We visit Buenos Ay res. 29 



known as mate is an infusion of the leaves of the Ilex Para- 

 guayensis, commonly called Paraguay tea, and is usually sucked 

 through metal tubes about ten inches long, from a gracefully 

 carved globular wooden receptacle about the size of an orange. 

 One stock of " yerba " seemed to stand a great many waterings 

 and sugarings, the necessary manipulations for which furnished 

 the ladies with a suitable occupation. It was amusing to watch 

 the eagerness with which the latter sucked away at their mate 

 tubes, the attitude reminding one of a boy using a decoy whistle. 



We anchored off the town of Buenos Ayres at an early hour 

 the next morning, and here the inefficiency of the landing arrange- 

 ments were made unpleasantly manifest. Three different means 

 of locomotion were resorted to, in order to convey us from the 

 steamer to the shore. We were pulled in a small boat for a 

 portion of the way ; then, as the boat grounded, the rowers got 

 out, and, wading alongside, dragged it on for a few hundred yards 

 more. We were then transferred, with our baggage, to a high- 

 wheeled cart, drawn by two horses, which brought us through the 

 last quarter of a mile of shallow water fringing the shore. The 

 cost of effecting a landing was no inconsiderable item in the 

 expense of our trip, and was moreover one calculated to preju- 

 dice unfavourably one's first impression of Buenos Ayres. 



After securing rooms at the Hotel Universal, and breakfasting 

 at the Strangers' Club, where we were most kindly received by 

 the secretary, Mr. Wilson, we proceeded in search of the museum, 

 so celebrated for its collection of fossil remains of the extinct 

 South American mammals, arranged under the direction of 

 Dr. Burmeister. We found the learned Professor enveloped in 

 white dUst, and busily engaged in restoring with plaster of Paris 

 the spinous process of the vertebra of one of his specimens ; and 

 on explaining the object of our visit, he kindly drew our attention 

 to the principal objects of interest in his collection. This museum 

 has already been fully described, and I need hardly allude to the 

 splendid specimens which it possesses of the Glyptodon, Machai- 



