1895.] ESSAYS. 45 



when we admired the oleander in the window-garden and listened to 

 the following story : " When Hero's lover was washed ashore by the 

 waves she buried him under an oleander tree, where she was accus- 

 tomed to sit and mourn. A traveller chanciog to pass was attracted 

 by the rare beauty of the flowers, and inquired the name. Hero was 

 so absorbed with her grief that she could only repeat, ' O, Leander ! 

 O, Leander ! ' The traveller, thinking she had told him the name of 

 the flower, wrote it down in his note-book." 



The firefly is very brilliant. I could read by its light, moving it 

 along beneath each line. I was told that the natives use them for 

 lanterns. 



The Rio de la Plata, or silver river, is the widest river in the world. 

 At Montevideo the width is sixty-two miles. At Buenos Ayres ships 

 can now lay alongside the wharves to discharge cargo. Formerly 

 they anchored several miles from the city, and were at the mercy of 

 the dreadful pampero winds, which occasionally sweep across the tree- 

 less plains. The seasons here are just the opposite of ours, — June 

 21st being the shortest day and December 21st the longest. The 

 climate is very fine and the winters mild. The streets are laid out regu- 

 larly. You can take a street-car, or tramway as it is called there, 

 and soon reach the plains, which stretch away for miles and miles, 

 where the cattle roam wild. The half-civilized life of the cattlemen 

 causes them to consider one who cannot throw the lasso over the 

 horns of a wild animal as effeminate. In the city you fiud cultivated 

 people of all classes from Europe and North America. We attended 

 church and found a large congregation of people from North America. 



We visited the museum, and were greatly interested in the various 

 animals which inhabit the forests of South America. There was an 

 enormous boa-constrictor, stuffed and festooned on one side of the 

 hall. It was as large round as a water pail, and I did not find it hard 

 to believe that they could swallow an ox. I should rather not meet 

 one alive. We took on board a cargo of hides and wool, and half a 

 dozen live sheep for food. A few years ago the cholera broke out in 

 Buenos Ayres and created a panic. The dead bodies were carted off 

 in cart-loads, and sprinkled with lime and burned. In Mendoza, 

 one-half of the inhabitants were wiped out by cholera. Rosario, on 

 the Parana River, suffered terribly. There is no better climate any- 

 where ; but the sewage of so large a city was in a dreadful condition, 

 and Buenos Ayres had to learn a lesson. 



The island of Cuba is 6G0 miles long. It is the '' Queen of the 

 Antilles," and furnishes one-fifth part of the world's sugar. The 



