ed that it leapt
from its usual bed and rushed round the room till it found a way of
escape, through the window, to a more restful soot.

Cattle-dipping was to be the sight of the morning, and as soon as the
out-door menagerie was explored, under the guidance of our hostess, who
has a wonderful knack with all animals, the coach and cavalcade of
riders set forth to the scene of operations. Here we found a large
number of animals ready to be dipped. This process is necessary to clean
the animals from the garrapata. This is a tick which has been, and still
is, the terror of the north. It is the means of transmitting to cattle
the disease known as "Texas Fever." The rough native cattle do not
suffer badly from this fever, but any newly imported fine stock from the
south generally succumb to it.

Time after time wealthy men who realized the menace this pest was to the
north have attempted to fight it, but their efforts have not been
successful. Often their loss has been immense, sometimes as many as 95%
of the total animals brought into the neighbourhood from the Province of
Buenos Aires have died.

Undoubtedly these constant failures helped to give the northern district
a bad name, but the experiments with the animals should have been
carried on by means of acclimatisation. Animals for the north should be
carefully handled, and with constant vigilance, adapted to their
surroundings. These are the principles on which the Santa Fe Land
Company have been working, and they confidently predict that before long
they will be selling pedigree bulls with tick on them. When this is an
accomplished fact, another great barrier to the progress of the north
will have been broken down.

The cattle tick has two phases in its life.

[Illustration: _Cattle leaving Dip._]

After establishing itself on the animal, the tick becomes a blood
sucker, and at certain seasons animals running wild over unbroken camps,
become literally covered with these bichos; consequently the cattle fall
back in condition, and the mortality amongst them mounts up to an
appallingly large percentage. To obviate this the dip is used, and has
come into general use. The animals are collected from afar, and brought
into the corral (a strong enclosure), from which there is a wooden
passage, having many contrivances useful for marking, branding, and
dehorning cattle, all of which are used in their due season; but for
dipping purposes this passage terminates in a prec