50 



BUENOS AYRES. 



Buenos 

 Ayres. 



Salt lakes. 



tSoil and 

 climate. 



fresh ; and many flourishing presidencies are esta- 

 blished on its shores. 



Among the lakes of this country, there are many 

 which are full of water during the rainy season, and 

 are perfectly dry throughout the rest of the year, 

 and filled with sword-grass, and other aquatic plants. 

 Of this description is the famous lake Xarayes, in 

 the province of Los Chiquitos, which is formed by 

 the overflowing of the Paraguay. The channel of 

 this river being unable to contain the rapid accumu- 

 lation of water produced by the rains which fall du- 

 ring the months of November, December, January, 

 and February. It is spread over a flat and level 

 country, to an immense extent, but so shallow, that 

 though the Xarayes at its height is nearly 110 

 leagues in length, and 40 in breadth, yet in no part 

 is it navigable. This lake was formerly supposed 

 to be the source of the Paraguay ; and many stories 

 were told concerning a beautiful island near its cen- 

 tre, which, from the salubrity of its air, and the 

 spontaneous fertility of its soil, was called the island 

 of Paradise, and which was said to be inhabited by 

 the Orejones, a Peruvian nation who had taken re- 

 fuge here on the conquest of their country. These, 

 however, and other fables, with which the history of 

 the Orejones are embellished, are merely the ebulli- 

 tions of Spanish romance, without either foundation 

 or probability. Of the same nature with the Xarayes 

 are the lakes Aguaracaty, and Neembucu, and all 

 those east of the river Paraguay, with an innu- 

 merable multitude of others, on the banks of the 

 different rivers, which traverse this extensive vice- 

 royalty. 



A chain of salt lakes extends from west to east, 

 between the Andes of Chili,. and the Rio de la Pla- 

 ta. One of these, in particular, which lies about 120 

 leagues S. W. of Buenos Ayres, is remarkably salt. 

 It is nearly 18 miles in circumference, and the salt 

 found at the bottom is so hard and thick, that it is 

 difficult to break it with iron tools. Two or three 

 hundred carts are annually loaded with it, and car- 

 ried to Buenos Ayres ; and what is very remarkable 

 in this chain is, that a few of the lakes are fresh, 

 though during the rains they are so swelled, that 

 they often communicate with those that are salt. 

 Besides these lakes, all the springs throughout the 

 greater part of the flat country, west of the Parana 

 and Paraguay, are more or less salt; and few of their 

 waters can be drank till they enter the Parana. The 

 soil of this region, extending about 700 miles in 

 length, and 190 in breadth, is saturated with fossil 

 salt. Great quantities of it are refined for consump- 

 tion ; but it is most abundant between Sta Fe and 

 Cordova, and, in the vicinity of San Jago del Estero, 

 the whole ground is covered with a white incrusta- 

 tion of this substance. 



Every variety of soil, and every diversity of cli- 

 mate, is to be found in this extensive region ; 

 from the barren and unhospitable steeps of the 

 Andes, whose summits are covered with never 

 melting snows, and the burning deserts of Cha- 

 co, to the fertile and delighful vallies which skirt 

 the borders 'of the Uraguay and Parana. Here all 

 the productions of the temperate and torrid zones 



find soils and situations adapted to their various na- Bueiu> 

 tures. We may observe, however, that this variety of 

 climate follows no exact gradation arising from the 

 difference of latitude ; but the heat and cold of 

 this country seems to depend rather on the direction 

 of the winds, than the position or declination of the 

 sun. A south, or south-east wind, is always attend- Soil and 

 ed with cold, while it is as invariably warm with a climate, 

 wind from the north. At Assumption, which lies 

 in nearly the centre latitude of the viceroyalty, M. 

 Azara found, that in ordinary days, during the sum- 

 mer, the mercury 1 in Fahrenheit's thermometer rose, 

 in his chamber, to 85, and, on some extraordinary 

 occasions, mouhted as high as 100 ; while in winter 

 it fell as low as 45 ; and, in 1786 and 1789, water 

 froze in the court before his house. The common 

 winds in this country are the east and north. If the 

 south-west blows, the sky becomes calm and serene ;- 

 and a west wind is here scarcely known ; or if it be 

 sometimes felt, it never lasts above a couple of hours. 

 A south-east wind generally precedes the rains in 

 winter; but it is most severe during the spring and 

 summer, sometimes raising such clouds of dust, as 

 completely to conceal the sun. Hurricanes are very 

 rare, but when they do happen are rather violent ; 

 as that on the 14th of May 1799, which overturned 

 one half of the town of Atira in Paraguay, and kil- 

 led 36 persons. Fogs, snow, and hail, are seldom 

 seen, except on the summits of the mountains. 

 Thunder storms, however, are both frequent and vio- Thunder 

 lent ; and, notwithstanding the level nature of the tortns. 

 country, and the absence of woods and rising grounds, 

 the bolt falls ten times more frequently here than in 

 the south of Europe. In one of these storms, which 

 happened on the 21st of Jan. 1793, the thunderbolt fell 

 37 times in the interior of the city of Buenos Ayres, 

 and killed 19 persons. According to M. Azara, the 

 storms of rain and thunder, which are so prevalent in 

 this country, cannot be attributed to the influence of 

 mountains and woods, as there is not a mountain 

 within a hundred leagues of Buenos Ayres, nor a 

 tree south of the river La Plata, or even on the 

 north as far as Paraguay, except on the banks of 

 the rivulets. They must therefore be owing to some 

 peculiarity in the nature of the atmosphere. It 

 must contain a greater quantity of electric fluid 

 than the atmosphere of Europe, and also possess ^_ 

 some quality more suited to the condensation of 

 vapour and reducing it to rain. The same au- 

 thor has observed, that the humidity of the at- 

 mosphere, and the violence of the winds, gradually 

 increases from the city of Assumption to Buenos 

 Ayres ; and that the thunder-storms, on the con- 

 trary, are less violent as they proceed to the south. 

 The salubrity of the climate, however, is surpassed 

 by that of no other country in the world. Even in 

 the vicinity of the marshes and inundated lands, 

 which are here to be frequently met with, the health 

 of the inhabitants is not in the smallest degree af- 

 fected. 



We have already mentioned, that this viceroyal- 

 ty is divided into five provinces ; of each of which 

 we shall now proceed to give a very brief and 

 general description, beginning with Buenos Ayres. 



