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so thick that it was impossible to see one's way for the next few yards - distinctly dangerous. 

     We stopped in Lobos, a western-looking little town, and then proceeded to Mr. Picardo's estancia.  We were really out on the pampas then, and as far as the eye could see were the flat prairies, with cattle and horses in abundance.  Trees were planted wherever there were houses, but mostly the land was grass and pasture.  

     Picardo's place is a nutria farm, and here he has hundreds of sleek little rabbity nutrias being raised for their pelts.  In pens are the breeding females, and he can keep three or four together because they have been brought up together; otherwise they would fight, nutria being naturally pugnacious.  Four or five hundred young were born last month.  About twenty acres of ground are fenced in, and most of the animals are allowed to live in a natural state in this [[strikeout]] wild [[/strikeout]] part of the farm.  They are fed in certain spots, and when they want to trap them they can close in the feeding grounds and capture them easily.  The pelts are lovely and soft after the l ng coarse hairs are plucked, and a good nutria coat costs about as much as an Alaska seal.  Baby nutrias are born with eyes open and teeth sharp; they take to the water on the second day.  Mother nutria has her nipples low on her back, and the babies swim along in the water taking their meal from this unusual position.

     After seeing the nutrias we went to the house for lunch, and met Mrs. Roosmalen, the wife of Picardo's partner and manager of the estate.  She was very charming, and I felt right at home with her when we discovered that we were both Sacred Heart pupils.  

     After lunch we went out in motor boats on the lagoon, which, being the only water in that part of the country, attracts wild birds from all over.  We had noticed a marvelous assortment of birds from the car as we came along: owls, hawks, black ibis, kiskadee, oven birds and their round mud nests, plovers.  Here were all the water birds: cascaroba geese, black-necked swans, coots, various species of ducks and geese, and big flocks of flamingoes, which as they rose displayed their rose and black and white plumage in the sun. 

     We came back across the pampas as the sun went down in a purple glory through the murk of dust clouds.  Horsemen galloped past us on their thick saddles of fleece.  The moon came up, blood red and as big as a parasol.  And before we reached town again the Southern Cross was high overhead.  

May 4 - B. A. 

     Frances, Dorothy and I had lunch together, meeting first at the Continental for cocktails, and then going to Ideal for luncheon.  Our policemen had recommended it as a good place for sandwiches and a light lunch, and the food was delicious, though I took malicious delight in noting that they had called it a cafeteria when it was really a confiteria.  We had jellied ham