Chapter VII

Excursion to St. Fe—Thistle beds—Habits and range of Bizcacha—Little owl—Saline streams—Level plains—Mastodon—St. Fe—Change in landscape—Geology—Tooth of extinct horse—Range of fossil quadrupeds—Pampas full of remains—Effects of great droughts—Droughts periodical—Parana—Habits of Jaguar—Scissor-beak—Kingfisher, parrot, and scissor-tail—Revolution—Buenos Ayres—State of government.

BUENOS AYRES TO ST. FE.

September 27th.—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 long: 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.

September 28th.—We passed the small town of Luxan, 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 fact; 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 yet;”—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[1] 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 there are plains which appear admirably adapted to its habits. That river has formed an insuperable obstacle to its migration; although the broader barrier of the Parana has been passed, and the bizcacha is common in Entre Rios (the province between the two rivers), directly on the opposite shore of the Uruguay. Near Buenos Ayres these animals are exceedingly common. Their most favourite resort appears to be those parts of the plain, which during one half the year are covered with giant thistles, to the exclusion of other plants. The Gauchos affirm that it lives on roots; which, from the great strength of its gnawing teeth, and the kind of localities frequented by it, seems probable. As in the case of the rabbit, a few holes are commonly placed together. In the evening the bizcachas come out in numbers, and there quietly sit on their haunches. They are at such times very tame, and a man on horseback passing by, seems only to present an object for their grave contemplation. They do not wander far from their burrows. They run very awkwardly, and, when hurrying out of danger, from their elevated tails and short front legs much resemble great rats. Their flesh, when cooked, is very white and good, but it is seldom used.

The bizcacha has one very singular habit; namely, dragging every hard object to the mouth of its burrow. Around each group of holes many bones of cattle, stones, thistle-stalks, hard lumps of earth, dry dung, &c., are collected into a scattered heap, which frequently amounts to as much as a wheel-barrow would contain. I was credibly informed that a gentleman, when riding on a dark night, dropped his watch; he returned in the morning, and by searching the neighbourhood of every bizcacha hole on the line of road, as he expected, soon found it. This habit of picking up whatever may be lying on the ground any where near its habitation, must cost much trouble. For what purpose it is done I am quite unable to form even the most remote conjecture: it cannot be for defence, because the rubbish is chiefly placed above the mouth of the burrow, which enters the ground at a very small inclination. No doubt there must exist some good reason; but the inhabitants of the country are quite ignorant respecting it.

The little owl (Noctua cunicularia), which has been so often mentioned, on the plains of Buenos Ayres exclusively inhabits the holes of the bizcacha; but in Banda Oriental it is its own workman. During the open day, but more especially in the evening, these birds may be seen in every direction standing frequently by pairs on the hillock near their burrows. If disturbed they either enter the hole, or, uttering a shrill harsh cry, move with a remarkably undulatory flight to a short distance, and then turning round, steadily gaze at their pursuer. Occasionally in the evening they may be heard hooting. I found in the stomachs of two which I opened the remains of mice, and I one day saw a small snake killed and carried away. It is said these latter animals are their common prey during the daytime. I may here mention, as showing on what various kinds of food owls subsist, that a species that was killed among the islets of the Chonos Archipelago, had its stomach full of good-sized crabs.

In the evening we crossed the Rio Arrecife, on a simple raft made of barrels lashed together, and slept at the post-house on the other side. I this day paid horse hire for thirty-one leagues; and although the sun was glaring hot I was but very little fatigued. When Captain Head talks of riding fifty leagues a day, I do not imagine the distance is equal to 150 English miles. At all events the thirty-one leagues was only 76 miles in a straight line, and in an open country I should think four additional miles for turnings would be a sufficient allowance.

29th and 30th.—We continued to ride over plains of the same character. At San Nicholas I first saw the noble river of the Parana. At the foot of the cliff on which the town stands, some large vessels were at anchor. Before arriving at Rozario, we crossed the Saladillo, a stream of fine clear running water, but too saline to drink. Rozario is a large town built on a dead level plain, which forms a cliff about sixty feet high over the Parana. The river here is very broad, with many islands, which are low and wooded, as is also the coast of the opposite shore. The view would resemble that of a great lake, if it were not for the linear-shaped islets, which alone give the idea of running water. The cliffs are the most picturesque part; sometimes they are absolutely perpendicular, and of a red colour; at other times in large broken masses, covered with cacti and mimosa-trees. The real grandeur, however, of an immense river like this, is derived from reflecting how important a means of communication and commerce, it forms between one nation and another; to what a distance it travels; and from how vast a territory it drains the great body of fresh water which flows past your feet.

For many leagues north and south of San Nicholas and Rozario, the country is really level. Scarcely any thing which travellers have written about its extreme flatness, can be considered as exaggeration. Yet I could never find a spot, where, by slowly turning round, objects were not seen at greater distances in some directions than in others; and this manifestly proves inequality in the plain. At sea, a person’s eye being six feet above the surface of the water, his horizon is two miles and four-fifths distant. In like manner, the more level the plain, the more nearly does the horizon approach within these narrow limits: and this, in my opinion, entirely destroys that grandeur, which one would have imagined that a vast level plain would have possessed.

October 1st.—We started by moonlight and arrived at the Rio Tercero by sunrise. This river is also called the Saladillo, and it deserves the name, for the water is brackish.

I staid here the greater part of the day, searching for fossil bones. Falconer mentions having seen, in the bed of this river, great bones, and the case of a giant armadillo. By good fortune, I discovered a tooth embedded in a layer of rock marl, which was afterwards found exactly to fit the socket in the head of a strange animal, the Toxodon, which will presently be mentioned. Hearing also of the remains of one of the old giants, which a man told me he had seen on the banks of the Parana, I procured a canoe, and proceeded to the place. Two groups of immense bones projected in bold relief from the perpendicular cliff. They were, however, so completely decayed, that I could only bring away small fragments of one of the great molar-teeth; but these were sufficient to show that the remains belonged to a species of Mastodon. The men who took me in the canoe, said they had long known of them, and had often wondered how they had got there: the necessity of a theory being felt, they came to the conclusion, that, like the bizcacha, the mastodon formerly was a burrowing animal! In the evening we rode another stage, and crossed the Monge, another brackish stream, bearing the dregs of the washings of the Pampas.

October 2d.—We passed through Corunda, which, from the luxuriance of its gardens, was one of the prettiest villages I saw. From this point to St. Fe the road is not very safe. The western side of the Parana further northward, ceases to be inhabited; and hence the Indians sometimes come down, and waylay travellers. The nature of the country also favours this, for instead of a grassy plain, there is an open woodland, composed of low prickly mimosas. We passed some houses that had been ransacked and since deserted; we saw also a spectacle, which my guides viewed with high satisfaction; it was the skeleton of an Indian with the dried skin hanging on the bones, suspended to the branch of a tree.

In the morning we arrived at St. Fe. I was surprised to observe how great a change of climate a difference of only three degrees of latitude between this place and Buenos Ayres had caused. This was evident from the dress and complexion of the men—from the increased size of the ombu-trees—the number of new cacti and other plants—and especially from the birds. In the course of an hour I remarked 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.

October 3d and 4th.—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 governor, 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 governors favourite occupation is hunting Indians: a short time since he slaughtered forty-eight, and sold the children at the rate of three or four pounds apiece.

October 5th.—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 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,⁠[2] that a horse, which cannot from a comparison of the tooth alone, be distinguished from the existing species,⁠[3] 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 distance only of a few yards in the same earthy mass. No sensible difference in their state of decay could be perceived; they were both tender, and partially stained red. If the horse did not coexist with the Toxodon, the tooth must by some accident, not very easily understood, have been embedded within the last three centuries (the period of the introduction of the horse), with the remains of those animals, which ages since perished, when the Pampas was covered by the waters of the sea. Now, I may ask, will any one credit that two teeth of nearly equal size, buried in the same substance close together, after a period of so vast an inequality, could exist in the same condition of decay? We must conclude otherwise. Certainly it is a marvellous event in the history of animals, that a native kind should have disappeared⁠[4] to be succeeded in after ages by the countless herds introduced with the Spanish colonist! But our surprise should be modified when it is already known, that the remains of the Mastodon angustidens (the tooth formerly alluded to as embedded near that of the horse, probably belonged to this species) have been found both in South America, and in the southern parts of Europe.

With regard to North America, Cuvier says⁠[5] the Elephas primigenius “has left thousands of its carcasses from Spain to the shores of Siberia, and it has been found in the whole of North America.” The fossil ox, in a like manner, he writes,⁠[6] is buried “dans toute la partie boréale des deux continens, puisque on en a d’Allemagne, d’Italie, de Prussie, de la Sibérie occidentale et orientale, et de l’Amérique.” I may here add that horses’ bones, mingled with those of the mastodon, have several times been transmitted for sale from North America to England, but it has always been imagined, from the simple fact of their being horses’ bones, that they had been accidentally mingled with the fossils. Among the remains brought home by Captain Beechey from the west coast of the same continent, in the frozen region of 66° north, Dr. Buckland⁠[7] has described the astragalus metacarpus, and metatarsus of the horse, which were associated with the remains of the Elephas primigenius, and of the fossil ox. Thus we have an elephant, an ox, and a horse (the species of the latter is only presumed to be identical), common to Europe and to North America.

Very few species of living quadrupeds,⁠[8] which are altogether terrestrial in their habits, are common to the two continents, and these few are chiefly confined to the extreme frozen regions of the north. The separation, therefore, of the Asiatic and American zoological provinces appears formerly to have been less perfect than at present. The remains of the elephant and of the ox have been found on the banks of the Anadir (long. 175° E.), on the extreme part of Siberia, nearest the American coast: and the former remains, according to Chamisso, are common in the peninsula of Kamtschatka. On the opposite shores, likewise, of the narrow strait which divides these two great continents, we know, from the discoveries of Kotzebue and Beechey, that the remains of both animals occur abundantly: and as Dr. Buckland has shown they are associated with the bones of the horse, the teeth of which animal in Europe, according to Cuvier, accompany by thousands the remains of the pachydermata of the later periods. With these facts, we may safely look at this quarter, as the line of communication (now interrupted by the steady progress of geological change) by which the elephant, the ox, and the horse, entered America, and peopled its wide extent.⁠[9]⁠

The occurrence of the fossil horse and of Mastodon angustidens in South America, is a much more remarkable circumstance than that of the animals mentioned above in the northern half of the continent; for if we divide America, not by the Isthmus of Panama, but by the southern part of Mexico,⁠[10] in lat. 20°, where the great table-land presents an obstacle to the migration of species, by affecting the climate, and by forming, with the exception of some valleys and of a fringe of low land on the coast, a broad barrier; we shall then have two zoological provinces strongly contrasted with each other. Some few species alone have passed the barrier, and may be considered as wanderers, such as the puma, opossum, kinkajou, and peccari. The mammalogy of South America is characterized by possessing several species of the genera of llama, cavy (and the allied animals), tapir, peccari, opossum, anteater, sloth, and armadillo. If North America had possessed species of these genera proper to it, the distinction of the two provinces could not have been drawn; but the presence of a few wanderers scarcely affects the case. North America, on the other hand, is characterized by its numerous rodents,⁠[11] and by four genera of solid horned ruminants,⁠[12] of which section the southern half does not possess a single species.

This distinction of the two zoological provinces does not appear always to have existed. At the present day the order of Edentata is much more strongly developed in South America, than in any other part of the world: and concluding from the fossil remains, which were discovered at Bahia Blanca, such must have been the case during a former epoch. In America, north of Mexico, not one of this order is now found: yet, as is well known, the gigantic megalonyx, considered by Cuvier as a species of Megatherium, has been found only in that country; and as it appears from recent observations,⁠[13] the Megatherium Cuvierii itself likewise occurs there. Mr. Owen showed me the tibia of some large animal, which Sir Philip Egerton had purchased out of a collection of the remains of the mastodon brought from North America. Mr. Owen says it certainly belongs to one of the Edentata, and it so closely resembles a bone which I found embedded, together with fragments of the great armadillo-like covering, in Banda Oriental, that it probably forms a species of the same genus. Lastly, among the fossils brought home by Captain Beechey from the N.W. coast, there was a cervical vertebra, which, when compared by Mr. Pentland⁠[14] with the skeletons at Paris, was found to resemble that of the sloth and anteater more than that of any other animal, although having some points of essential difference.

Of the Pachydermata four or five species are now found in America; but, as in the case of the Edentata, none are peculiar to the continent north of Mexico; and one alone seems to exist there as a wanderer. Yet the account of the multitude of bones of the mastodon and elephant, which have been discovered in the salt-licks of North America, is familiar to every one. The remains of the Mastodon giganteum have been found nowhere else; but those of the Elephas primigenius are common to a large part of the terrestrial globe.⁠[15] This elephant must have existed in Mexico; and Cuvier,⁠[16] judging from a fragment of a tusk, thinks it even extended to the neighbourhood of Quito in South America. In the latter country three species of Mastodon have been discovered. One of these, M. angustidans, is common to Europe. It is singular that its remains, as yet, have never been brought from North America; nevertheless, considering that it was a contemporary of the extinct animals above mentioned, it seems highly probable that it arrived by the same line of communication on the N.W. coast. As its remains have frequently been found at a great elevation in the Cordillera, perhaps its habits led it to follow that chain of mountains from north to south.

After these facts, it is only in conformity with what we might almost have expected, that the horse, belonging to the same order of Pachydermata, should formerly have inhabited both North and South America. It is interesting thus to discover an epoch anterior to the division, as far at least as two important orders among the mammalia are concerned, of the continent into two separate zoological provinces. The geologist who believes in considerable oscillations of level in the crust of the globe within recent periods, will not fear to speculate either on the elevation of the Mexican platform, as a cause of the distinction, or on the submergence of land in the West Indian seas,—a circumstance which is perhaps indicated by the zoology of those islands.⁠[17]⁠

The number of bones embedded in the grand estuary deposit of the Pampas must be very great; I myself heard of, and saw many groups. The names of such places as “the stream of the animal,” “the hill of the giant,” tell the same story. At other times I heard of the marvellous property of certain rivers, which had the power of changing small bones into large; or as some maintained, the bones themselves grew. As far as I am aware, not one of these animals, as was formerly supposed, perished in the marshes, or muddy river-beds of the present land, but their bones have been exposed by the streams intersecting the deposit in which their remains were formerly buried. We may therefore conclude that the whole area of the Pampas is one wide sepulchre for these extinct quadrupeds.

While travelling through the country, I received several vivid descriptions of the effect of a great drought; and the account of this may throw some light on the cases, where vast numbers of animals of all kinds, have been embedded together. The period included between the years 1827 and 1830 is called the “gran seco” or the great drought. During this time, so little rain fell, that the vegetation, even to the thistles, failed; the brooks were dried up, and the whole country assumed the appearance of a dusty high-road. This was especially the case in the northern part of the province of Buenos Ayres, and the southern part of St. Fe. Very great numbers of birds, wild animals, cattle, and horses, perished from the want of food and water. A man told me, that the deer⁠[18] used to come into his courtyard to the well, which he had been obliged to dig to supply his own family with water; and that the partridges had hardly strength to fly away when pursued. The lowest estimation of the loss of cattle in the province of Buenos Ayres alone, was taken at one million head. A proprietor at San Pedro had previously to these years 20,000 cattle; at the end not one remained. San Pedro is situated in the middle of the finest country; and even now again abounds with animals; yet, during the latter part of the “gran seco,” live cattle were brought in vessels for the consumption of the inhabitants. The animals roamed from their estancias, and wandering far to the southward, were mingled together in such multitudes, that a government commission was sent from Buenos Ayres to settle the disputes of the owners. Sir Woodbine Parish informed me of another and very curious source of dispute; the ground being so long dry, such quantities of dust were blown about, that in this open country the landmarks became obliterated, and people could not tell the limits of their estates.

I was informed by an eyewitness, that the cattle in herds of thousands rushed into the Parana,⁠[19] and being exhausted by hunger they were unable to crawl up the muddy banks, and thus were drowned. The arm which runs by San Pedro was so full of putrid carcasses, that the master of a vessel told me, that the smell rendered it quite impossible to pass that way. Without doubt several hundred thousand animals thus perished in the river. Their bodies when putrid floated down the stream, and many in all probability were deposited in the estuary of the Plata. All the small rivers became highly saline, and this caused the death of vast numbers in particular spots; for when an animal drinks of such water it does not recover. I noticed, but probably it was the effect of a gradual increase, rather than of any one period, that the smaller streams in the Pampas were paved with a breccia of bones.⁠[20] Subsequently to this unusual drought a very rainy season commenced, which caused great floods. Hence it is almost certain, that some thousands of these skeletons were buried by the deposits of the very next year. What would be the opinion of a geologist, viewing such an enormous collection of bones, of all kinds of animals and of all ages, thus embedded in one thick earthy mass? Would he not attribute it to a flood having swept over the surface of the land, rather than to the common order of things?

These droughts to a certain degree seem to be periodical; I was told the dates of several others, and the intervals were about fifteen years. A tendency to periodical droughts is, I believe, common in most dry climates:⁠[21] such certainly is the case in Australia. Captain Sturt says they return after every ten and twelve years, and are then followed by excessive rains, which gradually become less and less, till another drought is the consequence. The year 1826 and the two following were singularly dry in Australia, and the latter were the first of the “gran seco.” I mention this, because General Beatson in his account of the island of St. Helena, has remarked that variations in climate sometimes appear to be the effect of the operation of some very general cause. He says (page 43), “The severe drought felt here in 1791 and 1792, was far more calamitous in India. Doctor Anderson states, in a letter to Colonel Kyd, dated the 9th of August, 1792, that, owing to a failure of rain, during the above two years, one half of the inhabitants in the northern provinces had perished by famine; and the remainder were so feeble and weak, that on the report of rice coming from the Malabar coast, 5000 poor people left Rajamundy, and very few of them reached the sea-side, although the distance is only 50 miles. It appears by Mr. Bryan Edwards’s History of the West Indies, that the seasons 1791-2 were unusually dry at the island of Montserrat.” Barrow⁠[22] in the latter part of 1792, when at the Cape de Verd islands says, “In fact a drought of three years’ continuance, and consequent famine for almost the same period, had nearly desolated the island.”

October 12th.—I had intended to have pushed my excursion further, but not being quite well, I was compelled to return by a balandra, or one-masted vessel of about a hundred tons burden, which was bound to Buenos Ayres. As the weather was not fair, we moored early in the day to a branch of a tree on one of the islands. The Parana is full of islands, which undergo a constant round of decay and renovation. In the memory of the master several large ones had disappeared, and others again had been formed and protected by vegetation. They are composed of muddy sand, without even the smallest pebble, and were then about four feet above the level of the river; but during the periodical floods they are inundated. They all present one character; numerous willows and a few other trees are bound together by a great variety of creeping plants, thus forming a thick jungle. These thickets afford a retreat for carpinchos and jaguars. The fear of the latter animal, quite destroyed all pleasure in scrambling through the woods. This evening I had not proceeded a hundred yards, before finding indubitable signs of the recent presence of the tiger, I was obliged to come back. On every island there are tracks; and as on the former excursion “el rastro de los Indios” had been the subject of conversation, so in this was “el rastro del tigre.”

The wooded banks of the great rivers appear to be the favourite haunt of the jaguar; but south of the Plata, I was told, they frequented the reeds bordering lakes: wherever they are, they seem to require water. The jaguar has been killed on the banks of the Rio Negro, in lat. 41°; and Falconer states that the lake Nahuel-huapi, takes its name from the Indian word for tiger: the latitude of this lake is about 42°; which corresponds to the situation of the Pyrenees in the northern hemisphere. These animals are particularly abundant on the isles of the Parana; their common prey is the carpincho, so that it is generally said, where the carpinchos are plentiful there is little danger of the jaguar. Falconer states, that near the mouth of the Plata, on the southern side, the jaguars are numerous, and that they chiefly live on fish; this account I have heard repeated. On the Parana they have killed many wood-cutters, and have even entered vessels at night. There is a man now living in the Bajada, who, coming up from below when it was dark, was seized on the deck; he escaped, however, with the loss of the use of one arm. When the floods drive these animals from the islands they are most dangerous. I was told, that a few years since, a very large one found its way into a church at St. Fe: two padres entering one after the other were killed, and a third, who came to see what was the matter, escaped with difficulty. The beast was destroyed by being shot from a corner of the building which was unroofed. They commit also at these times great ravages among the cattle and horses. It is said they kill their prey by breaking the vertebræ of the neck. If driven from the carcass they seldom return to it. The Gauchos say that the jaguar, when wandering about at night, is much tormented by the foxes yelping as they follow him. This is a curious coincidence with the fact which is generally affirmed of the jackals accompanying, in a similarly officious manner, the East Indian tiger. The jaguar is a noisy animal, roaring much by night, and especially before bad weather.

One day, when hunting on the banks of the Uruguay, I was shown certain trees, to which these animals are said constantly to recur, for the purpose of sharpening their claws. I saw three well-known trees; in front the bark was worn smooth, and on each side there were deep scratches, or rather grooves, extending in an oblique line, nearly a yard in length. The scars were of different ages. A common method of ascertaining whether a jaguar is in the neighbourhood, is to examine these trees. I imagine this habit of the jaguar is exactly similar to one, which may any day be seen in the common cat, as with outstretched legs and exserted claws it scrapes the leg of a chair. Some such habit must be also common to the puma, for on the bare hard soil of Patagonia I have frequently seen scores so deep, that no other animal could have made them. The object of this practice is, I should think, to blunt rather than to sharpen (as the Gauchos say), the points of their claws, which are so seldom used. The jaguar is killed, without much difficulty, by the aid of dogs baying and driving him up a tree, where he is despatched with bullets.

Owing to bad weather we remained two days at our moorings. Our only amusement was catching fish for our dinner: there were several kinds, and all good eating. A fish called the “armado” (a Silurus), is remarkable from a harsh grating noise it makes when caught by hook and line, and which can be distinctly heard when the fish is beneath the water. This same fish has the power of firmly catching hold of any object, such as the blade of an oar or the fishing-line, with the strong spine both of its pectoral and dorsal fin. In the evening the weather was quite tropical, the thermometer standing at 79°. Numbers of fireflies were hovering about, and the musquitoes were very troublesome. I exposed my hand for five minutes, and it was soon black with them; I do not suppose there could have been less than fifty, all busy sucking.

October 15th.—We got under way and passed Punta Gorda, where there is a colony of tame Indians, from the province of Missiones. We sailed rapidly down the current, but before sunset, from a silly fear of bad weather, we brought to in a narrow arm of the river. I took the boat and rowed some distance up this creek. It was very narrow, winding, and deep; on each side, a wall thirty or forty feet high, formed by trees intwined with creepers, gave to the canal a singularly gloomy appearance. I here saw a very extraordinary bird, called the Scissor-beak (Rhyncops nigra). It has short legs, web feet, extremely long-pointed wings, and is of about the size of a tern. The beak is flattened laterally, that is, in a plane at right angles to that of a spoon-bill, or duck. It is as flat and elastic as an ivory paper-cutter, and the lower mandible, differently from every other bird, is an inch and a half longer than the upper. I will here detail all I know of the habits of the scissor-beak. It is found both on the east and west coasts, between lat. 30° and 45°, and frequents either salt or fresh water. The specimen now at the Zoological Society was shot at a lake near Maldonado, from which the water had been nearly drained, and which, in consequence, swarmed with small fry. I there saw several of these birds, generally in small flocks, flying backwards and forwards, close to the surface of the lake. They kept their bills wide open, and with the lower mandible half buried in the water. Thus skimming the surface, they ploughed it in their course: the water was quite smooth, and it formed a most curious spectacle to behold a flock, each bird leaving its narrow wake on the mirror-like surface. In their flight they frequently twist about with extreme rapidity, and so dexterously manage, that with their projecting lower mandible they plough up small fish, which are secured by the upper half of their scissor-like bills. This fact I repeatedly saw, as, like swallows, they continued to fly backwards and forwards, close before me. Occasionally when leaving the surface of the water their flight was wild, irregular, and rapid; they then also uttered loud harsh cries. When these birds are fishing, the length of the primary feathers of the wings is seen to be quite necessary, in order to keep the latter dry. When thus employed, their forms resemble the symbol by which many artists represent marine birds. The tail is much used in steering their irregular course.

These birds are common farmland along the course of the Rio Parana; it is said they remain during the whole year, and breed in the marshes. During the day they rest in flocks on the grassy plains, at some distance from the water. Being at anchor, as I have said, in one of the deep creeks between the islands of the Parana, as the evening drew to a close, one of these scissor-beaks suddenly appeared. The water was quite still, and many little fish were rising. The bird continued for a long time to skim the surface, flying in its wild and irregular manner up and down the narrow canal, now dark with the growing night and the shadows of the overhanging trees. At Monte Video I observed that some large flocks during the day remained on the mud-banks at the head of the harbour, in the same manner as on the grassy plains near the Parana; and every evening they took flight direct to seaward. From these facts, I suspect that the Rhyncops generally fishes by night, at which time many of the lower animals come most abundantly to the surface. M. Lesson states that he has seen these birds opening the shells of the mactræ, buried in the sand-banks on the coast of Chile: from their weak bills, with the lower mandible so much produced, their short legs and long wings, it is very improbable that this can be a general habit.

In our course down the Parana, I only observed three other birds, whose habits are worth mentioning. One is a small kingfisher (Alcedo Americana); it has a longer tail than the European species, and hence does not sit in so stiff and upright a position. Its flight also, instead of being direct and rapid, like the course of an arrow, is weak and undulatory, as among the soft-billed birds. It utters a low note, like the clicking together of two small stones. A small green parrot,⁠[23] with a gray breast, appears to prefer the tall trees on the islands, to any other situation, for its building-place. A number of nests are placed so close together, as to form one great mass of sticks. These parrots always live in flocks, and commit great ravages on the corn-fields. I was told, that near Colonia 2500 were killed in the course of one year. A bird (Milvulus forficatus) with a forked tail, terminated by two long feathers, and named by the Spaniards scissor-tail, is very common near Buenos Ayres. It commonly sits on a branch of the ombu tree, near the house, and thence takes a short flight in pursuit of insects, and returns to the same spot. When on the wing, it presents, in its manner of flight and general appearance, a caricature-likeness of the common swallow. It has the power in the air of turning very shortly, and in so doing, opens and shuts its tail, sometimes in a horizontal or lateral, and sometimes in a vertical direction, just like a pair of scissors. In structure, this bird is a true tyrant-flycatcher, although in its habits certainly allied to the swallows.

October 16th.—Some leagues above Rozario the western shore was bounded by perpendicular cliffs, which extended in a long line to below San Nicholas. Hence the coast more resembled that of the sea, than that of a fresh-water river. It is a great drawback to the scenery of the Parana, that, from the soft nature of its banks, the water is very muddy. The Uruguay, flowing through a granitic country, is much clearer; and I am told, that where the two channels unite at the head of the Plata, the waters may for a long distance be distinguished by their black and red colours. In the evening, the wind not being quite fair, as usual we immediately moored, and the next day, as it blew rather freshly, though with a favouring current, the master was much too indolent to think of starting. At Bajada, he was described to me as “hombre muy aflicto,”—a man always miserable to get on; but certainly he bore all delays with admirable resignation. He was an old Spaniard, and had been many years in this country. He professed a great liking to the English, but stoutly maintained that the battle of Trafalgar was merely won by the Spanish captains having been all bought over; and that the only really gallant action on either side was performed by the Spanish admiral. It struck me as rather characteristic, that this man should prefer his countrymen being thought the worst of traitors, rather than unskilful or cowardly.

18th and 19th.—We continued slowly to sail down the noble stream: the current helped us but little. Azara has estimated that even near the sources between latitudes 16° 24′ and 22° 57′, the river has only a fall of one foot for each mile of latitude; lower down, this must be much diminished. It is stated that a rise of seven feet at Buenos Ayres can be perceived sixty leagues up the course of the Parana. We met, during our descent, very few vessels. One of the best gifts of nature seems here wilfully thrown away, in so grand a channel of communication being left unoccupied. A river in which ships might navigate from a temperate country, as surprisingly abundant in certain productions as destitute of others, to another possessing a tropical climate, and a soil which, according to the best of judges, M. Bonpland, is perhaps unequalled in fertility, in any part of the world. How different would have been the aspect of this river, if English colonists had by good fortune first sailed up the Plata! What noble towns would now have occupied its shores! Till the death of Francia, the Dictator of Paraguay, these two countries must remain distinct, as if placed on opposite sides of the globe. And when the old, bloody-minded tyrant is gone to his long account, Paraguay will be torn by revolutions, violent in proportion to the previous unnatural calm. That country will have to learn, like every other South American state, that a republic cannot succeed, till it contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of justice and honour.

October 20th.—Being arrived at the mouth of the Parana, and as I was very anxious to reach Buenos Ayres, I went on shore at Las Conchas, with the intention of riding there. Upon landing, I found to my great surprise, that I was to a certain degree a prisoner. A violent revolution having broken out, all the ports were laid under an embargo. I could not return to my vessel, and as for going by land to the city, it was out of the question. After a long conversation with the Commandant, I obtained permission to go, the next day, to General Rolor, who commanded a division of the rebels, on this side of the capital. In the morning I rode to the encampment. The general, officers, and soldiers, all appeared, and I believe really were, great villains. The general the very evening before he left the city, voluntarily went to the governor, and with his hand to his heart, pledged his word of honour, that he would remain faithful to the last. The general told me, that the city was in a state of close blockade, and that all he could do was to give me a passport to the commander-in-chief of the rebels at Quilmes. We had, therefore, to take a great sweep round the city, and it was with much difficulty that we procured horses. My reception at the encampment was quite civil, but I was told it was impossible that I could be allowed to enter the city. I was very anxious about this, as I anticipated the Beagle’s departure from the Rio Plata, earlier than it took place. Having mentioned, however, General Rosas’s obliging kindness to me when at the Colorado, magic itself could not have altered circumstances quicker than did this conversation. I was instantly told that though they could not give me a passport, if I chose to leave my guide and horses, I might pass their sentinels. I was too glad to accept of this, and an officer was sent with me to give directions, that I might not be stopped at the bridge. The road for the space of a league was quite deserted. I met one party of soldiers, who were satisfied by gravely looking at an old passport: and at length I was not a little pleased, to find myself within the city.

This revolution was supported by scarcely any pretext of grievances. But in a state which, in the course of nine months (from February to October, 1820), underwent fifteen changes in its government—each governor, according to the constitution, being elected for three years—it would be the height of illiberality, to ask for pretexts. In this case a party of men, who being attached to Rosas, were disgusted with the governor Balcarce, to the number of seventy left the city, and with the cry of Rosas, the whole country took arms. The city was then blockaded, no provisions, cattle, or horses, were allowed to enter; besides this, there was only a little skirmishing, and a few men daily killed. The outside party well knew, that by stopping the supply of meat, they would certainly be victorious. General Rosas could not have known of this rising; but it appears to me quite consonant with the plans of his party. A year ago he was elected governor, but he refused it, without the Sala would also confer on him extraordinary powers. This was refused, and since then his party have shown, that no other governor can keep his place. The warfare on both sides was avowedly protracted, till it was possible to hear from Rosas. A note arrived a few days after I left Buenos Ayres, which stated that the General disapproved of peace having been broken, but that he thought the outside party had justice on their side. On the bare reception of this, the Governor, ministers, and part of the military, to the number of some hundreds, fled from the city. The rebels entered, elected a new governor, and were paid for their services to the number of 5500 men. From these proceedings, it was clear that Rosas ultimately would become the dictator: to the term king, the people in this, as in other republics, have a particular dislike. Since leaving South America, we have heard that Rosas has been elected, with powers, and for a time altogether opposed to the constitutional principles of the republic.

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