Sept. 1833. 



PAMPAS. 



137 



contrived to keep tolerably dry. It was nearly dark when 

 we arrived at the Salado ; the stream was deep, and about 

 forty yards wide ; in summer, however, its bed becomes almost 

 dry, and the little remaining water nearly as salt as that of the 

 sea. We slept at one of the great estancias of General Rosas. 

 It was fortified, and of such an extent, that arriving in the 

 dark I thought it was a town and fortress. In the morning 

 we saw immense herds of cattle, as well we might, the gene- 

 ral here having seventy-four square leagues of land. Formerly 

 nearly three hundred men were employed about this estate, 

 and they defied all the attacks of the Indians. 



September 19th. — Passed the Guardia del Monte. This 

 is a nice scattered little town, with many gardens, full of 

 peach and quince trees. The plain here looked like that 

 around Buenos Ay res ; the turf being short and bright green, 

 with beds of clover and thistles, and with bizcacha holes. I 

 was very much struck with the marked change in the aspect 

 of the country after having crossed the Salado. From a coarse 

 herbage we passed on to a carpet of fine green verdure. I at 

 first attributed this to some change in the nature of the soil, 

 but the inhabitants assured me that in this part, as well as in 

 Banda Oriental, where there was as great a difference between 

 the country around Monte Video and the thinly-inhabited 

 savannahs of Colonia, that the whole was to be attributed to 

 the manuring and grazing of the cattle. I am not botanist 

 enough to say, whether the change is owing to the introduc- 

 tion of new species, to the altered growth of the same, or to 

 a difference in their proportional numbers. Azara has also 

 observed with astonishment this change : he is likewise much 

 perplexed by the immediate appearance of plants not occur- 

 ring in the neighbourhood, on the borders of any track that 

 leads to a newly-constructed hovel. In another part he says,* 



Ces chevaux (sauvages) ont la manie de preferer les chemins, 

 et le bord des routes pour deposer leurs excremens, dont on 

 trouve des monceaux dans ces endroits.^^ Does this not 



* Azara's Voyage, vol. i., p. 373. 



