1833.] ENCAMPMENT OF GENERAL ROSAS. 51 



shot by Captain Wood in one day at Port Desire, that they must have 

 been considerably more abundant there formerly than at present. 

 Where the Bizcacha lives and makes its burrows, the Agouti uses 

 them ; but where, as at Bahia Blanca, the Bizcacha is not found, the 

 Agouti burrows for itself. Theame thing occurs with the little owl of 

 the Pampas (Athene cunicularia), which has so often been described as 

 standing like a sentinel at the mouth of the burrows ; for in Banda 

 Oriental, owing to the absence of the Bizcacha, it is obliged to hollow 

 out its own habitation. 



The next morning, as we approached the Rio Colorado, the appear- 

 ance of the country changed ; we soon came on a plain covered with 

 turf, which, from its flowers, tall clover, and little owls, resembled the 

 Pampas. We passed also a muddy swamp of considerable extent, 

 which in summer dries, and becomes incrusted with various salts ; and 

 hence is called a salitral. It was covered by low succulent plants of 

 the same kind with those growing on the sea-shore. The Colorado, 

 at the pass where we crossed it, is only about sixty yards wide ; 

 generally it must be nearly double that width. Its course is very 

 tortuous, being marked by willow-trees and beds of reeds : in a direct 

 line the distance to the mouth of the river is said to be nine leagues, 

 but by water twenty-five. We were delayed crossing in the canoe by 

 some immense troops of mares, which were swimming the river in 

 order to follow a division of troops into the interior. A more ludicrous 

 spectacle I never beheld than the hundreds and hundreds of heads, 

 all directed one way, with pointed ears and distended snorting nostrils, 

 appearing just above the water like a great shoal of some amphibious 

 animal. Mare's flesh is the only food which the soldiers have when on 

 an expedition. This gives them a great facility of movement ; for the 

 distance to which horses can be driven over these plains is quite sur- 



Eising: I have been assured that an unloaded horse can travel a 

 indred miles a day for many days successively. 



The encampment of General Rosas was close to the river. It con- 

 sisted of a square formed by waggons, artillery, straw huts, etc. The 

 soldiers were nearly all calvary ; and I should think such a villainous, 

 banditti-like army was never before collected together. The greater 

 number of men were of a mixed breed, between Negro, Indian, and 

 Spaniard. I know not the reason, but men of such origin seldom have 

 a good expression of countenance. I called on the secretary to show 

 my passport. He began to cross-question me in the most dignified 

 and mysterious manner. By good luck I had a letter of recommenda- 

 tion from the government of Buenos Ayres * to the commandant of 

 Patagones. This was taken to General Rosas, who sent me a very 

 obliging message ; and the secretary returned all smiles and gracious- 

 ness. We took up our residence in the rancho, or hovel, of a curious 

 old Spaniard, who had served with Napoleon in the expedition against 

 Russia. 



* I am bound to express, in the strongest terms, my obligation to the 

 Government of Buenos Ayres for the obliging manner in which passpoitl 

 to all parts of the country were given me, as naturalist of the Beagle, 



