92 



BAHIA BLANCA. 



Aug. 1833. 



attention of naturalists : what can be more singular than 

 thus to see square miles of country thinly crusted over with 

 Glauber salt? It may be asked whether plants do not 

 decompose the muriate of soda ? but whence comes the 

 sulphuric acid ? In Peru, nitrate of soda occurs in beds far 

 thicker than these of the sulphate. Both cases are equally 

 mysterious. I suspect that;, as a general rule, the salts of 

 soda are infinitely more common in South America than 

 those of potash. 



Two days afterwards, I again rode to the harbour, but to 

 a nearer part of it. When not far from our destination, my 

 companion, the same man as before, spied three people hunt- 

 ing on horseback. He immediately dismounted, and watching 

 them intently, said, "They don^t ride like Christians, and 

 nobody can leave the fort.^^ The three hunters joined com- 

 pany, and likewise dismounted from their horses. At last 

 one mounted again and rode over the hill out of sight. My 

 companion said, We must now get on our horses : load 

 your pistol and he looked to his own sword. I asked. 



Are they Indians — " Quien sabe? (who knows ?) if there 

 are no more than three, it does not signify .^^ It then struck 

 me, that the one man had gone over the hill to fetch the rest 

 of his tribe. I suggested this ; but all the answer I could 

 extort was, '^^ Quien sabe V' His head and eye never for a 

 minute ceased scanning slowly the distant horizon. I thought 

 his uncommon coolness too good a joke, and asked him why 

 he did not return home. I was startled when he answered. 



We are returning, but in a line so as to pass near a swamp, 

 into which we can gallop the horses as far as they can go, 

 and then trust to our own legs ; so that there is no danger .^^ 

 I did not feel quite so confident of this, and wanted to in- 

 crease our pace. He said, No, not until they do.^^ When 

 any little inequality concealed us, we galloped ; but when in 

 sight continued walking. At last we reached a valley, and 

 turning to the left, galloped quickly to the foot of a hill, he 

 gave me his horse to hold, made the dogs lie down, and then 

 crawled on his hands and knees to reconnoitre. He re- 



