156 EXCURSION TO ST. PE. 



pressive of fierce agony than any I know : I have 

 often distinguished it from a long distance, and 

 have always known that the struggle was then 

 drawing to a close. The whole sight is horrihle 

 and revolting : the ground is almost made of bones, 

 and the horses and riders are drenched with gore. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Excursion to St. Fe — Thistle Beds — Habits of the Bizcacha — 

 Little Owl — Saline Streams — Level Plains — Mastodon — St. Fe 

 — Change in Landscape — Geology — Tooth of Extinct Horse — 

 Relation of the Fossil and recent Quadrupeds of North and 

 South America — Effects of a great Drought — Parana — Habits 

 of the Jaguar — Scissor-beak — Kingfisher, Parrot, and Scissor- 

 tajl — Revolution — Buenos Ayres — State of Government. 



BUENOS AYRES TO ST. FE. 



Septcmher 21th. — In the evening I set out on an 

 excursion to St. Fe, which is situated nearly three 

 hundred English miles from Buenos Ayres, on the 

 banks of the Parana. The roads in the neighbour- 

 hood of the city, after the rainy weather, were ex- 

 traordinarily bad, I should never have thought it 

 possible for a bullock-wagon to have crawled along; 

 as it was, they scarcely went at the rate of a mile 

 an hour, and a man was kept ahead to survey the 

 best line for making the attempt. The bullocks 

 were tembly jaded: it is a great mistake to sup- 

 pose that with improved roads, and an accelerated 

 rate of travelling, the sufferings of the animals in- 

 crease in the same proportion. We passed a train 

 of wagons and a troop of beasts on their road to 

 Mendoaa, The distance is about 580 geographi- 

 cal miles, and the journey is generally performed 

 in fifty days. These wagons are very long, nar- 



