452 



AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



near Mar Chiqnita, and on the soutli coast near Necochea at the mouth of the Uio 

 Quequen. 



The railway connecting Mar del Plata with Buenos Ay res passes Chascomus, 

 " Lake Town," so named from the surrounding lagoons, beyond which follow the 

 stations of Dolores and Maipu, with a branch at this f)lace running to the 

 picturesque town of Tandil (650 feet), at the issue of a broad gap in the range 

 stretching in the direction of Cape Corrientes. This pass of Tandil was the 



Fig. 176. — Mount Tandil at Cape Coeeientes. 

 Scale 1 : 2,000,000. 



gateway through which the predatory Indians penetrated into the plains of 

 Buenos Ayres. Hence, in 1822, a fort was erected at this strategical point. 



Some miles from Tandil is seen the famous piedra movediza, or " logging rock,'* 

 an erratic boulder weighing 270 toiïs, poised at a single point of its broad base 

 on a steep granite cliff. Although it sways in the wind, according to a local 

 tradition a team of thirty oxen failed to upset it. This block was sacred in 

 the eyes of the Indians, and is still regarded with awe by the Gauchos. On 

 January 1st, 1873, a band of about 100 natives made it their trysting-place on an 



