326 A WATERLESS REGION. [chap. xv. 



clouds, which we had admired from the bright region 

 above, had poured down torrents of rain. The valley from 

 this point gra.dually opened, and the hills became mere 

 water-worn hillocks compared to the giants behind : it then 

 expanded into a gently-sloping plain of shingle, covered 

 with low trees and bushes. This talus, although appearing 

 narrow, must be nearly ten miles wide before it blends into 

 the apparently dead level Pampas. We passed the only 

 house in this neighbourhood, the Estancia of Chaquaio ; 

 and at sunset we pulled up in the first snug corner, and 

 there bivouacked. 



March 25^^. — I was reminded of the Pampas of Buenos 

 Ayres, by seeing the disc of the rising sun, intersected by an 

 horizon, level as that of the ocean. During the night a 

 heavy dew fell, a circumstance which we did not experience 

 within the Cordillera. The road proceeded for some distance 

 due east across a low swamp ; then meeting the dry plain, 

 it turned to the north towards Mendoza. The distance is 

 two very long days' journey. Our first day's journey was 

 called fourteen leagues to Estacado, and the second seven- 

 teen to Luxan, near Mendoza. The whole distance is over 

 a level desert plain, with not more than two or three houses. 

 The sun was exceedingly powerful, and the ride devoid of 

 all interest. There is very little water in this "traversia," 

 and in our second day's journey we found only one little 

 pool. Little water flows from the mountains, and it soon 

 becomes absorbed by the dry and porous soil ; so that, 

 although we travelled at the distance of only ten or fifteen 

 miles from the outer range of the Cordillera, we did not 

 cross a single stream. In many parts the ground was 

 incrusted with a saline efflorescence ; hence we had the same 

 salt-loving plants, which are common near Bahia Blanca. 

 The landscape has a uniform character from the Strait of 

 Magellan, along the whole eastern coast of Patagonia, to 

 the Rio Colorado ; and it appears that the same kind of 

 country extends inland from this river, in a sweeping line as 

 far as San Luis, and perhaps even farther north. To the 

 eastward of this curved line, lies the basin of the com- 

 paratively damp and green plains of Buenos Ayres. The 

 sterile plains of Mendoza and Patagonia consist of a bed of 

 shingle, worn smooth and accumulated by the waves of the 

 sea; while the Pampas, covered by thistles, clover, and 

 grass, have been formed by the ancient estuarv mud of the 

 Plata. 



