eat extremes of
heat and cold. It is healthy as a rule, except in the swampy districts
or during a very wet season, when a great many residents suffer from
rheumatism.

People talk about the sudden changes of English weather, but we are
treated just the same; one day it will be brilliantly hot and fine, and
another day cold and miserable.

One part of the country or another is generally suffering from drought,
when in another part they are being flooded out.

In the winter there is much more sunshine than there is in England; in
the early morning it is bitterly cold, at noon on a fine day it is
blazing hot, and then, as soon as the sun goes in, it freezes hard.

In the summer, of course, the heat is very great, but, as it is
generally dry, it is quite healthy.

SOME EXPERIENCES OF WORKING ON ESTANCIAS.

I came out with my brother on a tramp steamer from Penarth. We took
thirty-one days. However, time passed fairly quickly, chipping off rust
and painting the decks, after we got over our sickness.

Rain fell heavily as we landed at Buenos Aires, two typical _gringos_
(greenhorns), not knowing a word of Spanish. I went to a first-class
hotel, whose proprietor I had met in England. My first attempt to speak
Spanish was in a tram. I asked the conductor to stop; getting out I
said, "Mucha grasa" (much fat), instead of "muchas gracias" (many
thanks)--then called the man a fool for laughing.

We stopped in Buenos Aires a week and our bill came into hundreds of
dollars, which took a big slice off our small means.

We then went to an estancia (farm) in the Province of Cordoba. The
estancia was fifty-one miles square, owned by an Argentine family. The
manager was a North-American, well known in camp life.

The estancia consisted of three sections, one where I went, another
where my brother was, and the other the headquarters.

I was under a young Scotchman. The camp was fifteen miles, with 3,000
cows, 2,000 steers, and 500 mares. There was my companion, one peon
(man), a boy, and myself. My house was made of mud walls and floor, a
zinc roof, with a little straw. It was cool in summer, but very cold in
winter. There was one room for ourselves, where we slept and ate, one
for the cook (when we had one), and a kitchen. Under my bed I had a
snake's hole; a long black snake came out in the night, and, on hearing
a sound, would go back. I did everything to kill it, but with no
success. Also I had two kittens which sle