142 
ST. FE 
CHAP. 
tion of the inhabitants. The animals roamed from their 
estancias, and, wandering far southward, were mingled together 
in such multitudes, that a government commission was sent 
from Buenos Ayres to settle the disputes of the owners. Sir 
Woodbine Parish informed me of another and very curious 
source of dispute ; the ground being so long dry, such quantities 
of dust were blown about, that in this open country the land¬ 
marks became obliterated, and people could not tell the limits 
of their estates. 
I was informed by an eye-witness that the cattle in herds of 
thousands rushed into the Parana, and being exhausted by 
hunger they were unable to crawl up the muddy banks, and 
thus were drowned. The arm of the river which runs by San 
Pedro was so full of putrid carcasses, that the master of a 
vessel told me that the smell rendered it quite impassable. 
Without doubt several hundred thousand animals thus perished 
in the river : their bodies when putrid were seen floating down 
the stream ; and many in all probability were deposited in the 
estuary of the Plata. All the small rivers became highly saline, 
and this caused the death of vast numbers in particular spots ; 
for when an animal drinks of such water it does not recover. 
Azara describes 1 the fury of the wild horses on a similar 
occasion, rushing into the marshes, those which arrived first 
being overwhelmed and crushed by those which followed. He 
adds that more than once he has seen the carcasses of upwards 
of a thousand wild horses thus destroyed. I noticed that the 
smaller streams in the Pampas were paved with a breccia of 
bones, but this probably is the effect of a gradual increase, rather 
than of the destruction at any one period. Subsequently to 
the drought of 1827 to ’32, a very rainy season followed, which 
caused great floods. Hence it is almost certain that some 
thousands of the skeletons were buried by the deposits of the 
very next year. What would be the opinion of a geologist, 
viewing such an enormous collection of bones, of all kinds of 
animals and of all ages, thus embedded in one thick earthy 
mass ? Would he not attribute it to a flood having swept over the 
surface of the land, rather than to the common order of things ? 2 
1 Travels , vol. i. p. 374. 
2 These droughts to a certain degree seem to be almost periodical; I was told 
the dates of several others, and the intervals were about fifteen years. 
