Year: 1866




! from one end of the lane to the other


and bringing them up on the track with
their heads against a sliding bar all in a
liify. The same man who lassoss them


tbrusts his ugly knife into the top of the


head Just back Of the horns, strieking


the point Of junction between the spinal


column and the brain. Again he sings


q Esta Buena :" the horses turn about,
the bar slips aside, the car runs away,


the cattle are dumped off and it is back


again, while you would be saying Jack


Robinson" But meanwhile the MatadOr


has lassoed couple more, and il is quite


a race between the car and the victims
for the fatal end of the passage of death.
One Matador was killing, while we looked


on, an average of JfUe a minute. We


proceeded thence to the slaughter house,
which is open at the sides. We had no


idea Of the destructive capacity Of a
single butcher-knife. The bullock is


turned with his head toward. His throat
/ is cut, and ere he has done kicking, has
! lost half his hide. One man alone takes


the entire hide of, the entrails out, and


cuts the meat off the bones in fifteen (15)
minutes. Some even do in in ten (10)
minutes. Bows carry everything away
He stirs not from the spot. Another
| bullock drops down at the right in place
of the one just despatched and mysteri-
ously slips out of his hideand disappears
in like manner. The hide of his prede-
cessor has meanwhile been hurried away
to a succession Of baths in three different
watts, and bounded away with two skips
and a jump into a large bed of salt
with its fellows. where it sleeps a little
season undisturbed. and from which it
rides out to get the benefit of fresh air
and sunshine, after which, in a stack
with thousands Of others it goes into the
market, where they are sold By the cord.
Meanwhile the meat of the bullock of
which it was a part and parcel, has quit
ted its bones in two long, lean slabs,
gone through like process Of bathing
and sleeping in a salt he'd. or a series Of
salt beds rather, after which it comes
forth, is shaken and is spread layer upon
layer, until a stack is built about twenty
fve wide fifty feet long and fifteen high.
Tn this state the whole stack is subjected
to an immense hydraulic press, by which
the entire stack IS pressed iEto less than
half its previous hulk Thence it is
hung nut to dry. This is done on two
rail fences about seven feet high, six feet
distant from each other, with the rails
about two feet apart. The sides Of beef
are hung across those rails closely beside
each other. where they too spend some
days in the crcsh air and sunshine before
they are offered for sale. They are then
restacked and sold by the cord likewise
We saw many such stacks, and several
acres Of these sides, drying rs above de-
soribed. This is the well-known ierked
beef and from this place and Buenos
A Ayres, the Brazil, Havana and Mediter-
rarean markets are supplied. Some of
it is cured with coarse salt and some Of
it with fine Liverpool salt; and some of
it is fat and some lean. A different kind
i7 sent TO each market. The tailow was
fried out and barrelled for shipment on
a corresponding large scale. About
hundred cattle are killed here every
morning.


We returned convinced that we had
seen a feature if not the Mefeature of the
and had surely taken a sufficient
10 do justice even to the heaviest
breakfast of carnival season. Suffice it
to say we wanted no beef for breakfast,
and simply hint to our friends to visit
the Saladera after breakfast rather than
before.