serious was likely to happen to us. But we knew that with such neighbours of the Pampas no precaution can be considered as superfluous. We held a brief council, which resulted in the mission of the young Estanciero (who perfectly well understood the language of the Pampas Indians, and personally knew many of their tribes) to the advancing party in order to ascertain their intentions. While he advanced, we prepared everything for an efficient defence; but happily none was necessary. After the interchange of a few words, the young Estanciero discovered that instead of any meditated hostility, it was, in fact, a party attending in honour to visit himself-a truly agreeable surprise to all of us.

It turned out that an old Cazique, who was a very old friend of the young Estanciero, having heard of his presence in our caravane, could not abstain from indulging himself with a visit. On hearing this, of course the least we could do was to turn ourselves up all hands in the endeavour to entertain our guests, who, counting women and children, amounted to nearly a hundred persons. As those Indians eat nothing but horseflesh, all we could do was to provide the wherewithal for their repast. We could give them horses or mares, but they must kill them, and cook them, and eat them without our assistance.

Some mares were brought from the nearest manada, or troop of wild horses, after about half an hour's sharp chase. They were presented in due form, and in due form they were received. Some were killed, cooked, and eaten, also in due form, I suppose: but, certainly, with very little of what we call ceremony. When I mention that the blood of the animal is esteemed the chief delicacy, the reader will not require me to describe the repast in detail.

ΑΝ

ADVENTURE WITH A LIZARD.

The immense plains of grass and other vegetation, which are interspersed with lakes, and of which La Plata is chiefly composed, give life to innumerable animals of the lizard tribe.

upon

The Lagarto, or lizard, is at home in all parts of the Sierra de St. Catherina, and is of various sizes, from the little animal of scarcely four inches in length, to the magnitude of six feet in length. Its colours are most beautiful and diversified. In the hot summer days they appear to like to congregate and bask the mountains, where the reflection of the rays of the sun upon their brilliant-colored and translucent skins impart a striking effect. I have often, upon approaching a mountain where they disported themselves in the sunshine, making it almost vivid with their brilliancy, seen them, in their fright at my approach, suddenly and rapidly rush away from all sides of it, producing the same visual sensation and effect as a flash of lightning unexpectedly passing over the shining surface of large sheets of downward-rolling waters. It is very difficult to catch them, on account of the rapidity of their movements. I remember a circumstance happening to myself, while in the Sierra, which will exemplify one of the few ways to kill a lagarto.

On a very hot summer afternoon, I was returning from a visit I had paid to a neighbour, and passing near a solitary puesto (the house for a capatan, a steward or overseer of a certain part of the lands belonging to an Estancia), I resolved to dismount from my horse, in order to refresh myself at the puesto with a draught of water. Finding that the inhabitants had not returned from their occupations in the fields, I entered the little kitchen, and much fatigued, with my eyes full of dust. At the opposite end was a very small door, through which alone any light penetrated

the kitchen. At the time I entered, the sun shone vividly through the door, giving a lively appearance to what otherwise would be in fact a little black hole. My entry was not attended with any noise, for I wore potro-boots-the entire boot being made of leather manufactured from the soft skin of the hind-legs of a potro, or young horse,—a lucky circumstance for myself; for on looking around for the never-missing jarro, or water-pot, I perceived-what I may truly say quite amazed me—an enormous lizard, of the largest class, close to my feet! Undisturbed by my entry, there it lay, sleeping quietly before the scarce-extinguished fire, enjoying, doubtless, in its repose, the warmth of the rays of the sun falling upon him, so as to show the beauty and brilliancy of his colours in dazzling reflection. A moment's consideration determined me how to act. I quietly withdrew to the yard, armed myself with a sturdy stick, which is the only weapon fit for attacking a lizard, and re-entered the kitchen, and quietly and carefully took up my position behind the lizard, leaving the door wide open. My reason for taking a position in its rear was, because I had been told by Guachos that the bite of a lizard is really dangerous, and that it will never relinquish whatever it may get hold of with its teeth. I did not forget, however, that there was also considerable danger in the rear, on account of its capability of severe mischief with its tail, which is formidably armed with very hard-pointed thorns. Having taken these precautions, I struck a tremendous blow at the animal's head. It was, indeed, fortunate for me that I stood in its rear; for as soon as the blow was struck, before I could raise the stick to strike again, the lizard made such a leap as seemed impossible, several times while in the air opening and shutting its mouth most frightfully. On descending, it dealt the most furious

blows on the ground with its formidable tail. It then departed slowly from the kitchen. After repeated blows of equal severity, I at length killed him, without having received any injury. I soon stripped off his skin, which was one of the finest I ever saw.

I should state that the skins of these lizards, especially those of the large class, are very much esteemed, and are used, as a curiosity, in covering sundry ornamental articles of household furniture. The difficulty of catching the lizards doubtless enhances the value of their skins,, which are in themselves sufficiently beautiful to be esteemed as curiosities.

THE SIERRA DE ST.

CATHERINA.

To the stranger visiting the district of La Plata, known as the Sierra de St. Catherina, for the first time, the whole range of country presents the most surprising aspect. Pursuing the course of the numerous small rivers along the valleys, the landscape appears literally black with the inconceivable multitudes of cattle covering it as far as the eye can reach. No European can form any adequate idea of the appearance in such a scene of such vast bodies of cattle-all in their wild and natural condition. Not a tree to be seen, except the few planted near a solitary rancho, or house, the lofty, multiform, black, and weather-beaten cliffs of the Sierra extending far, as the back-ground, and the entire intermediate space of hills and valleys innumerable, covered most densely with the wild cattle, whose multitudinous groups appear to be only divided by the numerous rivers intersecting the district, and throwing a living brightness through it :-this is a picture which powerfully struck my mind with an ineffaceable impression of another phase, differing from the many I had received in the course of my previous travels, of Nature's wildest grandeur.

Generally there is scarcely any perceptible movement in those multitudes of cattle: densely thronged together, the motions of individual animals are not discernible at any distance. Occasionally, and frequently, this aspect of the scene is changed, and the picture becomes suddenly animated in a manner most striking. A troop of a thousand or two of wild horses rush on to the scene in their wildest speed, with their long tails streaming in the air, and their shaggy manes all dishevelled; snorting and neighing, they pass like a living shade over the top of a hill, and as suddenly disappear in the valley beyond, rising and disappearing again and again, disturbing, in their reckless course, and breaking the groups of cattle, previously so quiet and seemingly motionless.

In the Pampas, where also cattle abound, vast numbers are lost in the very dry summers, it is supposed for want of moister pasturage; but in the valleys of the Sierra that calamity is prevented by the numerous rivers there flowing,-a circumstance which I suppose may, in some measure, account for the multitudinous congregation of cattle there.

Another curiosity of the Sierra is the peculiar kind of wood it produces, which is not to be found in any other district. This is the wood of the curumamuel tree, which grows in extensive forests, and covers the Sierra in many parts, over many miles together. The leaf of these trees ends in a hard spiked thorn, which, combined with their density and close proximity in the forest, form, in fact, a thicket which it is quite impossible for any human being to pass through, or even enter. Nevertheless, it is throughout the summer, and especially at the commencement of winter, the resort and abode of numberless horned cattle, as well as lions, and other beasts. The stature of these trees is never higher than about five feet.