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I had the advantage of an unusually dry winter, which made riding about the country much more practicable and pleasant than it often is at that time of the year. Sometimes it was really cold in June and July, and in the first week of the latter month for three or four nights running we had very sharp rime-frosts, which left the ground perfectly white till ten o'clock in the morning, and made ice about the thickness of a crown piece.

With August the heat increases, and after a few months of deliciously temperate weather, it becomes at Christmas decidedly hot, the thermometer ranging frequently at about 90°, and sometimes reaching 100°. These, however, are the exceptionally hot days, after a few of which the pampero generally returns with a fresh stock of invigorating influences.

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CHAPTER IV.

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF BUENOS AYRES.

A

VISIT TO A SALADERO-DRIVING IN CATTLE - THE SLAUGHTER
BEEF BUENOS AYREAN
BUTCHERS-VILLAINOUS DOGS-FRENCH SPORTSMEN-THE 25TH
OF MAY-POLITICAL DISTURBANCES- ANOMALOUS POSITION OF
FOREIGNERS OUTBREAK AT SAN JUAN-THE NATIONAL GUARD
-BALL AT THE PROGRESO CLUB-DISPLAY IN THE PLAZA —
JUGGLERS AND FIREWORKS-SAFETY IN THE STREETS-STEAMERS
SEIZED A VISIT TO MONTEVIDEO-M, BUSCHENTHAL'S QUINTA-
AMATEUR CONCERT.

- RAPID DISAPPEARANCE - JERKED

FEW days after my arrival at Buenos Ayres, I was

taken by a friend to see some of the Saladeros and Barracas a little beyond the southern extremities of the city. The saladeros are enormous establishments in which the cattle are slaughtered for their hides and tallow, and their flesh is converted into jerked beef: the barracas are store-houses for produce. On approaching this district there were plenty of indications of the trade in dead beasts. In one place was a vast heap of what I at first imagined must be gigantic mussel-shells, but they soon proved to be hoofs: a little farther the land was protected from the encroachments of the Riachuelo river by a wall composed of thousands of

skulls of cattle patched with sods of turf. Large and fierce dogs in great numbers lurked about in corners, licking their lips after some dainty bit of offal surreptitiously walked off with, and looking as if they would soon take to the legs of a visitor if their natural supplies were curtailed. Countless seagulls, surfeited with their filthy breakfast, were lazily trying to digest it on the land which they whitened with their presence, now and then whirling about for a few moments, as if shaking themselves to make room for a fresh supply of garbage. Presently we saw a mighty cloud of dust, whence came a sound like muffled thunder, mixed with screams and wild yells. Stand clear! get out of the way! here comes a drove of about a thousand cattle from the country to be slaughtered at the saladeros. Not with the decorous march of Smithfield come these devoted beasts quite another style of thing, and well worth seeing. Four or five peons, or drivers, in brilliant ponchos of red, blue, and yellow, ride in front at full gallop, cracking their whips, and screaming to one another while you gladly draw up near the wall to get out of the way as they charge towards you. Close at their heels comes the whole herd, heads down and tails up, going at their maddest speed, encouraged thereto by more peons at their sides. On they go, thundering through the cloud of dust, and at last the mad line is ended by another set of peons all shouting and urging on the wild race in

QUICK SLAUGHTERING.

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such a state of whip-cracking excitement, that even a calm spectator feels the spell, and is almost ready to give up his soul to the possession of the galloping ghost of Mazeppa.

Half-stifled with dust, we went on our way to the saladeros, where we were to see the completion of bovine destiny, and arrived there about a quarter of an hour before the slaughter commenced. About 800 beasts had been driven into a corral or enclosure, made of strong posts nearly a foot thick, one side of which towards the yard tapered off into a kind of funnel about six feet wide, which was crossed by a strong bar with an iron pulley in it. This was approached by a small tramway, upon which travelled a truck large enough to carry two of the animals at the same time, and running parallel to the slaughtering platform, which was of great size, and gently inclined towards the gutter made for carrying off the blood. Groups of dark-visaged men and lads were chatting gaily as they sharpened their knives, and the chief executioner stood by his post, somewhat raised over the bar and pulley. The pulley was traversed by a rope of the customary raw hide, one end of which terminated in the lazo or noose running on a ring of iron, and the other end was attached firmly to two horses standing saddled in the open yard. The time had come: two gaily dressed peons, with the unfailing cigarette in their mouths, jumped lightly into the saddles of the two horses, casting a Parthian glance

behind to see if all was right; the infantry were ready, knife in hand, and the work of death began. The butcher-in-chief gathered up his lazo, and with practised eye selected two beasts whose heads were in sufficiently close proximity to be entangled in a single cast. He swung it two or three times round his head, and in a moment the four horns were firmly gripped with unerring accuracy. At a signal from him the two horsemen spurred their steeds into a plunge forwards for about twenty yards with the other end of the rope, and instantly the two poor brutes were dragged forwards till their heads were jammed hard against the bar with the pulley. Then the executioner stoops, and with two quiet thrusts of his knife divides the spine a little behind the horns; he casts loose the noose from their heads, and two corpses fall heavily on the truck which is ready to receive them; the truck is rapidly wheeled to the platform, and another rope attached to a horse is fastened to a fore-leg of each; a touch of the spur, a violent jerk, and the bodies are twitched off the truck and deposited on the platform with their heads close to the gutter, while the truck is sent back for more victims.

Two men seize on each, and cut their throats; the hide is taken off with inconceivable skill and rapidity; knives glance, and with light, but marvellously accurate touch, the head and limbs disappear. In about five minutes the animal has literally gone to pieces, vanished,

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