VII 
THE GREAT DROUGHT 
141 
genera inhabit and have inhabited the Old World, it seems 
most probable that the North American elephants, mastodons, 
horse, and hollow-horned ruminants migrated, on land since 
submerged near Behring’s Straits, from Siberia into North 
America, and thence, on land since submerged in the West 
Indies, into South America, where for a time they mingled with 
the forms characteristic of that southern continent, and have 
since become extinct. 
While travelling through the country, I received several 
vivid descriptions of the effects of a late great drought ; and 
the account of this may throw some light on the cases where 
vast numbers of animals of all kinds have been embedded 
together. The period included between the years 1827 and 
1830 is called the “gran seco,” or the great drought. During 
this time so little rain fell, that the vegetation, even to the 
thistles, failed ; the brooks were dried up, and the whole 
country assumed the appearance of a dusty high-road. This 
was especially the case in the northern part of the province of 
Buenos Ayres and the southern part of St. Fe. Very great 
numbers of birds, wild animals, cattle, and horses perished 
from the want of food and water. A man told me that the 
deer 1 used to come into his courtyard to the well, which he 
had been obliged to dig to supply his own family with water ; 
and that the partridges had hardly strength to fly away when 
pursued. The lowest estimation of the loss of cattle in the 
province of Buenos Ayres alone, was taken at one million head. 
A proprietor at San Pedro had previously to these years 
20,000 cattle ; at the end not one remained. San Pedro is 
situated in the middle of the finest country ; and even now 
abounds again with animals ; yet, during the latter part of the 
“ gran seco,” live cattle were brought in vessels for the consump- 
1 In Capt. Owen’s Surveying Voyage (vol. ii. p. 274) there is a curious account 
of the effects of a drought on the elephants, at Benguela (west coast of Africa). “A 
number of these animals had some time since entered the town, in a body, to possess 
themselves of the wells, not being able to procure any water in the country. The 
inhabitants mustered, when a desperate conflict ensued, which terminated in the ulti¬ 
mate discomfiture of the invaders, but not until they had killed one man, and 
wounded several others.” The town is said to have a population of nearly three 
thousand ! Dr. Malcolmson informs me, that during a great drought in India the 
wild animals entered the tents of some troops at Ellore, and that a hare drank out of 
a vessel held by the adjutant of the regiment. 
