83 CHARLES DARWIN 



yards wide; generally it must be nearly double that width. 

 Its course is very tortuous, being marked by willow-trees 

 and beds of reeds: in a direct line the distance to the mouth 

 of the river is said to be nine leagues, but by water twenty- 

 five. We were delayed crossing in the canoe by some im- 

 mense 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 snorting nostrils, appearing just above 

 the water like a great shoal of some amphibious animal. 

 Mare's flesh is the only food which the soldiers have when 

 on an expedition. This gives them a great facility of move- 

 ment; 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 successively. 



The encampment of General Rosas was close to the river. 

 It consisted of a square formed by waggons, artillery, straw 

 huts, etc. The soldiers were nearly all cavalry ; and I should 

 think such a villainous, banditti-like army was never before 

 collected together. The greater number of men were of a 

 mixed breed, between Negro, Indian, and Spaniard. I know 

 not the reason, but men of such origin seldom have a good 

 expression of countenance. I called on the Secretary to show 

 my passport. He began to cross-question me in the most 

 dignified and mysterious manner. By good luck I had a 

 letter of recommendation from the government of Buenos 

 Ayres* to the commandant of Patagones. This was taken 

 to General Rosas, who sent me a very obliging message ; and 

 the Secretary returned all smiles and graciousness. We took 

 up our residence in the rancho, or hovel, of a curious old 

 Spaniard, who had served with Napoleon in the expedition 

 against Russia. 



We stayed two days at the Colorado; I had little to do, 

 for the surrounding country was a swamp, which in summer 

 (December), when the snow melts on the Cordillera, is over- 

 flowed by the river. My chief amusement was watching the 



6 1 am hound to express, in the strongest terms, my obligation to the 

 government of Buenos Ayres for the obliging manner in which passports 

 to all parts of the country were given me, as naturalist of the Beagle. 



