294 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



Confederation has been so rapid since public tran- 

 quillity has been assured that the returns of a few 

 years ago are doubtless considerably below the truth. 

 Those of the five years from 1870 to 1874 show a 

 yearly average of about ten millions sterling of im- 

 ports, and nearly seven and a half millions of exports ; 

 but these figures, especially the latter, should now be 

 much increased. Of the whole commercial movement 

 more than eighty per cent, belongs to Buenos Ayres, 

 and the extension of railways must further increase 

 its supremacy. 



I went to the Hotel de Provence, a French estab- 

 lishment fairly well kept, and, after confinement in 

 the little den on board the river steamer, enjoyed the 

 novel sense of occupying a spacious room. A good 

 part of the day was spent in wandering about the 

 town. It is built on the regular chess-board plan, 

 with quadras of equal dimensions. The streets are 

 narrow and ill-paved, most of them traversed by tram- 

 cars, which are the only convenient vehicles ; but the 

 whole place is pervaded by an air of activity which 

 seems strange in Spanish America, reminding one 

 rather of the towns of the United States. 



I was directed to an exhibition of the natural pro- 

 ducts and manufactures of the states * of the Argentine 

 Confederation, which appeared to make a creditable 

 show, but of which I felt myself to be no competent 

 judge. I was chiefly interested by the large collections 

 of native woods from Corrientes and the mountain 

 regions of Tucuman, Salta, and the adjoining states. 



* The term provinces, commonly applied to the federated States, is 

 misleading, and should be laid aside. 



