70 R. NEGRO TO R. COLORADO chap. 



the upper regions of the atmosphere, and even the surface of 

 perpetual snow — all support organic beings. 



To the northward of the Rio Negro, between it and the 

 inhabited country near Buenos Ayres, the Spaniards have only 

 one small settlement, recently established at Bahia Blanca. 

 The distance in a straight line to Buenos Ayres is very nearly 

 five hundred British miles. The wandering tribes of horse 

 Indians, which have always occupied the greater part of this 

 country, having of late much harassed the outlying estancias, 

 the government at Buenos Ayres equipped some time since an 

 army under the command of General Rosas for the purpose of 

 exterminating them. The troops were now encamped on the 

 banks of the Colorado ; a river lying about eighty miles north- 

 ward of the Rio Negro. When General Rosas left Buenos 

 Ayres he struck in a direct line across the unexplored plains : 

 and as the country was thus pretty well cleared of Indians, he 

 left behind him, at wide intervals, a small party of soldiers with 

 a troop of horses (a postd), so as to be enabled to keep up a 

 communication with the capital. As the Beagle intended to 

 call at Bahia Blanca, I determined to proceed there by land ; 

 and ultimately I extended my plan to travel the whole way by 

 the postas to Buenos Ayres. 



August I ith. — Mr. Harris, an Englishman residing at Pata- 

 gones,a guide, and five Gauchos, who were proceeding to the army 

 on business, were my companions on the journey. The Colo- 

 rado, as I have already said, is nearly eighty miles distant: and as 

 we travelled slowly, we were two days and a half on the road. 

 The whole line of country deserves scarcely a better name than 

 that of a desert. Water is found only in two small wells ; it 

 is called fresh ; but even at this time of the year, during the 

 rainy season, it was quite brackish. In the summer this must 

 be a distressing passage ; for now it was sufficiently desolate. 



The valley of the Rio Negro, broad as it is, has merely 

 been excavated out of the sandstone plain ; for immedi- 

 ately above the bank on which the town stands, a level 

 country commences, which is interrupted only by a few trifling 

 \-alleys and depressions. Everywhere the landscape wears 

 the same sterile aspect ; a dry gravelly soil supports tufts of 



