HUNTING THE CHINCHILLA. 



171 



THE CHINCHILLA. 



extreme a\ Idity, and when either is to be had, despising grass. 

 For this reason the stations of the Biscachas are rarely to be seen 

 in the desert plains, but indicate with certainty the near neighbor- 

 hood of the Spanish settlements. I have often wondered never to 

 have seen the Biscacha in the territories either of the Abipones 

 or the Guaranis, although well supplied with all kinds of crops 

 They daily heap up, at the entrance of their burrow, dry bones, 

 chips of wood, or whatever other refuse they may meet with, but 

 for what purposes they collect such things it is impossible even tc 

 conjecture. The Spanish colonists amuse themselves with hunt- 

 ing them ; pouring many buckets of water into their subterraneous 

 retreats, until, to avoid drowning, the animals come forth into the 

 plain, where, no means of escape being afforded them, they are 

 killed with sticks. Their flesh, unless when very old, is not con- 

 sidered despicable even by the Spaniards." The' Abbe Jolis 

 dwelt for twelve years in South America, and made three -journeys 

 into the remote districts of the interior. His work, ' Saggio sulla 

 Storia Naturale della Provincia del Granchaco' (Faenza, 1789,) is 

 60 little known, and his description, in some particulars, differs so 

 much from that of Dobrizhoffer, that we give Mr. Bennett's trans- 



