366 Mr. E. Gibson on the Ornithology of [Ibis, 



Immediately inside the cape, and extending all round the 

 Bay of Sanborombon, the coast is of an entirely different 

 character. For three or four miles inland, and encircling 

 the whole of the bay, are found the " rincones,^^ a maze of 

 islands and peninsulas, formed by tidal creeks of more or 

 less importance, and the ramifications of which are innu- 

 merable. The soil is a clay, hard enough on the surface, 

 but becoming soft as butter a short distance down, and is 

 strongly impregnated with salt. The ground shakes for a 

 considerable distance when a stake is driven in by a heavy 

 mallet. Horses, unaccustomed to the district, betray a 

 manifest uneasiness. And woe betide tlie unlucky rider 

 who — having traversed our great freshwater swamps, his 

 liorse " withers under ^' and the rushes towering overhead, 

 in perfect immunity — innocently puts his mount at the 

 deceptive little creek, only three or four yards wide and not 

 many inches deep ; in all prol^ability, rider, saddle, and 

 horse become three separate factors within one wild horri- 

 fying minute, and the horse may have to be dragged out by 

 another with a lasso! ^' What of the pass, Palonieque?" 

 I asked suspiciously of our guide, as a baker's dozen of us 

 faced a mud-flat intersected by a streamlet, in the Rincon 

 Grande (Palomeque, be it noted, knew the rincones as 

 " the palm of his hand," and his horse was accustomed to 

 them, whereas all ours were from the head-station side). 

 " The going-in is good," he replied, and five minutes later 

 finished the sentence with a cynical, " but I do not know 

 about the coming-out ! " Three of us — Palomeque, the sub- 

 manager, and myself — had won through ; the ten peoues 

 were struggling out on foot, mud-bedaubed, and dragging 

 their plunging half-frantic horses on to terra firma. The 

 men were of various nationalities, and their language emu- 

 lated that of our Army in Flanders, past and present. The 

 rincones have a vegetation consisting principally of jungles 

 of such giant-grassea as the Pampa-grass (^Gynerium argen- 

 teum) and a species of Esparto three feet high. The most of 

 the so-called terra firma and all the tidal creeks are in- 

 habited by a small burrowing crab in countless myriads ; 



