Pedro Rubio, a Norwegian, went out to Patagonia to survey
the land and mark the boundaries of the enormous sheep- farms which cover almost the whOle country. Patagonian Year (Methuen, 7s. 6d.) is a simple and very readable account of his' adventures from the time he left Buenos Aires to his return a year later. He spent eight months of the time travelling the pampas from end to end on horseback, sleeping under the open sky and living on a diet of nothing but roast mutton (three to four pounds per day) basted with brine, and mate, green tea. He found it a most healthy and satis- fying existence and fell under the spell which all desert lands seem to exercise. He has stories of horses and men which are either amusing or exciting, and there is an earthiness about the book which is very refreshing. Life in the towns of Santa Cruz and Rivadavia was not healthy—the eternal whisky- drinking of his clients, the Scots sheep-farmers, was too much for him, and the scarcity of women presented serious problems to the passionate Argentines. The book is pleasantly illus- trated, but a good map of the country would have added to its value:*
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