Argentine Plains and Andine Glaciers: Life on an Estancia, and a an Expedition into the Andes (First Edition)

London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1911.

FIRST EDITION.

Original cloth.
320 pages.
Map and ninety-one illustrations.

Good+. Tight binding; one illustration loose; light foxing else clean pages; pencil notes on rear endpaper; bookplate and name on front endpaper; sunning and a couple of small tears to spine; some wear; lacking the very rare jacket.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. THE VOYAGE OUT-BUENOS AIRES-LA PLATA.
Small lines of steamers, advantages and disadvantages--Vigo--
Las Palmas--A long spell at sea--Crossing the line ; rough treatment of steerage passengers--Rio di Janeiro--How Government got land cheap for a boulevard--Botanical Gardens and palm-trees--Buenos Aires, changes since 1888--Narrowness of the streets ; trams and noise--Bewildering network of trams--Does only wealth count in Buenos Aires?--Eucalyptus and pine trees--The city of La Plata--Museum at La Plata ; extinct armadillos, &c.--Zoological Gardens, Buenos Aires--Botanical Gardens and Parks--The rifle range ; apparent slackness in military matters--The great Agricultural Show; the test and evidence of the progress made.

CHAPTER II. HISTORY OF THE ESTANCIA SANTA ISABEL-FROM BUENOS AIRES TO THE ESTANCIA-CHANGES NOTICED ON THE WAY.
When, and how, Santa Isabel came into existence; first begin-
nings--The estancia in 1888--From Buenos Aires to Villa Cañas; gain in prosperity, loss in romance and picturesqueness--Concerning "camp" towns--Argentine sunsets atone for much ugliness and monotony of scenery--"Roads" in the camp--Improvement in the estancia house.

CHAPTER III. THE ESTANCIA SANTA ISABEL IN 1908-CHANGES AND PROGRESS-STOCK AND CROPS IN 1888 AND 1908 COMPARED.
Details of progress made in the past twenty years--The water supply; some history of the wells--Windmills and semi-artesian wells--Fall in the water-level in wells--The water somewhat saline in Argentina--Changes visible round the house.

CHAPTER IV. THE POPULATION OF ARGENTINA-NATIVES AND COLONISTS. THE WORDS "CRIOLLO" AND "GAUCHO."
Meaning of word "criollo" or "native"--Meaning of word "gaucho"
--Inhabitants of country towns--Peons of the gaucho class--The old gaucho peon--Improvement in this class ; educational and humanising influences--Some types described--The Italian colonists, purely agricultural ; a race apart, so far.--The four-year system at Santa Isabel--How the colonists set to work--Other ways in which they earn money--Some numerical details as to colonists' holdings--A colonist's expenses--Homeless life of the colonist; always " moving on"--Not suitable for English peasant-colonists yet.

CHAPTER V. THE STAFF AND THE WORK ON AN ESTANCIA SUCH AS SANTA ISABEL.
The year's work--The staff dealing with the stock, from owner or manager down to peons hired per day--Making hay or silo--Collecting men for sheep-shearing--Order of the day in shearing-time--Racing on Sundays; gambling away wages--Not a high standard of shearing--Yield of wool, &c.--Dipping sheep for scab--Possibility of eradicating scab from an estate--Branding and dehorning calves--The lazo and its use--Branding colts and mules--Counting stock--Palenquearing" horses, i.e., getting them used to being tied up and handled--Vaccinating cattle.--Sowing alfalfa.

CHAPTER VI MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS CONNECTED WITH LIFE IN THE CAMP.
Horse-breaking--The recado, or Argentine saddle--The bridle, headstall, &c. .--The domador (tamer) and his dress--Splendid teeth of the gaucho class--A camp auction--Brick-making in the Argentine plains--Houses in Argentina, in the plains--Estancias in "Indian times"--Carts in the plains.--Horses used as "laderos"
English as spoken by Anglo-Argentines--Denationalisation of immigrants.--Absence of a new patriotism?--Englishmen out there lack civic duties--Higher ideals needed than the pursuit of wealth.

CHAPTER VII. HISTORY OF A LOCUST INVASION.
First sight of locusts; the armies come!--They come first for a week to lay, not to eat--Dimensions of the locust.--Where they lay--How the females bore and lay; number of eggs, &c.--
A locust's jaws--What can be done?--Possibility (?) of destroying the eggs--Hatching out, a month after the laying--Short account of the locust's life-history--Changes of skin--Locusts hop when small, march when larger, and finally get wings and fly.--The new locusts at all stages very oily or juicy--Dates in, and whole period covered by, the locust invasion--Burning young locusts--Scooping them up when larger--Driving them into pits--The last stage of saltona or hopper, marching armies--General devastation--The last change of skin--Final stage, the voladora, or flyer--The end of the plague--Mortality among voladoras--What locusts will not eat.--Why the country is not ruined--Possible usefulness of locusts in the past.

CHAPTER VIII. SOME NOTES ON A FEW OF THE ARGENTINE BIRDS.
The rhea, or Argentine ostrich--The cock birds sit and rear the young-Protective mimicry--Boldness of cock ostrich when with young ones--Ostriches walking and running--The teru-tero, or peewit--The lechuza, or small burrowing owl--A larger owl--The chemango, or common carrion hawk--The pechicolorado, or redbreast--The common stork; soaring in spirals--The partridge race--Still flamingos to be seen--The hornero, or oven-bird, and its mud nest--The little casereta with its big nest--The brasa de fuego; protective mimicry.--Swallows, jays, doves, tijeretas, cardinales.

CHAPTER IX. Some NoTES ON A FEW ARGENTINE BEASTS, REPTILES, AND INSECTS.
Armadillos; peludo, piche, mulita, mataco--Hares; European hare introduced and become a pest--Viscachas, comedrejas, hurones, skunks, foxes--The iguana and its ways--The escuerzo, a joke on the part of Nature--Snakes, very few in Argentina ; the vibora de la cruz--The tarantula, an evil beast--The praying mantis, another joke of Nature's--The bicho de canasta, a strange life-history--
A curious bee's nest of leaves--A burrowing wasp ; a wasp with a mud nest--Moths, fireflies, scorpions--Leaf-storing ants--Mosquitos.

CHAPTER X. PLANT LIFE-WATER-METEOROLOGY.
Trees--What grow in towns and open camp respectively--Pampa-grass, seems to be disappearing--Paja flechilla--Paja voladora; a train set on fire, life lost--Romerilla, the native poison weed--Extraordinary increase of weeds since the camp has been
ploughed up; thistles--Native trefoil--The water all more or less saline.--Melincué salt laguna--Weather and climate ; heat in summer--Freshness morning and evening; glory of the sunsets--Severe frosts in autumn--Mists in the plains; not a dry climate as regards the nights and mornings and evenings--Thunderstorms
--No such thing as "sheet lightning" as far as one can say 187
Discharges mainly aerial--Hot-ground mirages, or day mirages--Cold-ground mirages, seen about dawn--Need for telescope or binoculars in studying mirages.

CHAPTER XI. TO THE ANDES-FROM SANTA ISABEL TO PUENTE DEL INCA-ON TO THE HEAD OF THE TUPUNGATO VALLEY, WITH A WEEK OF CAMPING OUT THERE.
Men who climb regularly in the Andes.--Travelling in 1888 and travelling in 1909--Difficulties as to booking through ; friendly Chilian fellow-travellers--The mountain railway ; extraordinary desolation and aridity of the scenery--Puente del Inca, what it is like--Off to join Dr. Helbling in the mountains--Mules, Chilian saddles, and Chilian arrieros--Up the Tupungato valley ; fording rivers; coots; sleeping out--tentless--Composition of our party; our head arriero--Dogs, to chase guanacos with--Rarity of clear streams ; glacier streams red with mud--Camp at mouth of Rio del Chorillo ; desolation ; sand-dunes ; mobile scree-slopes
Even the main stream slightly saline; all springs contain
much salt and lime.--Tupungato sighted ; ascent of valley continued--Extraordinary powers and surefootedness of the mules--Crossing small cañons, dangerous work--A bad ford : how can the mules do it?--A third camp; no larger animals save mules and a few guanacos--up these valleys ; no sheep or goats
Our final camp; the limit of pasture--The wind in the Andes--The climbing conditions of our expedition too severe for ordinary men.--Penitentes, some discussion of their origin--Dr. Helbling driven back by the wind ; the summit of Tupungato not quite attained--Solitary expedition to photograph Tupungato ; where future; climbers should camp when attempting this mountain--
Pinnacles of conglomerate : "rock Penitentes"--Farewell to Tupungato-unconquered.

CHAPTER XII. THE GLACIER REGION AT THE HEAD OF THE RIO DEL PLOMO-UP THE VALLEY OF THE RIO DE LAS TOSCAS TO THE MOJON ON THE FRONTIER-BACK TO PUENTE DEL INCA.
Down to the mouth of the Rio de las Taguas--The hot saline springs and their calcareous deposits--Astray and alone--Another bad fording--Camp near the head of the Rio del Plomo valley--Reconnoitring ; snow mountains and glacier region--On to the Rio del Plomo glacier, and up one branch--Remarkable terminal cross-ridge of the glacier--The glacier all broken into Penitentes--A mud avalanche, and what it finally leaves behind--Typical conglomerate cliffs--Waiting for provisions ; firing bushes as a signal--Curious saline springs--On to the glacier again--Leaving the Rio del Plomo glacier region--Guanacos seen--What the guanaco dogs can endure--Up the Cerro Rotondo.--Off up the Cajon de Estoca, or Rio de las Toscas valley--Plenty of salt springs (cold) and calcareous deposits--Our last high camp; a desolate spot; cold--The attractions of wandering in the Andes
Off to the frontier ridge--A cold valley; a frozen stream under a midday summer sun--Remarkable blade-like Penitentes
On the frontier ; a mojon at 16,500 feet above the sea
Return to Puente del Inca.

CHAPTER XIII. SOME GENERAL NOTES, OBSERVATIONS, AND HINTS TO TRAVELLERS.
Photography and cameras--About hiring mules--Baggage and provisions--Some hints as to clothing.--General aspect of the mountains.--Glaciers and moraines--Penitentes.--Bushes; all thorny and inflammable-acerillo, cuerno de cabra, and yareta--Reason for the thorniness--Grasses-scant growth; curious mode of growth of the commonest sort--Explanation of this form of growth--A few plants--Birds and other animal life.

CHAPTER XIV. NEAR PUENTE DEL INCA AND THE CUMBRE-TO CHILE; VALPARAISO AND SANTIAGO-RETURN TO SANTA ISABEL.
Expedition to the foot of Aconcagua--Laguna de los Horcones ; earth pillars.--At the foot of Aconcagua, 16,400 feet above the sea.--The rock Penitentes near Puente del Inca--A new type of arid desolation ; rounded outlines--Valle de Panta and Cerro de Santa Maria--Enormous herds of cattle streaming over from Argentina to Chile--The tunnel-works on the Argentine side--On the Cumbre; lawlessness and murders--Off to Chile ; driving over the Cumbre--Scenery on the Chilian side ; very grand--Vegetation on the Chilian side.--Aridity, and yet possible fertility.--Valparaiso; friendly spirit towards English--Signs of the earthquake ; delightful climate--Shipping activity ; naval schools--The lower classes a sturdy type.--Picturesque huaso dress ; gay ponchos--Women in black, with black mantillas, to be seen everywhere--Abundance of fruit on sale in the streets--Playa-ancha heights ; Miramar ; Viña del Mar--Women-conductors on trams--To Santiago ; wonderful aridity en route--Situation of Santiago; a fine city--Public spirit shown in the making of parks, &c.--The Parque Forestal ; the Mercado de las Vegas--The Cerro de Santa Lucia--The Quinta Normal, Museum, &c.--The Plaza de Armas and Cathedral--The Parque de Cousiño and Avenida de las Delicias--Impressions of Chile as compared with Argentina--The spread and greenness of the Argentine plains very notice-
able to one returning from Chile--Back to Argentina ; a fonda at Junin--Santa Isabel once more ; wonderful recovery from the locust invasion.

CHAPTER XV. AN ESTANCIA IN THE SANDY PROVINCE OF SAN LUIS - A MODERN ESTANCIA IN THE PROVINCE OF BUENOS AIRES-BACK TO ENGLAND-FINAL REFLECTIONS
Different types of camp in Argentina--In the Province of San Luis; undulating sand and trees--Roads in San Luis contrasted with roads in Santa Fé--Difference in the herbage--Drying up of lagunas--The manager's house ; a larger homestead sketched out
Hollows fertile, higher ground not so; contrast with Santa Fé--
No colonists; direct ploughing for alfalfa--The médanos, or sand-dunes, give trouble--A laguna still full; swans and other birds
The big Hortensia laguna and sand-dunes--Indian remains, arrowheads, &c.--Big hawks; Roseta ; spiders; final remarks--A new estancia in the Province of Buenos Aires--Working either through colonists or by direct ploughing for alfalfa.--The modern standard of comfort is higher--Natives, of gaucho class, taught to plough, &c.--Leaving Buenos Aires--The voyage back; home waters once more--Final reflections on Argentina.
.
APPENDIX I. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE GEOGRAPHY AND THE HISTORY OF ARGENTINA STATISTICS INDICATING
INDICATING ITS ADVANCE AND ITS PRESENT CONDITION
The geography of Argentina ; the colonisation--How Spain treated her colonies; Spaniards and criollos--Declaration of independence; constitutional troubles in Argentina; internal equilibrium gradually attained ; Roca's Indian campaign ; rise in value of land--The currency; statistics as to present population and pastoral and agricultural wealth, indicating Argentina's rapid development; weights and measures.

APPENDIX II. GLOSSARY OF ARGENTINE WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS, WITH SOME NOTES ON ARGENTINE PRONUNCIATION.

INDEX.

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