Expedition to Tucuman and Salta. 413 
I broke the key of one of my boxes ; it was 4 p.m. before I 
could get it repaired. 
Rosario seems a very dull inactive place, and the natives I 
have seen have been either smoking or drinking maté, with 
few exceptions. The proverb of putting the cart before the 
horse is a common one in England, but it is carried out to 
the letter in Rosario. The carts are fitted with one pole, to 
one side of which the horse is fastened by the rinch or girth 
at his side. The animal thus, when the road is rough, some- 
times turns round, and almost facing the cart, pushes it in 
front of him. The horses are finer than those in Buenos 
Ayres. 
I bought some snails from an itinerant vendor this after- 
noon, and after taking out the insides as well as I could, I 
put them in paper and labelled them “ Land-Shells, Rosario.” 
I found them very common. 
The weather is extremely cold; the thermometer in the 
shade at 5 p.m. to day was 44° Fahr. 
May 16. Left the Central Argentine station at daylight 
this morning, 6 a.m. Shortly before arriving at Roldan we 
passed seven tropillas of mules, fifty in each, tended by four 
men. ‘These were laden with wine and other produce from 
San Juan and Mendoza, each animal carrying from 100 to 
150 lbs. weight. They travel very slowly, not going out of a 
walk. The country up to Tortugas is undulating pampa, 
with a stiff argillaceous soil; the grass is coarse, but well 
adapted for cattle. About Roldan and Caiiada de Gomez 
much maize and alfalfe is cultivated ; but the land being fal- 
low at this season, I was unable to see what other cereals it 
produces. Up to Tortugas, with the exception of a few 
Buteo erythronotus, 1 saw no birds I was not familiar with 
in Buenos Ayres. Much of the land is swampy, with some 
lagoons. 
After leaving Tortugas the country becomes more wooded 
with tala, chanar, and algaube, the latter a dark-red thorn 
and much used in Buenos Ayres for fuel, the two former 
white thorns, and of no value for firewood, but useful for 
making corrals and for building-purposes. As we near Belle- 
