Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/212



182 A GLANCE AT BUENOS AIRES.

specimen of a Britisli library^ and we glance at two huge pileSj S. Francisco and Santo Domingo^, which look some- what perilous to those passing by. This thoroughfare, con- taining Mr. Morton^s deodorizing apparatus, leads to a mass of hospitals, the British, the French Joint-Stock, the Italian, and the Convalescencia, all clustering upon the northern bank that bounds the riverine valley of the Riachuelo. I have pleasant reminiscences of Calle Defensa, Esquina Garay ; of enjoyable evenings spent in the hospitable house of Mr. and Mrs. Russell.

Returning to the Plaza, and issuing by the south-west angle, we enter Bolivar- street. Here is the College or San Ignacio Church, formerly Jesuit property, and externally at least the best in the city. The whole block is taken up for Government purposes. The educational portion is presided over by the highly distinguished Dr. Juan Maria Gutierrez, a name well known to European art and science. Part of the building has been made over to Dr. Hermann Burmeister, naturalist, physiologist, anthropologist, and Brazilian, as well as Argentine traveller : the \dsitor will find this collection very different from what it was in the days when Rosas reigned. Then the roof was in holes, and then a few dusty birds and beasts stuck awry upon wires nodded to their fall. The inlaid picture and the fossil horse of the Pampas, a zebra, are especially worthy of inspection, and the collection of mega- theroids is too well known to require more than mention. On the west side of the block is the Public Library, to- gether with the Land Office and other establishments. At the junction of Belgrano you look to the left, and see the office of the Standard, the only English daily published south of the equator, say the editors. May their supply of the paddles with which the Paraguayan canoes attacked the Brazilian ironclads never be less! Beyond it is the Post- office, and further on the city straggles out into suburbs.