1833.] SALT LAKES. 75 



constantly have their Toldos* on the outskirts of the town. 

 The local government partly supplies them with provisions 

 by giving them all the old worn-out horses, and they earn 

 a little by making horse-rugs and other articles of riding- 

 gear. These Indians are considered civilized ; but what 

 their character may have gained by a lesser degree of 

 ferocity, is almost counterbalanced by their entire im- 

 morality. Some of the younger men are, however, 

 improving ; they are willing to labour, and a short time 

 since a party went on a sealing-voyage, and behaved very 

 well. They were now enjoying the fruits of their labour by 

 being dressed in very gay, clean clothes, and by being very 

 idle. The taste they showed in their dress was admirable ; 

 if you could have turned one of these young Indians into a 

 statue of bronze, his drapery would have been perfectly 

 graceful. 



One day I rode to a large salt lake, or Salina, which is 

 distant fifteen miles from the town. During the winter it 

 consists of a shallow lake of brine, which in summer is 

 converted into a field of snow-white salt. The layer near 

 the margin is from four to five inches thick, but towards the 

 centre its thickness increases. This lake was two and a 

 half miles long, and one broad. Others occur in the 

 neighbourhood many times larger, and with a floor of salt, 

 two and three feet in thickness, even when under water 

 during the winter. One of these brilliantly-white and level 

 expanses, in the midst of the brown and desolate plain, 

 offers an extraordinary spectacle. A large quantity of salt 

 is annually drawn from the salina ; and great piles, some 

 hundred tons in weight, were lying ready for exportation. 

 The season for working the salinas forms the harvest ot" 

 Patagones ; for on it the prosperity of the place depends. 

 Nearly the whole population encamps on the bank of the 

 river, and the people are employed in drawing out the sail 

 in bullock-waggons. This salt is crystallized in great 

 cubes, and is remarkably pure ; Mr. Trenham Reeks has 

 kindly analyzed some for me, and he finds in it only 0.26 of 

 gypsum, and 0.22 of earthy matter. It is a singular fact, 

 that it does not serve so well for preserving meat as sea-salt 

 from the Cape de Verd Islands ; and a merchant at Buenos 

 Ayres told me that he considered it as fifty per cent, less 

 valuable. Hence the Cape de Verd salt is constantly im- 

 ported, and is mixed with that from these salinas. The 

 * The bovelt of the Indians are thus called. 



