76 



CHARLES DARWIN 



many of the houses are excavated even in the sandstone. 

 The river is about two or three hundred yards wide, and is 

 deep and rapid. The many islands, with their willow-trees, 

 and the flat headlands, seen one behind the other on the 

 northern boundary of the broad green valley, form, by the 

 aid of a bright sun, a view almost picturesque. The number 

 of inhabitants does not exceed a few hundreds. These Span- 

 ish colonies do not, like our British ones, carry within them- 

 selves the elements of growth. Many Indians of pure blood 

 reside here : the tribe of the Cacique Lucanee constantly have 

 their Toldos 2 on the outskirts of the town. The local gov- 

 ernment partly supplies them with provisions, by giving them 

 all the old worn-out horses, and they earn a little by making 

 horse-rugs and other articles of riding-gear. These Indians 

 are considered civilized; but what their character may have 

 gained by a lesser degree of ferocity, is almost counterbal- 

 anced by their entire immorality. Some of the younger men 

 are, however, improving ; they are willing to labour, and a 

 short time since a party went on a sealing-voyage, and be- 

 haved very well. They were now enjoying the fruits of their 

 labour, by being dressed in very gay, clean clothes, and by 

 being very idle. The taste they showed in their dress was 

 admirable; if you could have turned one of these young 

 Indians into a statue of bronze, his drapery would have been 

 perfectly graceful. 



One day I rode to a large salt-lake, or Salina, which is 

 distant fifteen miles from the town. During the winter it 

 consists of a shallow lake of brine, which in summer is con- 

 verted into a field of snow-white salt. The layer near the 

 margin is from four to five inches thick, but towards the 

 centre its thickness increases. This lake was two and a half 

 miles long, and one broad. Others occur in the neighbour- 

 hood many times larger, and with a floor of salt, two and 

 three feet in thickness, even when under water during the 

 winter. One of these brilliantly white and level expanses, 

 in the midst of the brown and desolate plain, offers an 

 extraordinary spectacle. A large quantity of salt is annu- 

 ally drawn from the salina: and great piles, some hundred 

 tons in weight, were lying ready for exportation. The season 



3 The hovels of the Indians are thus called. 



