Nothing could look more comfortable than this scene. The glassy water of the little harbour, with the branches of the trees hanging over the rocky beach, the boats at anchor, the tents supported by the crossed oars, and the smoke curling up the wooded valley, formed a picture of quiet retirement. Some of the men ran for miles along the shore. We soon, however, delighted them by trifling presents, such as tying red tape round their heads. Jemmy was thoroughly ashamed of his countrymen, and declared his own tribe were quite different, in which he was wofully mistaken. It was as easy to please as it was difficult to satisfy these savages. In the very act of levelling his musket he appears to the savage far inferior to a man armed with a bow and arrow, a spear, or even a sling. Nor is it easy to teach them our superiority except by striking a fatal blow. We can hardly put ourselves in the position of these savages, and understand their actions. He perhaps literally did not for a second know whether it was a sound or a blow, and therefore very naturally rubbed his head. Moreover, the extreme force of a bullet, that penetrates a hard substance without tearing it, may convince the savage that it has no force at all. I do not know anything which shows more clearly the hostile state of the different tribes, than these wide border or neutral tracts. It was most curious to watch him when thus talking, and see his eyes gleaming and his whole face assume a new and wild expression. The mountains were here about three thousand feet high, and terminated in sharp and jagged points. Five days were spent in building for them three large wigwams, in landing their goods, in digging two gardens, and sowing seeds. Jemmy recognised the stentorian voice of one of his brothers at a prodigious distance. The meeting was less interesting than that between a horse, turned out into a field, when he joins an old companion. Everything went on peaceably during the three next days whilst the gardens were digging and wigwams building. We estimated the number of natives at about one hundred and twenty.

Their very attitudes were abject, and the expression of their countenances distrustful, surprised, and startled. After we had presented them with some scarlet cloth, which they immediately tied round their necks, they became good friends. This was shown by the old man patting our breasts, and making a chuckling kind of noise, as people do when feeding chickens. He then bared his bosom for me to return the compliment, which being done, he seemed highly pleased. The language of these people, according to our notions, scarcely deserves to be called articulate. They could repeat with perfect correctness each word in any sentence we addressed them, and they remembered such words for some time. All savages appear to possess, to an uncommon degree, this power of mimicry. How can this faculty be explained? They examined the colour of his skin, and compared it with ours. We thought that they mistook two or three of the officers, who were rather shorter and fairer, though adorned with large beards, for the ladies of our party. After our first feeling of grave astonishment was over, nothing could be more ludicrous than the odd mixture of surprise and imitation which these savages every moment exhibited. To find an acre of level land in any part of the country is most rare. In both places, and everywhere else, the surface is covered by a thick bed of swampy peat. Even within the forest, the ground is concealed by a mass of slowly putrefying vegetable matter, which, from being soaked with water, yields to the foot. I continued slowly to advance for an hour along the broken and rocky banks, and was amply repaid by the grandeur of the scene. The gloomy depth of the ravine well accorded with the universal signs of violence. We followed the same watercourse as on the previous day, till it dwindled away, and we were then compelled to crawl blindly among the trees. These, from the effects of the elevation and of the impetuous winds, were low, thick and crooked. At length we reached that which from a distance appeared like a carpet of fine green turf, but which, to our vexation, turned out to be a compact mass of little beechtrees about four or five feet high.

All the little streams are bordered by soft peat, which makes it very difficult for the horses to leap them without falling. The geological structure of these islands is in most respects simple. The strata of the latter are frequently arched with perfect symmetry, and the appearance of some of the masses is in consequence most singular. The quartz rock must have been quite pasty when it underwent such remarkable flexures without being shattered into fragments. As the quartz insensibly passes into the sandstone, it seems probable that the former owes its origin to the sandstone having been heated to such a degree that it became viscid, and upon cooling crystallized. While in the soft state it must have been pushed up through the overlying beds. They are not thrown together into irregular piles, but are spread out into level sheets or great streams. It is not possible to ascertain their thickness, but the water of small streamlets can be heard trickling through the stones many feet below the surface. The actual depth is probably great, because the crevices between the lower fragments must long ago have been filled up with sand. In some places, a continuous stream of these fragments followed up the course of a valley, and even extended to the very crest of the hill. In endeavouring to describe these scenes of violence one is tempted to pass from one simile to another. We may imagine that streams of white lava had flowed from many parts of the mountains into the lower country, and that when solidified they had been rent by some enormous convulsion into myriads of fragments. These scenes are on the spot rendered more striking by the contrast of the low rounded forms of the neighbouring hills. Must we believe that it was fairly pitched up in the air, and thus turned? Or, with more probability, that there existed formerly a part of the same range more elevated than the point on which this monument of a great convulsion of nature now lies. As the fragments in the valleys are neither rounded nor the crevices filled up with sand, we must infer that the period of violence was subsequent to the land having been raised above the waters of the sea. In a transverse section within these valleys, the bottom is nearly level, or rises but very little towards either side. I have little to remark on the zoology of these islands. There are some other hawks, owls, and a few small landbirds.

When the condors are wheeling in a flock round and round any spot, their flight is beautiful. In the case of any bird soaring, its motion must be sufficiently rapid so that the action of the inclined surface of its body on the atmosphere may counterbalance its gravity. The movements of the neck and body of the condor, we must suppose, is sufficient for this. However this may be, it is truly wonderful and beautiful to see so great a bird, hour after hour, without any apparent exertion, wheeling and gliding over mountain and river. During the few succeeding days we continued to get on slowly, for we found the rivercourse very tortuous, and strewed with immense fragments of various ancient slate rocks, and of granite. The plain bordering the valley has here attained an elevation of about 1100 feet above the river, and its character was much altered. The wellrounded pebbles of porphyry were mingled with many immense angular fragments of basalt and of primary rocks. The plain here was not quite so level as that nearer the coast, but yet in betrayed no signs of any great violence. Everywhere we met with the same productions, and the same dreary landscape. But we viewed these grand mountains with regret, for we were obliged to imagine their nature and productions, instead of standing, as we had hoped, on their summits. Besides the useless loss of time which an attempt to ascend the river and higher would have cost us, we had already been for some days on half allowance of bread. Before sunrise we commenced our descent. We shot down the stream with great rapidity, generally at the rate of ten knots an hour. England claimed her right and seized them. The theatre is worthy of the scenes acted on it. An undulating land, with a desolate and wretched aspect, is everywhere covered by a peaty soil and wiry grass, of one monotonous brown colour. I will now describe a short excursion which made round a part of this island. The weather was very boisterous and cold with heavy hailstorms. In the valleys here and there might be seen a small flock of wild geese, and everywhere the ground was so soft that the snipe were able to feed.

Excepting what was discovered at that time, scarcely anything was known about this large river. With a strong floodtide and a fine day we made a good run, soon drank some of the fresh water, and were at night nearly above the tidal influence. The river here assumed a size and appearance which, even at the highest point we ultimately reached, was scarcely diminished. It was generally from three to four hundred yards broad, and in the middle about seventeen feet deep. The rapidity of the current, which in its whole course runs at the rate of from four to six knots an hour, is perhaps its most remarkable feature. The water is of a fine blue colour, but with a slight milky tinge, and not so transparent as at first sight would have been expected. It flows over a bed of pebbles, like those which compose the beach and the surrounding plains. It runs in a winding course through a valley, which extends in a direct line westward. The party including every one, was divided into two spells, each of which hauled at the tracking line alternately for an hour and a half. The officers of each boat lived with, ate the same food, and slept in the same tent with their crew, so that each boat was quite independent of the others. Each of the crew took it in turns to be cook. By this order, in half an hour everything was ready for the night. Each in the party had his one hour every night. During this day we tracked but a short distance, for there were many islets, covered by thorny bushes, and the channels between them were shallow. We passed the islands and set to work. Shortly afterwards we came to a spot where, from the fresh footsteps of men, children, and horses, it was evident that the party had crossed the river. The country remained the same, and was extremely uninteresting. Everywhere we see the same birds and insects. Even the very banks of the river and of the clear streamlets which entered it, were scarcely enlivened by a brighter tint of green.

All was stillness and desolation. Yet in passing over these scenes, without one bright object near, an illdefined but strong sense of pleasure is vividly excited. One asked how many ages the plain had thus lasted, and how many more it was doomed thus to continue. By the middle of the next day the yawl was aground, and from the shoalness of the water could not proceed any higher. Chaffers took the dingey and went up two or three miles further, where she also grounded, but in a freshwater river. At the spot where we bivouacked, we were surrounded by bold cliffs and steep pinnacles of porphyry. Two immense stones, each probably weighing at least a couple of tons, had been placed in front of a ledge of rock about six feet high. At the bottom of the grave on the hard rock there was a layer of earth about a foot deep, which must have been brought up from the plain below. Above it a pavement of flat stones was placed, on which others were piled, so as to fill up the space between the ledge and the two great blocks. We undermined the grave on both sides, but could not find any relics, or even bones. We remained here eight days. We were eleven hours without tasting any water, and some of the party were quite exhausted. What was our disappointment to find a snowwhite expanse of salt, crystallized in great cubes! We here have the puzzle that so frequently occurs in the case of musquitoes on the blood of what animals do these insects commonly feed? The guanaco is nearly the only warmblooded quadruped, and it is found in quite inconsiderable numbers compared with the multitude of flies. The most common shell is a massive gigantic oyster, sometimes even a foot in diameter. These beds are covered by others of a peculiar soft white stone, including much gypsum, and resembling chalk, but really of a pumiceous nature. This bed extends for 500 miles along the coast, and probably for a considerably greater distance. Julian its thickness is more than 800 feet!

Ehrenberg states that these particles all retain a certain degree of irritability. My observations, some of which were made directly after taking up the water, gave a different result. It does not appear probable in this case, that the particles could have remained so long alive. But there can be no doubt that very many other pelagic animals, when alive, are phosphorescent. The ship, which drew thirteen feet of water, passed over, without disturbing these patches. Therefore we must suppose that some animals were congregated together at a greater depth than the bottom of the vessel. The appearance was very similar to that which might be expected from a large fish moving rapidly through a luminous fluid. The creek runs for about twenty miles inland, with an irregular width. The first landing in any new country is very interesting, and especially when, as in this case, the whole aspect bears the stamp of a marked and individual character. The surface is quite level, and is composed of wellrounded shingle mixed with a whitish earth. Here and there scattered tufts of brown wiry grass are supported, and still more rarely, some low thorny bushes. The weather is dry and pleasant, and the fine blue sky is but seldom obscured. Of birds we have three carrion hawks and in the valleys a few finches and insectfeeders. It is an elegant animal in a state of nature, with a long slender neck and fine legs. Cruz we saw one herd which must have contained at least five hundred. They are generally wild and extremely wary. Stokes told me, that he one day saw through a glass a herd of these animals which evidently had been frightened, and were running away at full speed, although their distance was so great that he could not distinguish them with his naked eye. The sportsman frequently receives the first notice of their presence, by hearing from a long distance their peculiar shrill neighing note of alarm. If he then looks attentively, he will probably see the herd standing in a line on the side of some distant hill.

Police and justice are quite inefficient. Sensuality, mockery of all religion, and the grossest corruption, are far from uncommon. Nearly every public officer can be bribed. The head man in the postoffice sold forged government franks. The governor and prime minister openly combined to plunder the state. Justice, where gold came into play, was hardly expected by any one. With this entire want of principle in many of the leading men, with the country full of illpaid turbulent officers, the people yet hope that a democratic form of government can succeed! On first entering society in these countries, two or three features strike one as particularly remarkable. The polite and dignified manners pervading every rank of life, the excellent taste displayed by the women in their dresses, and the equality amongst all ranks. Many officers in the army can neither read nor write, yet all meet in society as equals. One of them kept a common shop, and evidently was not degraded by the office. On the whole, perhaps, more credit is due for what has been done, than blame for that which may be deficient. It is impossible to doubt but that the extreme liberalism of these countries must ultimately lead to good results. Even by the aid of a telescope it was not possible to see a space free from butterflies. The day had been fine and calm, and the one previous to it equally so, with light and variable airs. Hence we cannot suppose that the insects were blown off the land, but we must conclude that they voluntarily took flight. Before sunset a strong breeze sprung up from the north, and this must have caused tens of thousands of the butterflies and other insects to have perished. On any supposition it is an interesting circumstance to find live insects swimming in the open ocean seventeen miles from the nearest point of land. The cause probably is due to the want of shelter, both of trees and hills, so that an insect on the wing with an offshore breeze, would be very apt to be blown out to sea.

I often wondered how so firm a friendship had been established. The method of education consists in separating the puppy, while very young, from the bitch, and in accustoming it to its future companions. From this education it has no wish to leave the flock, and just as another dog will defend its master, man, so will these the sheep. It is amusing to observe, when approaching a flock, how the dog immediately advances barking, and the sheep all close in his rear, as if round the oldest ram. These dogs are also easily taught to bring home the flock, at a certain hour in the evening. The shepherddog comes to the house every day for some meat, and as soon as it is given him, he skulks away as if ashamed of himself. On these occasions the housedogs are very tyrannical, and the least of them will attack and pursue the stranger. The minute, however, the latter has reached the flock, he turns round and begins to bark, and then all the housedogs take very quickly to their heels. For we can understand on no principle the wild dogs being driven away by the single one with its flock, except that they consider, from some confused notion, that the one thus associated gains power, as if in company with its own kind. Cuvier has observed that all animals that readily enter into domestication, consider man as a member of their own society, and thus fulfil their instinct of association. A troop of wild young horses is driven into the corral, or large enclosure of stakes, and the door is shut. We will suppose that one man alone has to catch and mount a horse, which as yet had never felt bridle or saddle. The two front legs are now tied closely together with a strong leathern thong, fastened by a slipknot. The lazo, which bound the three together, being then loosed, the horse rises with difficulty. During this operation, the horse, from dread and astonishment at thus being bound round the waist, throws himself over and over again on the ground, and, till beaten, is unwilling to rise. At last, when the saddling is finished, the poor animal can hardly breathe from fear, and is white with foam and sweat. Those animals which will not gallop away, but obstinately throw themselves on the ground, are by far the most troublesome. This process is tremendously severe, but in two or three trials the horse is tamed. It is not, however, for some weeks that the animal is ridden with the iron bit and solid ring, for it must learn to associate the will of its rider with the feel of the rein, before the most powerful bridle can be of any service.

The rebels entered, elected a new governor, and were paid for their services to the number of 5500 men. 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. Our passage was a very long and tedious one. A wide expanse of muddy water has neither grandeur nor beauty. At one time of the day, the two shores, both of which are extremely low, could just be distinguished from the deck. As soon as the horse touched the bottom on the other side, the man pulled himself on, and was firmly seated, bridle in hand, before the horse gained the bank. If a man and horse have to cross a broad river, the best plan is for the man to catch hold of the pommel or mane, and help himself with the other arm. In the evening the postman or lettercarrier arrived. From these inequalities there is an abundance of small rivulets, and the turf is green and luxuriant. The distance is twenty leagues, through a country covered with fine grass, but poorly stocked with cattle or inhabitants. These gentlemen have learned to like power, and do not object to a little skirmishing. Hence there are many always on the watch to create disturbance and to overturn a government which as yet has never rested on any staple foundation. I was curious to know the value of so complete an estancia. There was plenty of water and limestone, a rough house, excellent corrals, and a peach orchard. The chief trouble with an estancia is driving the cattle twice a week to a central spot, in order to make them tame, and to count them. This latter operation would be thought difficult, where there are ten or fifteen thousand head together. It is managed on the principle that the cattle invariably divide themselves into little troops of from forty to one hundred. They appear externally to hold nearly the same relation to other cattle, which bull or pug dogs do to other dogs. Their bare teeth, their short heads, and upturned nostrils give them the most ludicrous selfconfident air of defiance imaginable.

They commit also at these times great ravages among cattle and horses. It is said that they kill their prey by breaking their necks. If driven from the carcass, they seldom return to it. The jaguar is a noisy animal, roaring much by night, and especially before bad weather. The scars were of different ages. A common method of ascertaining whether a jaguar is in the neighbourhood is to examine these trees. 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. This same fish has the power of firmly catching hold of any object, such as the blade of an oar or the fishingline, with the strong spine both of its pectoral and dorsal fin. In the evening the weather was quite tropical, the thermometer standing at 79 degs. Numbers of fireflies were hovering about, and the musquitoes were very troublesome. We sailed rapidly down the current, but before sunset, from a silly fear of bad weather, we broughtto in a narrow arm of the river. I took the boat and rowed some distance up this creek. It has short legs, web feet, extremely longpointed 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 spoonbill or duck. It is as flat and elastic as an ivory papercutter, and the lower mandible, differing from every other bird, is an inch and a half longer than the upper. They kept their bills wide open, and the lower mandible half buried in the water. When these birds are fishing, the advantage of the long primary feathers of their wings, in keeping them dry, is very evident. When thus employed, their forms resemble the symbol by which many artists represent marine birds.

Their flesh, when cooked, is very white and good, but it is seldom used. This habit of picking up whatever may be lying on the ground anywhere near its habitation, must cost much trouble. Gould, who has described these facts, informs me, that the natives, when they lose any hard object, search the playing passages, and he has known a tobaccopipe thus recovered. 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. It is said that snakes are their common prey during the daytime. We continued to ride over plains of the same character. At the foot of the cliff on which the town stands, some large vessels were at anchor. The river here is very broad, with many islands, which are low and wooded, as is also the opposite shore. The view would resemble that of a great lake, if it were not for the linearshaped islets, which alone give the idea of running water. Scarcely anything which travellers have written about its extreme flatness, can be considered as exaggeration. I stayed here the greater part of the day, searching for fossil bones. Fe the road is not very safe. The nature of the country also favours this, for instead of a grassy plain, there is an open woodland, composed of low prickly mimosas. This was evident from the dress and complexion of the men from the increased size of the ombutrees the number of new cacti and other plants and especially from the birds. October 3rd and 4th. I was confined for these two days to my bed by a headache. A goodnatured old woman, who attended me, wished me to try many odd remedies.

During the breeding season, they attempt, like our peewits, by feigning to be wounded, to draw away from their nests dogs and other enemies. The eggs of this bird are esteemed a great delicacy. The country was quite level, with a coarse herbage and a soft peaty soil. Numbers of smaller birds, as ducks, hawks, and partridges, were killed. I saw one of the latter with a black mark on its back, as if it had been struck with a pavingstone. A fence of thistlestalks round the hovel was nearly broken down, and my informer, putting his head out to see what was the matter, received a severe cut, and now wore a bandage. These hailstones were flat, and one was ten inches in circumference, and another weighed two ounces. They ploughed up a gravelwalk like musketballs, and passed through glasswindows, making round holes, but not cracking them. We were here able to buy some biscuit. We had a very long ride this day. In the morning we saw immense herds of cattle, the general here having seventyfour square leagues of land. This is a nice scattered little town, with many gardens, full of peach and quince trees. From a coarse herbage we passed on to a carpet of fine green verdure. I am not botanist enough to say whether the change here is owing to the introduction of new species, to the altered growth of the same, or to a difference in their proportional numbers. We thus have lines of richly manured land serving as channels of communication across wide districts. Over the undulating plains, where these great beds occur, nothing else can now live. Before their introduction, however, the surface must have supported, as in other parts, a rank herbage. I doubt whether any case is on record of an invasion on so grand a scale of one plant over the aborigines. The countless herds of horses, cattle, and sheep, not only have altered the whole aspect of the vegetation, but they have almost banished the guanaco, deer and ostrich.

The dew, which in the early part of the night wetted the saddlecloths under which we slept, was in the morning frozen. The plain, though appearing horizontal, had insensibly sloped up to a height of between 800 and 900 feet above the sea. It was late in the day, and this part of the mountain, like the other, was steep and rugged. It was also necessary to return by another road, as it was out of the question to pass over the saddleback. I was therefore obliged to give up the two higher peaks. I presume the cause of the cramp was the great change in the kind of muscular action, from that of hard riding to that of still harder climbing. It is a lesson worth remembering, as in some cases it might cause much difficulty. I have already said the mountain is composed of white quartz rock, and with it a little glossy clayslate is associated. At the height of a few hundred feet above the plain patches of conglomerate adhered in several places to the solid rock. They resembled in hardness, and in the nature of the cement, the masses which may be seen daily forming on some coasts. I do not doubt these pebbles were in a similar manner aggregated, at a period when the great calcareous formation was depositing beneath the surrounding sea. We may believe that the jagged and battered forms of the hard quartz yet show the effects of the waves of an open ocean. I was, on the whole, disappointed with this ascent. The scene, however, was novel, and a little danger, like salt to meat, gave it a relish. I reached the place of our bivouac by sunset, and drinking much mate, and smoking several cigaritos, soon made up my bed for the night. In the road we saw great numbers of deer, and near the mountain a guanaco. Proceeded to the third posta in company with the lieutenant who commanded it. September 12th and 13th. In the morning we rode to some neighbouring hills to view the country, and to examine the geology.

The stem at one extremity is truncate, but at the other is terminated by a vermiform fleshy appendage. The stony axis which gives strength to the stem may be traced at this extremity into a mere vessel filled with granular matter. At low water hundreds of these zoophytes might be seen, projecting like stubble, with the truncate end upwards, a few inches above the surface of the muddy sand. When touched or pulled they suddenly drew themselves in with force, so as nearly or quite to disappear. Each polypus, though closely united to its brethren, has a distinct mouth, body, and tentacula. On being plucked up, a great worm is found to be its root, and as the tree groweth in greatness, so doth the worm diminish, and as soon as the worm is entirely turned into a tree it rooteth in the earth, and so becomes great. Of these we gathered and brought home many. One glance at the rastro tells these people a whole history. They consider a rastro of ten days or a fortnight, quite recent enough to be hunted out. This is a distance of between two and three hundred miles, through a country completely unknown. What other troops in the world are so independent? He gave me an account of the last engagement at which he was present. Another, who was wounded, feigned death, keeping a knife ready to strike one more fatal blow. In the battle four men ran away together. They were pursued, one was killed, and the other three were taken alive. They were remarkably fine men, very fair, above six feet high, and all under thirty years of age. The three survivors of course possessed very valuable information and to extort this they were placed in a line. This operation is to be repeated for three successive years. The cacique escaped in a manner which astonished every one.

My informer pointed out to me an old man, whom he had seen much terrified by one chasing him. I have been positively told that four or five hen birds have been watched to go in the middle of the day, one after the other, to the same nest. Now, although it is most probable, from the number of eggs found in one district being so extraordinarily great in proportion to the parent birds, and likewise from the state of the ovarium of the hen, that she may in the course of the season lay a large number, yet the time required must be very long. It appears odd that so many should be wasted. Does it not arise from the difficulty of several females associating together, and finding a male ready to undertake the office of incubation? They said its colour was dark and mottled, and that its legs were shorter, and feathered lower down than those of the common ostrich. It is more easily caught by the bolas than the other species. The few inhabitants who had seen both kinds, affirmed they could distinguish them apart from a long distance. It was cooked and eaten before my memory returned. Gould, in describing this new species, has done me the honour of calling it after my name. It was remarked that this bird did not expand its wings, when first starting at full speed, after the manner of the northern kind. It frequents in pairs or small flocks the most desolate places, where scarcely another living creature can exist. Upon being approached they squat close, and then are very difficult to be distinguished from the ground. When feeding they walk rather slowly, with their legs wide apart. Although not web footed, from some unaccountable habit, it is frequently met with far out at sea. This small family of birds is one of those which, from its varied relations to other families, although at present offering only difficulties to the systematic naturalist, ultimately may assist in revealing the grand scheme, common to the present and past ages, on which organized beings have been created. Ornithologists have generally included them among the creepers, although opposed to that family in every habit. The nest, whence it takes its name, is placed in the most exposed situations, as on the top of a post, a bare rock, or on a cactus. The opening is large and arched, and directly in front, within the nest, there is a partition, which reaches nearly to the roof, thus forming a passage or antechamber to the true nest.

This circumstance would tempt one to believe that the sulphate of soda is generated in the soil, from the muriate, left on the surface during the slow and recent elevation of this dry country. The whole phenomenon is well worthy the attention of naturalists. Have the succulent, saltloving plants, which are well known to contain much soda, the power of decomposing the muriate? Does the black fetid mud, abounding with organic matter, yield the sulphur and ultimately the sulphuric acid? At last one mounted again and rode over the hill out of sight. I thought his uncommon coolness too good a joke, and asked him why he did not return home. The mud is so soft that it is impossible to walk over them, even for the shortest distance. Many of the banks have their surfaces covered with long rushes, the tops of which alone are visible at high water. On one occasion, when in a boat, we were so entangled by these shallows that we could hardly find our way. Conscious of its power, it roams by day about the open plain, and fears neither dog nor man. If a dog is urged to the attack, its courage is instantly checked by a few drops of the fetid oil, which brings on violent sickness and running at the nose. Whatever is once polluted by it, is for ever useless. Every estancia, or farming estate, has one attached to it. Nearer the coast there are some plains formed from the wreck of the upper plain, and from mud, gravel, and sand thrown up by the sea during the slow elevation of the land, of which elevation we have evidence in upraised beds of recent shells, and in rounded pebbles of pumice scattered over the country. I will here give only a brief outline of their nature. Fifthly, another gigantic edental quadruped. Sixthly, a large animal, with an osseous coat in compartments, very like that of an armadillo. The remains of these nine great quadrupeds, and many detached bones, were found embedded on the beach, within the space of about 200 yards square. They were associated with twentythree species of shells, of which thirteen are recent and four others very closely related to recent forms.

One of their chief indoor occupations is to knock two stones together till they become round, in order to make the bolas. In fighting, his first attempt is to throw down the horse of his adversary with the bolas, and when entangled by the fall to kill him with the chuzo. If the balls only catch the neck or body of an animal, they are often carried away and lost. As the making the stones round is the labour of two days, the manufacture of the balls is a very common employment. He is a man of an extraordinary character, and has a most predominant influence in the country, which it seems he will use to its prosperity and advancement. His estates are admirably managed, and are far more productive of corn than those of others. There are many stories current about the rigid manner in which his laws were enforced. In conversation he is enthusiastic, sensible, and very grave. I rushed out of the tent, but it was too late he ordered two soldiers to catch and stake me. The idea is evidently taken from the usual method of drying hides. The alluvial plains on the side appeared fertile, and it is supposed that they are well adapted to the growth of corn. Turning northward from the river, we soon entered on a country, differing from the plains south of the river. These latter in a short space entirely disappeared, and the plains were left without a thicket to cover their nakedness. Having ridden about twentyfive miles, we came to a broad belt of sanddunes, which stretches, as far as the eye can reach, to the east and west. The sandhillocks resting on the clay, allow small pools of water to collect, and thus afford in this dry country an invaluable supply of fresh water. The great advantage arising from depressions and elevations of the soil, is not often brought home to the mind. In this district, where absolute proofs of the recent elevation of the land occur, such speculations can hardly be neglected by any one, although merely considering the physical geography of the country. The house was situated at the base of a ridge between one and two hundred feet high a most remarkable feature in this country. In the morning we sent for the horses very early, and started for another exhilarating gallop.

The whole line of country deserves scarcely a better name than that of a desert. Being winter the tree had no leaves, but in their place numberless threads, by which the various offerings, such as cigars, bread, meat, pieces of cloth, etc. To complete the scene, the tree was surrounded by the bleached bones of horses which had been slaughtered as sacrifices. The next day the country continued similar to that above described. It is inhabited by few birds or animals of any kind. This animal here represents our hares. It is also nearly twice the size, weighing from twenty to twentyfive pounds. Julian, where there is no change in the nature of the country. What cause can have altered, in a wide, uninhabited, and rarelyvisited country, the range of an animal like this? It was covered by low succulent plants, of the same kind with those growing on the seashore. 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. It consisted of a square formed by waggons, artillery, straw huts, etc. I know not the reason, but men of such origin seldom have a good expression of countenance. He began to crossquestion me in the most dignified and mysterious manner. Among the young women or chinas, some deserve to be called even beautiful. Nothing could be more interesting than some of the family groups. A mother with one or two daughters would often come to our rancho, mounted on the same horse. They ride like men, but with their knees tucked up much higher. This habit, perhaps, arises from their being accustomed, when travelling, to ride the loaded horses.

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