158 Mr. O. V. Aplin on the 



and these increased as the summer wore on until it was pos- 

 sible to cross the Arroyo Grande, Monzon, and smaller rivers 

 dryfooted in many places which, when I came, had contained a 

 foot or two of water, but which had become dry and dusty. But 

 there were also at intervals large, deep lagunas which always 

 held water — these extended without interruption for some 

 distance in the lower reaches of the Arroyo Grande bordering 

 the Sta. Elena camp. However, many small lagunas dried 

 up which had not been known to fail before. This state of 

 things continued until 27th March, when, after a spell of 

 38 days with hardly a drop of rain (certainly none to 

 have the least effect). If inches fell in li hours, followed by 

 a drizzle for two or three more. This, partly on account of 

 the dry, hard state of the camp (allowing the water to run off 

 it straight into the canadas and so into the river), set the 

 Sauce running for the first time for a year — indeed put it 

 in flood, and put the Arroyo Grande and Monzon in flood 

 also, rendering them impassable for some hours at the usual 

 ^^ passes" or fords; the swing wire fences where the post 

 road-tracli crosses the Saiice were carried away (a common 

 occurrence in some winters) for the first time for nearly 

 three years. After this, until I left, the rivers, though fallen 

 very low again, were running and the cauadas filled up : 

 then for the first time I saw any number of water-birds. 



Roughly speaking, this was my collecting-ground. I paid 

 occasional visits to the neighbouring estaucias of Las Coronas 

 and Santa Adelaida — the one west of the Monzon, the other 

 across the Arroyo Grande, to the N.E., and running north- 

 wards into the rincon of that river and the Ojosmin. I also 

 spent several weeks at diff'erent times at the hospitable 

 estancia of Mr. J. E. Emerson, Santa Aua, situated on the 

 east side of the Arroyo Grande, in the Departamento de Flores, 

 on a small river called the Sauce, but marked on a map as 

 the Talita. 



Standing upon the high ground at the Estancia Santa 

 Elena, our view to southward was bounded by the ridge of 

 the long slope of the Cuchilla Grande, an easterly con- 

 tinuation of the Cuchilla de San Salvador, forming the 



