CHAPTER VIII 



On to the Rio Deseado 



On the morning of the twenty- third, camp was again 

 struck, the horses hitched in and driven to Mazaredo, where 

 a two weeks' supply of provisions was loaded in, and ten 

 o'clock found us on the road for the estancia Madrugada 

 (rising sun, so called from their brand :i^). The distance 

 was only six leagues and the road fair, so at about three 

 we came to the house, a commodious sheet-iron structure 

 with wide porches in Australian style. Inside it was fitted 

 with paper on the walls, rugs on the floors, and bookcases 

 of books all about, clearly the home of culture. The full 

 owners were out among the sheep, but we were invited 

 in and soon seated around Miss Whitaker's wicker tea- 

 table where we were shortly joined by the men, O'Mahoney, 

 Grant, and Bailey, from Ireland, Wales, and Scotland 

 respectively, though all by way of the various English 

 colonies, mostly Australia, while Miss Whitaker had lived 

 a considerable part of her life in the Falkland Islands. 

 It was a jolly place and we had a royal evening. 



They were in the midst of shearing their 30,000 sheep, 

 and that summer, on account of the Italian-Turkish War, 

 everyone was very short of help and the shearing conse- 

 quently much prolonged. As the shearing season requires 

 many extra men, gangs are usually formed going from ranch 

 to ranch, ten to twelve of them in a body. These gangs 

 are mostly Italians who have come over expressly for the 

 shearing season. Their fares to Buenos Aires amount to 

 only about $15 each, and they arrive in time to begin the 

 shearing about October first, starting in the north and 

 working southward, ending the season in February in the 

 neighborhood of the Straits of Magellan, after which be- 



