C H A P T E R V I I .
E x c u r s io n to S t, F e— T h is tle b e d s— H a b its a n d r an g e o f B iz c ach a—
L i tt le owl— S a lin e s tre am s— L e v e l p la in s— M a sto d o n— St. F e— C h a n g e
in la n d s c a p e— G e o lo g y— T o o th o f e x tin c t h o rse— R a n g e o f fossil q u a d ru
p e d s— P am p a s fu ll o f r em a in s— E ffe c ts o f g r e a t d ro u g h ts— D ro u g h ts
p e rio d ic a l — P a r a n a— H a b its o f J a g u a r — S c is s o r -b e a k— K in g fish e r,
p a r r o t , a n d sc is so r-ta il— R e v o lu tio n— B u e n o s A y re s— S ta te o f g o v e rn m
e n t.
BU ENO S A Y R E S TO ST. F E .
S e p t e m b e r 2 7 t h .—In the evening I set out on an excursion
to St. Fe, which is situated nearly three hundred
English miles from Buenos Ayres, on the banks of the Parana.
The roads in the neighbourhood of the city, after the rainy
weather were extraordinarily bad. I should never have
thought it possible for a bullock waggon to have crawled
along: as it was, they scarcely went at the rate of a mile an
hour, and a man was kept ahead, to survey the best line for
making the attempt. The bullocks were terribly jaded : it
is a great mistake to suppose that with improved roads, and
an accelerated velocity of travelling, the sufferings of the
animals increase in the same proportion. We passed a train
of waggons and a troop of beasts on their road to Mendoza.
The distance is about 580 geographical miles, and the
journey is generally performed in fifty days. These waggons
are very long, narrow, and thatched with reeds; they
have only two wheels, the diameter of which in some cases
is even ten feet. Each is drawn by six bullocks which are
urged on by a goad at least twenty feet lon g : this is suspended
from within the roof; for the wheel bullocks a
smaller one is kept; and for the intermediate pair, a point
projects at right angles from the middle of the long one.
The whole apparatus looked like some implement of war.
S e p t e m b e r 2 8 t h .—We passed the small town of Luxan,
Is 'i
! .
where there is a wooden bridge over the river—a most unusual
convenience in this country. We passed also Areco.
The plains appeared level, but were not so in fa c t; for in
various places the horizon was distant. The estancias are
here wide apart; for there is little good pasture, owing
to the land being covered by beds either of an acrid clover,
or of the great thistle. The latter, well known from the
animated description given by Sir F. Head, were at this time
of the year two-thirds grown; in some parts they were as
high as the horse’s back, but in others they had not yet
sprung up, and the ground was bare and dusty as on a turnpike
road. The clumps were of the most brilliant green,
and they made a pleasing miniature-likeness of broken forest
land. When the thistles are fully grown, the great beds are
impenetrable, except by a few tracks, as intricate as those
in a labyrinth. These are only known to the robbers, who
at this season inhabit them, and sally forth at night to rob,
and cut throats, with impunity. Upon asking at a house
whether robbers were numerous, I was answered, “ The
thistles are not up y e t —the meaning of which reply was
not at first very obvious. There is little interest in passing
over these tracts, for they are inhabited by few animals or
birds, excepting the bizcacha and its friend the little owl.
The bizcacha* is well known to form a prominent feature
in the zoology of the Pampas. It is found as far south as
the Rio Negro, in lat. 41°, but not beyond. It cannot, like
the agouti, subsist on the gravelly and desert plains of Patagonia,
but prefers a clayey or sandy soil, which produces a
different and more abundant vegetation. Near Mendoza, at
the foot of the Cordillera, it occurs in close neighbourhood
with the allied alpine species. It is a very curious circumstance
in its geographical distribution, that it has never been
seen, fortunately for the inhabitants, in Banda Oriental, to
the eastward of the river Uruguay: yet in that province
* T h e b iz c a c h a {Cahmys bkcachd) som ew h a t re sem b le s a la rg e r a b b it,
b u t w ith b ig g er g n aw in g t e e th a n d a lo n g t a i l : i t h a s, h ow e v e r, o n ly t h r e e
to es b e h in d , lik e th e a g o u ti. D u r in g th e la s t th r e e o r fo u r y e a rs , th e
sk in s o f th e s e a n im a ls h a v e b e e n s e n t to E n g la n d fo r th e sa k e o f th e fu r.
it