kinds was so greatly 

 overdone that that branch of business was among the first to feel the 

 effects of the stringency. 



