ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
as Buenos Aires by the Trans-Andine Railway. The 
scenery on this line was most disappointing to any one 
who has seen the Andes in their real grandeur farther 
north; but for the average traveller the journey may 
prove interesting enough, although hot, dull, dusty, and 
not particularly comfortable. 
While I was travelling on the railway between Men¬ 
doza and Buenos Aires there was a serious strike of 
railway employes. The railway had been attacked at 
many different points. Amateur engineers and attend¬ 
ants ran the trains. We were only two hours from Buenos 
Aires. The heat and dust were intense as we crossed 
the great pampas. The shaking of the train had tired 
me to such an extent that I placed a pillow on the ledge 
of the open window, and was fast asleep with my head 
half outside the carriage, when I woke up startled by 
the sound of an explosion. I found myself covered with 
quantities of debris of rock. A huge stone, as big as a 
man’s head or bigger, had been thrown with great force 
at the passing train by the strikers, and had hit the side 
of my window only about three inches above my head, 
smashing the woodwork and tearing off the metal frame 
of the window. Had it struck a little lower it certainly 
would have ended my journey for good. 
As it was I arrived in Buenos Aires safely. A few 
days later I was on my way to Rio de Janeiro, by the 
excellent steamer Aragon . Shortly after, by the equally 
good vessel Araguaya , of the Royal Mail Steamship 
Company, I returned to England, where I arrived in 
broken health on April twentieth, 1912. It was a relief 
to me to land at Southampton, with all my notes, the 
eight hundred photographs I had taken, and the maps 
which I had made of the regions traversed. 
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