480 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



locally called. Lying from 100 to 120 feet lov\er than Jujuy, but more to the 

 south, Salta cultivates plants of the temperate zone, so that the district presents a 

 somewhat European aspect. Like Jujuy, it relies chiefly on its transit trade with 

 Bolivia and Chili, and about a tenth of the inhabitants are of Bolivian origin. 

 In the neighbourhood Belgrano gained a first success over the Spaniards in 1812, 

 and in honour of this victor}^ the province adopted the black and blue colours now 

 incorporated in the Argentine flag. 



Southwards follow several large agricultural villages, such as CacJii, which 

 gives its name to the neighbouring plateaux and nevados, Scot José, Molinos, 

 San Carlos, Cafalate, all of which places make excellent wines and raise crops of 

 the famed Trigo de los VaUes, " Valley wheat." The mules and horned cattle 

 bred by the Christian Calchaquis of the district are highly esteemed throughout 

 Argentina and Chili. 



On the railway between Salta and Tucuman the chief station is Rosnrio de la 

 Frontera, on a head stream of the Juramento. Here are sugar and tobacco 

 plantations, and here is made the cheese known in every part of Argentina by 

 the name of tafi. In summer invalids flock to the neighbouring thermal waters, 

 which have a temperature of over 167° Fahr., and are said to be very efiicacious. 

 The whole district abounds in sulphurous and other hot springs, which, however, 

 are little utilised by the natives. 



According to Brackebusch the heat of these springs is due, not to the igneous 

 character of the ground, but to the action of the iron pyrites which are contained 

 in large quantities in the surrounding schistose limestone mountains, and which 

 at contact with water liberate a high degree of heat. These formations are also 

 charged with petroleum, which is distilled in the lower depths, and which may 

 perhaps explain the local earthquakes and the inflammable gas-jets occasionally 

 seen above the surface. 



Towns of the Province of Tucuman. 



The province of Tucuman, certainly one of the richest of Argentine, has been 

 described in somewhat extravagant language by native and even by some European 

 writers. Sarmiento speaks of it as a tropical land, where nature has displayed its 

 greatest pomp, the garden of Argentine, the Eden of America, without a rival on 

 the face of the earth, covered with sugar-cane brakes, orange and myrtle groves, 

 the resort of gaudy butterflies, brilliant humming-birds, green parrots, blue 

 magpies, golden toucans, and so forth. But this idyllic picture has its reverse 

 side, and Tucuman with all its advantages undoubtedly suffers from some serious 

 drawbacks. The dangerous and wasting clincJni fever is endemic, especially in 

 the marshy districts infested by mosquitoes, which alone seem capable of resisting 

 the malarious exhalations which rise from the black mud festering in the hot sun. 



Another much-dreaded scourge are the swarms of locusts, which at times 

 transform entire districts to lifeless solitudes. From the multitudes of these 

 winged pests the whole landscape at times assumes a russet colour like that of 



