NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 435 



western provinces. The first expedition now chronicled is in a 

 nearly opposite direction, the present volume opening with the 

 description of a trip up the great Eiver Uruguay, which divides 

 the Eepublic of that name from the Argentine provinces of 

 Entre Bios and Corrientes. The scenery on this water-highway 

 is more picturesque than on the lower Parana ; but this variety, 

 which is not without its charms, is accompanied by greater 

 dangers in navigation, at the same time that, owing largely to 

 foreign colonisation and energy, there is far greater industrial 

 development on the banks of the Uruguay than on those of the 

 sister-tributary to the estuary of the La Plata. Fray Bentos, of 

 Liebig's extractum camis celebrity : Paysandu, famous for 

 ox-tongues, and the process of slaughtering cattle at the " Sala- 

 deros," are successively described; the first main halting being 

 at Concordia, where, owing to rapids higher up, the regular 

 navigation of the Uruguay practically ends. A railway con- 

 tinues about a hundred miles further to Monte Caseros, and a 

 great future is predicted for its extension. Concordia was a 

 good base for excursions, and we select the following from the 

 author's description of a visit to an island in the river, as con- 

 veying information upon a variety of subjects : — 



" The Helicida, or land-snails, are very widely distributed in genera and 

 species over most of the eminences throughout the Republic, and one 

 genus, the Caracol, is eaten in large quantity in Buenos Aires : indeed I 

 knew one respectable young man whose custom it was to visit the chief 

 cemetery of the town to gather and devour them raw : nor is it wonderful 

 that these gasteropod mollusks, seeing that they are phytiphagous [sic], 

 should in the ancient 'cochlearia,' as in the modern 'escargatoire,' be 

 for fattened the table." 



This is indeed an improvement upon economic funerals, or 

 cremation, when a descendant can derive second-hand nourish- 

 ment from his ancestors without even the trouble or expense of 

 cooking. But to continue : — 



" A splash attracts our attention, and, looking round, I half expected 

 to see the gambols of the elegant porpesse (sic), but instead thereof appeared 

 the rolling gait of the unweildy Carpincho (Hydroclicerus capybara), who, 

 however, is a splendid diver, and swims remarkably well; and then just 

 skimming the waters a most lovely pair of dark green Kingfishers with 

 snowy ruffs (Meyaceryle torquata) dart by, unrivalled as pescadores, whilst 



