It Was Supposed That This Energetic Measure
Would Lessen Their Numbers.
Many tons were collected and burnt, but,
I assure the reader, no appreciable difference whatever was made in
their legions.
The young jumpers came, eating all before them, and
their numbers seemed infinite. Men dug trenches, kindled fires, and
burned millions of them. Ditches two yards wide and deep and two
hundred feet long were completely filled up by these living waves.
But all efforts were unavailing - the earth remained covered. A
Waldensian acquaintance suffered for several years from this fearful
plague. Some seasons he was not even able to get back so much as the
seed he planted. If the locusts passed him, it so happened that the
pampero wind blew with such terrific force that we have looked in
vain even for the straw. The latter was actually torn up by the roots
and whirled away, none knew whither. At other times large hailstones,
for which the country is noted, have destroyed everything, or tens of
thousands of green paroquets have done their destructive work. When a
five-months' drought was parching everything, I have heard him
reverently pray that God would spare him wheat sufficient to feed his
family. This food God gave him, and he thankfully invited me to share
it. I rejoice in being able to say that he afterwards became rich,
and had his favorite saying, "Dios no me olvidae" (God will not
forget me), abundantly verified.
Notwithstanding natural drawbacks, which every country has, Argentina
can claim to have gone forward as no other country has during the
last ten years. There are many estates worth more than a million
dollars. Dr. W. A. Hirot, in "Argentina," says: "Argentina has more
live stock than any other country of the world. Ten million hides
have been exported in one year, and it is not improbable that there
are more cattle in South America than there are in all the rest of
the world combined." Belgium has 220 people occupying the space one
person has in Argentina, so who can prophesy as to its future?
PART II.
BOLIVIA
[Illustration]
Have you gazed on naked grandeur where there's nothing
else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets
blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
- Robert W. Service.
BOLIVIA
Bolivia, having no sea-coast, has been termed the Hermit Republic of
South America. Its territory is over 600,000 square miles in extent,
and within its bounds Nature displays almost every possible panorama,
and all climates. There are burning plains, the home of the emu,
armadillos, and ants; sandy deserts, where the wind drifts the sand
like snow, piling it up in ever-shifting hills about thirty feet in
height. Bolivia, shut in geographically and politically, is a world
in itself - a world of variety, in scenery, climate, products and
people. Its capital city, La Paz, has a population of 70,000, but the
vast interior is almost uninhabited.
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