Natural History. 415 



which it inundates** this event occurs at very uncertain periods, 

 sometimes carrying away with it, or spoiling not only the accu- 

 mulated produce, but also the growing harvest of the peasant ; 

 and even then, I conceive, the fact of its being any advantage to 

 the soil more than doubtful. That some few of the natives may, 

 on such occasions, be obliged to retire with their families to their 

 boats, is possibly true ; but generally speaking, and particularly 

 so in the villages, the houses are of two stories, and when washed 

 out of the basement, they coolly retire to the one above : and so 

 situated, all communication between the different houses is in 

 course effected by canoes or boats. This is particularly the case 

 at Ensinada; a spot perhaps the most liable of all others in the 

 Plate to inundation; and where, as if the genius of folly and 

 stupidity was destined to control every step of that ill-fated ex- 

 pedition, from its arrival in the river to its departure, the quon- 

 dam General Whitelock, thought proper to effect his landing. 

 The natural consequence of which step was, that he lost all his 

 carriage-guns in the intervening marshes between that village 

 and the Barraccas. 



The fact is simply this ; the tides in the Plate being extremely 

 weak, the stream is powerfully acted upon by the prevailing 

 winds: and the waters increased or otherwise, in proportion to 

 their strength and duration. Thus, a strong and long-continued 

 easterly wind will, by assisting the flow from the ocean, and pro- 

 portionably retarding the body of fresh water from the many 

 tributary streams on the upper part of the river, always occasion 

 a considerable rise : and after heavy rains, when the freshes come 

 down strong, will frequently inundate most of the low lands on 

 the right bank. The left bank of the river is higher ; in some 

 places, (Monte Video, for instance,) almost mountainous : I should, 

 perhaps, rather say hilly: and is, consequently, less subject to in- 

 undation. 



The westerly winds, on the contrary, which are the most re- 

 markable and powerful in this part of South America, impelling 

 by their violence the body of water from the upper part of the 

 river towards the sea, much faster than its place can be supplied 

 from the tributary streams, will cause a sudden fall of the water, 

 frequently of several feet. And, even after the first violence of 

 the storm has passed away, should the wind continue from the 

 same quarter, it will, perhaps, be days before the river attains 

 again its usual depth. It was, in consequence of a storm of this 

 description in 1793, (a most violent pamparro,) that the ex- 

 traordinary fall alluded to in the paragraph above quoted, oc- 

 curred ; and which I have frequently heard described at Buenos 

 Ayres by those who had witnessed it; but I never before heard 

 that the country was at the same time inundated. Indeed it 

 usually happens on such occasions, that the small streams which 



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