Pampas of Buenos Ay res to Tucuman, 11 



the marsh, though but half a mile wide. Each waggon had to 

 be dragged over by eight pair of oxen, so that after one had 

 passed, the cattle had to be sent back to assist the next. I 

 saw several vehicles, besides our own, thus engaged ; for as 

 there is no general road, each takes his own way as seems 

 best. One unfortunate fellow had overset his cart loaded with 

 wheat in this grassy marsh ; he was going with it to Buenos 

 Ayres, and the grain being in bulk and not in bags, must 

 have been almost entirely lost under the water and among the 

 aquatic herbage. Two others were helping him to recover it, 

 standing nearly up to the middle in water. 



Corn is not carried to market here in sacks, but four hides 

 are loosely attached by their corners to the inside of the huge 

 hurdle-cart already described, thus forming a kind of open 

 box, into which the grain or any other cargo is flung. 



At sunset, having been travelling over a grassy and some- 

 what undulating country, we amved at the village of Lujuan 

 (pronounced Leuchan) lying in a sort of flat valley. Our first 

 view of it from an elevated ridge was very prepossessing : its 

 straggling roofs and whitened church, mingled with fig trees, 

 and lighted by the setting sun, gave me the idea of a neat Eng- 

 lish village ; but a nearer approach dispelled this favourable 

 appearance. We found it a poor miserable place, chiefly con- 

 sisting of mud-built, straw-covered Ranchos ; a few tolerable 

 brick dwellings formed a kind of square in the centre and out- 

 side them were ranged several wretched huts, without gardens 

 or any appearance of cultivated ground, except some small 

 peach clumps, which are kept to be cut every two or three 

 years for fuel. The peach trees here are as plentiful as osiers 

 in England, and may generally be seen growing along with the 

 Agave Americana and the seven-angled Cactus. A consi- 

 derable quantity of good wheat and maize is raised in this di- 

 strict for the Buenos Ayres market : the pieces of ground 

 thus occupied being unfenced are preserved from the intru- 

 sions of cattle by having a lion or tiger tethered in the centre, 

 the smell of which deters any cattle from approaching. (What 

 is here called a lion, is probably the American lion or puma.) 



9th. Leaving Lujuan at midnight, we passed the Guardia 

 de Lujuan, three miles on our left, where are the head quarters 



