for a few seconds.  Of course, The Instigator started off pacing and measuring the room’s verandah, etc., in order to devise a scheme for the best improvements for the estancia, and before long he and The Delineator had made out a plan which would drive any member of the R.I.B.A. to desperation, but caused its authors enormous joy.  The Jehu and The Chaperon were occupied for some time in seeing to the comfort of their men and animals, and trying to dry the tents, clothes, etc., by the huge fire in the galpon in which the peons were housed for the day.  We are told that one Tacuruer tried to employ the morning remuneratively by opening a temporary barber’s shop on the verandah, and advertising “hair-cutting and shaving”; possibly he might have built up a successful business in time, but unfortunately for him his first customer’s beard was too unyielding for the ordinary scissors and the customer objected to the way in which the horse clippers were used on the hirsute growth of his chin, and talked of his treatment afterwards in a way that did not inspire confidence in the other might-have-been customers, who were observed to slink away one by one from the barber’s chair as if it were infected.  We regret that a well-meant enterprise on the part of one of The Tacuru party met with such a poor reception.

A gleam of ceasing rain—­it was not sunshine—­gave courage to some of the more energetic members of the party to go forth to inspect the heaps of wood about to be made into charcoal in the neighbourhood of the estancia, if any could be reached on dry land.  For to-morrow the visit to the La Gallareta factory will occupy the day, and the Charcoal piles are too interesting a sight to be left unvisited now that we are in the wood department of the Santa Fe Land Company.

In the northern districts where trees are numerous it is necessary to “distroncar” the land before the soil can be brought into condition suitable for the plough.  In other words all the trees and roots must be removed before ploughing operations commence.  But the timber so obtained is not wasted; the branches and all pieces not big enough to be used for sleepers, etc., are cut up into various suitable lengths and piled together in such a manner that when finished the heap presents the appearance of a huge beehive; the centre of this dome running from the apex to the ground is a hollow cylinder; this tube or pipe is filled up with the small sticks and twigs from the trees, and when all is in readiness the contents of the cylinder are fired from the top, the fire slowly burns downwards and sets light to the surrounding logs which in their turn smoulder till they become charcoal.  But the match is not applied until the whole mass of wood has been covered up and plastered over with mud, to prevent the entrance of any air.  The kiln thus forms an enclosed retort, and the wood is carbonised and makes excellent charcoal, which eventually finds its way to Buenos Aires and other cities, where immense