BAH I A BLANCA. 15 



roadstead, or of the not too distant shores, as from a polished surface of 

 silver. A noble stream indeed is the River Plate, when from this point, 

 at a distance of 150 miles from its mouth, its breadth is such that it is 

 impossible to see the opposite shores of Uruguay, notwithstanding the 

 advantageous atmospheric conditions. The favorable impression which 

 this river first made upon me was enhanced rather than decreased by a 

 journey made some three years later, for a distance of more than 900 miles 

 up its waters into the interior of South America. As the sun disappeared 

 beneath the western horizon the last of the cathedral spires of the great 

 city were lost to view. With fine weather and a smooth sea we made 

 good progress, and on the morning of the i8th of April, when I awoke 

 and went on deck, a most novel sight was presented. All about the 

 ship's sides were great salt marshes covered with a luxuriant growth of 

 grass that stretched away for miles on either hand. Straight behind and 

 in front of us was a narrow channel of water, so narrow indeed, that as we 

 looked about, the impression received was that of steaming through a 

 great morass or swamp, a rather unusual procedure for an ocean-going 

 vessel. We were in fact entering the port of Bahia Blanca, styled by the 

 Argentinians "the Liverpool of the South," though I thought this a 

 somewhat too aspiring title. We were soon at anchor near the end of 

 the only mole of which at that time the "Liverpool of the South" could 

 boast. At this mole three or four large freight steamers were busy load- 

 ing wheat and cattle for Europe, which were delivered at the mole by a 

 single track railroad, that connected the port with the city of Bahia Blanca, 

 located some miles inland. 



Since we were to spend the greater portion of the day here in embark- 

 ing a company of some sixty Argentine soldiers to be taken to Santa 

 Cruz, we improved the first opportunity of going on shore. From a 

 scenic standpoint nothing could be more uninteresting than the country 

 immediately surrounding this port The almost level surface seemed but 

 recently to have been recovered from the sea and was but poorly covered 

 with vegetation, consisting for the most part of low grasses, with occa- 

 sional shrubs and bushes. Even this scanty vegetation occurred only in' 

 patches, such areas alternating with others of equal or even greater 

 extent, where, instead of a scanty vegetation, the surface was covered with 

 alkaline salts (chiefly sodium sulphate) which in dry weather has the 

 appearance of a light fall of snow. Away in the distance, forty miles to 



