30 



WHAT MR. DARWIN SAW 



URUGUAY 



pendage : I have passed a river in a boat with four people 

 in it, which was ferried across in the same way as the Gau- 

 cho. If a man and horse have to cross a broad river, the 



A NAKED MAN ON A NAKED HORSE. (ANCIENT GREEK HORSE-RACE.) 



best plan is for the man to catch hold of the pommel or 

 mane, and help himself with the other arm. 



We were delayed crossing the Kio Colorado 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 nostrils, appearing just above the water, 

 like a great shoal of some amphibious animal. Mares' flesh 

 is the only food which the soldiers have when on an expe- 

 dition. 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 suc- 

 cessively. 



At an estancia (grazing farm) near Las Vacas large num- 

 bers of mares are weekly slaughtered for the sake of their 

 hides, although worth only five paper dollars apiece. It 

 seems at first strange that it can answer to kill mares for 



