CHAPTER IV 

 Rio NEGRO TO BAHIA BLANCA 



Rio Negro Estancias attacked by the Indians Salt-Lakes Flamin- 

 goes R. Negro to R. Colorado Sacred Tree Patagonian Hare 

 Indian Families General Rosas Proceed to Bahia Blanca Sand 

 Dunes Negro Lieutenant Bahia Blanca Saline Incrustations 

 Punta Alta Zorillo. 



/ULY 24th, 1833. The Beagle sailed from Maldonado, 

 and on August the 3rd she arrived off the mouth of the 

 Rio Negro. This is the principal river on the whole line 

 of coast between the Strait of Magellan and the Plata. It 

 enters the sea about three hundred miles south of the estuary 

 of the Plata. About fifty years ago, under the old Spanish 

 government, a small colony was established here ; and it is 

 still the most southern position (lat. 41) on this eastern 

 coast of America inhabited by civilized man. 



The country near the mouth of the river is wretched in 

 the extreme: on the south side a long line of perpendicular 

 cliffs commences, which exposes a section of the geological 

 nature of the country. The strata are of sandstone, and 

 one layer was remarkable from being composed of a firmly- 

 cemented conglomerate of pumice pebbles, which must have 

 travelled more than four hundred miles, from the Andes. 

 The surface is everywhere covered up by a thick bed of 

 gravel, which extends far and wide over the open plain. 

 Water is extremely scarce, and, where found, is almost in- 

 variably brackish. The vegetation is scanty; and although 

 there are bushes of many kinds, all are armed with formida- 

 ble thorns, which seem to warn the stranger not to enter on 

 these inhospitable regions. 



The settlement is situated eighteen miles up the river. 

 The road follows the foot of the sloping cliff, which forms 

 the northern boundary of the great valley, in which the Rio 

 Negro flows. On the way we passed the ruins of some fine 



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