The Cerro guards the entrance to the great river. It is the first true hill upon its banks--and the last, for over a thousand miles. For the next of its kind signals the approach to Asuncion--beyond Argentina and far beyond the Banda Oriental--in far-away Paraguay. And much water flows between the tropical heat of Asuncion and the cool freshness of this Cerro. Therefore the place is worthy of mark as the southernmost of the two widely separated sentinel hills that guard such different climes. CHAPTER XIV FROM MONTEVIDEO TO THE NORTHERN FRONTIER Leaving Montevideo--General aspects of the Campo--The Rio Negro as a line of demarcation--Growing exuberance of the scenery--_Flor morala_--Blue lupin--Camp flowers--A sparsely populated countryside--Absence of homesteads--A soft landscape--Humble ranchos--Cattle and horses--Iguanas and ostriches--Deer--Cardoso--Influence of climate and marriage upon the colonists--A cheese-making centre--A country of table-lands--A Campo load--Some characteristics of the way--A group of riders--Some contrasts--A country of rocks--Stone walls--Crude homesteads--Kerosene tins as building material--"Camp" stations--The carpets of blossom--Piedra Sola--Tambores--Landscape and nomenclature--Increase in the height of the table-lands--Scenes at a country station--Aspects of the inhabitants--Some matters of complexion--The train and its transformation--Influence of the country upon the carriages--Northern passengers--Metropolitan and local costume--Some questions of clothes and figure--Relations between mistresses and maids--Democratic households--A patriarchal atmosphere--Things as they seem, and as they are--Conversation no guide to profession. A journey from south to north through the heart of Uruguay reveals an infinitely greater variety of landscape and humanity than is suspected by the dwellers in the better known littoral districts of the land. It is true that for the purpose the employment of the homely and convenient railway train is essential. Although it has been my good fortune to drive for day after day and for league upon league through lesser areas of the Uruguayan Campo, to cover such a lengthy stretch as this by means of coach and horses is only possible for him who can afford the supreme luxury of ignoring time. The first portion of the journey, moreover, although far from wearisome in the circumstances, is effected across a landscape almost every league of which presents the exact replica of its neighbours. Once clear of the woods, fields, vineyards, orchards, and flowers that lie so pleasantly to the landward side of Montevideo, the rolling grass waves of the Campo come to stretch themselves from horizon to horizon, rising and dipping with a ceaseless regularity of sweep until it becomes difficult to believe that the entire world itself is not composed of these smiling folds of land.