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Show 72 MALDONADO. 1832-3. common near the mouths of that thunderstorms are very"bl th t the mixture of large 1 . t not possi e a 1 great rivers. 8 I . 1 lt may disturb the e ec- . f f h water With t le sa . · t bodtes o "rl"ebs . d . ur occasional VISits o ~ Even urmg o . trical eqmi rmm · . heard of a ship, two this part of South Amehnca; we been struck. Both the h d a house, avmg h 1 churc es, an I h rtly afterwards: t e louse church and the house hsaw s o 1 general at Monte Video. belonged to Mr. Hood, t e co~su-. the paper, for nearly Some of the effects wereh cul.nou:here the bell-wires had ch side of t e me d 1 a foot on ea The metal had been fused, an a - run, was blackened. t least fifteen feet high, the globules though the room wa~ a d f . ture had drilled in them a · the chaus an urm ' 1 droppmg ~n A art of the wall was shatterec as chain of mmute holes. h pf ents had been blown off . b wder and t e ragm . .d Jf y gunpo . ' d t the walls on the opposite SI e with force suffiCient£ to enf looking-glass was blackened, h The rame o a . oft ehro~~d· u- must have been volatilized, for a smelli~gand t e bi mb . ieee was coated With bottle, which stood on the .chimney-p ' fi l as if they bright metallic particles, whiCh adhered as rm y had been enamelled. CHAPTER IV. Rio Negro-Estancias attacked by Indians-Salt lakes, geological position of-Flamingoes-R. Negro to Colorado-Sacred tree-Patagonian hare ---Indian families- General Rosas-Procecd to Bahia Blanca-Sand dunes- Negro lieutenant- Bahia Blanca-Ground incrusted with Glauber salt-Punta Alta-Zorillo. RIO NEGRO TO BAHIA BLANCA. JuLY 24TH, 1833.-The Beagle sailed from Maldonado, and on August the 3d she arrived off the mouth of the Rio Negro. This is the principal river on the whole line of coast between the Straits of Magellan and the Plata. It enters the sea about three hundred miles south of the estuary of the latter. About fifty years since, under the old Spanish government, a small colony was established here; and it is still the most southern position (lat. 41 °) on this eastern coast of America which is inhabited by civilized man. The country near the mouth of the river is wretched in the e,x:treme : on the south side a long line of perpendicular cliffs commences, which exposes a section of the geological nature of the country. The strata are of sandstone, and one layer was remarkable, from being composed of a firmlycemented conglomerate of pumice pebbles, which must have travelled more than four hundred miles, from the Andes. The surface is every where covered up by a thick bed of gravel, which extends far and wide over the open plain. Water is extremely scarce, and, where found, is almost invariably brackish. The vegetation is scanty ; and although there are bushes of many kinds, all are armed with formidable thorns, which seem to warn the stranger not to enter on these inhospitable regions. The settlement is situated eighteen miles up the river. The road follows the foot of the sloping cliff, which forms |