When the place of rendezvous has been reached the cattle are kept tramping around a central point, as they are not near so likely to get frightened or stampeded if kept on the move. When the inspection or count is ended, the different herds are gradually separated by the gauchos and driven back to the feeding grounds. If a count is intended a line is formed through which the cattle are driven, and the cattle are numbered as they pass through the line. This is sometimes a difficult operation, and especially is it so if they aim to divide the herd into two or more bodies. One animal is driven to the right, another to the left and so on. This sometimes leads to a great deal of excitement and confusion among the cattle, and stampedes are easy to happen under such circumstances. Stockyards have been built on many ranches, where a narrow passage is constructed through which only one animal is able to pass at a time. This greatly simplifies the counting or dividing process. Furthermore, there is less danger of the animals injuring each other in their excitement. The gauchos are clever with the lasso, but cannot equal the American cowboy with that rope. Altogether the gaucho is a very useful and a very necessary man on the cattle _estancias_ of Argentina, and his services are generally appreciated. CHAPTER IV THE RIVER OF SILVER The Rio de la Plata, the “river of silver,” is one of the great river systems of the world. That name is properly applied only to the month of the system, which reaches just a little above the city of Buenos Aires, a distance of a couple of hundred miles from the Atlantic. From there it receives the name of the Paraná, which has its source in the wilds of Brazil. Where it pours its waters into the ocean this wonderful river is one hundred and eighty miles in width, and at Montevideo it has narrowed down to sixty-five miles. Opposite Buenos Aires it is still twenty-eight miles from shore to shore. The La Plata, as it is generally called, discharges the water from a basin much larger than the Mississippi, and the volume of water brought down by it is said to be exceeded only by the Amazon. It drains the greater part of the fertile pampas, reaches up into the coffee lands of Brazil, and carries down to the Atlantic the melted snows of the loftiest peaks of the Andes. The basin is in the shape of an immense horseshoe, and includes, besides the two above counties, all of Paraguay and parts of Bolivia and Uruguay.