8^ 



THE PAMPAS. 



***** 



The biscacho is found all over the plains of the 

 Pampas. Like rabbits, they live in holes which 

 are in groups in every direction, and which make 

 galloping over these plains very dangerous. The 

 manner, however, in which the horses recover 

 themselves, when the ground over these subterra- 

 nean galleries gives way, is quite extraordinary. 

 In galloping after the ostriches, my horse has 

 constantly broken in, sometimes with a hind leg, 

 and sometimes with a fore one ; he has even come 

 down on his nose, and yet recovered : however, the 

 Gauchos occasionally meet with very serious acci- 

 dents. I have often wondered how the wild horses 

 could gallop about as they do in the dark, but I 

 really believe they avoid the holes by smelling 

 them, for in riding across the country, when it has 

 been so dark that I positively could not see my 

 horse''s ears, I have constantly felt him, in his gallop, 

 start a foot or two to the right or left, as if he had 

 trod upon a serpent, which, I conceive, was to avoid 

 one of these holes. Yet the horses do very ofteil 

 fall, and certainly, in the few months I was in the 



