they could not
appreciate being awakened from their beauty sleeps, by the announcement
in a raucous voice of "No, thank you." They do not wish for a moment to
imply that The Kid was not perfectly justified in refusing whatever she
did refuse, but they would like her in future to confine her
conversations to the daytime if possible, and to leave their nights in
peace. It was a happy thought on the part of The Jehu to suggest a
picnic at the Waters Meet to-day, before our forward move on to Los
Moyes, and after breakfast we started out. First we went to inspect the
site where the new house is to be built, then on to the pretty little
monte near by, where some picturesque photographs were taken of the
cavalcade of riders. We paused in this tiny monte, for it is an
intensely interesting spot from a botanical point of view, and with care
and attention should be so for some years to come. In an extraordinary
small compass this wood contains more varied specimens of trees than one
would ordinarily see in a day's journey. So on to Waters Meet. Here one
is afforded an opportunity for studying the watershed of this portion of
Argentina. Three rivers meet here, the Concha, the Calchaqui, and the
Northern Salado. The latter is the only perennial river in that region;
it rises in the snowy peaks of the Andes, in the province of Salta,
miles away, and it is not to be wondered at, that, though it is a
slow-moving river and meanders through the Gran Chaco, in the times of
floods its swollen waters overflow their banks and flood immense tracts
of land. Thomas Page, an American Admiral, in the year 1855, navigated
this river from its junction with the Parana to the spot where we were
to-day, but when he went up it there was so little water in the river
that he had to give up the idea of continuing his pioneer task of
exploration. It had been his intention to open up the river for trade,
and there is no reason why this should not be done at some future date.
The Calchaqui goes under different names at various places. It rises on
the great swamps on the North-East of the Santa Fe Land Company's
territory, and flows through a chain of lakes and canadas until it runs
into the huge laguna "Del Palmar," and thence along what used to be the
Eastern boundary of the Santa Fe Land Company's lands, until it joins
the Salado.

The Calchaqui must drain at least 150,000 acres of land, and the Rio
Concha has a watershed of about 60 or 70 thousand acre