where salt abounds. Bad as the country was, ostriches,
deer, cavies, and armadilloes, were abundant. My guide told
me, that two months before he had a most narrow escape
of his life : he was out hunting, at no great distance from this
part of the country, with two other men, when they were
suddenly met by a party of Indians, who gmng ohase, soon
overtook and killed his two friends. His own horse’s legs
were also caught by the bolas; but he jumped off, and with
his knife cut them free; while doing this he was obliged to
dodge round his horse, and received two severe wounds
from their chuzos. Springing on the saddle, he managed, by
a most wonderful exertion, just to keep ahead of the long
spears of his pursuers, who followed him to within sight of the
fort. From that time there was an order that no one should
stray far from the settlement. I did not know of this when
I started, and was surprised to observe how earnestly my
guide watched a deer, which appeared to have been frightened
from a distant quarter.
We found the Beagle had not arrived, and consequently set
out on our return, but the horses soon tiring, we were obliged
to bivouac on the plain. In the morning we had caught an
armadillo, which, although a most excellent dish when
roasted in its shell, did not make a very substantial breakfast
and dinner for two hungry men. The ground at the
place where we stopped for the night, was incrusted with a
layer of Glauber salt, and hence, of course, was without
water. Yet many of the smaller rodents managed to exist
even here, and the tucutuco was making its odd little
grunt beneath my head, during half the night. Our horses
were very poor ones, and in the morning they were soon
exhausted from not having had any thing to drink, so
that we were obliged to walk. About noon the dogs killed
a kid, which we roasted. I eat some of it, but it made
me intolerably thirsty. This was the more distressing as
the road, from some recent rain, was full of little puddles
of clear water, yet not a drop was drinkable. I had scarcely
been twenty hours without water, and- only part of the time
under a hot sun, yet the thirst rendered me very weak.
How people survive two or three days under such circumstances,
I cannot imagine: at the same time, I must confess
that my guide did not suffer at all, and was astonished
that one day’s deprivation should be so troublesome
to me.
I have several times alluded to the surface of the ground
being incrusted with salt. This phenomenon is quite different
from that of the salinas, and much more extraordinary.
In many parts of South America, wherever the climate is
moderately dry, these incrustations occur; but I have nowhere
seen them so abundant as near Bahia Blanca. The
salt here consists of a large proportion of sulphate of soda
mixed with a very little of the common muriate. As long
as the ground remains moist in these salitrales (as the
Spaniards improperly call them, mistaking this substance
for saltpetre), nothing is to be seen but an extensive plain
composed of a black, muddy soil, supporting scattered
tufts of succulent plants. I was therefore much surprised,
after a week’s hot weather, when I first saw square miles of
country, that I had previously ridden over in the former
condition, white, as if from a slight fall of snow which the
wind had heaped up into partial drifts. This latter appearance
is chiefly due to the tendency which the salt has to
crystallize, like hoar-frost, round the blades of grass, stumps
of wood, or on the top of the broken ground, in lieu of the
bottoms of the puddles of water. The salinas, as a general
rule, occur in depressions on the more elevated plains; the
salitrales, either on level tracts elevated a few feet above
the level of the sea, and appearing as if lately inundated, or
on alluvial land bordering rivers. In this latter case,
although I am not absolutely certain, I have strong reasons
for believing that the salt is often removed by the waters of
the river, and is again reproduced. Several circumstances
incline me to think that the black, muddy soil, generates the
sulphate of soda. The whole phenomenon is well worthy the
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