THE DILIGENCE 219 



aiguades had dried up. The season was a matter for 

 consideration. In the Buenos Aires district the winter 

 made the ground sodden and traffic difficult. Farther 

 north, winter is the dry season, so that pasture was 

 scarce, and it was difficult to feed the tropas. The 

 summer had difficulties of its own. In January and 

 February the floods of the Rio Dulce often made it 

 impossible to cross the ford at Santiago. The carriers 

 preferred to start from the northern provinces about 

 the end of the summer, in April or May. The best 

 season for leaving Buenos Aires was the spring, from 

 August to November. In this way each tropa could 

 make the double journey once a year. 



There had been attempts to speed up the transport 

 before the railways were made. The galera (diligence), 

 with its swarm of horses harnessed with the cincha 

 (saddle to which the lasso was attached), did not 

 carry goods. It did not replace the convoy of wagons, 

 but the tropilla of spare horses which travellers on the 

 plain drove before them. The galeria went from 

 Rosario to Cordoba in three days and to Mendoza in 

 ten days, and from Cordoba to Salta in fourteen days. 

 About 1860 a quicker goods service was organized, 

 light wagons drawn by mules replacing the ox-wagons. 

 They made the journey from Rosario to Cordoba in 

 six days. Similarly, on the Pampa, the ox-wagons 

 had been replaced before 1889 by quicker wagons, 

 drawn by horses, to convey wool from the ranches to 

 the railway stations. 



The cost of transport by wagon was, naturally, 

 high. It also varied a good deal, but we cannot 

 possibly go into these variations here. It will be 

 enough to give, by way of illustration, the details 

 which Hutchinson gives for the year 1862. The 

 freightage was fixed either for a complete load of 

 150 arrobes (1,725 kgs.) or so much per arrobe (nj 

 kgs.). Conveying a load from Rosario to Cordoba 

 cost forty to fifty piastres (eight to ten pounds). The 



