1832.] RELICS OF OLD INDIANS. 57 



Maldonado. On the summit of the mountain there were 

 several small heaps of stones, which evidently had lain 

 there for many years. My companion assured me that they 

 were the work of the Indians in the old time. The heaps 

 were similar, ;but on a much smaller scale, to those so 

 commonly found on the mountains of Wales. The desire 

 to signalise any event, on the highest point of the neighbour- 

 ing land, seems an universal passion with mankind. At the 

 present day, not a single Indian, either civilized or wild, 

 exists in this part of the province ; nor am I aware that 

 the ^former inhabitants have left behind them any more 

 permanent records than these insignificant piles on the 

 summit of the Sierra de las Animas. 



The general, and! almost entire absence of trees in Banda 

 Oriental is remarkable. Some of the rocky hills are 

 partly covered by thickets, and on the banks of the larger 

 streams, especially to the north of Las Minas, willow-trees 

 are not uncommon. Near the Arroy Tapes I heard of a 

 wood of palms ; and one of these trees, of considerable 

 size, I saw near the Pan de Azucar, in lat. 35°. These, 

 and the trees planted by the Spaniards, offer the only 

 exceptions to the general scarcity of wood. Among the 

 introduced kinds may be enumerated poplars, olives, 

 peach, and other fruit trees ; the peaches succeed so well, 

 that they afford the main supply of firewood to the city 

 of Buenos Ayres. Extremely level countries, such as the 

 Pampas, seldom appear favourable to the growth of trees. 

 This may possibly be attributed either to the force of the 

 winds, or the kind of drainage. In the nature of the land, 

 however, around Maldonado, no such reason is ap- 

 parent ; the rocky mountains afford protected situations, 

 enjoying various kinds of soil ; streamlets of water are 

 common at the bottoms of nearly every valley; and 

 the clayey nature of the earth seems adapted to 

 retain moisture. It has been inferred with much prob- 

 ability, that the presence of woodland is generally 

 determined * by the annual amount of moisture ; yet in 

 this province abundant and heavy rain falls during the 

 winter ; and the summer, though dry, is not so in any 

 \cessive degree.t We see nearly the whole of Australia 



' Maclaren, article America, Kncyclop. Britann. 



t Azara sayn, "Jecroia que la quantity annuelle dei pluies est, dana toutea 

 c«a cuntr^ea, plua conaid^rable qu'en Espagne." — Vol. i., p. 36. 



