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Show BANDA ORIENTAL, Nov. 1833. country where there were six months light and six of darkness, and where the inhabitants were very tall and thin ! They were curious about the price and condition of horses and cattle in England. Upon finding out we did not catch our animals with the lazo, they, cried out, " Ah then, . you use nothing but the bolas :" the idea of an enclosed country was quite novel to them. The captain at last said, he had one question to ask me, which he should be very much obliged if I would answer with all truth. I trembled to think how deeply scientific it would be : it was, "Whether the ladies of Buenos Ayres were not the handsomest in the world." I replied, " Charmingly so." He added, I have one other question : " Do ladies in any other part of the world wear such large combs ?" I solemnly assured him they did not. They were absolutely delighted. The captain exclaimed, "Look there! a man who has seen half the world says it is the case; we always thought so, but now we know it." My excellent judgment in beauty procured me a most hospitable reception ; the captain forced me to take his bed, and he would sleep on his recado. 21sT.-Started at sunrise, and rode slowly during the whole day. The geological nature of this part of the province was different from the rest, and closely resembled that of the Pampas. In consequence, there were immense beds of the thistle, as well as of the cardoon : the whole country, indeed, may be called one great bed. The two sorts grow separate, each plant in company with its own kind. The cardoon is as high as a horse's back, but the Pampas thistle is often higher than the crown of the rider's head. To leave , the road for a ·yard is out of the question; and the road itself is partly, and in some cases entirely, closed. Pasture, of course, there is none ; if cattle or horses once enter the bed, they are for the time completely lost. Hence it is very hazardous to attempt to drive cattle at this season of the year; for when jaded enough to face the thistles, they rush among them, and are seen no more. In these districts there are very few estancias, and these few are situated in the Nov. 183.3. HILL OF BEADS. neighbourhood of damp valleys, where fortunately neither of these overwhelming plants can exist. As night came on before we arrived at our journey's end, we slept at a miserable little hovel, inhabited by the poorest people. The extreme, though rather formal courtesy, of our host and - hostess, considering their grade of life, was quite delightful. NOVEMBER, 22n.-Arrived at an estancia on the Berquelo belonging to a very hospitable Englishman, to whom I had a letter of introduction from my friend Mr. Lumb. I staid here three days. One morning I rode with my host to the Sierra del Pedro Flaco, about twenty miles up the Rio Negro. Nearly the whole country was covered with good, though coarse grass, which was as high as a horse's belly; yet there were square leagues without a single head of cattle. The province of Banda Oriental, if well stocked, would ·support an astonishing number of animals; at present the annual export of hides from Monte Video amounts to three hundred thousand ; and the home consumption, from waste, is very considerable. The view of the Rio Negro from the Sierra was the most picturesque which I any where saw. The river, broad, deep, and rapid, wound at the foot of a rocky precipitous cliff: a belt of wood followed its course, and the horizon was terminated by the distant undulations of the plain of turf. When in this neighbourhood I several times heard of the Sierra de las Cuentas ; a hill distant many miles to the northward. The name signifies hill of beads. I was assured that vast numbers of little round stones, of various colours, each with a small cylindrical hole, are found there. Formerly the Indians used to collect them, for the purpose of making necklaces and bracelets- a taste, I may observe, which is common to all savage nations, as well as to the most polished. I did not know what to understand from this story, but upon mentioning it at the Cape of Good Hope to Dr. Andrew Smith, he told me that he recollected finding on the south- eastern coast of Mrica, about one hundred miles to the eastward of St. John's river, some |