50 RIO COLORADO. [CHAP. fv. 



as sacrifices. All Indians of every age and sex make their offerings ; 

 they then think that their horses will not tire, and that they themselves 

 shall be prosperous. The Gaucho who told me this, said that in the 

 time of peace he had witnessed this scene, and that he and others 

 used to wait till the Indians had passed by, for the sake of stealing 

 from Walleechu the offerings. 



The Gauchos think that the Indians consider the tree as the god 

 itself; but it seems far more probable, that they regard it as the altar. 

 The only cause which I can imagine for this choice, is its being a land- 

 mark in a dangerous passage. The Sierra de la Ventana is visible at 

 an immense distance ; and a Gaucho told me that he was once riding 

 with an Indian a few miles to the north of the Rio Colorado, when the 

 Indian commenced making the same loud noise, which is usual at the 

 first sight of the distant tree ; putting his hand to his head, and then 

 pointing in the direction of the Sierra. Upon being asked the reason 

 of this, the Indian said in broken Spanish, "First see the Sierra." 

 About two leagues beyond this curious tree we halted for the night ; 

 at this instant an unfortunate cow was spied by the lynx-eyed Gauchos, 

 who set off in full chase, and in a few minutes dragged her in with 

 their lazos, and slaughtered her. We here had the four necessaries of 

 life " en el campo," pasture for the horses, water (only a muddy 

 puddle), meat and firewood. The Gauchos were in high spirits at 

 finding all these luxuries ; and we soon set to work at the poor cow. 

 This was the first night which I passed under the open sky, with the 

 gear of the recado for my bed. There is high enjoyment in the 

 independence of the Gaucho life to be able at any moment to pull up 

 your horse, and say, " Here we will pass the night." The death-like 

 stillness of the plain, the dogs keeping watch, the gipsy-group of 

 Gauchos making their beds round the fire, have left in my mind a 

 strongly-marked picture of this first night, which will never be 

 forgotten. 



The next day the country continued similar to that above described. 

 It is inhabited by few birds or animals of any kind. Occasionally a 

 deer, or a Guanaco (wild Llama) may be seen ; but the Agouti (Cavia 

 Patagonica) is the commonest quadruped. This animal here represents 

 our hares. It differs, however, from that genus in many essential 

 respects ; for instance, it has only three toes behind. It is also nearly 

 twice the size, weighing from twenty to twenty-five pounds. The 

 Agouti is a true friend of the desert ; it is a common feature in the 

 landscape to see two or three hopping quickly one after the other in a 

 straight line across these wild plains. They are found as far north as 

 the Sierra Tapalguen (lat. 37 30'), where the plain rather suddenly 

 becomes greener and more humid ; and their southern limit is between 

 Port Desire and St. Julian, where there is no change in the nature of 

 the country. It is a singular fact, that although the Agouti is not now 

 found as far south as Port St. Julian, yet that Captain Wood, in his 

 voyage in 1670, talks of them as being numerous there. What cause 

 can have altered, in a wide, uninhabited, and rarely-visited country, 

 the range of an animal like this ? It appears also from the number 



