442 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



feet feeds the irrigation rills which ramify over the neighbouring vineyards and 

 orchards. But the gold washings, carried on in the highest gorges of the 

 mountain near the Tomolasta peak, no longer yield adequate returns. 



Villa Mercedes, founded in 1856 under the name of Fuerte Const itucional, has 

 unexpectedly risen to importance, thanks to its position on a fertile plain watered 

 hy the Rio Quinto on the route of the inter-oceanic railway at the point where 

 it turns the Sierra de Cordoba on the south. Villa Mercedes thus occupies an 

 advantageous position as the converging point of the future trunk lines from 

 Cordoba, Rosario, Buenos Ayres, Bahia Blanca, and Mendoza. Founded in a 

 district lately wrested from the Pampas Indians, this place continues to thrive 

 and increase in population at the expense of Achiras and San José del Morro, 

 stations which lie farther north on the old highway to Chili. Villa Mercedes is 

 surrounded bv rich lucerne meadows. 



Towxs OF THE Province of Cordoiîa. 



Rio Caarfo, another busy station of the Argentine railway system, lies, as 

 indicated by its name, on the " Fourth " of the rivers descending from the 

 eastern slopes of the Cordoba mountains. It lies within the province of Cordoba, 

 and, like San Luis, it was long a bulwark against the Pampeans on the extreme 

 frontier of the settled districts of Argentina. It was often besieged, the women 

 and children taking refuge in the churches, while the men fought in the streets. 

 Since the return of peace its agricultural resources have been developed by the 

 construction of irrigation works, and at present Rio Cuarto is the second city in 

 the province. 



Another outlet for the produce of the district is afforded by the twin towns 

 of Villa Maria and Villa Nnera, the former on the left, the latter on the right 

 bank of the Rio Tercero, which is here crossed by a railway bridge. 



Fraijle Mnerto, the first agricultural colony in this district, was founded by 

 English settlers in 1868 ; but it never prospered, and the colonists dispersed. 

 Since then peasants of other nationalities have arrived in large numbers, and the 

 country about BcII-tHIc, as Frayle Muerto is now called, has been brought largely 

 under cultivation, yielding rich crops of lucerne and wheat. 



This place is associated with the fortunes of the ill-fated Henley colony. 

 Some years ago there arrived from England " a strange crew of young English 

 gentlemen, with the ostensible object of cattle-farming. If energy and skill in 

 cuna-drinking and horse-racing are the sole requisites for a cattle-farmer, then 

 none could be better than these. These young men, unsteady, fresh from school 

 and college and regiment, without practical knowledge of anything, arrived at 

 Rosario in a batch, and considerably astonished the natives by their manners and 

 customs. The Ilenleyites came down on the land in the fashion of a hostile 

 army. They had a uniform of which a plumed helmet was not the least con- 

 spicuous article ; each was provided with a regulation rifle, revolver, and sabre, 

 besides an arsenal of wonderful weapons he took on his own account in addition. 



