416 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



empty themselves into the Plate are left entirely dry; and I have 

 frequently found the little harbour of Ensinada rendered difficult 

 of access even by a boat ; while the Barraccas, which with 

 easterly winds I have known to receive a light ship of five 

 hundred tons, after a strong westerly wind, scarcely possible 

 to be entered with a canoe. It should be observed, that the river 

 between Buenos Ayres and Monte Video is excessively shallow, 

 having barely three fathoms with ordinary tides, in the channel, 

 which is also narrow. The middle of the stream is filled with ex- 

 tensive, dangerous, and, I should think, increasing banks, having 

 only a few feet water upon them, and with low tides are fre- 

 quently dry. 



The wind above alluded to, is called by the natives Pamparro, 

 from Las Pampas, those immense plains which it traverses in its 

 course ; throughout which it takes up, and carries with it through 

 the air large quantities of sand, soil, and vegetable refuse. 

 Meeting with nothing throughout the immense space, and to 

 the traveller, apparently interminable level, capable of arresting- 

 its progress, or diverting its direction ; it rolls on, gathering 

 increased strength, density, and velocity in every league ; throw- 

 ing down houses, and frequently scattering ruin and destruction 

 upon the villages over which it passes. To the seaman, who is 

 unacquainted with the coast, these storms are particularly dan- 

 gerous, as they generally come from the opposite direction to 

 that from whence the wind is blowing ; and are seldom preceded 

 by any warning calm, or threatening appearance of the at- 

 mosphere, but burst at once with terrific violence upon the un- 

 suspecting mariner, who may thus, if unprepared to resist its 

 fury, see in one moment his lofty ship a wreck upon the face of 

 the waters. One circumstance alone gives the experienced sea- 

 man or landsman warning of its approach. A slight arch of dusky 

 white is first discerned in the horizon; this increases, and ex- 

 panding as it approaches, the clouds, of which it appears com- 

 posed, roll gradually towards you. Meanwhile the atmosphere is 

 clear, even perhaps within the circumference of the threatening 

 arch, and the wind steady from the opposite point from which the 

 danger is to be apprehended. At length the hollow murmuring 

 of the approaching storm is heard ; and in a moment it bursts 

 upon you in all its violence, covering the decks with sand and 

 dirt, even when many leagues from the land. Happily, the ex- 

 treme violence of these winds is seldom of long duration, scarcely 

 ever lasting more than half an hour, when they subside ; fre- 

 quently, however, ending with a strong gale from the same 

 quarter of the compass. 



I remember in 1808, when in his Majesty's late ship the 

 Agamemnon, in going down the coast from Rio de Janeiro, we 

 experienced, for the first time, the effects of a Pamparro, The 



