The First Day - Southern Cross to Pole Star - page 3

onto the floor,awakening one ofthe sleepers in sodoing. He was interested and even amused
atmyexcitement,andassuredmethatthe bichos werequiteharmless,andthatIwasvery del-
icado (fastidious) to make such a fuss. After a strict search into dug-outs and trenches in the
frame I lay down on the wire and slept, disturbed only by a few individual attacks and by the
snoring of my sleeping companions. I was very glad when morning came and I was able once
more to breathe the fresh air.
Towards Rosario
Fromnowonthisstageofthetripwasmostuninteresting.Oncethecityboundsarepassedthe
traveller finds himself in the wilds, the dividing line being very slender. This can very easily
beunderstood whenthe relation ofpopulation toarea isconsidered. The area ofthe Argentine
Republic is roughly 1,200,000 square miles; the population is eleven and a half millions, of
which two and a half millions are in the city of Buenos Aires, Rosario holding another half
million.
Between these two towns (180 miles) and indeed right on to the Andes the country is dead
flat. As far as the eye can reach there is nothing visible but large herds of cattle grazing in
the potreros (paddocks), or vast expanses of crops, chiefly wheat and corn. Wire fences and
windmills are everywhere, trees being conspicuous by their absence, except round the estan-
cia houses and in a few isolated patches of monte (scrub). The roads are either very dusty or
very muddy, being simply dirt-tracks bordered by wire fences and running dead straight from
one right-angled turn to the next, a curve being practically unknown. In the neighbourhood of
a village skinny horses and cows belonging to the poorer inhabitants pick up a scanty living
from the grass on the roadside, and if an animal dies on the road it is left to be devoured by
chimangos (a kind of hawk) or stray dogs.
During the harvest season one frequently sees graincarts, with enormous wheels up to ten
feet in diameter, drawn by an unlimited number of horses. The official team of six or eight is
arranged in a fan-shape formation, but when the roads are heavy as many extra horses as are
available are attached to any part of the vehicle to which a rope may be tied, the other end of
the rope being fastened to the cinch of the horse. It is heavy work for the animals, but they are
for the most part willing labourers.
The further I went from Buenos Aires the worse became the roads. Constant rain had re-
duced them to soft mud, and progress was necessarily slow. The pack saddle was constantly
slipping;theonlysoundstobreakthemonotonyofthesplashinghorsesthroughthemudwere
the blasphemous screech of a prairie owl sitting on a fence post and the whistling and yam-
mering of the wind through the telegraph wires. Occasionally, to my astonishment, an auto-
mobile would come plodding its way through the mud, and more than once I was asked to