1833.] ARRIVE AT RIO NEGRO. 45 



are produced by successive distinct shocks, we must believe that the 

 lightning, shortly before entering the ground, divides itself into separate 

 branches. 



The neighbourhood of the Rio Plata seems peculiarly subject to 

 electric phenomena. In the year 1793,* one of the most destructive 

 thunderstorms perhaps on record happened at Buenos Ayres : thirty- 

 seven places within the city were struck by lightning, and nineteen 

 people killed. From facts stated in several books of travels, I am 

 inclined to suspect that thunderstorms are very common near the 

 mouths of great rivers. Is it not possible that the mixture of large 

 bodies of fresh and salt water may disturb the electrical equilibrium ? 

 Even during our occasional visits to this part of South America, we 

 heard of a ship, two churches, and a house, having been struck. Both 

 the church and the house I saw shortly afterwards : the house belonged 

 to Mr. Hood, the consul-general at Monte Video. Some of the effects 

 were curious : the paper, for nearly a foot on each side of the line 

 where the bell-wires had run, was blackened. The metal had been 

 fused, and although the room was about fifteen feet high, the globules, 

 dropping on the chairs and furniture, had drilled in them a chain ol 

 minute holes. A part of the wall was shattered as if by gunpowder, 

 and the fragments had been blown off with force sufficient to dent the 

 wall on the opposite side of the room. The frame of a looking-glass 

 was blackened, and the gilding must have been volatilized, for a 

 smelling-bottle, which stood on the chimney-piece, was coated with 

 bright metallic particles, which adhered as firmly as if they had been 

 enamelled. 



GRAFTER IV. 



RIO NEGRO TO BAHIA BLANCA, 



Rio Negro Estancias attacked by the Indians Salt Lakes Flaming 



Rio Negro to Rio Colorado Sacred Tree Patagonian Hare Indian 

 Families General Rosas Proceed to Bahia Blanca Sand Dunes 

 Negro Lieutenant Bahia Blanca Saline Incrustations Punta Alta 

 Zorillo. 



July itfh, 1833- The Beagle sailed from Maldonado, and on the 3rd 

 of August she arrived off the mouth of the Rio Negro. This is the 

 principal river on the whole line of coast between the Strait of 

 Magellan and the Plata. It enters the sea about three hundred miles 

 south of the estuary of the Plata. About fifty years ago, under the 

 old Spanish government, a small colony was'established here; and 

 it is still the most southern position (lat. 41) on this eastern coast of 

 America, inhabited by civilized man. 



The country near the mouth of the river is wretched in the extreme; 

 * Azara's " Voyage," vol. i., p. 36. 



