EXCURSION TO RIO POLANCO, 51 



where some wheat or Indian com has been planted. 

 The features of the country are very similar along 

 the whole northern bank of the Plata. The only 

 difference is, that here the granitic hills are a little 

 bolder. The scenery is very uninteresting ; there 

 is scarcely a house, an enclosed piece of gTound, or 

 even a tree, to give it an air of cheerfulness. Yet, 

 after being imprisoned for some time in a ship, 

 there is a charm in the unconfined feeling of walk- 

 ing over boundless plains of turf. Moreover, if 

 your view is limited to a small space, many objects 

 possess beauty. Some of the smaller birds are 

 brilliantly coloured ; and the bright green sward, 

 browsed short by the cattle, is ornamented by dwarf 

 flowers, among which a plant, looking like a daisy, 

 claimed the place of an old friend. What would a 

 florist say to whole tracts so thickly covered by the 

 Verbena melindres, as, even at a distance, to ap- 

 pear of the most gaudy scarlet ? 



I stayed ten weeks as Maldonado, in which time a 

 nearly perfect collection of the animals, birds, and 

 reptiles was procured. Before making any obser- 

 vations respecting them, I will give an account of 

 a little excursion I made as far as the river Polan 

 CO, which is about seventy miles distant, in a nor- 

 therly direction. I may mention, as a proof how 

 cheap everything is in this country, that I paid only 

 two dollars a day, or eight shillings, for two men, 

 together with a troop of about a dozen riding-hor- 

 ses. My companions were well anned with pistols 

 and sabres ; a precaution which I thought rather 

 unnecessary; but the first piece of news we heard 

 was, that, the day before, a traveller from Monte 

 Video had been found dead on the road, with his 

 throat cut. This happened close to a cross, the 

 record of a former murder. 



On the first night we slept at a retired little 



