There was plenty of water and limestone, a rough house, excellent corrals, and a peach orchard.

For all this he had been offered 2000 pounds sterling, and he only wanted 500 pounds sterling additional, and probably would sell it for less.

The chief trouble with an estancia is driving the cattle twice a week to a central spot, in order to make them tame, and to count them.

This latter operation would be thought difficult, where there are ten or fifteen thousand head together.

It is managed on the principle that the cattle invariably divide themselves into little troops of from forty to one hundred.
Each troop is recognised by a few peculiarly marked animals, and its number is known: so that, one being lost out of ten thousand, it is perceived by its absence from one of the tropillas.