CHAPTER XIV

FROM MONTEVIDEO TO THE NORTHERN FRONTIER 172

Leaving Montevideo--General aspects of the Campo--The Rio Negro as a line of demarcation--Growing exuberance of the scenery--Flor Morala--Blue lupin--Camp flowers--A sparsely populated countryside--Absence of homesteads--A soft landscape--Humble ranchos--Cattle and horses--Iguanas and ostriches--Deer--Cardoso--Influence of climate and marriage upon the colonists--A cheese-making centre--A country of table-lands--A Campo road--Some characteristics of the way--A group of riders--Some contrasts--A country of rocks--Stone walls--Crude homesteads--Kerosene tins as building material--Camp stations--The carpets of blossom--Piedra Sola--Tambores-- Landscape and nomenclature--Increase in the height of the table-lands--Scenes at a country station--Aspects of the inhabitants--Some matters of complexion--The train and its transformation--Influence of the country upon the carriages--Northern passengers--Metropolitan and local costume--Some questions of clothes and figure--Relations between mistresses and maids--Democratic households--A patriarchal atmosphere--Things as they seem, and as they are--Conversation no guide to profession.