124 PAMPAS. l CHAP, VIL. 
appeared level, but were not so in fact; for in various places the 
horizon was distant. ‘The estancias are here wide apart; for 
there is little good pasture, owing to the land being covered by 
beds either of an acrid clover, or of the great thistle. The 
latter, well known from the animated description given by Sir 
F. Head, were at this time of the year two-thirds prown; in 
some parts they were as high as the horse’s back, but in others 
they had not yet sprung up, and the ground was bare and dusty 
as ona turnpike-road. The clumps were of the most brilliant 
green, and they made a pleasing miniature-likeness of broken 
forest land. When the thistles are full grown, the great beds 
are impenetrable, except by a few tracks, as intricate as those in 
a labyrinth. These are only known to the robbers, who at this 
season inhabit them, and sally forth at night to rob and cut 
throats with impunity. Upon asking at a house whether rob- 
bers were numerous, I was answered, “ The thistles are not up 
yet ;’—the meaning of which reply was not at first very obvious. 
There is little interest in passing over these tracts, for they are 
inhabited by few animals or birds, excepting the bizcacha and 
its friend the little owl. 
The bizcacha* is well known to’ form a prominent feature in 
the zoology of the Pampas. It is found as far south as the Rio 
Negro, in lat. 41°, but not beyond. It cannot, like the agouti, 
subsist on the gravelly and desert plains of Patagonia, but pre- 
fers a clayey or sandy soil, which produces a different and more 
abundant vegetation. Near Mendoza, at the foot of the Cordil- 
lera, it occurs in close neighbourhood with the allied alpine spe- 
cies. It is a very curious circumstance in its geographical dis- 
tribution, that it has never been seen, fortunately for the inha- 
bitants of Banda Oriental, to the eastward of the river Uru- 
guay : yet in this province there are plains which appear admira- 
bly adapted to its habits. The Uruguay has formed an insuper- 
able obstacle to its migration; although the broader barrier of 
the Parana has been passed, and the bizcacha is common in 
Entre Rios, the province between these two great rivers. Near 
Buenos Ayres these animals are exceedingly common. Their 
* The bizcacha (Lagostommus trichodactylus) somewhat resembles a large 
rabbit, but with bigger gnawing teeth and a long tail: it has, however, only 
three toes behind, like the agouti. During the last three or four years the 
skins of these animals have been sent to England for the sake of the fur. 
