The work of the gaucho is generally confined to the care of stock, of which such vast herds swarm the pampas in almost every direction. The mustering of cattle in Argentina is called a “rodeo.” Viewed from a distance, one will see a line strongly marked wind its way over the level plain, with a dust cloud hanging over it, which is visible long before the animals come in view. As the armies of red, white and dun animals approach nearer one will see the picturesque gauchos riding here and there like officers of an army bearing commands.
When the place of rendezvous has been reached the cattle are kept tramping around a central point, as they are not near so likely to get frightened or stampeded if kept on the move. When the inspection or count is ended, the different herds are gradually separated by the gauchos and driven back to the feeding grounds. If a count is intended a line is formed through which the cattle are driven, and the cattle are numbered as they pass through the line. This is sometimes a difficult operation, and especially is it so if they aim to divide the herd into two or more bodies. One animal is driven to the right, another to the left and so on. This sometimes leads to a great deal of excitement and confusion among the cattle, and stampedes are easy to happen under such circumstances. Stockyards have been built on many ranches, where a narrow passage is constructed through which only one animal is able to pass at a time. This greatly simplifies the counting or dividing process. Furthermore, there is less danger of the animals injuring each other in their excitement. The gauchos are clever with the lasso, but cannot equal the American cowboy with that rope. Altogether the gaucho is a very useful and a very necessary man on the cattle estancias of Argentina, and his services are generally appreciated.
CHAPTER IV
THE RIVER OF SILVER
The Rio de la Plata, the “river of silver,” is one of the great river systems of the world. That name is properly applied only to the month of the system, which reaches just a little above the city of Buenos Aires, a distance of a couple of hundred miles from the Atlantic. From there it receives the name of the Paraná, which has its source in the wilds of Brazil. Where it pours its waters into the ocean this wonderful river is one hundred and eighty miles in width, and at Montevideo it has narrowed down to sixty-five miles. Opposite Buenos Aires it is still twenty-eight miles from shore to shore. The La Plata, as it is generally called, discharges the water from a basin much larger than the Mississippi, and the volume of water brought down by it is said to be exceeded only by the Amazon. It drains the greater part of the fertile pampas, reaches up into the coffee lands of Brazil, and carries down to the Atlantic the melted snows of the loftiest peaks of the Andes. The basin is in the shape of an immense horseshoe, and includes, besides the two above counties, all of Paraguay and parts of Bolivia and Uruguay.
The Uruguay River, which flows into the La Plata almost opposite Buenos Aires, is one thousand miles long and is navigable for several hundred miles, the Paraná for almost two thousand miles, and the Paraguay, from its junction with the latter stream, floats boats of shallow draft for fifteen hundred miles farther. Altogether these various streams furnish thousands of miles of navigable waters on which regular communication is furnished by large and commodious steamers. Nicolas Mihanovitch is the undisputed king of this river traffic, and dozens of vessels plying on these rivers bear the white letter M. with a black background on the funnel. They furnish a nightly service between Montevideo and Buenos Aires, and weekly or semi-weekly service up the Paraná and Uruguay Rivers.
Vessels drawing sixteen feet of water can proceed as far as Rosario, but ocean-going steamers seldom ascend any farther, as the water becomes shallower beyond that city. Boats of twelve feet draught can proceed as far as Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, eight hundred miles farther inland. The waters carry much mud, and the channel sometimes changes its course by the formation of mud banks. Hundreds of islands have formed, some of which probably started from a submerged tree, about which the sediment was deposited. In truth the Paraná plays with islands and sand banks as a lesser stream does with pebbles. A recent scientific writer has given some interesting facts concerning its eccentricities. Says he: “A schooner which sank nine years ago off La Paz swiftly developed at its tail an island a mile long, now crowned by willows. My photograph of the old port of Paraná town in 1902 shows an island eight hundred and eighty yards long by four hundred and ninety feet wide fronting it; in December, 1907, only one hundred and sixty feet of the island remained. Thirty years ago a market gardener made a shallow ditch cut-off opposite Ibicuy River (Lower Paraná), to take his produce down the river. The Paraná elected to take his work in hand, and now ocean steamers pass through this channel on their way down from Rosario.”
In the rainy season the Paraná spreads out for dozens of miles over the level land and forms an inland sea so wide that the banks are almost invisible. This flood season lasts for three months in the year, generally from March to June. At this season the Paraguay pours a mass of water twenty miles wide and twenty feet deep into the Paraná. Added to this is the water of the Alta Paraná, and the Lower Paraná then spreads itself out over the low lands of the western bank.