BUENOS AYRES. 99 



first day, owing to the inundated state of the 

 plain ; we sunk up to the sides of the machine 

 in pantanas, and our four little active horses 

 were all but smothered in the mud.* The track, 

 for it could hardly be called a road, was so bad 

 that it was necessary to make long detours to 

 avoid the marshes. After a whole day's jolting 

 we were obliged to halt at sunset at a lonely hut, 

 twenty miles from our destination. Here some 

 of us slept on quattras (four posts with a cow 

 hide stretched over), and others on the ground, 

 in company with fowls, dogs, and children. 



Two leagues from Buenos Ayres the open 

 and boundless plain commences. The first part 

 is covered for many miles with high thistles, 

 thick enough, Captain Head thinks, to impede 

 the march of an army. We found these thistles 



* The horses drew from the girth, which was con- 

 tinually slipping, with the saddle, back to the tail. 



F 2 



