373 The Naturalist in La Plata. 



the slowest to resentment, the most reluctant to 

 enter into a quarrel ; whereas in this species angry 

 demonstrations were made when the intruder was 

 yet far off, and before he had shown any hostile 

 intentions. 



My last case — the last, that is, of the few I have 

 selected — relates to a singular variation in the 

 human species. On this occasion I was again 

 travelling alone in a strange district on the southern 

 frontier of Buenos Ayres. On a bitterly cold mid- 

 winter day, shortly before noon, I arrived, stiff and 

 tired, at one of those pilgrims' rests or. the pampas 

 — a wayside pulperia, or public house, where the 

 traveller can procure anything he may require or 

 desire, from a tumbler of Brazilian rum to make 

 glad his heart, to a poncho, or cloak of blue cloth 

 with fluffy scarlet lining, to keep him warm o' 

 nights ; and, to speed him on his way, a pair of 

 cast-iron spurs weighing six pounds avoirdupois, 

 with rowels eight inches in diameter, manufactured 

 in this island for the use of barbarous men beyond 

 the sea. The wretched mud-and-grass building was 

 surrounded by a foss crossed by a plank draw- 

 bridge ; outside of the enclosure twelve or fourteen 

 saddled horses were standing, and from the loud 

 noise of talk and laughter in the bar I conjectured 

 that a goodly company of rough frontiersmen were 

 already making merry at that early hour. It was 

 necessary for me to go in among them to see the 

 proprietor of the place and ask permi <sion to visit 

 his kitchen in order to make myself a " tin of coffee," 

 that being the refreshment I felt inclined for. 

 When I went in and made my salutation, one man 



