captured a black snake about two and a half feet long, which
was swimming gracefully from bank to bank, with its head
elevated about two inches from the top of the water. We also
got some living specimens of a river mussel, which is here used
as fish bait.
Everywhere among the English-speaking community we heard
the same gloomy accounts of the dulness of trade, arising from
the yet unsettled state of the country. All agreed that the
present Dictator was managing the country admirably, but expressed
their fears that he would some day be “ wiped out,” as
others had been before him, and that the country would again
relapse into a state of anarchy and brigandage.
Some days later I had an opportunity of visiting Buenos
Ayres, the capital of the Argentine Republic, situated on the
opposite or south shore of the river Plate. Accompanied by
Lieut. Gunn, I started from Monte Video on the evening of the
9th of December, taking passage on board one of the river
steamers {Villa de Salto), then plying daily between the two
cities. The distance, 120 miles, is usually traversed at nighttime,
and in this arrangement sight-seers lose nothing, as, owing
to the lowness of the banks and the great width of the river, the
opposite shores are barely visible from a position in mid-channel.
Our fellow-passengers, about eighty in number, represented
Spanish, Italian, and English nationalities, and among the latter
we were fortunate enough to meet two gentlemen residing in
the country, to whom, as well as to the captain, a jovial, hospitable
American, we were indebted for much interesting information
concerning the men and manners of the country. After
dinner— a long, ponderous affair— had been disposed of, a general
dispersion took place, the gentlemen to smoke, and the ladies
to their cabins ; but in an hour or so the latter again appeared
in the saloon, arrayed in evening dress of a more gay and airy
character than that worn at dinner, and they now applied themselves
diligently to the luxury of maté drinking. The fluid
known as maté is an infusion of the leaves of the Ilex Para-
guayensis, commonly called Paraguay tea, and is usually sucked
through metal tubes about ten inches long, from a gracefully
carved globular wooden receptacle about the size of an orange.
One stock of “ yerba ” seemed to stand a great many waterings
and sugarings, the necessary manipulations for which furnished
the ladies with a suitable occupation. It was amusing to watch
the eagerness with which the latter sucked away at their maté
tubes, the attitude reminding one of a boy using a decoy whistle.
We anchored off the town of Buenos Ayres at an early hour
the next morning, and here the inefflciency of the landing arrangements
were made unpleasantly manifest. Three different means
of locomotion were resorted to, in order to convey us from the
steamer to the shore. We were pulled in a small boat for a
portion of the way ; then, as the boat grounded, the rowers got
out, and, wading alongside, dragged it on for a few hundred yards
more. We were then transferred, with our baggage, to a highwheeled
cart, drawn by two horses, which brought us through the
last quarter of a mile of shallow water fringing the shore. The
cost of effecting a landing was no inconsiderable item in the
expense of our trip, and was moreover one calculated to prejudice
unfavourably one’s first impression of Buenos Ayres.
After securing rooms at the Plotel Universal, and breakfasting
at the Strangers’ Club, where we were most kindly received by
the secretary, Mr. Wilson, we proceeded in search of the museum,
so celebrated for its collection of fossil remains of the extinct
South American mammals, arranged under the direction of
Dr. Burmeister. We found the learned Professor enveloped in
white dust, and busily engaged in restoring with plaster of Paris
the spinous process of the vertebra of one of his specimens ; and
on explaining the object of our visit, he kindly drew our attention
to the principal objects of interest in his collection. This museum
has already been fully described, and I need hardly allude to the
splendid specimens which it possesses of the Glyptodon, Machai-
I 10