MENDOZA. 



249 



in lending us their horses, and volunteering 

 an escort as cicerones. Several of them have 

 large farms and vineyards in the neighbour- 

 hood, and at one of these I have purchased 

 some Mendoza wine, twelve years in cask, 

 which resembles fine old sherry. I intend 

 to send it over the Pampas, and to Eng- 

 land,'* from Buenos Ayres. In this splendid 

 climate and luxuriant soil, every European 

 fruit grows to the highest perfection. Figs, 

 peaches, greengages, nectarines, apples, pears, 

 damsons, strawberries — all excel, both in size 

 and in flavour. 



In the streets, as well as lanes leading out of 

 the town, in every direction, are channels of 

 very cold water, conducted from the mountains ; 

 and all the roads leading out of Mendoza, to a 



* I am happy to say that this wine has at length 

 arrived "per varies casus." 



M 3 



