"There you have a picture of the population, which is as heterogeneous as that of the United States of North America, and has good promise for the future. The country is as diversified as the people; it consists of dense forests and vast pampas or plains, in which the herds of countless cattle and horses, and flocks of equally countless sheep, find a nutritious pasture. The pampas are far more extensive than the forests, and there are places where you may travel miles and miles without seeing a tree, or even a bush. Altogether, the Argentine Republic contains a million square miles of land between latitude 21° and 41° south, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Andes, which separate it from Chili. The southern part of the territory is a vast desert; it is certainly a foolish quarrel between Chili and the republic, for the possession of this inhospitable region. The whole area in dispute is not worth the lives of the men who have died there while trying to hold on to it." While Fred was writing the foregoing notes on the country, and Dr. Bronson and Frank were occupied with letters for home, Manuel was sent to engage passage on a steamer bound up the River Plate. Frank will tell us the story of the voyage. [Illustration; A STEAMER ON THE RIVER PLATE.] "Navigation on the River Plate is free to all nations," wrote the youth in his journal, "the same as on the Amazon. The river is variously called 'Rio de la Plata,' 'River Plate,' and 'Plate River,' and, strictly speaking, it is an estuary rather than a river. It is formed by the junction of the Parana River with the Uruguay almost within sight of the ocean; the broad estuary is full of shoals and intricate channels which render the navigation difficult. Large steamers can ascend the Parana a thousand miles from the sea; the basin of the River Plate is estimated to contain a million and a quarter square miles of land, and the inland navigation which terminates at Buenos Ayres and Montevideo is said to be not less than ten thousand miles. The Paraguay may be considered the head and principal stream of the Plate system; its sources are only a few miles from those of the Madeira, and the two streams might be easily united by means of a canal. [Illustration: A REFUGE FROM MOSQUITOES.]