till three or four in the afternoon; and so
dexterously and rapidly is this sort of battue kept
up, that during the twelve hours from four to
five hundred animals are daily disposed of.

The desollador now proceeds to dissection.
He cuts the head off in a trice. The skin is
disengaged from the trunk by a series of
rapid and even cuts, and then stripped. Beef
is the next consideration; but only the fore
part of the beast is prepared for the salting
process. The skinner takes out the two
shoulder pieces, the two back pieces, and two
breast pieces; so that only six joints are
thought worthy of preservation. The carcase
is drawn away, and makes room for another
animal just slaughtered, to be dealt with in
like manner.

The meat having been washed, dried,
and removed from the bones, is taken
to another place, which is the "Saladero"
proper, or salting-house. It has been cut
into pieces, which are now arranged in a
square pile, each layer being covered with
salt. This pila containing the results, in beef,
of the day's slaughter is afterwards removed
to be dried again, and is then ready for
exportation. When there is a great demand
for beef the drying is done by a forced
process, in three or four days; but it is best
done when the piles are allowed to remain for
several weeks, before dried.

While the meat is being salted and piled,
the bones, fat, and intestines are hurried to
another part of the yard, where two tall
chimneys indicate to us where the fabrica, or
melting-house is situated just opposite to
the galpon, and forming one side of the square
we have just crossed. We pass under its roof
for, like none of the other sheds, it has
walls and observe two fire-places, each
surmounted by an enormous boiler. From these
boilers ascend four copper tubes, through
each of which is driven with the force of an
engine, a powerful jet of steam into the bottom
of a tina or vat, from fourteen to eighteen
feet high, and made of thick pine staves,
bound together with hoops. As each steam
pipe leads to a separate vat, (of which there
are eight), either capable of containing from a
hundred to a hundred and fifty carcases and
heads. It takes several hours "to load" each
vat; but when that operation is completed,
the steam is turned on and the whole is
steamed incessantly from forty-eight to
seventy-two hours. The cleaned and whitened
bones are, at the end of that time, taken out
and the tallow drawn off, purified in flat
vessels and packed in barrels for shipment.
The remaining mass is so completely reduced
to dry fibre, that it makes excellent fuel, and
is used to heat and stew succeeding "loads."
This is a great advantage in a district very
scantily supplied with wood, and in which there
is no coal whatever. The peculiar fuel, thus
supplied, is appropriately called carne cozida,
"boiled beef." In a Saladero nothing is ever
lost, and the utility of carne cozida is not
confined to "keeping the pot boiling." It is left
in such abundance in the vats, that after the
furnaces are supplied with it, the rest is heaped
up in immense piles; and such as does not find
a market in Buenos Ayres is set light to
and left to burn till it is reduced to ashes.
These ashes are used in road-making; for
stones, as well as wood, are scarce on this bank
of the river, and successive strata of this ash
have so raised the banks of the stream that
they protect the Saladeros from inundation.

The most important and profitable part of
the ox is its hide. There are two ways in
which hides are prepared for exportation:
they are either salted or dried. While the
meat is carried from the playa to the salting-
house, and the carcass to the fabrica, the
skin is delivered over to a set of workmen
called descarnadores or trimmers. They lay
each hide on the flat of their left hands, scrape
off all the beef and fat which may be adhering
to the inner coating with a knife in the right
hand, trim the edges, and then stretch out
the hides by means of stakes driven into
the ground, if the skins are to be dried. If
they are to be salted, a pile is made of them
with layers of salt. Dried hides require much
more time and skill, than when they are only
salted. In the latter case, they are packed
in casks for exportation; in the former, when
shipped, they are tied up in bundles.

It is thus that the principal parts of the
beast are disposed of; but he yields certain
minor articles of merchandise which, in the
aggregate, materially increase the trade of a
Saladero. The heads are detained on their
way to the fabrica by boys whose business it
is to take the tongues out. When this is
done, the tongues are salted, a process which
requires great skill, that the salt may
penetrate the thick part as well as the tip. In
order that the roots may receive the salt
more readily, they are hammered on a stone.

But before the head is tossed into the vat, it
has to be denuded of its horns, which are to be
brought off with the frontal bone which holds
them. A few days' exposure to the air, especially
in wet weather, so loosens the horns
that they are removed with very little effort.
Millions of them are exported every year.
The refuse, left behind by the descamadores,
is employed in glue-making. Even the tails
of oxen are made into merchandise. When
sufficiently dry, they are packed up in bales,
but whether their ultimate destiny be soup
or not, we have not been able to learn.
Certain it is, that from the hoofs is extracted, in
a special department of the Saladero, an oil,
which pays remarkably well.

The work-people are paid wages which
would astonish the European operative. Even
boys gain from four to five shillings a-day.
While the more skilful workmen can net as
much as from six to seven pounds sterling
per week.

The control and business arrangements of
these great establishments are confided to a