THE GREAT DROUGHT. 109 



merged in the West Indies, into South America, 

 where for a time they mingled with the forms char- 

 acteristic of that southern continent, and have since 

 become extinct. 



"While travelling through the country, I received 

 several vivid descriptions of the effects of a late 

 great drought; and the account of this may tln-ow 

 some light on the cases where vast numbers of ani- 

 mals of all kinds have been embedded together. 

 The period included between the years 1827 and 

 1830 is called the " gran seco," or the gi'eat drought. 

 During this time so little rain fell, that the vegeta- 

 tion, even to the thistles, failed ; the brooks were 

 dried up, and the whole country assumed the ap- 

 pearance of a dusty high road. This was esjje- 

 cially the case in the northern part of the province 

 of Buenos Ayres and the southern part of St. Fe. 

 Very gi'eat numbers of birds, wild animals, cattle, 

 and horses perished from the want of food and 

 water. A man told me that the deei'* used to come 

 into his courtyard to the well, which he had been 

 obliged to dig to supply his own faixiily with water ; 

 and that the partridges had hardly strength to fly 

 away when pursued. The lowest estimation of 

 the loss of cattle in the province of Buenos Ayres 

 alone was taken at one million head. A proprie- 



* In Capt. Owen's Surveying Voyage (vol. ii,, p. 274) there is 

 a curious account of the effects of a drought on the elephants at 

 Benguela (west coast of Africa). " A number of these animals 

 had some time since entered the town m a body, to possess them- 

 selves of the wells, not being able to procure any water in the 

 country. The inhabitants mustered, when a desperate conflict en- 

 sued, which terminated in the ultimate discomfiture of the inva- 

 ders, but not until they had killed one man, and wounded several 

 others." The town is said to have a population of nearly three 

 thousand ! Dr. Malcolmson informs me, that during a great 

 drought in India, the wild animals entered the tents of some troops 

 at Ellore, and that a hare drank out of a vessel held by the adju- 

 tant of the regiment. 



P 



