half-a-dozen of the latter, which I had never seen at Buenos
Ayres. Considering that there is no natural boundary between
the two places, and that the character of the country
is nearly similar, the difference was much greater than I
should have expected.
O c t o b e r 3 d a n d 4 t i i .—I was confined to my bed by
a headach for these two days. A goodnatured old woman,
who attended me, wished me to try many odd remedies. A
common practice is, to bind an orange-leaf, or a bit of black
plaster, to each temple; and a still more general plan is,
to split a bean into halves, moisten them, and place one on
each temple, where they will easily adhere. It is not
thought proper ever to remove the beans or plaster, but
to allow them to drop off; and sometimes, if a man, with
patches on his head, is asked, what is the matter ? he will
answer, “ I had a headache the day before yesterday.”
St. Fe is a quiet little town, and is kept clean, and in good
order. The governoi', Lopez, was a common soldier at the
time of the revolution; but has now been seventeen years in
power. This stability of government is owing to his tyrannical
habits : for tyranny seems as yet better adapted to these
countries, than republicanism. The governor’s favourite
occupation is hunting Indians : a short time since he slaughtered
fort)--eight, and sold the children at the rate of three
or four pounds apiece.
O c t o b e r 5 t h .— We crossed the Parana to St. Fe Bajada,
a town on the opposite shore. The passage took some
hours, as the river here consisted of a labyrinth of small
streams, separated by low wooded islands. I had a letter of
introduction to an old Catalonian Spaniard, who treated me
with the most uncommon hospitality. The Bajada is the
capital of Entre Rios. In 1825 the town contained 6000
inhabitants, and the province 30,000; yet, few as they are,
none have suffered more from bloody and desperate revolutions.
They boast here of representatives, ministers, a standing
army, and governors : so it is no wonder that they have
149
their revolutions. At some future day this must be one of
the richest countries of La Plata. The soil is varied and productive,
and its almost insular form gives it two grand lines
of communication by the rivers Parana and Uruguay.
I was delayed here five days, and employed myself in examining
the geology of the surrounding country, which was
very interesting. We here see beds of sand, clay, and limestone,
containing sea-shells and sharks’ teeth, passing above
into an indurated marl, and from that into the red clayey
earth of the Pampas, with its calcareous concretions and the
bones of terrestrial animals. This vertical section clearly
tells us, of a large bay of pure salt-water, gradually encroached
on, and at last becoming the bed of a muddy estuary, into
which floating carcasses were swept. I found near the Bajada
a large piece, nearly four feet across, of the giant armadillo-
like case; also a molar tooth of a mastodon, and fragments of
very many bones, the greater number of which were rotten,
and as soft as clay.
A tooth which I discovered by one point projecting from
the side of a bank, interested me much, for I at once perceived
that it had belonged to a horse. Feeling much surprise
at this, I carefully examined its geological position, and was
compelled to come to the conclusion,* that a horse, which
cannot from a comparison of the tooth alone, be distinguished
from the existing species,! lived as a contemporary
with the various great monsters that formerly inhabited South
America. Mr. Owen and myself, at the College of Surgeons,
compared this tooth with a fragment of another, probably
belonging to the Toxodon, which was embedded at the dis-
• T h e b ro k e n to o th m e n tio n e d a t B a h ia B la n c a m u s t n o t b e fo rg o tte n .
! As th is h o rse e x is te d a t th e s am e tim e w ith a n im a ls n ow e x tin c t, i t is
n o t p ro b a b le , t h a t i t is th e s am e sp e cie s w itli th e r e c e n t k in d , a lth o u g h
from th e s im ila rity o f th e t e e th i t m u s t h a v e b e e n c lo se ly a llie d . Cuvier,
ta lk in g o f th e rem a in s o f th e h o rse , fo u n d fossil u n d e r s im ila r conditions
in E u ro p e , rem a rk s , “ I t is n o t p o ssib le to say w h e th e r i t w a s one o f the
sp e cie s n ow e x is tin g o r n o t, b e c au s e th e s k e le to n s o f th e s e sp e c ie s a re so
lik e e a ch o th e r , t h a t th e y c a n n o t b e d is tin g u ish e d b y th e m e re com p a riso n
o f iso la te d f ra gm en ts .”— TV,eon/ o f the Earth, E n g lish tra n s la tio n , p . 2 83.
• isi ■
il'