lower courts in a number of capacities and teaching in the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, from which he was graduated, and also in the Faculty of Economic Sciences, he was appointed in 1936 a member

of the Civil and Commercial Court Appeals. His official connection with bor began in 1938 when he became Pres dent of the Railway Workers' Pensic Fund.

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Martín Fierro

ACABA de cumplirse [en 1947] el 75° aniversario de la primera edición del poema gauchesco Martín Fierro, del poeta y escritor argentino José Hernández, cuyo título original es El Gaucho Martín Fierro. Por una singular coincidencia, esa primera edición del libro que tan profunda y perdurable resonancia habría de tener en el ámbito argentino y universal, se hizo en el molde de una imprenta porteña denominada La Pampa, situada a la sazón en la calle Victoria 79. Así surgió a la luz público el poema hernandiano, cuya segunda parte, titulada La Vuelta de Martín Fierro, se publicó en 1878, es decir, seis años después de la primera, en 1872. La acogida que tuvo está inequívocamente demostrada por el hecho-insólito en el ambiente de la época de haber alcanzado ocho ediciones autorizadas en el breve lapso de tres años, desde 1872 a 1875. Pero no es eso lo que importa fundamental

auténtico, de la naturaleza y de la vida del campo argentino y su habitante en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX. Por su forma y contenido, el poema de Hernández resume y supera toda la épica payadoresca, cuyos representantes más genuinos fueron Hidalgo, Echeverría, Ascásubi y del Campo. Situado en el límite descendente de esa tradición popular enaltecida por la obra de sus predecesores, cuando el argumento y la inspiración de los payadores parecían declinar y debilitarse en imitaciones retóricas, Hernández recoge, como por un mandato atávico de su raza, los || últimos resplandores de un mundo heroico y primitivo e infunde con su genio de payador nato un nuevo soplo vivificador a esa épica declinante. Crea así una epopeya extraordinaria, la más vigorosa de cuantas forman el repertorio de nuestra literatura gauchesca, en la que presenta a su héroe, Martín Fierro, como símbolo viviente de un tipo psicológico y social en lucha cruenta con un medio rudimentario, áspero y hostil. Pero lo que realmente engendra las vicisitudes del protagonista no es la naturaleza del medio rudimentario, sino el contraste entre la injusticia de una organización semi-bárbara y la soledad y el desamparo del hijo de la pampa: el gaucho, cuya elemental idiosincrasia encarna Martín Fierro. Muchos exégetas han hecho interpretaciones personales,. afines algunas y antagónicas otras, acerca

Aristocrat of Fur Bearers THE chosen few who have experienced the thrill of seeing a coat or cape made of chinchilla fur readily admit that chinchilla is one of the great furs of the world. They maintain that it is impossible to do justice to the depth and beauty and overwhelming richness of the pearl-gray fur in mere words. "So fine and delicate are the hairs," said one of these privileged people, "so light and airy, that on stroking them one has the sensation of passing one's hand through a cloud."

The source of all this beauty is a small, hopping rodent, about the size of a squirrel, whose native habitat is the slopes of the Andes in Chile, Bolivia, and Peru. The chinchilla has a long, bushy tail, large ears, and big bright eyes. Its famous coat of soft gray fur is darkly mottled on the upper surface, and dusky white beneath.

Chinchillas are shy, fast-moving animals. They live in burrows formed out of loose rocks and come out mainly at night. Their food consists of grains, seeds, fruits of shrubs, dry and green herbs, mosses, and lichens. Like squirrels, they sit on their haunches while eating and hold their food in their tiny forepaws.

Three kinds of chinchillas, all belonging to the species zoologists call Chinchilla lanigera, are generally recognized, although scientists have found it hard to assemble enough data to arrive at definitive classi

fications. First there is the Chilean or coast chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera lanigera) which prefers the warmer areas along Chile's coastal foothills and inner valleys. Then there is the Peruvian or royal chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera brevicaudata), whose native range is at altitudes of 8,000 to 10,000 feet on the western slopes of the Peruvian Andes. This animal is the most valuable of the three because its fur is longer and silkier than that of the others and has a pale bluish tint. And lastly there is the Bolivian chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera boliviana), inhabiting the eastern Andean slopes and upper plateaus of Bolivia and northern Argentina.

Long before the white man came to the New World, the chinchilla's fur was used for wearing apparel. The first Spainards to reach the west coast of South America found the Chincha Indians using it in their fabrics, and named the animal for these Indians. The Incas, who had previously conquered the Chinchas, were using the fur too.

Early in the 16th century the first chinchilla furs were exported to Europe, and demand for them increased until the poor chinchilla achieved the questionable distinction of becoming the most hunted animal in the Andes. For the next 400 years it was ferreted out of its burrows with the help of grisons (a type of weasel), dogs, blow-guns, and red foxes (the latter imported by the English miners in Chile). No animal could hold out forever against

such odds, and the turn of the 20th century found the little live gold mines rapidly becoming extinct. The price of pelts, which as late as 1880 had been only $18 a dozen, rose to $250-$300 apiece. Finally, the Governments of Bolivia, Chile, and Peru woke up to what was happening, and by 1920 laws had been passed in all three countries restricting the hunting and export of chinchillas. The depletion had gone so far, however, that many believe the laws came too late and that the wild chinchilla has had its day.

Fortunately, this does not mean that there will be no more of this fabulous fur for milady's clothes, because chinchillas are now being successfully raised in captivity. In 1919 an American engineer in Chile, Mr. M. F. Chapman, got the idea of collecting enough of these rare little animals to start a farm in California. He hired 23 Indian trappers and over a fouryear period they managed to capture 11 chinchillas. On the voyage to the United States, Mr. Chapman kept his precious cargo alive in ice-cooled cages hung with wet canvas curtains and supplied with - fans. In 1923, he established a ranch in Inglewood, California, which proved to be the start of a fast-growing chinchillaraising industry in the United States. Today there are several hundred chinchilla farms in this country. Most of the big ones are in California, but there are others in Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Washington, D. C.

Chinchilla farms are also growing in size and number in South America. Two of the largest and most successful are the one directed by the Pan American Chinchilla Corporation in Colona, Chile, and the government-operated Estación Zootécnica de Abra Pampa in Jujuy Province, Argentina.

For success in raising chinchillas, grow

ers have to keep them in dry, clean cages, and protect them against drafts and the direct rays of the sun. The feed varies with the breeders, but consists for the most part of preparations of grains, carrots, and apples. No amount of pampering is considered too much trouble, as a pair of ranch chinchillas is now worth up to $3500! The rich, silky fur of North American chinchillas, although not quite as long and thick as that of their South American forebears, has the same pearl-blue lustre.

Coats of wild chinchilla (of which there are believed to be now only about 25 in the world) have been sold at prices ranging from $20,000 to $100,000. The delicacy of the fur has the advantage of making a coat made of it as light as a wool dress and the disadvantage of making it incapable of surviving much wear. For obvious reasons, most chinchilla is used for trim on coats of less expensive furs and fabrics, and for muffs and scarves. It is also used in making chinchilla cloth, a thick woolen, or wool and cotton, fabric with a long nap that has been woven into little tufts by special machinery. This cloth is used mainly for children's coats.

A Living Relic of the Past

One day in 1913 "Teddy" Roosevelt and his party were moving up the Sepatuba River, a small tributary of the Paraguay, in search of game. Suddenly they saw what looked like the glistening black head of a baby hippopotamus moving through the water just ahead of them. They headed their canoes toward it, but the animal dived and remained under water for a long time. When finally sighted again, it was scrambling up one of the river banks under cover of heavy foliage, and they saw that it was not a hippopotamus after all. Roosevelt fired but missed, and the beast plunged into the dense forest. Three or four dogs were sent in pursuit. After a short while it returned to the river

farther upstream, and the canoes were again paddled rapidly toward it. Once more the animal dived, this time swimming underneath the boats and emerging near the opposite bank. Roosevelt fired again, and this time the bullet struck home. The body sank, but as the natives predicted, it reappeared three hours later. The prize specimen was placed in one of the canoes and the party headed jubilantly back for camp.

The unwilling hero of this story was one of the strangest looking beasts on the face of the earth-a tapir.1 One traveler has described these animals as looking like a cross between a pig and a hornless rhinoceros, and this comes about as close to presenting the tapir in a few words as one can get. Approximately the size of a pony, it is the largest animal native to South America. It is clumsily built, with heavy legs, a short neck, an abbreviated tail, and an elongated nose and upper lip that form a short, flexible trunk. Its hide is tough and thick and covered with short hair.

1 The name comes from tapyra, the Tupi Indians' word for a large mammal.

There are five species of tapirs in t world; four are found in Central and Sou America, and one on the Malay Peninsu and the nearby islands of Sumatra an Borneo. The four Latin American tapi are known to zoologists as the Taping bairdii and the Tapirus dowi of Central America; the rare, hairy tapir (T. roulin) of the highlands of Colombia, Ecuador, and possibly northern Peru; and the "American" tapir (T. americanus or T terrestris), which is indigenous to most parts of tropical South America east of the Andes.

Old World tapirs are larger than the New World ones, and have white areas on their sides and backs, which contrast with the black foreparts of their bodies and their black legs. Full-grown Latin American tapirs are a uniform blackish brown. The young of all five species are covered with white streaks and spots. As in the case of the lamoids, fossil remains indicate that New and Old World species had a common prehistoric ancestor. Paleontologists are inclined to believe that horses and rhinoceroses are other descendants of this ancestor, which, in contrast to the tapir, have developed and changed with the passage of time. To look at a tapir, they say, is to look at a pretty fair copy of this hypothetical prehistoric animal.

The tapir is a shy, unassuming, nocturnal creature, which generally lives alone and likes it. Like Ferdinand, it hates to fight, so never preys on other animals. It lives entirely on leaves, shoots, and other vegetable matter. The tapir's favorite stamping grounds are the thickest sections of the forests near a pool or river. If caught when young, the tapir can easily be tamed, and once domesticated becomes very attached to its master, following him around like a dog. In some parts of Brazil tapirs have even been trained as beasts of burden. Unfortunately for the tapir it makes good