GALLEGOS. 33 



were soon to learn meant in Argentina any time after eleven A. M. 

 After we had waited for several hours, Seflor Villegrand made his appear- 

 ance, our horses were brought out and saddled with our own saddles, 

 while the Seftor with the assistance of pretty much the entire official staff, 

 including the Governor and the police force, succeeded in harnessing and 

 hitching to a heavy, cumbersome, two-wheeled English cart, fitted with 

 shafts, a rather stylish looking but ridiculously small pony, considering 

 the size of the cart. When, after a considerable delay, all was in readiness 

 for the start, this cart-horse, notwithstanding the many virtues of which he 

 had been said to be possessed, proved to be quite refractory, continually 

 insisting on going backward rather than forward. However, after some 

 delay, with a little encouragement he was induced to make a start, and 

 we were soon on our way to Guer Aike, eighteen miles up the river from 

 Gallegos, where we were to stop for the night. The young Argentinian 

 and the policemen had gone on ahead with the troop of horses, while Mr. 

 Peterson and I remained behind with Seflor Villegrand. The latter urged 

 his steed on at an ever increasing gait, with the utmost disregard for the 

 character of the roads, so that I expected every moment to see the vehicle 

 upset or the driver thrown from his seat and seriously injured. However, 

 no such misfortune befell either, as we dashed along at a nine-mile gait for 

 an hour or more toward our destination. So fast did we travel that there 

 was little opportunity for making any observations concerning the nature 

 of the country, or its fauna and flora. For a distance of some ten miles 

 from Gallegos the road led straight across the almost perfectly level sur- 

 face of a low, shingle-formed plain covered with scattered tufts of grass, 

 which at this season was brown and withered. Suddenly we came to a 

 depression some thirty feet in depth, which formed the bed of a dry water 

 course leading from the plain to the Gallegos River. The road descended 

 rather abruptly into this, and down into it plunged our team and driver with- 

 out so much as an attempt at checking their speed. Having arrived safely at 

 the bottom, a stop was made, in order to take advantage of the protection 

 offered from the wind for lighting a cigarette. It was an unfortunate stop, 

 however, for, the cigarette lighted, the cart-horse refused to go, and no 

 amount of encouragement could induce him to change his mind. After 

 some time spent in a vain endeavor to relieve the situation, I bethought me 

 of the expedient of snubbing from the saddle horn, so often tried with sig- 

 nal success at home. Taking down the hard-twist saddle rope which, with 



