After inspecting the ponchos, we breakfasted with some friends, and about noon started in the train for Campana.  The line passes at first through the streets of Buenos Ayres, and thence into the open country, beautifully green, and undulating like the waves of the sea.  Near the town and the suburb of Belgrano are a great many peach-tree plantations, the fruit of which is used for fattening pigs while the wood serves for roasting them.  There is also some scrubby brushwood, and a few large native trees; but these are soon left behind, and are succeeded by far-spreading rich pasture land, and occasional lagunes.

We saw for the first time the holes of the bizcachas, or prairie-dogs, outside which the little prairie-owls keep guard.  There appeared to be always one, and generally two, of these birds, standing, like sentinels, at the entrance to each hole, with their wise-looking heads on one side, pictures of prudence and watchfulness.  The bird and the beast are great friends, and are seldom to be found apart.  We also passed several enormous flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, most of them quite unattended, though some were being driven by men on horseback.  There were quantities of plovers, and a great many partridges, of two kinds, large and small, and the numerous lagunes were covered with and surrounded by water-fowl of all kinds—­wild swans and ducks, snipe, white storks, grey herons, black cormorants, and scarlet flamingoes, the last-named standing at the edge of the water, catching fish, and occasionally diving below the surface.  On the very top of some of the telegraph-posts were the nests of the oven-bird, looking like carved round blocks of wood, placed there for ornament.  These nests are made of mud, and are perfectly spherical in form, the interior being divided into two quite distinct chambers.

[Illustration:  Prairie Dogs and Owls.]

Campana was reached by four o’clock, the train running straight on to the pier, alongside of which the two vessels were lying, with steam up.  Passengers, baggage, and freight were immediately transferred from the train to the boats; and we soon found ourselves steaming along in the ‘Uruguay,’ between the willow-hung banks of the broad Parana.  The country, though otherwise flat and uninteresting, looks very pretty just now, in its new spring coat of bright green.

We passed several small towns, amongst others, San Pedro and San Nicolas, which are quite important-looking places, with a good deal of shipping, and occasionally stopped to pick up passengers, who had come in boats and steam-launches from far-distant villages, situated on lagunes, which our steamer could not enter.

Just before arriving at each stopping-place, we had a race with the ‘Proveedor,’ and whenever she became visible at a bend in the river, half a ton more coal was immediately heaped on to our fires by the captain’s order—­a piece of reckless extravagance, for, do what they would, they could not make us gain five minutes.  The competition is, however, very fierce, and I suppose the two companies will not be satisfied until they have ruined one another; whereas, if each would run a steamer on alternate days, they and the public would be equally benefited.  The fares are exceedingly reasonable, being less than 3_l_. for the whole journey from Buenos Ayres to Rosario, including all charges.