É
92 TOSCA GRANITE:— SOUNDINGS.
even a foot, in the height of the water, makes a change of
cables’iengths, if not of miles, in the position of the hmiting line
between water and land. In consequence it is very dangerous-
for ships to approach that shore; and, although the bottom is
in many places soft, often extremely deep mud, there are other
spaces in which hard lumps of tosea* ai-e found, almost as
injurious to a sliip’s bottom as actual rock. I am not aware
that there is any granite on the south side of the river Plata,
near the sliore; and although the name ‘ Piedras’ would incline
one to suppose there are rocks or stones near it, I could only
find tosca. But towards the northern shore rocks are found,
and the dangerous shoal called ‘ Banco Yngles,’is said to have
a granitic foundation. The ridge, of which the Englisli Bank
is the north-west extremitj', extends eastward, inclining to the
south, considerably beyond a line drawn from Cape Santa
Maria to Cape San Antonio, and less than ten fathoms water
may be found upon it out of sight of land. Northward of the
ridge the deptli of water varies from ten to thftty fathoms over
a very soft bottom of bluish mud; and to the southward of it
there are from twelve to three fathoms (diminishing as j'ou
approach San Antonio) over a softisli bottom of brown or
3'eUow muddy sand.-f- AA^hen it is considered tliat three very
large rivers, besides a host of smaller streams, enter the ocean
by tbe estuary whose more remarkable features we are noticing,
that two of those rivers are flooded periodically by tropical
rains,t and tliat very heavy gales assist in emptying or filling
the shallow wide gulf, in wliich floods of fresh water contend
against the volume of a powerful ocean; not only wül frequent
* Tosea is a kind of hardened earth, rather than soft stone, about the
consistence of slightly baked clay: it is of a dark brown coloui', and
varies in hardness from that which is almost stony, to the texture of a
sound old cheese.
t Near Cape San Antonio and Point Tuyu there is very soft mud.
i The Paraguay rises so far northward, that (excepting a portage of
three miles) a canoe may go from Monte Video to the mouth of the
Amazon.
1Í
1832. TID ES— ABSENCE OF TREES. 93
variations in depth be expected, as a natural consequence, but
also strong and vai-ying currents. Little or no tide has been
hitherto noticed with any degree of accuracy in the estuary of
the Pla ta ; but this anomaly may be more apparent than re a l:
for where the depth of water is so fluctuating, and the currents
are so variable, it is difficult to distinguish the precise effects
of tides, except by a series of observations far longer than has
yet been made.
To say much of Maldonado village, the town of Monte
Video, or the city of Buenos Ayres, would be to repeat an
‘ oft-told tale.’ The views attached to this volume Mil give a
tolerably clear idea of a few striking peculiai'ities which are
immediateiy noticed by the eye of a stranger; and of the inhabitants
themselves I will only venture to say, upon my slight
acquaintance with them, that although prejudiced by their
erroneous ideas of freedom, and deficient in high principles,
they are courteous and agreeable as mere acquaintances, kind
to strangers, and extremely hospitable.
I t is well known that tliere are very few trees* on either bank
of the Plata near its mouth, or on those immense plains, called
pampas, excepting here and there an ‘ ombu,’! or some which
have been planted near houses; or a few copses of small trees
(mostly peach) planted for fu e l: but I have not heard any
sufficient reason given for this scai'city of wood, in a country
covered with a great depth of alluvial soil, and adjoining districts
in which trees are abundant. The only second causes
for such a peculiai-ity, which I can imagine, are the following:
the nature of the soil, which may be unsuited to most trees,
although very productive of grass and gigantic thistles: the
furious storms which sweep along the level expanse, and would
demolish tender, miprotected young trees ; the general want of
water, wliich in some years is so great as to become a severe
drought; and the numerous herds of wild cattle which range
• The exceptions are so few, that one might almost say there are no
trees which have not been planted.
t A kind of elder.
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