I30 GIANT THISTLES. [chap" 



or of the great thistle. The latter, well known from the 

 animated description given by Sir F. Head, were at this 

 time of the year two-thirds grown ; in some parts they were 

 as high as the horse's back, but in others they had not yet 

 sprung up, and the ground was bare and dusty as on a 

 turnpike road. The clumps were of the most brilliant 

 green, and they made a pleasing miniature-likeness of 

 broken forest land. When the thistles are full-grown, the 

 great beds are impenetrable, except by a few tracks, as 

 intricate as those in a labyrinth. These are only known to 

 the robbers, who at this season inhabit them, and sally forth 

 at night to rob and cut throats with impunity. Upon asking 

 at a house whether robbers were numerous, I was answered, 

 ** The thistles are not up yet ; " — the meaning of which 

 reply was not at first very obvious. There is little interest 

 in passing over these tracts, for they are inhabited by few 

 animals or birds, excepting the bizcacha and its friend the 

 little owl. 



The bizcacha * Is well known to form a prominent feature 

 in the zoology of the Pampas. It is found as far south as 

 the Rio Negro, in lat. 41°, but not beyond. It cannot, like 

 the agouti, subsist on the gravelly and desert plains of 

 Patagonia, but prefers a clayey or sandy soil, which produces 

 a different and more abundant vegetation. Near Mendoza, 

 at the foot of the Cordillera, It occurs in close neighbourhood 

 with the allied alpine species. It Is a very curious circum- 

 stance in its geographical distribution, that It has never 

 been seen, fortunately for the Inhabitants of Banda Oriental, 

 to the eastward of the river Uruguay : yet In this province 

 there are plains which appear admirably adapted to its 

 habits. The Uruguay has formed an insuperable obstacle 

 to its migration ; although the broader barrier of the Parana 

 has been passed, and the bizcacha is common in Entre Rios, 

 the province between these two great rivers. Near Buenos 

 Ayres these animals are exceedingly common. Their most 

 favourite resort appears to be those parts of the plain which 

 during one half of the year are covered with giant thistles, 

 to the exclusion of other plants. The Gauchos affirm that 

 it lives on roots ; which, from the great strength of Its 

 gnawing teeth, and the kind of places frequented by it, 



* The bizcacha {Lagvstomus trichodactylus) somewhat resembles a larg-e 

 rabbit, but with bigger g-nawing teeth and a long tail : it has, however, only 

 three toes behind, like the agouti. During the last three or four years the 

 skins of these animals have been sent to England for the sake of the fur. 



