men of family, who were induced to come out here from England and to go up country, with no other result than the loss of all their money.  The scheme was supposed to be perfect in all its details, but proved upon a closer acquaintance to be utterly worthless.  The iron church at Rosario is still standing, which the members of the expedition took up there, and we have also met some of the young men themselves at various times.

The train did not reach Cordova until 7.30 p.m., and it was therefore too late for us to see much of the approach to the city, but to-morrow we intend to do a good deal in that way.  In the middle of the night we were aroused by a violent thunderstorm.  The lightning was most vivid, and illuminated our room with many colours.  The rain fell heavily, flooding everything, and making the streets look like rivers, and the courtyard of the hotel like a lake.  It is one of the oldest, and, at the same time, one of the most unhealthy, of the cities of South America, for it is built in the hollow of the surrounding hills, where no refreshing breezes can penetrate.

Travelling in Brazil is like passing through a vast hothouse, filled with gorgeous tropical vegetation and forms of insect life.  In the neighbourhood of Monte Video you might imagine yourself in a perpetual greenhouse.  Here it is like being in a vast garden, in which the greenest of turf, the brightest of bedding-out plants, and the most fragrant flowering shrubs abound.  Each country, therefore, possesses its own particular beauty, equally attractive in its way.

Shortly after leaving Cordova we passed through an Indian village; but, except at this point, we did not meet many natives during our ride.  One poor woman, however, whom we did unfortunately encounter, had a fall from her horse, owing to the animal being frightened at the umbrella I carried, yet my own horse had, after a very brief objection, quietly submitted to the introduction of this novelty into the equipment of his rider.

[Illustration:  La Calera.]

We found that the hotel on the Caldera for which we were bound was shut up; but one of the party had the keys, and an excellent lunch quickly made its appearance.  The view from the verandah, over the river, to the Sierras beyond, was very fine.  It had become quite hot by this time, and I was much interested in seeing all our horses taken down to the water to bathe.  They appeared to be perfectly familiar with the process; and, the river being shallow, they picked out all the nice holes between the boulders, where they could lie down and be completely covered by the water.  Just as we were starting to return, black clouds gathered from all around; the lightning flashed, the thunder muttered, and big drops began to fall.  But the storm was not of long duration, and we escaped the worst part of it, though we had ample evidence of its severity during our homeward ride, in the slippery ground, the washed-away paths, and the swollen ditches.