THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



605 



tribes liviug on tlie eastern slopes of the Andes comtucneeil to use lioraed 

 cattle for food,* though tliey still prefer horse meat. In those early 

 days nearly all the cattle on the pampas were wild (alsados), and most 

 of them without owners. The reverse is now the case, and they are 

 comparatively tame, that is to say, they are accustomed to the presence 

 of men and allow themselves to be guided bythem.t Even at the epoch 

 referred to, over a million hides were annually exported from the Plate. 

 The cattle-farms, or estancios, however, only contained a small propor- 

 tion of tame apimals, the rest being wild were pursued on horseback 

 tbr their hides. , 



The manner of killing them was as follows : The mounted gauchos, 

 carrying in their hands a lance, with a sharp horizontal knife in the end, 

 gave chase to the animals, and approaching them on the full gallop, cut 

 their hamstrings as they ran, bringing them down with an address and 

 dexterity which were astonishing. When they had thus secured a suf- 

 ficient number, they returned and gave the coup de grace to the prostrate 

 animals by severing, with a perpendicular thrust, the spinal cord just 

 back of the horns. When the slaughter was completed, they removed 

 the hides, which they stretched on the ground with pins, and abandoned 

 the carcasses to the dogs and birds of prey. This system of slaughter- 

 ing is still sometimes practiced on animals whose poor condition make 

 them of no value except for their hides. In such cases they are driven 

 to the neighborhood of the slaughter-house ; and, after being skinned, 

 their bodies are used for fuel for the boilers, while their bones are pul- 

 verized for manure. 



NTJMBEE OP HOENED CATTLE IN THE EEPinBLIC. 



The business of horned cattle has formed for nearly three centuries 

 the sole occupation of Spanish settlers and their descendants, and it is 

 still almost exclusively in the hands of the natives, as sheep-farming is 

 in that of foreigners. It is the general impression that the number of 

 horned cattle now in the Argentine Eepablic is not so large as in fowner 

 year8,.owiug to the immense slaughter, principally for their hides, which 

 has heretofore been carried on. There are, however, no statistics based 

 on actual count to prove this fact. I give below the number supposed 

 to have been in the Eepublic in 1869, compared with the number esti- 

 mated for each province in 1881 : 



Provinco of— 



ITninber in 

 18694 



l^umber in 

 1881.5 



- BnenosAyres 



EntreEios 



Santiago del EBtero . 



SantaM 



Gorrientea j 



Cordova 



Tncuman 



San Luis 



Gatamarca 



San Jnan 



LaBioja 



Mendoza 



Jniny . 



Salta 



>, 116, 029 



!, 500, 000 



1, 200, 000 



1, 100, 000 



1,768,708 



• 652, 470 



305, 228 



248, 344 



200, 543 



28, 561 



72,043 



64,878 



93,276 



143, 010 



4,754,810 



2, 216, 662 



200, 000 



900, 000 



1,400,000 



1, 043, 000 



304, 700 



139, 602 



80, 000 



65, 493 



100, 000 



100, 108 



50, 000 



200, 000 



Total 13, 



11, 554, 275 



* Description g6ograpliique et statistiqne de la Confederation Argentine, par V. Martin de Moussy, 

 vol. ii, p. 66. 



i Captain Masters, in his book "At Home with the Patagoniams," speaks of the immense nnmbers 

 of wilu cattle which are found vfithont owners in the forests on the headwaters and tributaries of the 

 Bio Negro, and the western Aopes of the Gordilleias of the Patagonian Andes. 



t Census of the Argentine Bepnblic, 1869. 



^Ibid., 1881. 



