130 
PAMPAS 
CHAP. 
proportion. We passed a train of waggons and a troop of 
beasts on their road to Mendoza. The distance is about 580 
geographical miles, and the journey is generally performed in 
fifty days. These waggons are very long, narrow, and thatched 
with reeds ; they have only two wheels, the diameter of which 
in some cases is as much as ten feet. Each is drawn by six 
bullocks, which are urged on by a goad at least twenty feet 
long: this is suspended from within the roof; for the wheel 
bullocks a smaller one is kept ; and for the intermediate pair, 
a point projects at right angles from the middle of the long one. 
The whole apparatus looked like some implement of war. 
September 2 8th .—We passed the small town of Luxan, 
where there is a wooden bridge over the river—a most unusual 
convenience in this country. We passed also Areco. The 
plains appeared level, but were not so in fact ; for in various 
places the horizon was distant. The estancias are here wide 
apart ; for there is little good pasture, owing to the land being 
covered by beds either of an acrid clover, or of the great 
thistle. The latter, well known from the animated description 
given by Sir F. Head, were at this time of the year two-thirds 
grown ; in some parts they were as high as the horse’s back, 
but in others they had not yet sprung up, and the ground was 
bare and dusty as on a turnpike-road. The clumps were of 
the most brilliant green, and they made a pleasing miniature- 
likeness of broken forest land. When the thistles are full 
grown, the great beds are impenetrable, except by a few tracks, 
as intricate as those in a labyrinth. These are only known to 
the robbers, who at this season inhabit them, and sally forth 
at night to rob and cut throats with impunity. Upon asking 
at a house whether robbers were numerous, I was answered, 
“The thistles are not up yet;”—the meaning of which reply 
was not at first very obvious. There is little interest in passing 
over these tracts, for they are inhabited by few animals or 
birds, excepting the bizcacha and its friend the little owl. 
The bizcacha 1 is well known to form a prominent feature 
in the zoology of the Pampas. It is found as far south as the 
1 The bizcacha (Lagostomus trichodactylus) somewhat resembles a large rabbit, 
but with bigger gnawing teeth and a long tail : it has, however, only three toes 
behind, like the agouti. During the last three or four years the skins of these 
animals have been sent to England for the sake of the fur. 
