paradise, peach, espinillo, &c., and the visitor will also find some friends of childhood in the hawthorn, oak, beech, holly, aspen, elm, and ivy, which are nowhere else to be seen in South America. The Scotch colonists did not suffer themselves to be cast down by their reverses, but steadily turned their attention to the business of life: some of them came into town, and, after years of hard labor, succeeded in making handsome fortunes; the rest settled down to rural pursuits and became in a short time owners of great tracts of land and countless flocks and herds. Dr. Brown resolved also to stand by his countrymen: he took an apartment in the city to serve as a chapel, and added to his slender income by teaching. Steps were soon taken to raise funds for building a church, and Dr. Brown was sent to England to seek aid from the Government: in this he was so successful that an Act of Parliament was passed (6th George IV.), giving for the support of English and Scotch churches abroad a sum equivalent to that subscribed by the local residents, and this arrangement is still in force.

South of Santa Catalina is the Ortega estancia, and eastward of the latter is the Bursaco property, mostly under Indian corn; it is traversed by the Southern railway, and has over a thousand acres richly cultivated. The lands of Correa are nearer to the village of Las Lomas.

Many of the chacras are of great extent, and all are covered with rich corn-fields or meadow-farms, to the extent of 20,000 acres the principal are

Of these the finest certainly is Mr. Temperley's, about half a mile beyond the Lomas station, close to the line of railway. The house and grounds are exceedingly tasteful, forming one of the prettiest suburban residences about town: the property has been much enhanced in value by the Southern railway passing through it, and Mr. Temperley has sold numerous lots to English and American merchants who are establishing country-houses here. On the opposite side of the railway is Mr. Livingston's charming place, surrounded by fruit and flower gardens.

Nearer to the village are the properties of Green, Drabble, Grigg, &c.` East of the railway, in the midst of shady avenues and thickets is Mrs. Kidd's family hotel, an excellent house, where the traveller or invalid may pass a week very pleasantly, with all the comforts of an English home, and free from the bustle of the city. Messrs. Henry, Makern, and others have recently purchased, and a new English hotel has been started.

The village of La Paz, more generally known as «Las Lomas,» is situated on a rising ground which commands a view of the city: the air is peculiarly fresh and bracing, and the locality reputed the most healthy about town. The village is in its infancy, having only three shops and a dozen houses around the church: the latter is a very handsome structure, and the vista on every side is lost in green lanes and pretty quintas. There is a good fonda near the station. The state school is attended by 50 boys and 35 girls. Not far from the church there is a country-house, recently built by Marshall of Barracas. A couple of miles nearer town is the quinta of Don Anacarsis Lanuz, with a fine residence and plantations of lofty poplars the railway has made a station hard by.

The stock returns of the partido are-3,526 cows, 1,967 horses, 12,951 fine sheep, 62,140 mestiza sheep, being an average of 500 cows, 300 horses, and 11,000 sheep to the square league. Population-803 Argentines, 155 French, 117 Italians, 47 English, 41 Spaniards, 38 Germans, 1 Indian, 53 various-total 1,255. There are 89 houses and 200 ranchos, including 16 pulperias. There are 4 alcaldes, 16 tenientes, and 10 police. The land is mostly valued at $1,000 to $1,500 per cuadra. Total valuation $16,000,000, against $3,000,000 in 1862; Contribucion tax, $64,000. Municipality, four members; municipal revenue, $138,000. Justice of Peace, Don Victorio Grigera; Postmaster, Don Gregorio Larios.

Lomas de Zamora is 2 leagues S. of Barracas, 2 W. of Quilmes, 4 S.E. of Moron, 9 N.E. of Cañuelas, 6 N. of San Vicente, and 9 N. W. of Ensenada.

San Vicente.

Situate ten leagues south of Buenos Ayres, has an area of fifty-six square leagues, and comprises 74 estancias and 123 chacras.

This partido was one of the first wherein sheep-farming was experimented in Buenos Ayres, and fully half its extent is owned by foreigners. It is very thickly settled with English aud Germans, who number over a thousand, and hold some of the finest estancias in the country. The lands are generally very low, but the grass is considered.

good for fattening sheep. The principal water-courses are the affluents of Samborombon, and there are some large lagoons in the neighbourhood of the village of San Vicente. The partido is bounded on the N. by Quilmes and the Lomas, on the W. by Cañuelas, and on the S. by Ranchos, and on the E. by Ensenada and Magdalena.

The Harratt estancia is another first-class establishment, the late Mr. Harratt having been one of the first (a'ong with Peter Sheridan) to devote

his attention to the importation of prize sheep from Europe for the refinement of the breed in this country: Harratt's merinos are considered some of the finest and best, and the stranger cannot do better than to pay a visit to this famed «cabaña.» On this estancia there is a good wayside hotel known as Sutton's, where comfortable quarters may be had, and the country around affords excellent shooting: Mr. Randle, the proprietor, is very attentive to visitors.

A league south of San Vivente village is George Bell's fine estancial called Viamont: it is intersected by an arroyo of the Sanborombon. Mr. Bell is one of the chief landed proprietors in the River Plate, having numerous estancias both in this province and the Banda Oriental; he was one of the Monte Grande colonists already mentioned. South-west of this estancia is that belonging to the heirs of the late Mrs. Williams, an industrious Irishwoman who came hither from the Queen's Co., over forty years ago.

Glew's and Bursaco's estancias are near the Glew Station on the Southern Railway; the first has a pretty plantation around the house, the second is mostly under grain. The lands of Nelson and Ferguson adjoin those of Harratt, in the direction of Ranchos. The line of railway from San Vicente to Sanborombon traverses the estancias of Freers, Donselaar, M-Farquhar, Urdaquiola, Wilkie, and Faulkes. Eastward of the two last mentioned estates are those of Temperley, Daley, and Corrales, which are watered by two arroyos which fall into the Sanborombon. Gowland is on the borders of Ensenada, and Ferrari near the station of the

same name.

Land is valued at $100,000 per league: total valuation 22,000,000, against 17,000,000 in 1862. Contribucion tax, $88,000. Stock returns— 7,693 cows, 17,173 horses, 5,450 fine sheep, 1,470,494 mestiza sheep, 956 creole sheep; being an average of 150 cows, 300 horses, and 29,000 sheep per square league. The amount of land under tillage is estimated at four square leagues, or about 25,000 acres. Population-4,012 Argentines, 480 English, 397 Italians, 386 Spaniards, 295 Germans, 248 French, 3 Indians; total 6,030. There are 89 houses and 1,222 ranchos, including 29 pulperias. There are five alcaldes, 25 tenientes, 12 police, and 659 National Guards.

San Vicente is a poor village a league from the railway station, with which communication is kept up by an omnibus. Formerly in wet seasons the village was entirely cut off by «bañados» and marshes, from all traffic with the city. An effort has been made to improve the place by getting up, a number of quintas, but neither this nor even the railway has succeeded

in imparting the least vitality to San Vicente. There are a church, stateschools, seven shops, and forty-two rateable houses, the best of the latter being those of Peter Wilch, John Freers, Peter Johnson, Parody, M. Borel, Fernandez, and Iriciti, valued from $50,000 upwards, The state school is attended by 25 boys and 32 girls. The Irish residents of this district are visited by Rev. Mr. Mullady, of Chascomus. The Scotch residents attend on Sundays at a chapel near Robson's estancia.

Justice of Peace, Don Ramon Sotelo; Curate, Rev. Domingo Scavini; Postmaster, Don Carlos Secchi; Municipality, six members; municipal revenue, $88,000.

San Vicente is 63 leagues south of Las Lomas, 6 east of Cañuelas, 11 N.E. of Guardia del Monte, 10 N. of Ranchos, and 10 W. of Ensenada.

Ranchos.

Situate twenty leagues south of Buenos Ayres, had formerly an area of ninety square leagues, now reduced to sixty-three.

This partido was the cradle of sheepfarming in Buenes Ayres, and the industry will be for ever identified with the names of Sheridan, Hannah, and Harratt, from whose acabañas» are descended most of the refined flocks of the north, west, and south. The lands of Ranchos are in many places low and marshy, and suffer at times from overflowing of the lagoons and arroyo, but never from drought. The partido is bounded on the N. by San Vicente, on the W. by Guardia Monte, on the S. and E. by Chascomus; before the recent change of limits it extended southwards to the Rio Salado, but now it only touches that river at the Paso Ponce and Paso de Ramos, on the Lopez and Villanueva estancias..

The largest estancias in the district of Ranchos now are those of Sheridan, Harratt, and Hannah. The breed of sheep at these estancias was originally the same, namely, those imported from France and Germany for the Government by Rivadavia. The death of Mr. Sheridan in 1844, and of Mr. Harratt in 1849, produced changes in the management detrimental to the breed of their sheep. Mr. Hannah's have had the advantage of his continuous superintendance from the beginning of 1827 to the present day. His stock includes a flock of about 500 pure Negrete ewes and a smaller number of Rambouillet, besides flocks of pure Merino blood, and crosses from the same with Negrete and Rambouillet rams. His mestiza breed may be considered such in name only, having been steadily crossed with pure rams for more than forty years.