ARGENTINA 83 



down to reappear later as Bovril and Liebig's extract on the 

 dining tables of effete Europeans. The export freezing trade 

 of the Plate does not touch this class of stock ; it is the roughage 

 of the Republic, and prices rule accordingly. From 10 dollars 

 to 15 dollars gold is the common quotation for fat steers or 

 cows. The number of animals treated by the Entre Rios fac- 

 tories is very large, while the total that vanishes by way of the 

 Mesopotamia every year into the choppers ' yards and the melting 

 pots is over half a million. 



"From the extreme N.E. corner stretching towards the centre 

 of the Entreriano Peninsula lies one of the unknown and wholly- 

 unexplored portions of the Argentine Republic. The great 

 lagoon of "shining waters," the "libera," lays under tribute 

 directly or indirectly some 2000 square miles of land. Although 

 the source of the rivers Corrientes and Merinay, its level seldom 

 alters, nor is it sensibly affected by prolonged droughts. Its 

 neighbourhood is heralded by an endless succession of ' ' tacurus ' ' 

 (red ant heaps), which stand from 3 to 6 ft. above the ground, 

 or water, as the case may be. When dry, the whole landscape 

 much resembles a gigantic Chinese graveyard, while the holes 

 under these heaps are the refuge of innumerable snakes. On 

 the edge of the permanent water grows a high, almost impene- 

 trable fringe of rushes. In the inner lake the fecundity of 

 aquatic growth under a tropical sun has led to the formation 

 of islands, that change their shape and station as the capricious 

 winds and floods direct. These floating "terra firma" harbour, 

 amongst other inmates, the gigantic anaconda, a water snake, 

 that attains over 20 ft. in length, and in girth the thickness of 

 a man's body. Here it lies, as the natives firmly believe, wait- 

 ing to devour the hapless gaucho, horse, and all, who shall 

 w^ander lost in the marshy labyrinths. On these islands, too, 

 superstition places the last refuge of the Jesuit fathers, driven 

 from their pleasant missions to these dark swamps by the greed 

 of the ferocious Mamelukes. Here they still direct their devoted 

 followers of a race fairer and taller than those known to-day, 

 and here at eventide the watcher may hear the faint tolling of 

 the vesper bell, and watch the lanterns move that shed their 

 flickering light over the faithful congregation. 



"It is easy from our seat in the railway car (but a few years 

 ago on its first .-journey through the province) to wave aside 

 such idle tales with the smoke of an after-dinner cigar, but the 

 half-Indian peasant of Corrientes is but a step removed from 

 the serf of the Spanish occupation. Modern sophistry will 



