As The Beagle Intended To Call At
Bahia Blanca, I Determined To Proceed There By Land; And
Ultimately I Extended My Plan To Travel The Whole Way By
The Postas To Buenos Ayres.
August 11th.
- Mr. Harris, an Englishman residing at
Patagones, a guide, and five Gauchos who were proceeding
to the army on business, were my companions on the journey.
The Colorado, as I have already said, is nearly eighty
miles distant: and as we travelled slowly, we were two days
and a half on the road. The whole line of country deserves
scarcely a better name than that of a desert. Water is found
only in two small wells; it is called fresh; but even at this
time of the year, during the rainy season, it was quite brackish.
In the summer this must be a distressing passage; for
now it was sufficiently desolate. The valley of the Rio
Negro, broad as it is, has merely been excavated out of the
sandstone plain; for immediately above the bank on which
the town stands, a level country commences, which is interrupted
only by a few trifling valleys and depressions. Everywhere
the landscape wears the same sterile aspect; a dry
gravelly soil supports tufts of brown withered grass, and
low scattered bushes, armed with thorns.
Shortly after passing the first spring we came in sight of
a famous tree, which the Indians reverence as the altar of
Walleechu. It is situated on a high part of the plain; and
hence is a landmark visible at a great distance.
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