66 THE OASES OF THE NORTH-WEST 



long time. They make a deep impression on the popular 

 imagination, and legend makes plagues of them, in the 

 Biblical way. The drought of 1884 was particularly 

 disastrous. The herds were destroyed, and families 

 that had been wealthy the day before set out on foot, 

 " having nothing to put a saddle on " : a touching 

 picture of misery for this race of centaurs, people who 

 feel themselves mutilated when they are not on 

 horse. The rain returns next year. The pasture 

 grows all the better because the herd is smaller, and 

 the Llanos give the traveller who crosses them an 

 exaggerated impression of their natural wealth. 



Until quite a recent date the cattle reared in the 

 Llanos were destined exclusively for Chile. Dealers 

 from Jachal or Tinogasta came in the autumn, and the 

 cattle passed the winter in the invernadas at the foot 

 of the Cordillera. From the Sierra d'Ulapes, which 

 is a southward continuation of the Llanos, the cattle 

 destined for Chile were first sent to San Juan. They 

 took one or two weeks to reach it. Five men were 

 needed for a herd of a hundred beasts : eight for a 

 herd of two hundred. The caravan was directed by 

 an estanciero (rancher) or his capataz, or by dealers 

 who came originally from the Llanos. 



Exports to Chile have not entirely ceased. In 1913 

 the dealers from Tinogasta and Jachal, who had not 

 appeared in 1912, came back. The southern part 

 of the Sierra d'Ulapes, which is some distance from the 

 railway, reserves its cattle for San Juan. The cattle 

 are, however, more and more sent by rail to the coast. 

 In the Sierra d'Ulapes the dealers from Villa Mercedes, 

 which has become one of the great markets of Argentina, 

 come every year, rent an enclosure [protrero), and collect 

 in it, one by one, a herd of cattle, which they then 

 take away on foot. They are sold at the fair at Villa 

 Mercedes, and they disperse in every direction toward 

 the fattening zones of the Pampa. 



This commercial revolution has led to a rise in the 



