m 



hapTH 

 ormefly 



fio Ix\ THE COLORADO COUNTRY. [chap. 



must have been considerably more abundant there forme 

 than at present. Where the Bizcacha lives and makes its 

 burrows, the Agouti uses them ; but where, as at Bahia 

 Blanca, the Bizcacha is not found, the Agouti burrows 

 for itself. The same thing occurs with the little owl 

 of the Pampas {Athene cunicularia), which has so often 

 been described as standing like a sentinel at the mouth 

 of the burrows ; for in Banda Oriental, owing to the 

 absence of the Bizcacha, it is obliged to hollow out its 

 own habitation. 



The next morning, as we approached the Rio Colorado, 

 the appearance of the country changed ; we soon came on a 

 plain covered with turf, which, from its flowers, tall clover, 

 and little owls, resembled the Pampas. We passed also a 

 muddy swamp of considerable extent, which in summer 

 dries, and becomes incrusted with various salts ; and hence 

 is called a salitral. It was covered by low succulent plants 

 of the same kind with those growing on the sea-shore. The 

 Colorado, at the pass where we crossed it, is only about 

 sixty yards wide ; generally it must be nearly double that 

 width. Its course is very tortuous, being marked by 

 willow-trees and beds of reeds : in a direct line the distance 

 to the mouth of the river is said to be nine leagues, but by 

 water twenty-five. We were delayed crossing in the canoe 

 by some immense troops of mares, which were swimming 

 the river in order to follow a division of troops into the 

 interior. A more ludicrous spectacle I never beheld than 

 the hundreds and hundreds of heads, all directed one way, 

 with pointed ears and distended, snorting nostrils, appearing 

 just above the water like a great shoal of some amphibious 

 animal. Mare's flesh is the only food which the soldiers 

 have when on an expedition. This gives them a great 

 facility of movement ; for the distance to which horses can 

 be driven over these plains is quite surprising ; I have been 

 assured that an unloaded horse can travel a hundred miles 

 a day for many days successively. 



The encampment of General Rosas was close to the 

 river. It consisted of a square formed by waggons, artillery, 

 straw huts, etc. The soldiers w6re nearly all cavalry ; and 

 I should think such a villainous, banditti-like army "W^as 

 never before collected together. The greater number of 

 men were of a mixed breed, between Negro, Indian, and 

 Spaniard. I know not the reason, but men of such origin 

 seldom have a good expression of countenance. I called on 



