84 BAHIA BLANCA TO BUENOS AYRES. [CHAP. VL 



which commences at Cape Corrientes. The rock in this part is pure 

 quartz ; further eastward I understand it is granitic. The hills are ol 

 a remarkable form ; they consist of flat patches of table-land, surrounded 

 by low perpendicular cliffs, like the outliers of a sedimentary deposit 

 The hill which I ascended was very small, not above a couple ol 

 hundred yards in diameter ; but I saw others larger. One which goes 

 by the name of the " Corral," is said to be two or three miles in 

 diameter, and encompassed by perpendicular cliffs between thirty and 

 forty feet high, excepting at one spot, where the entrance lies. 

 Falconer * gives a curious account of the Indians driving troops of 

 wild horses into it, and then by guarding the entrance, keeping them 

 secure. I have never heard of any other instance of table-land in a 

 formation of quartz, and which, in the hill I examined, had neither 

 cleavage nor stratification. I was told that the rock of the " Corral " 

 was white, and would strike fire. 



We did not reach the posta on the Rio Tapalguen till after it was 

 dark. At supper, from something which was said, I was suddenly 

 struck with horror at thinking that I was eating one of the favourite 

 dishes of the country, namely, a half-formed calf, long before its proper 

 time of birth. It turned out to be Puma ; the meat is very white, and 

 remarkably like veal in taste. Dr. Shaw was laughed at for stating 

 that "the flesh of the lion is in great esteem, having no small affinity 

 with veal, both in colour, taste, and flavour.' 1 Such certainly is the case 

 with the Puma. The Gauchos differ in their opinion, whether the 

 Jaguar is good eating, but are unanimous in saying that cat is excellent. 



September 17 ih. We followed the course of the Rio Tapalguen, 

 through a very fertile country, to the ninth posta. Tapalguen itself, or 

 the town of Tapalguen, if it may be so called, consists of a perfectly 

 level plain, studded over, as far as the eye can reach, with the toldos, 

 or oven-shaped huts of the Indians. The families of the friendly 

 Indians, who were fighting on the side of Rosas, resided here. We 

 met and passed many young Indian women, riding by two or three 

 together on the same horse ; they, as well as many of the young men, 

 were strikingly handsome, their fine ruddy complexions being the 

 picture of health. Besides the toldos, there were three ranchos ; one 

 inhabited by the Commandant, and the two others by Spaniards with 

 small shops. 



We were here able to buy some biscuit. I had now been several 

 days without tasting anything besides meat : I did not at all dislike 

 this new regimen ; but I felt as if it would only have agreed with me 

 with hard exercise. I have heard that patients in England, when 

 desired to confine themselves exclusively to an animal diet, even with 

 the hope of life before their eyes, have hardly been able to endure it. 

 Yet the Gaucho in the Pampas, for months together, touches nothing 

 but beef. But they eat, I observe, a very large proportion of fat, which 

 is of a less animalized nature ; and they particularly dislike dry meat, 

 such as that of the Agouti. Dr. Richardson,f also, has remarked, 

 * Falconer's " Patagonia," p. 70. 

 f " Fauna Boreaii- Americana," vol. i., p. 35. 



