The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1878-08-15
DROUTH ON THE PAMPAS.


made the acquaintance of young man
named Arthur Mooers, who came all the
way from the Argentine Republic to re-
ceive advantages of New England ed
ucation. My young friend has been
greatly interested in the sketches of
backwoods life which have appeared in
the Companion for the last two years.
In return he desires to communicate
some incidents of life on the Pampas,
where his father, Mr. Preston Mooers,
owns an extensive estancia, or cattle
range, and where Arthur's boyhood was
passed up to his thirteenth year.
The estanctas, or cattle-farms of the
Pampas, are of vast extent, comprising
from hundred to eight or ten hundred
square leagues. That of Mr.. Mooers,
in the Southern country, embraced some
700 leagues.
An Argentine stock-farmer not unfre-
quently owns hundred thousand head
of cattle. Mr.. Mooers's stock varied,
year by year, from 10000 to $1,000.
This vast herd was divided into minor
herds of about 5000 head each, and each
of these smaller herds was under the
care of two mounted half-breed herds
men, called vaqueros.
1t is the business of the herdsmen to
keep the herd together, and prevent
them from straying too far beyond the
landmarks of their owners territory.
Every night the herds are driven in to
some central location, and yarded.
The year 1871 was year of drouth
on the Pampas, and thousands of cattle
persisted for want of water. Even be-
fore January-which is the second sum-
mer month in that far southern country,
corresponding to July in our north
ern hemisphere-all the streams were
dry, and the grass had become so
parched and crisp that it crumbled un-
der the feet like finder.
GAIL our cattle,'' said Arthur, swere
dependent for water on three wells
which my father had sunk. The first
of these was at place called Grande
Rodes, the second twenty miles from
that, at Asado corral, and the last
thirty miles farther, at yard called Ell
Capitaz. To one or another of these
wells all the cattle were driven. The
wells were each two hundred feet
deep. The old way of drawing water
was by what is termed horse-buckets.
A pair of horses, or yoke of oxen,
drew up the water in great sack, made
of hides, by long chain that ran
through a pully, suspended from a
high framework over the well. 1t was
a slow and tedious process, and my
father improved on it by importing
three eeam-engines for his wells. It
was those engines that saved our stock
that year.
''Drouth on the Pampas is fearful
thing. Never shall 1 forget the fright
full scenes at the Grande Rodes well in
February of that year!
"About the well there was strong
corral of timber, eight feet high, en-
closing quarter of an acre or more.
The watering-trough, which, was made
OF heavy planks, ran around the out
side of this fence, being pinned firmly
to it. There was nearly 400 feet of
trough in one range, so that the spout
from the well filled the whole of it when
the thirsty cattle gave the water time to
flow so far.
We were troubled, however, to get
fuel for the engines, and for lack of bet
ter we used the stalks of the Pampa
thistles. These thistles shoot up during
December and January to the height Of
10 aud II feet, and form miniature for
ests. The stalks, being two or three
inches thick, make a moderately hot
fire, if well tended.
1.-The pumping began during the last
days OF January, and soon had to be
kept up night and day. As the more
distant springs and sruns failed, the
herds came to the we'll
"By the 10th of February no less
than $4,000 head of cattle drank st the
trough daily. Two days after, the
guachos in charge of the well reported
that the number had so increased that
the weaker ones could not get up to the
trough at all.
"The next night my father went