CHArTKR VII 



Excursion to Si. Ft — ^liisllc I'.cris — Ilaliil^ of the lli/xaclia — Litlle Owl — Saline 

 Streams — Le\cl Plains — Mastodun — SL I'V- — Change in Landscape — Geology 

 — Tooth of extinct Horse — Relation of the P^ossil and recent Quadnjpeds of 

 North and South America — Effects of a great Drought — Parana — Habits of the 

 Jaguar — Scissor-Vjeak — Kingfisher, Parrot, and Scissor-tail — Revolution — Buenos 

 Ayres — State of Go\'ernment. 



liUENOS AVRES TO ST. Vt 



September 2'jfh. — In the evcninc; I set out on an excursion to 

 St. Fe, which i.s situated nearly three hundred Engh'sh miles 

 froin 15uenos Ayres, on the banks of the Parana. The roads 

 in the neighbourhood of the city, after the rainy weather, were 

 extraordinarily bad. I should never have thought it possible 

 for a bullock- waggon to have crawled along: as it was, they 

 scarcely went at the rate of a mile an hour, and a man was 

 kept ahead, to survey the best line for making the attempt. 

 The bullocks were terribly jaded ; it is a great mistake to 

 suppose that with improved roads, and an accelerated rate of 

 travelling, the sufferings of the animals increase in the same 



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