98 Account of a Journey across the 



long ; there are many species of this kind of climber^ some 

 with clusters of white and others of green flowers, all of them 

 finely scented ; and where there was a free opening to the air 

 we observed many trees quite covered and killed with loads 

 of different kinds of Tillandsia, The road through these an- 

 cient forests is often so circuitous that we would be going to- 

 wards all the different points of the compass in the course of 

 one day : frequently again it would become so narrow that 

 there was scarcely room for one cart to pass along, and where 

 its high lumbering body, swinging from side to side, was com- 

 pletely stopped ; so that it was needful to cut away some of 

 the branches before it could proceed. Our great line of ve- 

 hicles, with the feet of the numerous cattle, raised such a tre- 

 mendous cloud of dust, that often one cart was indiscernible 

 at the distance of another, and there was not a breath of air 

 in these dense forests to carry off the dust. 



On the afternoon of the third day after crossing the river our 

 mules all left us on a sudden at full gallop ; they had scented 

 the water of a large lake 6 miles distant ; but much as we were 

 all in want of this necessary of life, nothing but absolute need 

 could compel us to use it, the quality was so bad. I had 

 gathered, when passing the Rio Terzero, several varieties of 

 the Zinnia, an annual in English gardens ; the Goodenia tu- 

 berosa, and some agreeably scented kinds of Cynanchum : little 

 worthy of notice occurred in the dense woods, except 2 or 3 

 species of Cactus, 



4th April. We came to the village of Los Ranchos, an- 

 other poor place, containing apparently about 800 inhabit- 

 ants ; the houses are all constructed of unburnt bricks, the 

 church partly of this material and partly of burnt bricks : op- 

 posite to this building is a large market square, but I saw 

 nothing offered for sale except a cart load of beef and a few 

 pompions. This place is considered half-way between Buenos 

 Ayres and Tucuman. At sunset we crossed the Rio Secundo 

 or second river from Cordova, and finding good grass stopped 

 all night in a field of Melissa (?) sp. 6 — 8 feet high, here called 

 Boldo, and in great use for dyeing, and by the addition of 

 other substances it produces various shades of brown. This 

 Rio Secundo was, at the time we now crossed, 200 vards 



