There are two towns. Eastward is the Puerto Militar, the great naval harbour, and some miles to the west lies the Civil Port, Bahia Blanca proper, which will soon be as familiar a name as Liverpool or Rotterdam. The naval town is the work of the accomplished Italian engineer, Chevalier Luis Luiggi, who has constructed magnificent naval works. The graving dock is very fine and will receive battleships of the largest size, nor was the Italian neglectful of the artistic side of town planning, for he has transformed a desert into a garden, and Puerto Belgrano, as it is called, is likely to be in the future a fashionable watering-place, as well as a naval base. Gums, acacias, and tamarisks have been planted, and numerous gardens have been laid out. On the Civil Port immense sums have been spent, and it has been made thoroughly fit to deal with the portentous grain traffic, large already and which must very soon attain marvellous proportions. The competition of two powerful railways assures Bahia Blanca of being well served both in the matter of docks and transport. Patagonia, which a generation ago was hardly known except by the reports of sailors, who had occasionally explored its coasts, and which was fabled as a land of giants, is now beginning to raise its veil of mystery and to be known as an important seat of the wool trade. But it is still imperfectly explored, and not long ago an expedition was despatched to search for the grypotherium, a strange beast which was rumoured to live in the inaccessible forests. It may be doubted whether it has more reality than the sea serpent.