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A GERMAN ESTANCIA 49 



mud-bound, so we put up our tent, and moved in beside our 

 own fire, where we were more comfortable than the occu- 

 pants of the house. For four days it poured and the wind 

 howled, and every native rejoiced, for it was the first rain 

 the country had had in eighteen months. Each morning 

 we rose late, had breakfast, and then went out for two or 

 three hours to hunt up our horses, bring them in, and 

 feed them, and also to gather in some wood. Then we could 

 come in and read or sleep until it was time to go out again 

 and find the horses and give them their afternoon feed. 

 We were soaked to the skin all the time, and chagrined at 

 being stuck. At last it stopped, and after spending half 

 a day drying out our tent and bedding, we hitched four 

 horses to the wagon and started through the mud up the 

 three-mile hill from the wells. 



Toward night we came to the first ranch, that of Rudolph 

 Zahn, who allowed us to stop at his place, gave our horses 

 a feed of grain (we had run out), and let them fill their 

 bellies with good alfalfa. They had suffered considerably 

 from exposure in the long cold rain. He invited us up 

 to the house to supper and gave us a royal German meal, 

 with home-made breads, wursts, butter and even milk, 

 all luxuries of the highest class in Patagonia. Fortunately, 

 we had a command of the German language, so spent a 

 most enjoyable evening with him. Next morning we had 

 breakfast, and then photographed his family and the 

 ranch ; which we found pleased the people more than any- 

 thing we could do, for in those parts, they never have an 

 opportunity to get pictures of their family or of their 

 homes. 



Herr Zahn had a ranch or estancia of twenty leagues, 

 and told us something of sheep raising, which differs much 

 from the same business in the western United States. 

 The sheep are mostly Merinos and Merino grades which 

 were brought to Argentine from Australia; so most of 

 their methods and the terms used in working the sheep 



