NA TURE 



[A/ay 8, 1884 



perennial herbs, and cattle make war on the species suit- 

 able for their food, and at the same time carry with them 

 the seeds of many species adapted to su:h means of trans- 

 port. To these cause; we must attribute the wide diffu- 

 sioa of many plants, chiefly from southern Europe, intro- 

 duced by man, either accide italy or intentionally, into 

 the Argentine region and North PaUgonia A few of 

 these appear to have spread beyond the bounds of 

 European colonisation, but the mijority seem to keep 

 pace with the extension of the white race and of domestic 

 cattle. 



This volune, dated 1881 when it went to press, but not 

 published till 1882, is very well printed and illustrated by 

 twelve well-executed lithograph plates, in a manner credit- 

 able to the typographic resources of Buenos Ayres, 

 and reflects honour on the administration of the republi : 

 and on General Roca, who, as commander of the expedi- 

 tion, deserves the credit of associating with his staff several 

 competent scientific men. We probably owe it mainly 

 to his influence that the results have been given to the 

 world in a manner so complete and satisfactory. 



J. B. 



ACROSS THE PAMPAS AXB AMONG THE 

 ANDES* 



THE interest attaching to the confederation of South 

 American provinces known as the Argentine Re- 

 public more than justifies Prof. R. Crawford in the 

 publication of an account of his journeys across the 

 Pampas and the Andes. Some fourteen years ago the 

 Government of the Province of Buenos Ayres, foreseeing 

 the vast importance of a line of railway which would 

 connect the two oceans, entered into an agreement with 

 the firm of Waring Brothers of London to send out a 

 staff of engineers to explore and survey a route for a pro- 

 posed Transandine railroad. Prof. R. Crawford was 

 given the command, and, with his colleagues, left Liver- 

 pool in March 1871 for Monte Video, which was reached 

 after a voyage of a month's duration. On landing, it was 

 soon ascertained that matters were in desperate plight 

 at Buenos Ayres. The frightful epidemic of yellow fever 

 was still raging, the local ( iovernment had proclaimed 

 public holidays and itself migrated to a distance from 

 the doomed city, business of all sorts was suspended, and 

 silence reigned in the streets. Under these circumstances, 

 but for the pluck and energy of Prof. Crawford, the 

 scheme for the survey across the Pampas would have 

 come to an untimely end (that from the Chili side had 

 commenced towards the end of April 1871) ; but he deter- 

 mined it should proceed, and never let the local authori- 

 ties have any rest until all preliminaries were settled. In 

 the meanwhile the enforced sojourn at Monte Video was 

 not over pleasant. The city was in a state of siege, and 

 it was not for some time after the arrival of the party that 

 a temporary peace was patched up. Weary of the forced 

 delay, Prof. Crawford and some members of his party 

 visited Concordia and made a survey for the Salto Grande 

 Canal. They passed, in their voyage up the Plate, Buenos 

 Ayres, looking in the distance bright and pleasant, though 

 death was stalking through it. In steaming up the 

 Uruguay they saw Liebig's famed extract-of-beef factory 

 at Fray Bentos, and McCall's vast establishment at Pay- 

 sandu. In an account of a short excursion made from 

 Concordia, we find the following interesting anecdote 

 about the black vulture {Calhartes atratus) of La Plata ; 

 perhaps the coolness of the vulture's behaviour is fully 

 equalled by the coolness of the driver in appropriating 

 the stray horse : — 



" The roads were very sandy, and the wheels sank 

 deeply into them, making the carriage heavy to draw, so 

 that the driver gladly appropriated a stray horse we met 



nd the Andes." By Robert Crawford, M.A. 

 i. (Londjn: Longmans, Green an1Co..i88 .) 



upon the way that seemed inclined to join himself to ours, 

 and having extemporised a rude set of harness with some 

 spare pieces carried in reserve, attached him to our team, 

 and drove off in triumph with this new acquisition. 



" I was sitting on the box-seat with my gun in hand, 

 when a black vulture came flying past, at which 1 fired, 

 bringing it to the ground with a broken wing. The 

 strange horse testified his dissatisfaction with the pro- 

 ceeding by the most violent plunging and kicking, that 

 required all the driver's skill and address to overcome. 



" When at last he was brought to a state of rest, due, 

 no doubt, in a great measure to exhaustion, the wounded 

 bird occupied our attention by the strange coolness of its 

 proceedings. Regardless alike of our presence and an 

 injured wing, to say nothing of the noise and confusion 

 the horse had created, instead of attempting to escape, it 

 walked quietly up to us, as if about to demand an ex- 

 planation of the treatment it had received ; then mounting 

 deliberately on the wheel of the carriage, hopped in 

 through the open window as composedly as if it were a 

 regular passenger about to occupy an inside seat for 

 which it had been booked in the ordinary manner. 



" So offensive was the odour emitted by the unwelcome 

 intruder that we could with difficulty bring ourselves to 

 approach and dislodge it ; and when we had done this, 

 the vulture took refuge under the legs of the strange 

 horse, frightening him to such a degree that he began 

 again his strenuous endeavours to get loose, not stopping 

 till he succeeded in smashing the harness to pieces, and 

 escaping from his flapping foe. 



" I am afraid that I was not popular that afternoon 

 with my comrades and the driver, for my unlucky shot 

 had entailed upon them much inconvenience and delay, so 

 that it was late when we reached the estancia house." 



Just as the survey of the canal was finished, traffic 

 between Monte Video and Buenos Ayres was resumed, 

 and, returning to the former place, the whole expedition 

 left for Buenos Ayres on June 16, 1871. The city was 

 still overwhelmed with gloom. Between 20,000 and 30,000 

 of its inhabitants had been buried within the few previous 

 months out of a population of only 200,000 souls. Nume- 

 rous houses had the plague spot still marked upon them, 

 but in a very short time things looked more cheerful, am 

 there were no outward tokens of the plague the city had 

 passed through. Now began the negotiations for the 

 necessary escort to accompany the expedition across the 

 Pampas. While the expenses of the expedition were in great 

 measure to be defrayed by the local Government of Buenos 

 Ayres, it will be remembered that this Government has 

 no national authority, nor could it undertake any outside 

 its own territory, it was therefore necessary for the pro- 

 vincial Government to come to an understanding, wdiich 

 they did, with the national Government and with its 

 neighbouring provinces, and with the Republic of Chili, 

 for the passage of the expedition through these lands and 

 for the supply of a military escort. "Along the whole route," 

 the general commanding on the frontier reports to the 

 President of the Republic (May 20, 1871), "there will be 

 danger : the Indians were in a state of alarm that the 

 objects of the Survey were to take more and more of their 

 territories from them, and were determined to destroy the 

 members of the expedition when possible," and the general 

 calculated that an adequate force to properly protect the 

 party from all danger should not number less than 1500 

 men perfectly equipped. L'nder these circumstances, 

 and after some months' delay, the originally proposed 

 route was abandoned, and a more northern one, in terri- 

 tory likely to be more free from the predatory attacks of 

 the Indians, was adopted, and with a small escort the ex- 

 pedition left Buenos Ayres on August 17, 1S71, and took 

 up their quarters at Chivilcoy, 100 miles to the west of it ; 

 here final preparations were made for the formidable 

 journey across the Pampas. The Chili expedition in the 

 meantime had, before reaching the summit of the mountains, 



