-28- 
Tne vegetation was strangely reminiscent of that in our own 
although I suppose it is all classified quite 
differently by the botanists. There was pale, dry bunch grass, 
twisted dwarf ed trees that looked like greasewood , a shrub that 
resembled mesquite. One plant grows in a rounded, bright brown 
hummock, and is called guanaco plant. Near Patagonas there is 
a vast salt lake . Patagonas is on the edge of the Rio Legro 
and the border of Patagonia. 
Last night on the train Bill insisted on picking up the 
most formidable uniformed gentleman that any of us had seen. The 
Shi pj. ten 8 warned him £ gainst doing so, and Mr. Newbery, who is 
traveling with us, sa:d he would g’et the snub of his life. 
''Leave him alone, '' said I, out of twelve years of ex- 
perience. "They’ll probably be bosom friends, we"’ 11 exchange 
Christmas cards for years, and doubtless he’ll even get us some 
ostri ches. " 
The man, a big mustachioed Argentine, turned out to be - 
not a general, but a police inspector, and sure enough he knew 
someone in Patagonas who had sore ostriches. When we reached 
the town, he and Bill parted, with hearty handclasps, only after 
the officer had sent a telegraph to his friend, and assured us 
that the ostriches (really rheas } would be there f or us on the 
return journey. 
We crossed the Rio Negro about five o'clock, a small 
stream here, and bordered with a sort of willow that had turned 
bright russet for autumn. We saw a tame ostrich in somebody’s 
chick en yard, and hoped that it might eventually come into our 
collection. 
May <38 - Bariloche 
The train was cold when we awoke. The coflee in the 
comidor was so vile I switched to tea, and Newtoery recommended 
drinking cognac with it, saying "You really need cognac in this 
country. " 
The foothills of the Andes rose in strange shapes on 
both sides or the train. The e were palisades of rock, and 
regular basaltic formations, rii rock, and table lands. Every- 
where were flocks of sheep, and twice we saw tame guanacos in 
farmer’s backyards. Strutting across the high plains were a 
large nock oi mart i net ta (the large tinamou ) so close that 
the question-mark crest on their heads was plainly visible 
iron the train window. We saw Andean geese x lying in wedge- 
snapea lor maw on, and once, on a xaxe, a nocx ox namingoes 
rose ana syreau tneir rose-and-black wings against the bright 
blue sky. 
About an hour box ore »»ere due to arrive in '“eriioehe 
