TOPOGEAPHY OF ARGENTINA. 



453 



espedition against the Europeans of whom some forty were massacred. Tandil 

 supplies Buenos Ayres with marbles and other building materials. 



Farther north the town of Azul, formerly Calufa, both terms meaning "blue," 

 lies midway on the line between Buenos Ayres and Bahia Biunca ; in respect of 

 trade and population, Azul is at present the chief place in this inland region. 

 The whole of the pampas from the Plate estuary to Bahia Blanca has already been 

 divided into allotments separated by wire fences. Everywhere the land has its 

 owner ; yet outside the towns few people are met, and little seen except the flocks 

 and their shepherds. Nevertheless Azul and its western neighbour Olavarria are 



Fig. 177. — Eeeatic Bouldees of Tandil. 



'5;j-?%>feV^- 



surrounded by settlements cultivated by peasants of all nationalities, but especially 

 Danes and Russian Mennonites. 



The districts of the province west of Buenos Ayres in the neighbourhood of 

 the Parana and about the inter-oceanic railway, are the most thickly peopled of 

 all the pampas regions. Several thriving places follow along the lines of railway, 

 amongst others Lobos, Veinte y Cinco de Mayo, Mercedes, Chkileoy, Chacabuco, 

 Junin, Pergamino and Arreeifes. Here were first discovered, in 1766, the remains 

 of the great pre-historic animals of Argentina. A megatherium forwarded to 

 Madrid enabled Cuvier, from its description alone, to classify this gigantic sipecies 

 in the animal series. 

 63 



