Excursion to St. Fe--Thistle beds--Habits and range of Bizcacha
--Little owl--Saline streams--Level plains--Mastodon--St. Fe
--Change in landscape--Geology--Tooth of extinct horse--Range of
fossil quadrupeds--Pampas full of remains--Effects of great
droughts--Droughts periodical--Parana--Habits of Jaguar
--Scissor-beak--Kingfisher, parrot, and scissor-tail--Revolution
--Buenos Ayres--State of government.
BUENOS AYRES TO ST. FE.
SEPTEMBER 27TH.--In the evening I set out on an excursion to St. Fe,
which is situated nearly three hundred English miles from Buenos
Ayres, on the banks of the Parana. The roads in the neighbourhood of
the city, after the rainy weather were extraordinarily bad. I should
never have thought it possible for a bullock-waggon to have crawled
along: as it was, they scarcely went at the rate of a mile an hour,
and a man was kept ahead, to survey the best line for making the
attempt. The bullocks were terribly jaded: it is a great mistake
to suppose that with improved roads, and an accelerated velocity
of travelling, the sufferings of the animals increase in the same
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 even 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 28TH.--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 fully 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 Rio Negro,
in lat. 41°, but not beyond. It cannot, like the agouti, subsist on
the gravelly and desert plains of Patagonia, but prefers a clayey or
sandy soil, which produces a different and more abundant vegetation.
Near Mendoza, at the foot of the Cordillera, it occurs in close
neighbourhood with the allied alpine species. It is a very curious
circumstance in its geographical distribution, that it has never
been seen, fortunately for the inhabitants, in Banda Oriental, to
the eastward of the river Uruguay: yet in that province there are
plains which appear admirably adapted to its habits. That river has
formed an insuperable obstacle to its migration; although the broader
barrier of the Parana has been passed, and the bizcacha is common in
Entre Rios (the province between the two rivers), directly on the
opposite shore of the Uruguay. Near Buenos Ayres these animals are
exceedingly common. Their most favourite resort appears to be those
parts of the plain, which during one half the year are covered with
giant thistles, to the exclusion of other plants. The Gauchos affirm
that it lives on roots; which, from the great strength of its gnawing
teeth, and the kind of localities frequented by it, seems probable.
As in the case of the rabbit, a few holes are commonly placed
together. In the evening the bizcachas come out in numbers, and there
quietly sit on their haunches. They are at such times very tame, and
a man on horseback passing by, seems only to present an object for
their grave contemplation. They do not wander far from their burrows.
They run very awkwardly, and, when hurrying out of danger, from their
elevated tails and short front legs much resemble great rats. Their
flesh, when cooked, is very white and good, but it is seldom used.
The bizcacha has one very singular habit; namely, dragging every
hard object to the mouth of its burrow. Around each group of holes
many bones of cattle, stones, thistle-stalks, hard lumps of earth,
dry dung, &c., are collected into a scattered heap, which frequently
amounts to as much as a wheel-barrow would contain. I was credibly
informed that a gentleman, when riding on a dark night, dropped his
watch; he returned in the morning, and by searching the neighbourhood
of every bizcacha hole on the line of road, as he expected, soon
found it. This habit of picking up whatever may be lying on the
ground any where near its habitation, must cost much trouble. For
what purpose it is done I am quite unable to form even the most
remote conjecture: it cannot be for defence, because the rubbish
is chiefly placed above the mouth of the burrow, which enters the
ground at a very small inclination. No doubt there must exist some
good reason; but the inhabitants of the country are quite ignorant
respecting it.
The little owl (_Noctua cunicularia_), which has been so often
mentioned, on the plains of Buenos Ayres exclusively inhabits the
holes of the bizcacha; but in Banda Oriental it is its own workman.
During the open day, but more especially in the evening, these birds
may be seen in every direction standing frequently by pairs on the
hillock near their burrows. If disturbed they either enter the hole,
or, uttering a shrill harsh cry, move with a remarkably undulatory
flight to a short distance, and then turning round, steadily gaze at
their pursuer. Occasionally in the evening they may be heard hooting.
I found in the stomachs of two which I opened the remains of mice,
and I one day saw a small snake killed and carried away. It is said
these latter animals are their common prey during the daytime. I may
here mention, as showing on what various kinds of food owls subsist,
that a species that was killed among the islets of the Chonos
Archipelago, had its stomach full of good-sized crabs.
In the evening we crossed the Rio Arrecife, on a simple raft made
of barrels lashed together, and slept at the post-house on the
other side. I this day paid horse hire for thirty-one leagues; and
although the sun was glaring hot I was but very little fatigued.
When Captain Head talks of riding fifty leagues a day, I do not
imagine the distance is equal to 150 English miles. At all events the
thirty-one leagues was only 76 miles in a straight line, and in an
open country I should think four additional miles for turnings would
be a sufficient allowance.
29TH AND 30TH.--We continued to ride over plains of the same
character. At San Nicholas I first saw the noble river of the Parana.
At the foot of the cliff on which the town stands, some large
vessels were at anchor. Before arriving at Rozario, we crossed the
Saladillo, a stream of fine clear running water, but too saline to
drink. Rozario is a large town built on a dead level plain, which
forms a cliff about sixty feet high over the Parana. The river
here is very broad, with many islands, which are low and wooded, as
is also the coast of the opposite shore. The view would resemble
that of a great lake, if it were not for the linear-shaped islets,
which alone give the idea of running water. The cliffs are the most
picturesque part; sometimes they are absolutely perpendicular, and
of a red colour; at other times in large broken masses, covered with
cacti and mimosa-trees. The real grandeur, however, of an immense
river like this, is derived from reflecting how important a means of
communication and commerce, it forms between one nation and another;
to what a distance it travels; and from how vast a territory it
drains the great body of fresh water which flows past your feet.
For many leagues north and south of San Nicholas and Rozario,
the country is really level. Scarcely any thing which travellers
have written about its extreme flatness, can be considered as
exaggeration. Yet I could never find a spot, where, by slowly turning
round, objects were not seen at greater distances in some directions
than in others; and this manifestly proves inequality in the plain.
At sea, a person’s eye being six feet above the surface of the water,
his horizon is two miles and four-fifths distant. In like manner,
the more level the plain, the more nearly does the horizon approach
within these narrow limits: and this, in my opinion, entirely
destroys that grandeur, which one would have imagined that a vast
level plain would have possessed.
OCTOBER 1ST.--We started by moonlight and arrived at the Rio Tercero
by sunrise. This river is also called the Saladillo, and it deserves
the name, for the water is brackish.
I staid here the greater part of the day, searching for fossil bones.
Falconer mentions having seen, in the bed of this river, great bones,
and the case of a giant armadillo. By good fortune, I discovered a
tooth embedded in a layer of rock marl, which was afterwards found
exactly to fit the socket in the head of a strange animal, the
Toxodon, which will presently be mentioned. Hearing also of the
remains of one of the old giants, which a man told me he had seen on
the banks of the Parana, I procured a canoe, and proceeded to the
place. Two groups of immense bones projected in bold relief from
the perpendicular cliff. They were, however, so completely decayed,
that I could only bring away small fragments of one of the great
molar-teeth; but these were sufficient to show that the remains
belonged to a species of Mastodon. The men who took me in the canoe,
said they had long known of them, and had often wondered how they
had got there: the necessity of a theory being felt, they came to
the conclusion, that, like the bizcacha, the mastodon formerly was a
burrowing animal! In the evening we rode another stage, and crossed
the Monge, another brackish stream, bearing the dregs of the washings
of the Pampas.
OCTOBER 2D.--We passed through Corunda, which, from the luxuriance of
its gardens, was one of the prettiest villages I saw. From this point
to St. Fe the road is not very safe. The western side of the Parana
further northward, ceases to be inhabited; and hence the Indians
sometimes come down, and waylay travellers. The nature of the country
also favours this, for instead of a grassy plain, there is an open
woodland, composed of low prickly mimosas. We passed some houses that
had been ransacked and since deserted; we saw also a spectacle, which
my guides viewed with high satisfaction; it was the skeleton of an
Indian with the dried skin hanging on the bones, suspended to the
branch of a tree.
In the morning we arrived at St. Fe. I was surprised to observe how
great a change of climate a difference of only three degrees of
latitude between this place and Buenos Ayres had caused. This was
evident from the dress and complexion of the men--from the increased
size of the ombu-trees--the number of new cacti and other plants--and
especially from the birds. In the course of an hour I remarked
half-a-dozen of the latter, which I had never seen at Buenos Ayres.
Considering that there is no natural boundary between the two
places, and that the character of the country is nearly similar, the
difference was much greater than I should have expected.
OCTOBER 3D AND 4TH.--I was confined to my bed by a headach for these
two days. A goodnatured old woman, who attended me, wished me to try
many odd remedies. A common practice is, to bind an orange-leaf, or a
bit of black plaster, to each temple; and a still more general plan
is, to split a bean into halves, moisten them, and place one on each
temple, where they will easily adhere. It is not thought proper ever
to remove the beans or plaster, but to allow them to drop off; and
sometimes, if a man, with patches on his head, is asked, what is the
matter? he will answer, “I had a headache the day before yesterday.”
St. Fe is a quiet little town, and is kept clean, and in good
order. The governor, Lopez, was a common soldier at the time of the
revolution; but has now been seventeen years in power. This stability
of government is owing to his tyrannical habits; for tyranny seems
as yet better adapted to these countries, than republicanism. The
governors favourite occupation is hunting Indians: a short time since
he slaughtered forty-eight, and sold the children at the rate of
three or four pounds apiece.
OCTOBER 5TH.--We crossed the Parana to St. Fe Bajada, a town on
the opposite shore. The passage took some hours, as the river
here consisted of a labyrinth of small streams, separated by low
wooded islands. I had a letter of introduction to an old Catalonian
Spaniard, who treated me with the most uncommon hospitality. The
Bajada is the capital of Entre Rios. In 1825 the town contained 6000
inhabitants, and the province 30,000; yet, few as they are, none have
suffered more from bloody and desperate revolutions. They boast here
of representatives, ministers, a standing army, and governors: so it
is no wonder that they have their revolutions. At some future day
this must be one of the richest countries of La Plata. The soil is
varied and productive, and its almost insular form gives it two grand
lines of communication by the rivers Parana and Uruguay.
I was delayed here five days, and employed myself in examining the
geology of the surrounding country, which was very interesting. We
here see beds of sand, clay, and limestone, containing sea-shells
and sharks’ teeth, passing above into an indurated marl, and from
that into the red clayey earth of the Pampas, with its calcareous
concretions and the bones of terrestrial animals. This vertical
section clearly tells us, of a large bay of pure salt-water,
gradually encroached on, and at last becoming the bed of a muddy
estuary, into which floating carcasses were swept. I found near
the Bajada a large piece, nearly four feet across, of the giant
armadillo-like case; also a molar tooth of a mastodon, and fragments
of very many bones, the greater number of which were rotten, and as
soft as clay.
A tooth which I discovered by one point projecting from the side
of a bank, interested me much, for I at once perceived that it had
belonged to a horse. Feeling much surprise at this, I carefully
examined its geological position, and was compelled to come to the
conclusion,[2] that a horse, which cannot from a comparison of the
tooth alone, be distinguished from the existing species,[3] lived
as a contemporary with the various great monsters that formerly
inhabited South America. Mr. Owen and myself, at the College of
Surgeons, compared this tooth with a fragment of another, probably
belonging to the Toxodon, which was embedded at the distance only
of a few yards in the same earthy mass. No sensible difference in
their state of decay could be perceived; they were both tender, and
partially stained red. If the horse did not coexist with the Toxodon,
the tooth must by some accident, not very easily understood, have
been embedded within the last three centuries (the period of the
introduction of the horse), with the remains of those animals, which
ages since perished, when the Pampas was covered by the waters of the
sea. Now, I may ask, will any one credit that two teeth of nearly
equal size, buried in the same substance close together, after a
period of so vast an inequality, could exist in the same condition
of decay? We must conclude otherwise. Certainly it is a marvellous
event in the history of animals, that a native kind should have
disappeared[4] to be succeeded in after ages by the countless herds
introduced with the Spanish colonist! But our surprise should be
modified when it is already known, that the remains of the _Mastodon
angustidens_ (the tooth formerly alluded to as embedded near that of
the horse, probably belonged to this species) have been found both in
South America, and in the southern parts of Europe.
With regard to North America, Cuvier says[5] the _Elephas
primigenius_ “has left thousands of its carcasses from Spain to
the shores of Siberia, and it has been found in the whole of North
America.” The fossil ox, in a like manner, he writes,[6] is buried
“dans toute la partie boréale des deux continens, puisque on en
a d’Allemagne, d’Italie, de Prussie, de la Sibérie occidentale
et orientale, et de l’Amérique.” I may here add that horses’
bones, mingled with those of the mastodon, have several times been
transmitted for sale from North America to England, but it has always
been imagined, from the simple fact of their being horses’ bones,
that they had been accidentally mingled with the fossils. Among the
remains brought home by Captain Beechey from the west coast of the
same continent, in the frozen region of 66° north, Dr. Buckland[7]
has described the astragalus metacarpus, and metatarsus of the horse,
which were associated with the remains of the _Elephas primigenius_,
and of the fossil ox. Thus we have an elephant, an ox, and a horse
(the species of the latter is only presumed to be identical), common
to Europe and to North America.
Very few species of living quadrupeds,[8] which are altogether
terrestrial in their habits, are common to the two continents, and
these few are chiefly confined to the extreme frozen regions of
the north. The separation, therefore, of the Asiatic and American
zoological provinces appears formerly to have been less perfect than
at present. The remains of the elephant and of the ox have been
found on the banks of the Anadir (long. 175° E.), on the extreme
part of Siberia, nearest the American coast: and the former remains,
according to Chamisso, are common in the peninsula of Kamtschatka.
On the opposite shores, likewise, of the narrow strait which divides
these two great continents, we know, from the discoveries of Kotzebue
and Beechey, that the remains of both animals occur abundantly: and
as Dr. Buckland has shown they are associated with the bones of the
horse, the teeth of which animal in Europe, according to Cuvier,
accompany by thousands the remains of the pachydermata of the later
periods. With these facts, we may safely look at this quarter, as
the line of communication (now interrupted by the steady progress
of geological change) by which the elephant, the ox, and the horse,
entered America, and peopled its wide extent.[9]
The occurrence of the fossil horse and of _Mastodon angustidens_ in
South America, is a much more remarkable circumstance than that of
the animals mentioned above in the northern half of the continent;
for if we divide America, not by the Isthmus of Panama, but by the
southern part of Mexico,[10] in lat. 20°, where the great table-land
presents an obstacle to the migration of species, by affecting the
climate, and by forming, with the exception of some valleys and of
a fringe of low land on the coast, a broad barrier; we shall then
have two zoological provinces strongly contrasted with each other.
Some few species alone have passed the barrier, and may be considered
as wanderers, such as the puma, opossum, kinkajou, and peccari. The
mammalogy of South America is characterized by possessing several
species of the genera of llama, cavy (and the allied animals), tapir,
peccari, opossum, anteater, sloth, and armadillo. If North America
had possessed species of these genera proper to it, the distinction
of the two provinces could not have been drawn; but the presence of
a few wanderers scarcely affects the case. North America, on the
other hand, is characterized by its numerous rodents,[11] and by four
genera of solid horned ruminants,[12] of which section the southern
half does not possess a single species.
This distinction of the two zoological provinces does not appear
always to have existed. At the present day the order of Edentata is
much more strongly developed in South America, than in any other part
of the world: and concluding from the fossil remains, which were
discovered at Bahia Blanca, such must have been the case during a
former epoch. In America, north of Mexico, not one of this order is
now found: yet, as is well known, the gigantic megalonyx, considered
by Cuvier as a species of Megatherium, has been found only in
that country; and as it appears from recent observations,[13] the
Megatherium Cuvierii itself likewise occurs there. Mr. Owen showed
me the tibia of some large animal, which Sir Philip Egerton had
purchased out of a collection of the remains of the mastodon brought
from North America. Mr. Owen says it certainly belongs to one of the
Edentata, and it so closely resembles a bone which I found embedded,
together with fragments of the great armadillo-like covering, in
Banda Oriental, that it probably forms a species of the same genus.
Lastly, among the fossils brought home by Captain Beechey from the
N.W. coast, there was a cervical vertebra, which, when compared by
Mr. Pentland[14] with the skeletons at Paris, was found to resemble
that of the sloth and anteater more than that of any other animal,
although having some points of essential difference.
Of the Pachydermata four or five species are now found in America;
but, as in the case of the Edentata, none are peculiar to the
continent north of Mexico; and one alone seems to exist there
as a wanderer. Yet the account of the multitude of bones of the
mastodon and elephant, which have been discovered in the salt-licks
of North America, is familiar to every one. The remains of the
_Mastodon giganteum_ have been found nowhere else; but those of the
_Elephas primigenius_ are common to a large part of the terrestrial
globe.[15] This elephant must have existed in Mexico; and Cuvier,[16]
judging from a fragment of a tusk, thinks it even extended to the
neighbourhood of Quito in South America. In the latter country
three species of Mastodon have been discovered. One of these, _M.
angustidans_, is common to Europe. It is singular that its remains,
as yet, have never been brought from North America; nevertheless,
considering that it was a contemporary of the extinct animals above
mentioned, it seems highly probable that it arrived by the same line
of communication on the N.W. coast. As its remains have frequently
been found at a great elevation in the Cordillera, perhaps its habits
led it to follow that chain of mountains from north to south.
After these facts, it is only in conformity with what we might
almost have expected, that the horse, belonging to the same order of
Pachydermata, should formerly have inhabited both North and South
America. It is interesting thus to discover an epoch anterior to
the division, as far at least as two important orders among the
mammalia are concerned, of the continent into two separate zoological
provinces. The geologist who believes in considerable oscillations
of level in the crust of the globe within recent periods, will not
fear to speculate either on the elevation of the Mexican platform,
as a cause of the distinction, or on the submergence of land in the
West Indian seas,--a circumstance which is perhaps indicated by the
zoology of those islands.[17]
The number of bones embedded in the grand estuary deposit of the
Pampas must be very great; I myself heard of, and saw many groups.
The names of such places as “the stream of the animal,” “the hill
of the giant,” tell the same story. At other times I heard of the
marvellous property of certain rivers, which had the power of
changing small bones into large; or as some maintained, the bones
themselves grew. As far as I am aware, not one of these animals, as
was formerly supposed, perished in the marshes, or muddy river-beds
of the present land, but their bones have been exposed by the streams
intersecting the deposit in which their remains were formerly buried.
We may therefore conclude that the whole area of the Pampas is one
wide sepulchre for these extinct quadrupeds.
While travelling through the country, I received several vivid
descriptions of the effect of a 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[18] 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 again
abounds with animals; yet, during the latter part of the “gran seco,”
live cattle were brought in vessels for the consumption of the
inhabitants. The animals roamed from their estancias, and wandering
far to the 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 landmarks became obliterated, and people could not tell the
limits of their estates.
I was informed by an eyewitness, that the cattle in herds of
thousands rushed into the Parana,[19] and being exhausted by hunger
they were unable to crawl up the muddy banks, and thus were drowned.
The arm 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
impossible to pass that way. Without doubt several hundred thousand
animals thus perished in the river. Their bodies when putrid floated
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. I noticed, but
probably it was the effect of a gradual increase, rather than of
any one period, that the smaller streams in the Pampas were paved
with a breccia of bones.[20] Subsequently to this unusual drought a
very rainy season commenced, which caused great floods. Hence it is
almost certain, that some thousands of these 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?
These droughts to a certain degree seem to be periodical; I was told
the dates of several others, and the intervals were about fifteen
years. A tendency to periodical droughts is, I believe, common in
most dry climates:[21] such certainly is the case in Australia.
Captain Sturt says they return after every ten and twelve years, and
are then followed by excessive rains, which gradually become less
and less, till another drought is the consequence. The year 1826 and
the two following were singularly dry in Australia, and the latter
were the first of the “gran seco.” I mention this, because General
Beatson in his account of the island of St. Helena, has remarked
that variations in climate sometimes appear to be the effect of the
operation of some very general cause. He says (page 43), “The severe
drought felt here in 1791 and 1792, was far more calamitous in India.
Doctor Anderson states, in a letter to Colonel Kyd, dated the 9th
of August, 1792, that, owing to a failure of rain, during the above
two years, one half of the inhabitants in the northern provinces had
perished by famine; and the remainder were so feeble and weak, that
on the report of rice coming from the Malabar coast, 5000 poor people
left Rajamundy, and very few of them reached the sea-side, although
the distance is only 50 miles. It appears by Mr. Bryan Edwards’s
History of the West Indies, that the seasons 1791-2 were unusually
dry at the island of Montserrat.” Barrow[22] in the latter part of
1792, when at the Cape de Verd islands says, “In fact a drought of
three years’ continuance, and consequent famine for almost the same
period, had nearly desolated the island.”
OCTOBER 12TH.--I had intended to have pushed my excursion further,
but not being quite well, I was compelled to return by a balandra,
or one-masted vessel of about a hundred tons burden, which was bound
to Buenos Ayres. As the weather was not fair, we moored early in the
day to a branch of a tree on one of the islands. The Parana is full
of islands, which undergo a constant round of decay and renovation.
In the memory of the master several large ones had disappeared, and
others again had been formed and protected by vegetation. They are
composed of muddy sand, without even the smallest pebble, and were
then about four feet above the level of the river; but during the
periodical floods they are inundated. They all present one character;
numerous willows and a few other trees are bound together by a great
variety of creeping plants, thus forming a thick jungle. These
thickets afford a retreat for carpinchos and jaguars. The fear of
the latter animal, quite destroyed all pleasure in scrambling through
the woods. This evening I had not proceeded a hundred yards, before
finding indubitable signs of the recent presence of the tiger, I was
obliged to come back. On every island there are tracks; and as on the
former excursion “el rastro de los Indios” had been the subject of
conversation, so in this was “el rastro del tigre.”
The wooded banks of the great rivers appear to be the favourite haunt
of the jaguar; but south of the Plata, I was told, they frequented
the reeds bordering lakes: wherever they are, they seem to require
water. The jaguar has been killed on the banks of the Rio Negro,
in lat. 41°; and Falconer states that the lake Nahuel-huapi, takes
its name from the Indian word for tiger: the latitude of this lake
is about 42°; which corresponds to the situation of the Pyrenees in
the northern hemisphere. These animals are particularly abundant on
the isles of the Parana; their common prey is the carpincho, so that
it is generally said, where the carpinchos are plentiful there is
little danger of the jaguar. Falconer states, that near the mouth
of the Plata, on the southern side, the jaguars are numerous, and
that they chiefly live on fish; this account I have heard repeated.
On the Parana they have killed many wood-cutters, and have even
entered vessels at night. There is a man now living in the Bajada,
who, coming up from below when it was dark, was seized on the deck;
he escaped, however, with the loss of the use of one arm. When the
floods drive these animals from the islands they are most dangerous.
I was told, that a few years since, a very large one found its way
into a church at St. Fe: two padres entering one after the other were
killed, and a third, who came to see what was the matter, escaped
with difficulty. The beast was destroyed by being shot from a corner
of the building which was unroofed. They commit also at these times
great ravages among the cattle and horses. It is said they kill their
prey by breaking the vertebræ of the neck. If driven from the carcass
they seldom return to it. The Gauchos say that the jaguar, when
wandering about at night, is much tormented by the foxes yelping as
they follow him. This is a curious coincidence with the fact which
is generally affirmed of the jackals accompanying, in a similarly
officious manner, the East Indian tiger. The jaguar is a noisy
animal, roaring much by night, and especially before bad weather.
One day, when hunting on the banks of the Uruguay, I was shown
certain trees, to which these animals are said constantly to recur,
for the purpose of sharpening their claws. I saw three well-known
trees; in front the bark was worn smooth, and on each side there were
deep scratches, or rather grooves, extending in an oblique line,
nearly a yard in length. The scars were of different ages. A common
method of ascertaining whether a jaguar is in the neighbourhood, is
to examine these trees. I imagine this habit of the jaguar is exactly
similar to one, which may any day be seen in the common cat, as with
outstretched legs and exserted claws it scrapes the leg of a chair.
Some such habit must be also common to the puma, for on the bare
hard soil of Patagonia I have frequently seen scores so deep, that
no other animal could have made them. The object of this practice
is, I should think, to blunt rather than to sharpen (as the Gauchos
say), the points of their claws, which are so seldom used. The jaguar
is killed, without much difficulty, by the aid of dogs baying and
driving him up a tree, where he is despatched with bullets.
Owing to bad weather we remained two days at our moorings. Our only
amusement was catching fish for our dinner: there were several kinds,
and all good eating. A fish called the “armado” (a Silurus), is
remarkable from a harsh grating noise it makes when caught by hook
and line, and which can be distinctly heard when the fish is beneath
the water. This same fish has the power of firmly catching hold of
any object, such as the blade of an oar or the fishing-line, with
the strong spine both of its pectoral and dorsal fin. In the evening
the weather was quite tropical, the thermometer standing at 79°.
Numbers of fireflies were hovering about, and the musquitoes were
very troublesome. I exposed my hand for five minutes, and it was soon
black with them; I do not suppose there could have been less than
fifty, all busy sucking.
OCTOBER 15TH.--We got under way and passed Punta Gorda, where there
is a colony of tame Indians, from the province of Missiones. We
sailed rapidly down the current, but before sunset, from a silly
fear of bad weather, we brought to in a narrow arm of the river. I
took the boat and rowed some distance up this creek. It was very
narrow, winding, and deep; on each side, a wall thirty or forty feet
high, formed by trees intwined with creepers, gave to the canal a
singularly gloomy appearance. I here saw a very extraordinary bird,
called the Scissor-beak (_Rhyncops nigra_). It has short legs, web
feet, extremely long-pointed wings, and is of about the size of a
tern. The beak is flattened laterally, that is, in a plane at right
angles to that of a spoon-bill, or duck. It is as flat and elastic as
an ivory paper-cutter, and the lower mandible, differently from every
other bird, is an inch and a half longer than the upper. I will here
detail all I know of the habits of the scissor-beak. It is found both
on the east and west coasts, between lat. 30° and 45°, and frequents
either salt or fresh water. The specimen now at the Zoological
Society was shot at a lake near Maldonado, from which the water had
been nearly drained, and which, in consequence, swarmed with small
fry. I there saw several of these birds, generally in small flocks,
flying backwards and forwards, close to the surface of the lake. They
kept their bills wide open, and with the lower mandible half buried
in the water. Thus skimming the surface, they ploughed it in their
course: the water was quite smooth, and it formed a most curious
spectacle to behold a flock, each bird leaving its narrow wake on
the mirror-like surface. In their flight they frequently twist about
with extreme rapidity, and so dexterously manage, that with their
projecting lower mandible they plough up small fish, which are
secured by the upper half of their scissor-like bills. This fact I
repeatedly saw, as, like swallows, they continued to fly backwards
and forwards, close before me. Occasionally when leaving the surface
of the water their flight was wild, irregular, and rapid; they then
also uttered loud harsh cries. When these birds are fishing, the
length of the primary feathers of the wings is seen to be quite
necessary, in order to keep the latter dry. When thus employed, their
forms resemble the symbol by which many artists represent marine
birds. The tail is much used in steering their irregular course.
These birds are common farmland along the course of the Rio Parana;
it is said they remain during the whole year, and breed in the
marshes. During the day they rest in flocks on the grassy plains, at
some distance from the water. Being at anchor, as I have said, in one
of the deep creeks between the islands of the Parana, as the evening
drew to a close, one of these scissor-beaks suddenly appeared. The
water was quite still, and many little fish were rising. The bird
continued for a long time to skim the surface, flying in its wild
and irregular manner up and down the narrow canal, now dark with the
growing night and the shadows of the overhanging trees. At Monte
Video I observed that some large flocks during the day remained on
the mud-banks at the head of the harbour, in the same manner as on
the grassy plains near the Parana; and every evening they took flight
direct to seaward. From these facts, I suspect that the Rhyncops
generally fishes by night, at which time many of the lower animals
come most abundantly to the surface. M. Lesson states that he has
seen these birds opening the shells of the mactræ, buried in the
sand-banks on the coast of Chile: from their weak bills, with the
lower mandible so much produced, their short legs and long wings, it
is very improbable that this can be a general habit.
In our course down the Parana, I only observed three other birds,
whose habits are worth mentioning. One is a small kingfisher (_Alcedo
Americana_); it has a longer tail than the European species, and
hence does not sit in so stiff and upright a position. Its flight
also, instead of being direct and rapid, like the course of an
arrow, is weak and undulatory, as among the soft-billed birds. It
utters a low note, like the clicking together of two small stones.
A small green parrot,[23] with a gray breast, appears to prefer
the tall trees on the islands, to any other situation, for its
building-place. A number of nests are placed so close together, as to
form one great mass of sticks. These parrots always live in flocks,
and commit great ravages on the corn-fields. I was told, that near
Colonia 2500 were killed in the course of one year. A bird (_Milvulus
forficatus_) with a forked tail, terminated by two long feathers,
and named by the Spaniards scissor-tail, is very common near Buenos
Ayres. It commonly sits on a branch of the _ombu_ tree, near the
house, and thence takes a short flight in pursuit of insects, and
returns to the same spot. When on the wing, it presents, in its
manner of flight and general appearance, a caricature-likeness of the
common swallow. It has the power in the air of turning very shortly,
and in so doing, opens and shuts its tail, sometimes in a horizontal
or lateral, and sometimes in a vertical direction, just like a pair
of scissors. In structure, this bird is a true tyrant-flycatcher,
although in its habits certainly allied to the swallows.
OCTOBER 16TH.--Some leagues above Rozario the western shore was
bounded by perpendicular cliffs, which extended in a long line to
below San Nicholas. Hence the coast more resembled that of the sea,
than that of a fresh-water river. It is a great drawback to the
scenery of the Parana, that, from the soft nature of its banks,
the water is very muddy. The Uruguay, flowing through a granitic
country, is much clearer; and I am told, that where the two channels
unite at the head of the Plata, the waters may for a long distance
be distinguished by their black and red colours. In the evening,
the wind not being quite fair, as usual we immediately moored, and
the next day, as it blew rather freshly, though with a favouring
current, the master was much too indolent to think of starting. At
Bajada, he was described to me as “hombre muy aflicto,”--a man always
miserable to get on; but certainly he bore all delays with admirable
resignation. He was an old Spaniard, and had been many years in this
country. He professed a great liking to the English, but stoutly
maintained that the battle of Trafalgar was merely won by the Spanish
captains having been all bought over; and that the only really
gallant action on either side was performed by the Spanish admiral.
It struck me as rather characteristic, that this man should prefer
his countrymen being thought the worst of traitors, rather than
unskilful or cowardly.
18TH AND 19TH.--We continued slowly to sail down the noble stream:
the current helped us but little. Azara has estimated that even
near the sources between latitudes 16° 24′ and 22° 57′, the river
has only a fall of one foot for each mile of latitude; lower down,
this must be much diminished. It is stated that a rise of seven
feet at Buenos Ayres can be perceived sixty leagues up the course
of the Parana. We met, during our descent, very few vessels. One
of the best gifts of nature seems here wilfully thrown away, in so
grand a channel of communication being left unoccupied. A river in
which ships might navigate from a temperate country, as surprisingly
abundant in certain productions as destitute of others, to another
possessing a tropical climate, and a soil which, according to the
best of judges, M. Bonpland, is perhaps unequalled in fertility, in
any part of the world. How different would have been the aspect of
this river, if English colonists had by good fortune first sailed up
the Plata! What noble towns would now have occupied its shores! Till
the death of Francia, the Dictator of Paraguay, these two countries
must remain distinct, as if placed on opposite sides of the globe.
And when the old, bloody-minded tyrant is gone to his long account,
Paraguay will be torn by revolutions, violent in proportion to the
previous unnatural calm. That country will have to learn, like every
other South American state, that a republic cannot succeed, till it
contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of justice
and honour.
OCTOBER 20TH.--Being arrived at the mouth of the Parana, and as
I was very anxious to reach Buenos Ayres, I went on shore at Las
Conchas, with the intention of riding there. Upon landing, I found
to my great surprise, that I was to a certain degree a prisoner. A
violent revolution having broken out, all the ports were laid under
an embargo. I could not return to my vessel, and as for going by land
to the city, it was out of the question. After a long conversation
with the Commandant, I obtained permission to go, the next day,
to General Rolor, who commanded a division of the rebels, on this
side of the capital. In the morning I rode to the encampment. The
general, officers, and soldiers, all appeared, and I believe really
were, great villains. The general the very evening before he left
the city, voluntarily went to the governor, and with his hand to his
heart, pledged his word of honour, that he would remain faithful to
the last. The general told me, that the city was in a state of close
blockade, and that all he could do was to give me a passport to the
commander-in-chief of the rebels at Quilmes. We had, therefore, to
take a great sweep round the city, and it was with much difficulty
that we procured horses. My reception at the encampment was quite
civil, but I was told it was impossible that I could be allowed to
enter the city. I was very anxious about this, as I anticipated
the Beagle’s departure from the Rio Plata, earlier than it took
place. Having mentioned, however, General Rosas’s obliging kindness
to me when at the Colorado, magic itself could not have altered
circumstances quicker than did this conversation. I was instantly
told that though they could not give me a passport, if I chose to
leave my guide and horses, I might pass their sentinels. I was too
glad to accept of this, and an officer was sent with me to give
directions, that I might not be stopped at the bridge. The road
for the space of a league was quite deserted. I met one party of
soldiers, who were satisfied by gravely looking at an old passport:
and at length I was not a little pleased, to find myself within the
city.
This revolution was supported by scarcely any pretext of grievances.
But in a state which, in the course of nine months (from February to
October, 1820), underwent fifteen changes in its government--each
governor, according to the constitution, being elected for three
years--it would be the height of illiberality, to ask for pretexts.
In this case a party of men, who being attached to Rosas, were
disgusted with the governor Balcarce, to the number of seventy left
the city, and with the cry of Rosas, the whole country took arms.
The city was then blockaded, no provisions, cattle, or horses, were
allowed to enter; besides this, there was only a little skirmishing,
and a few men daily killed. The outside party well knew, that by
stopping the supply of meat, they would certainly be victorious.
General Rosas could not have known of this rising; but it appears to
me quite consonant with the plans of his party. A year ago he was
elected governor, but he refused it, without the Sala would also
confer on him extraordinary powers. This was refused, and since then
his party have shown, that no other governor can keep his place. The
warfare on both sides was avowedly protracted, till it was possible
to hear from Rosas. A note arrived a few days after I left Buenos
Ayres, which stated that the General disapproved of peace having been
broken, but that he thought the outside party had justice on their
side. On the bare reception of this, the Governor, ministers, and
part of the military, to the number of some hundreds, fled from the
city. The rebels entered, elected a new governor, and were paid for
their services to the number of 5500 men. From these proceedings,
it was clear that Rosas ultimately would become the dictator: to
the term king, the people in this, as in other republics, have a
particular dislike. Since leaving South America, we have heard that
Rosas has been elected, with powers, and for a time altogether
opposed to the constitutional principles of the republic.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The bizcacha (_Calomys bizcacha_) 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.
[2] The broken tooth mentioned at Bahia Blanca must not be forgotten.
[3] As this horse existed at the same time with animals now extinct,
it is not probable, that it is the same species with the recent
kind, although from the similarity of the teeth it must have been
closely allied. Cuvier, talking of the remains of the horse, found
fossil under similar conditions in Europe, remarks, “It is not
possible to say whether it was one of the species now existing or
not, because the skeletons of these species are so like each other,
that they cannot be distinguished by the mere comparison of isolated
fragments.”--_Theory of the Earth_, English translation, p. 285.
[4] I need not here state, that there is no kind of evidence to
support the belief, that a horse existed in America previously to the
age of Columbus.
[5] Theory of the Earth, p. 281 (English translation).
[6] Ossemens Fossiles, vol. iv., p. 147.
[7] See the admirable Appendix to Beechey’s Voyage, p. 592 (quarto
edition).
[8] See Dr. Richardson’s very interesting Report on North American
Zoology for the British Association of 1836.
[9] I do not here mean to fix on the more northern parts of the
old world as the parent country of these two animals. I only want
to point out the channel of communication--not the course of the
stream--whether from west to east, or the reverse. Perhaps, when
we recollect how extraordinarily the Pachydermata abounded during
the Tertiary epochs in the Old World, and that the representatives
of these animals now only exist in that quarter, it may seem most
probable that the migration took place from Asia to America.
[10] This is the division followed by Lichtenstein, Swainson, and
Richardson. The section from Vera Cruz to Acapulco, given by Humboldt
in the Atlas to Polit. Essay on Kingdom of N. Spain, will show how
immense a barrier the Mexican table-land forms.
[11] Dr. Richardson (Report to Brit. Assoc., p. 157), talking of the
identification of a Mexican animal with the _Synetheres prehensilis_,
says, “We do not know with what propriety, but, if correct, it is, if
not a solitary instance, at least very nearly so, of a rodent animal
being common to North and South America.”
[12] _Dicranocerus furcifer_, _Capra Americana_, _Ovis montana_, _Bos
Americana_, and _Moschatus_.--Report to Brit. Assoc., p. 159.
[13] Ed. New Phil. Journal. July, 1828, p. 327. From a paper by Mr.
Cooper in the Lyceum of Natural History of New York.
[14] See Dr. Buckland. Appendix to Beechey’s Voyage, p. 597.
[15] I may observe that at the present day both species of elephants
have wide ranges. The African one is found from the Senegal to the
Cape of Good Hope, a distance of about 3000 miles. The Asiatic kind
formerly had an equal range, namely, from the banks of the Indus to
the East Indian Isles. The hippopotamus is believed to have reached
from the Cape to Egypt.
[16] Ossemens Fossiles, vol. i., p. 158. Cuvier says he cannot decide
positively, not having seen a molar tooth.
[17] Dr. Richardson (Report for 1836, to Brit. Assoc., p. 157)
says, “the spotted cavy (_cælogenys_), and perhaps a species of
_cavia_, and one _dasyprocta_, extend from South America to the West
Indies and Mexico.” Cuvier says the Kinkajou is found in the larger
Antilles, but others affirm that this is an error: according to M.
Gervais, the _Didelphis crancrivora_ inhabits the Antilles. A tooth
of the Mastodon has been brought from Bahama (Ed. New Phil. Journal,
July, 1826, p. 395). We cannot, however, from this conclude, that
the Mastodon formerly inhabited those islands, for the carcass might
have been floated there. Some mammalia certainly are peculiar to the
Archipelago.
[18] 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
sometime 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 ultimate 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!
[19] Azara talks of the fury of the wild horses rushing into the
marshes during a dry season: “et les premiers arrivés sont foulés, et
écrasés par ceux, qui les suivent. Il m’est arrivé plus d’une fois
de trouver plus de mille cadavres de chevaux sauvages morts de cette
façon.”--Vol. i., p. 374.
[20] In the neighbourhood of the great towns on the shores of
the Plata, the number of bones strewed over the ground is truly
astonishing. Since our return I have been informed, that ships have
been freighted to this country with a cargo of bones. That cattle
should be fattened on turnips manured with the bones of animals that
lived in the southern hemisphere, is a curious fact in the commerce
of the world. In the East Indies the luxurious drink wine cooled
with North-American ice, which in its journey has twice crossed the
equator!
[21] Perhaps in every country, but the effect is more marked where
the mean annual quantity of rain is small. I have seen the trunk
of an old tree in England, in which the successive rings showed a
tendency to periodical increase and diminution of size; about every
tenth ring being small. See Mr. Babbage’s Ninth Bridgewater Treatise.
Note M.
[22] Voyage to Cochin China, p. 67.
[23] _La jeune Veuve_ of Azara, Latham Gen. Hist., vol. ii., p. 192.