BACK TO CIVILISATION 



179 



was scarcely a pleasure to see cognac acKertisements again, and to 

 smell the dregs of yesterday yet awash on the greasy grey metal 

 counter ! A concertina was playing the old aching tunes that 

 always seem to carry with them tags of vice and crime. 



RESIDENTS OK SANTA CKLV. 



We pushed on for Santa Cruz, and on the way passed the 

 house of another trader, who also sold liquor. It squatted beside 

 the river, which here flowed blue and estu3ry-like between white- 

 faced cliffs backed bv bald hills. A board over the door of 

 the shop bore the legend ''La Gaviota^' or Seagull. It was 

 evidently part of the wreckage of some boat washed up on these 

 beaches. 



Santa Cruz town is situated on the b<uiks ol a lar^c cstiiarx" 

 formed by the junction of the ri\ers Santa Cruz and the Southern 

 Chico before they fall into the Atlantic. It is a straggling place, a 

 collection of wooden houses with roofs of corrugated iron. The chief 

 export is wool, which in the season lies in long rows of bales ujxm 



