It was a very dark night, and once or twice we felt rain.  We had to go very slowly, so that we should not miss the track.  Thus we trotted on in Indian file, each of us now leading spare horses, in silence, except when one of us asked how many leagues it was to the estancia, only to jog on again for what seemed two or three hours, until almost midnight.  With a cheerful yell we suddenly came on a barbed wire fence, and after hunting about for a time, a wire gate.

Immediately tongues seemed to be mechanically loosened and the conversation flowed freely, discussing the ride, horses, coming stiffness, and all the things that one has to talk about after two and a-half days in the saddle.  On reaching the estancia about 2 a.m., none of us needed much bed, and throwing our things down on the grass outside, we soon were dreaming of alligators, broken bridges, swimming rivers, etc.

About 10 o’clock the next morning I awoke to find myself on a most neat little estancia high up on a hill, overlooking, across a slight valley, magnificent forests where one could see the glint of running water.

The house was brick floored and had four very nice rooms, which had been colour-washed by my friends with excellent success.  The ceilings at once attracted attention, being of a deep-coloured black wood, well oiled and seasoned.  “Timbo” it is called, and is the best carving and furniture wood in the country.

Out in the garden were oranges, lemons, citrons, pomegranates, limes, and all kinds of luxurious fruits and vegetables.  In a small fenced paddock at the end of the garden, were sweet potatoes, pea-nuts, cotton, tobacco, and some magnificent maize.

The men’s huts were made of mud over a cane network, and the roofs were made of split palm trees, hollowed out and made in the form of a large ~~~~~~~ the palms being placed concavely and convexly alternately, making fine drainage for the heavy rains.  The whole place was surrounded by a ring of fine chaco paraiso trees and “ombu.”  The horse corrals were all palo a pique, that is, made of solid posts, stuck in close together side by side, and about two metres high, with no wire.

The camp was more or less on the real banks of the Parana, sloping away to the river four leagues away, and forming one of the most fertile spots in the Republic.  This low-lying land is the finest and cheapest grazing in the north, but it is unreliable because it is quite inundated in time of floods, when the cattle have to be withdrawn to higher camp.

During various excursions on the following days we saw tracks of “tigers” (leopard) and “lions” (puma); the kill of the latter, a small gazelle buck, “guasuncho,” we found neatly covered up with grass and leaves, and easily distinguishable from the tiger’s kill, which is always left uncovered.  A very fine tiger’s skin was brought in one night, measuring 1.84 metres from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail, and 1.56 metres across.  The man had suddenly come across it while on foot in the monte, and after wounding it with his Winchester had run it down with his dogs and killed it.