124 



PAMPAS. [chap. vii. 



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 full 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 rob- 

 bers 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* is well known to form a prominent feature in 

 the zoology of the Pampas. It is found as far south as the Eio 

 Negro, in lat. 41, but not beyond. It cannot, like the agouti, 

 subsist on the gravelly and desert plains of Patagonia, but pre- 

 fers a clayey or sandy soil, which produces a different and more 

 abundant vegetation. Near Mendoza, at the foot of the Cordil- 

 lera, it occurs in close neighbourhood with the allied alpine spe- 

 cies. It is a very curious circumstance in its geographical dis- 

 tribution, that it has never been seen, fortunately for the inha- 

 bitants of Banda Oriental, to the eastward of the river Uru- 

 guay : yet in this province there are plains which appear admira- 

 bly adapted to its habits. The Uruguay has formed an insuper- 

 able 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 these two great rivers. Near 

 Buenos Ayres these animals are exceedingly common. Their 



* The bizcacha (Lagostomus trichodactylus) somewhat resembles a large 

 rabbit, but with bigger gnawing teeth and a long tail : it has, however, only- 

 three toes behind, like the agouti. During the last three or four years the 

 skins of these animals have been sent to England for the sake of the fur. 



