464 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



brick-fields. Later, the cattle-owners derived a sufficient revenue from the sale 

 of the hides, the tasajo or jerked meat, and the animal black obtained from the 

 combustion of the bones. Nothing could be more primitive than the manao-e- 

 ment of the Argentine estaiicias, or cattle-farms. The animals lived throuo-hout 

 the year under the canopy of heaven, and after being duly branded, were practi- 

 cally left to themselves. Thus they reverted to a half-wild state, and when 

 wanted had to be captured, like game, with the lasso. The bola was even occasion- 

 ally used for the purpo-e. 



After the introduction of the horse by Solis, horned cattle arrived by the 

 Paraguay route. In 1550 an envoy of Iralu, returning from Peru, brouo-ht 

 back some sheep and goats, and three years afterwards, the brothers Goes came 

 into Paragua}^ from Sao Vicente with a bull and eight cows. From this stock, 

 originally from the South of Spain, have descended the millions of oxen that now 

 people the savannas of the Plateau Republics. In these regions the European 

 breed has lost none of its natural qualities, and appears to have undergone 

 scarcely any change. The new environment suits it as well as the old, and it 

 retains its characteristics throughout Argentina for a space of over 1,200 miles, 

 from North Chaco to the plains of Bahia Blanca. 



The size, however, is modified by the quality of the pasturage, the animal 

 being small in the arid Catamarca districts, larger in the rich prairie lands of 

 Entre-Rios, while the finest breed is that of Miranda from Matto Grosso. On 

 the plains all multiply prodigiously, a well-managed herd doubling every three 

 years. The ahados, that is, the animals which had run wild, increased even at a 

 still more rapid rate, and these were hunted by the Spaniards of the pampas only 

 for their hides. The process, which was carried out in a very rude and barbarous 

 way, has been suppressed since the settlement of the country, and at present 

 nearly all the herds have again been domesticated. 



In the lower Pao Negro valley, the swine have also reverted to the wild state, 

 without increasing or decreasing in numbers. Hudson relates a pathetic story of 

 a runaway cow, which became a sort of foster-mother to a drove of wild pigs in 

 an island of the Rio Negro, where all lived together in a happy family till " the 

 fame of the cow that had become the leader and queen of the wild island pigs 

 was spread abroad in the valley." * Then somebody took a musket loaded with 

 ball and shot the queen in the midst of her body-guard. 



The baguale-'i, or wild horses, have become even rarer than the alzados ; few 

 are now met except in South Patagonia, where they are scarcely pursued, except 

 as game by sportsmen. As mounts they are worthless. 



Of Arab stock, crossed by the Andalusian variety, the Argentine horse is as 

 a rule very docile, hardy, and of great staying power. But till recently little 

 attention was paid to its points of beauty, and it is still of small size Avith very 

 large head. Mules are also bred, especially in the province of Cordoba. Formerly 

 these animals were exported to Peru to work in the mines ; at present they are 

 raised chiefly for the Bolivian and Chilian markets. Throughout the upland 



* Op. cit., p. 59. 



