We Passed The Only House In This
Neighbourhood, The Estancia Of Chaquaio:
And at sunset we pulled
up in the first snug corner, and there bivouacked.
March 25th. - I was reminded of the Pampas of Buenos
Ayres, by seeing the disk of the rising sun, intersected by an
horizon level as that of the ocean. During the night a heavy
dew fell, a circumstance which we did not experience within
the Cordillera. The road proceeded for some distance due
east across a low swamp; then meeting the dry plain, it
turned to the north towards Mendoza. The distance is two
very long days' journey. Our first day's journey was called
fourteen leagues to Estacado, and the second seventeen to
Luxan, near Mendoza. The whole distance is over a level
desert plain, with not more than two or three houses. The
sun was exceedingly powerful, and the ride devoid of all
interest. There is very little water in this "traversia," and
in our second day's journey we found only one little pool.
Little water flows from the mountains, and it soon becomes
absorbed by the dry and porous soil; so that, although we
travelled at the distance of only ten or fifteen miles from
the outer range of the Cordillera, we did not cross a single
stream. In many parts the ground was incrusted with a
saline efflorescence; hence we had the same salt-loving
plants which are common near Bahia Blanca. The landscape
has a uniform character from the Strait of Magellan,
along the whole eastern coast of Patagonia, to the Rio Colorado;
and it appears that the same kind of country extends
inland from this river, in a sweeping line as far as San Luis
and perhaps even further north. To the eastward of this
curved line lies the basin of the comparatively damp and
green plains of Buenos Ayres. The sterile plains of Mendoza
and Patagonia consist of a bed of shingle, worn smooth
and accumulated by the waves of the sea while the Pampas,
covered by thistles, clover, and grass, have been formed by
the ancient estuary mud of the Plata.
After our two days' tedious journey, it was refreshing to
see in the distance the rows of poplars and willows growing
round the village and river of Luxan. Shortly before we
arrived at this place, we observed to the south a ragged cloud
of dark reddish-brown colour. At first we thought that it
was smoke from some great fire on the plains; but we soon
found that it was a swarm of locusts. They were flying
northward; and with the aid of a light breeze, they overtook
us at a rate of ten or fifteen miles an hour. The main body
filled the air from a height of twenty feet, to that, as it
appeared, of two or three thousand above the ground; "and the
sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many
horses running to battle:" or rather, I should say, like a
strong breeze passing through the rigging of a ship. The
sky, seen through the advanced guard, appeared like a mezzotinto
engraving, but the main body was impervious to sight;
they were not, however, so thick together, but that they
could escape a stick waved backwards and forwards. When
they alighted, they were more numerous than the leaves in
the field, and the surface became reddish instead of being
green: the swarm having once alighted, the individuals flew
from side to side in all directions. Locusts are not an uncommon
pest in this country: already during the season, several
smaller swarms had come up from the south, where, as
apparently in all other parts of the world, they are bred in
the deserts. The poor cottagers in vain attempted by lighting
fires, by shouts, and by waving branches to avert the
attack. This species of locust closely resembles, and perhaps
is identical with, the famous Gryllus migratorius of the East.
We crossed the Luxan, which is a river of considerable
size, though its course towards the sea-coast is very
imperfectly known: it is even doubtful whether, in passing over
the plains, it is not evaporated and lost. We slept in the
village of Luxan, which is a small place surrounded by gardens,
and forms the most southern cultivated district in the
Province of Mendoza; it is five leagues south of the capital.
At night I experienced an attack (for it deserves no less a
name) of the _Benchuca_, a species of Reduvius, the great
black bug of the Pampas. It is most disgusting to feel soft
wingless insects, about an inch long, crawling over one's
body. Before sucking they are quite thin, but afterwards
they become round and bloated with blood, and in this state
are easily crushed. One which I caught at Iquique, (for they
are found in Chile and Peru,) was very empty. When placed
on a table, and though surrounded by people, if a finger was
presented, the bold insect would immediately protrude its
sucker, make a charge, and if allowed, draw blood. No pain
was caused by the wound. It was curious to watch its body
during the act of sucking, as in less than ten minutes it
changed from being as flat as a wafer to a globular form.
This one feast, for which the benchuca was indebted to one
of the officers, kept it fat during four whole months; but,
after the first fortnight, it was quite ready to have another
suck.
March 27th. - We rode on to Mendoza. The country was
beautifully cultivated, and resembled Chile. This neighbourhood
is celebrated for its fruit; and certainly nothing could
appear more flourishing than the vineyards and the orchards
of figs, peaches, and olives. We bought water-melons nearly
twice as large as a man's head, most deliciously cool and
well-flavoured, for a halfpenny apiece; and for the value of
threepence, half a wheelbarrowful of peaches. The cultivated
and enclosed part of this province is very small; there
is little more than that which we passed through between
Luxan and the capital.
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