THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 79 



line across the unexplored plains: and as the country was 

 thus pretty well cleared of Indians, he left behind him, at 

 wide intervals, a small party of soldiers with a troop of 

 horses (a posta), so as to be enabled to keep up a communi- 

 cation with the capital. As the Beagle intended to call at 

 Bahia Blanca, I determined to proceed there by land; and 

 ultimately I extended my plan to travel the whole way by 

 the postas to Buenos Ayres. 



August nth. — Mr. Harris, an Englishman residing at 

 Patagones, a guide, and five Gauchos who were proceeding 

 to the army on business, were my companions on the jour- 

 ney. The Colorado, as I have already said, is nearly eighty 

 miles distant: and as we travelled slowly, we were two days 

 and a half on the road. The whole line of country deserves 

 scarcely a better name than that of a desert. Water is found 

 only in two small wells; it is called fresh; but even at this 

 time of the year, during the rainy season, it was quite brack- 

 ish. In the summer this must be a distressing passage; for 

 now it was sufficiently desolate. The valley of the Rio 

 Negro, broad as it is, has merely been excavated out of the 

 sandstone plain; for immediately above the bank on which 

 the town stands, a level country commences, which is inter- 

 rupted only by a few trifling valleys and depressions. Every- 

 where the landscape wears the same sterile aspect; a dry 

 gravelly soil supports tufts of brown withered grass, and 

 low scattered bushes, armed with thorns. 



Shortly after passing the first spring we came in sight of 

 a famous tree, which the Indians reverence as the altar of 

 Walleechu. It is situated on a high part of the plain; and 

 hence is a landmark visible at a great distance. As soon as a 

 tribe of Indians come in sight of it, they offer their adora- 

 tions by loud shouts. The tree itself is low, much branched, 

 and thorny: just above the root it has a diameter of about 

 three feet. It stands by itself without any neighbour, and 

 was indeed the first tree we saw; afterwards we met with a 

 few others of the same kind, but they were far from common. 

 Being winter the tree had no leaves, but in their place num- 

 berless threads, by which the various offerings, such as 

 cigars, bread, meat, pieces of cloth, etc., had been suspended. 

 Poor Indians, not having anything better, only pull a thread 



