26 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS 



deeds. When the railroads were put through the country, 

 the owners of these great tracts were made very rich by 

 the rise in land values, and a large portion of them now live 

 in Buenos Aires, the land being worked by peons, who 

 either work on shares or under foremen. This complete 

 change in farming methods and the jump in land values 

 has created a special class of wealthy landlords who without 

 special exertion are in possession of great incomes; but as 

 they are not themselves farmers and not particularly 

 interested in that sort of work, there is a strong tendency 

 for these great estates to become broken up into small 

 farms either through the necessity of the owner, or because 

 there is great profit in forming a colony and disposing of 

 the land. The presence of these wealthy landowners 

 and the standard of expenditure they set is one of the 

 factors helping to make Buenos Aires the expensive city 

 it is to live in. 



La Plata, as capital of the province, has its set of fine 

 buildings, public parks, etc. ; but as it is not the home of 

 its leading men, it is largely lacking in fine residences. 

 The men of public affairs mostly live in Buenos Aires, 

 coming out daily to La Plata to attend to the provincial 

 affairs, and returning at night to the metropolis. Our 

 goal was the museum, which is the finest in South America. 

 It is very progressive in some features, notably the eth- 

 nological exhibit, which was assembled by Moreno and 

 placed in this museum, and consisted of over 4,000 crania 

 of all the South American aboriginal peoples, together with 

 their implements, costumes, photographs, etc. The set of 

 Argentine prehistoric animals is also very fine and shows 

 the advanced study put upon it by Ameghino. But most 

 of the other departments belonged to the old-fashioned type 

 of exhibits, a series of labels, poorly illustrated with pickled, 

 dried and stuffed specimens. 



While the display of curious Pleistocene and Pliocene 

 fossils was interesting, that from Patagonia was sorely dis- 



