ANIMAL LIFE ON THE PAMPAS. 



501 



improbable tbat in the pampas and lianas of South America there are more cattle than 

 in all the rest of the globe. Strain, who rode across the pampas, was told that in a 

 single year ten millions of hides were exported from Buenos Ayres. Knowing that 

 the census of 1840 gave but fifteen millions in the United States, this statement seemed 

 incredible. But when day after day he saw from every slight swell herd after herd, 

 blackening the whole expanse, until they became mere specks in the distance, and re- 



CATTLE-IIUNTING ON THE PAMPAS. 



fleeted that the millions upon millions which he saw were but fractions of those spread 

 for hundreds of thousands of square miles, he could give credit to the statement. 

 The annual slaughter of millions seems to have no sensible effect in diminishing the 

 numbers of the survivors. These herds belong mainly to wealthy estancieros. The 

 extent of some of these estancias and the number of the herds is almost incredible. The 

 estate of San Jose, belonging to Urquiza, late President of the Argentine Confedera- 

 tion, covered an area of several hundred square miles, and upon it he had 2,000 horses, 

 40,000 head of cattle, and 70,000 sheep, and this is but one out of his many estates.* 



* Page's La Plata, 52, 59. 



