hese carts are considerable, fifteen miles in the day is not
unusual, changing bullocks once en route, but a great deal depends on
the roads being dry, as in wet weather the wheels sink up to the hubs in
the mud and the roads are soon dotted here and there with loads
abandoned till better conditions enable them to be reloaded and
delivered at a depository.

These cartmen are hardy fellows and work wet to the skin, covered with
mud up to their knees, or, again, hidden in the dust from the roads,
which envelopes the moving carts in a choking cloud.

It is little to be wondered at if the axemen and cartmen, when pay day
arrives, go in for a spree, which for them usually takes the form of
gambling, enlivened by dancing and drinking till daylight.

The result of sojourning in the woods does not, as might be expected,
have the effect of making these men unsociable, and they embrace every
opportunity of attending a race meeting or dance. When the men are
excited by drink quarrels are frequent, and the police search them for
arms before admitting them to a Re-union.

Arms are carried ostensibly as a precaution against meeting with
Indians and bad characters in the lonely recesses of the forest, and the
men like to carry a knife and a good revolver, or, better still, a
Winchester, to enable them to get a shot at any wild animal they may
come across, the skins of these being much prized. They take a pleasure
in presenting a visitor with a puma skin or other trophy of the chase.

Among these people one looks for, and finds, the primitive idea of
hospitality, an unaffected welcome and willingness to give of the best
they have. Here are men independent by virtue of their labour, which
gives them sufficient for their daily wants. They have no thought for
the morrow or what will be their lot when too feeble to work.

The axemen, who are natives of Italy and Austria, are very good workmen,
but compare unfavourably with natives of the country, being extremely
dirty in their persons, to such a degree that it is a disagreeable
experience to have to interview them in an office, whereas the Argentine
native puts on his best apparel when he goes to an estancia.

The forest workers are nomads, and, as the woods get cut out, move on to
fresh camping grounds, leaving the woods to revert to their former
solitude, a haunt for the wild animals, who creep back once silence has
returned.

CACHAPES, AND OTHER THINGS.

CACHAPES,