1833.] RIO NEGRO TO RIO COLORADO. 77 



numbers in the brine-pans at Lymington ; but only in those 

 in which the fluid has attained, from evaporation, consider- 

 able strength — namely, about a quarter of a pound of salt 

 to a pint of water. Well may we affirm that every part of 

 the world is habitable ! Whether lakes of brine, or those 

 subterranean ones hidden beneath volcanic mountains — 

 warm mineral springs — the wide expanse and depths of 

 the ocean — the upper regions of the atmosphere, and even 

 the surface of perpetual snow — all support organic beings. 



To the northward of the Rio Negro, between it and the 

 inhabited country near Buenos Ayres, the Spaniards have 

 only one small settlement, recently established at Bahia 

 Blanca. The distance in a straight line to Buenos Ayres 

 is very nearly five hundred British miles. The wandering 

 tribes of horse Indians, which have always occupied the 

 greater part of this country, having of late much harassed 

 the outlying estancias, the government at Buenos Ayres 

 equipped some time since an army under the command of 

 General Rosas for the purpose of exterminating them. 

 The troops were now encamped on the banks of the 

 Colorado ; a river lying about eighty miles northward of 

 the Rio Negro. When General Rosas left Buenos Ayres 

 he struck in a direct line across the unexplored plains ; 

 and as the country was thus pretty well cleared of Indians, 

 he left behind him, at wide intervals, a small party of 

 soldiers with a troop of horses {a postd)^ so as to be enabled 

 to keep up a communication with the capital. As the 

 Beagle intended to call at Bahia Blanca, I determined to 

 proceed there by land ; and ultimately I extended my plan 

 to travel the whole way by the postas to Buenos Ayres. 



August nth. — Mr. Harris, an Englishman residing at 

 Patagones, a guide, and five Gauchos, who were proceed- 

 ing to the army on business, were my companions on the 

 journey. The Colorado, as I have already said, is nearly 

 eighty miles distant ; and as we travelled slowly, we were 

 two days and a half on the road. The whole line of country 

 deserves scarcely a better name than that of a desert. 

 Water is found only in two small wells ; it is called fresh ; 

 but even at this time of the year, during the rainy season, 

 it was quite brackish. In the summer this must be a 



flamingoes (" Edin. New Philos. Jour.," Jan. 1830) likewise trcquent them. Aa 

 these circumstances, apparently so trifling:, occur in two distant continents 

 we may feci sure that they arc the necessary results of common causes.— Sco 

 Pallas  "Travels," 1793 to 1794, pp. 129-134. 



