All The Small
Rivers Became Highly Saline, And This Caused The Death Of
Vast Numbers In Particular Spots; For When An Animal Drinks
Of Such Water It Does Not Recover.
Azara describes [9] the
fury of the wild horses on a similar occasion, rushing into
the marshes, those which arrived first being overwhelmed
and crushed by those which followed.
He adds that more
than once he has seen the carcasses of upwards of a thousand
wild horses thus destroyed. I noticed that the smaller
streams in the Pampas were paved with a breccia of bones
but this probably is the effect of a gradual increase, rather
than of the destruction at any one period. Subsequently
to the drought of 1827 to 1832, a very rainy season followed
which caused great floods. Hence it is almost certain that
some thousands of the skeletons were buried by the deposits
of the very next year. What would be the opinion of a
geologist, viewing such an enormous collection of bones, of
all kinds of animals and of all ages, thus embedded in one
thick earthy mass? Would he not attribute it to a flood
having swept over the surface of the land, rather than to
the common order of things? [10]
October 12th. - I had intended to push my excursion further,
but not being quite well, I was compelled to return by
a balandra, or one-masted vessel of about a hundred tons'
burden, which was bound to Buenos Ayres. As the weather
was not fair, we moored early in the day to a branch of a
tree on one of the islands.
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