120 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS 



it was noticeable that there were neither our great quanti- 

 ties, variety, nor the predominance of chocolates as here. 

 The lack of a Christmas celebration is largely explained 

 by the big festival celebrated on New Year's Day. 



We bought our pa7t dulce and candies and made an 

 attempt at a Christmas celebration, then went out on 

 the Avenida at this midsummer season, and especially on 

 this day, to find the cafes crowded, but neither on this 

 day nor on any of the others, either during the summer 

 or winter, did we see indications of the gay street life 

 for which many of the tropical cities are celebrated. By 

 eleven the streets looked deserted, and what little stir 

 there was earlier was over. We found the cafes serving 

 helado, which equals "frozen," and it is about as near 

 to ice cream as the article comes, for the great predomi- 

 nance of water and the shortage of cream in the original 

 mixture make it pretty thin food. But as we had had 

 nothing of the sort for six months we enjoyed it just the 

 same. 



Sunday followed Christmas and it was not until Monday 

 that we were able to get our passage moneys out of the 

 Bank of London, cash our drafts on a wool merchant, 

 arrange for the transportation of our freight yet to come, 

 and finally book a passage in the Highland Glen for London, 

 as there was no boat for New York for nearly two weeks, 

 and the cost of the trip via London, though 4,000 miles 

 longer, is the same as if one goes direct. And in time it 

 takes but three days longer, not to mention the more fre- 

 quent sailings via Europe; for there are three English lines, 

 two German, a French and an Italian line, three of them 

 sailing weekly, and the others fortnightly or monthly. 



Our business done, we still had a couple of days in which 

 to write a letter of thanks to the various officials who had 

 been so kind to us, to visit our friends and to do a little 

 shopping. In general the stores are very uninteresting 

 considering that it is a foreign country, for the same articles 



