IV 
ENCAMPMENT OF GE NEPAL EOS AS 
73 
but where, as at Bahia Blanca, the Bizcacha is not found, 
the Agouti burrows for itself. The same thing occurs with 
the little owl of the Pampas (Athene cunicularia), which 
has so often been described as standing like a sentinel at the 
mouth of the burrows ; for in Banda Oriental, owing to the 
absence of the Bizcacha, it is obliged to hollow out its own 
habitation. 
The next morning, as we approached the Rio Colorado, the 
appearance of the country changed ; we soon came on a plain 
covered with turf, which, from its flowers, tall clover, and little 
owls, resembled the Pampas. We passed also a muddy swamp 
of considerable extent, which in summer dries, and becomes 
incrusted with various salts ; and hence is called a salitral. It 
was covered by low succulent plants, of the same kind with 
those growing on the sea-shore. The Colorado, at the pass 
where we crossed it, is only about sixty yards wide ; generally 
it must be nearly double that width. Its course is very 
tortuous, being marked by willow-trees and beds of reeds : in a 
direct line the distance to the mouth of the river is said to be 
nine leagues, but by water twenty-five. We were delayed 
crossing in the canoe by some immense troops of mares, which 
were swimming the river in order to follow a division of troops 
into the interior. A more ludicrous spectacle I never beheld 
than the hundreds and hundreds of heads, all directed one way, 
with pointed ears and distended snorting nostrils, appearing- 
just above the water like a great shoal of some amphibious 
animal. Mare’s flesh is the only food which the soldiers have 
when on an expedition. This gives them a great facility of 
movement; for the distance to which horses can be driven over 
these plains is quite surprising: I have been assured that an 
unloaded horse can travel a hundred miles a day for many 
days successively. 
The encampment of General Rosas was close to the 
river. It consisted of a square formed by waggons, artillery, 
straw huts, etc. The soldiers were nearly all cavalry ; and I 
should think such a villainous, banditti-like army was never 
before collected together. The greater number of men were 
of a mixed breed, between Negro, Indian, and Spaniard. 
I know not the reason, but men of such origin seldom have 
a good expression of countenance. I called on the Secretary 
