1833.] MEAT DIET. Ill 



to endure it. Yet the Gaucho in the Pampas, for months together, 

 touches nothing but beef. But they eat, I observe, a very large 

 proportion of fat, which is of a less animalized nature ; and they 

 particularly dislike dry meat, such as that of the Agouti. Dr. 

 Kichardson,* also, has remarked, " that when people have fed for a 

 long time solely upon lean animal food, the desire for fat becomes 

 so insatiable, that they can consume a large quantity of unmixed 

 and even oily fat without nausea : " this appears to me a curious 

 physiological fact. It is, perhaps, from their meat regimen that the 

 Gauchos, like other carnivorous animals, can abstain long from food. 

 I was told that at Tandeel, some troops voluntarily pursued a party 

 of Indians for three days, without eating or drinking. 



We saw in the shops many articles, such as horsecloths, belts, 

 and garters, woven by the Indian women. The patterns were very 

 pretty, and the colours brilliant ; the workmanship of the garters 

 was so good that an English merchant at Buenos Ayres maintained 

 they must have been manufactured in England, till he found the 

 tassels had been fastened by split sinew. 



September ISth. We had a very long ride this day. At the 

 twelfth posta, which is seven leagues south of the Rio Salado, we 

 came to the first estancia with cattle and white women. Afterwards 

 we had to ride for many miles through a country flooded with 

 water above our horses' knees. By crossing the stirrups, and riding 

 Arab-like with our legs bent up, we contrived to keep tolerably 

 dry. It was nearly dark when we arrived at the Salado; the 

 stream was deep, and about forty yards wide ; in summer, however, 

 its bed becomes almost dry, and the little remaining water nearly 

 as salt as that of the sea. We slept at one of the great estancias 

 of General Eosas. It was fortified, and of such an extent, that 

 arriving in the dark I thought it was a town and fortress. In the 

 morning we saw immense herds of cattle, the general here having 

 seventy-four square leagues of land. Formerly nearly three hun- 

 dred men were employed about this estate, and they defied all the 

 attacks of the Indians. 



September 12th. Passed the Guardia del Monte. This is a nice 

 scattered little town, with many gardens, full of peach and quince 

 trees. The plain here looked like that around Buenos Ayres ; the 

 turf being short and bright green, with beds of clover and thistles, 

 and with bizcacha holes. I was very much struck with the marked 

 * Fauna Boreali-Americana, vol. i. p. 35. 



