8 Account of a Journey across the 



II. — Extracts from a few rough Notes of a Journey across the 

 Pampas of Buenos Ayres to Tucuman, in 1835. By Mr. 

 James Tweedie, addressed to Sir W. J. Hooker. 



In reply to the inquiry contained in your last letter, as to 

 whether I kept a journal of my late excursion to the interior, 

 of which, if such be the case, you desire a copy, I beg to state 

 that it is certainly my custom to take a few notes of whatever 

 may particularly strike me as singular and worthy of remark, 

 but that I am far from pretending to describe in a minute or 

 scientific manner ; although 



In wilds unknown I love to stroll, 

 Where virgin plants their flowers unfold, 

 Where unknown warblers tune their song, 

 And unnamed rivers glide along. 



Of my journey to the Andes of Tucuman, I now therefore 

 send you a few notes, which had been hastily written while 

 crossing the Pampas. My object in troubling you with them 

 is merely to show the causes of that poverty in my botanical 

 collections of which you complain. 



On the 2nd of March our Tropa left Buenos Ayres : it con- 

 sisted of seventeen waggons, each of which, together with its 

 cargo, was computed to weigh about three tons, and was drawn 

 by six bullocks. The body of the waggon is built of sticks and 

 straw, and is arched over the top where it is covered with raw 

 hides: the length is about 15 feet, the breadth 5, and the 

 height GJ feet inside. Each wheel has a diameter of 8 feet. 

 Thus when these unwieldy, uncouth-looking vehicles are set 

 in motion, you might imagine that a village of Indian huts or 

 toldas had suddenly taken a mind to walk, and the whole ap- 

 pearance is as curious as can well be imagined. 



The tropa, on this occasion, consisted, besides the waggons, 

 of 240 cattle, 44 horses, 35 mules, and 32 persons, including 

 passengers. Well knowing by experience the lagging mode 

 of travelling that prevails in this country, I allowed the party 

 to have four days^ start of me, and came up with them at the 

 village of Morros, about five leagues distant from Buenos 

 Ayres. Thus my future companions had performed rather 

 more than a league per day. At the moment when I arrived 



