When The Thistles Are Full Grown, The Great Beds Are
Impenetrable, Except By A Few Tracts, As Intricate As Those
In A Labyrinth.
These are only known to the robbers, who
at this season inhabit them, and sally forth at night to rob
and cut throats with impunity.
Upon asking at a house
whether robbers were numerous, I was answered, "The thistles
are not up yet;" - the meaning of which reply was not at
first very obvious. There is little interest in passing over
these tracts, for they are inhabited by few animals or birds,
excepting the bizcacha and its friend the little owl.
The bizcacha [1] is well known to form a prominent feature
in the zoology of the Pampas. It is found as far south as
the Rio Negro, in lat. 41 degs., but not beyond. It cannot,
like the agouti, subsist on the gravelly and desert plains of
Patagonia, but prefers a clayey or sandy soil, which produces a
different and more abundant vegetation. Near Mendoza, at
the foot of the Cordillera, it occurs in close neighbourhood
with the allied alpine species. It is a very curious
circumstance in its geographical distribution, that it has never
been seen, fortunately for the inhabitants of Banda Oriental, to
the eastward of the river Uruguay: yet in this province there
are plains which appear admirably adapted to its habits.
The Uruguay has formed an insuperable obstacle to its
migration: although the broader barrier of the Parana has
been passed, and the bizcacha is common in Entre Rios, the
province between these two great rivers. Near Buenos Ayres
these animals are exceedingly common. Their most favourite
resort appears to be those parts of the plain which during
one-half of the year are covered with giant thistles, to the
exclusion of other plants. The Gauchos affirm that it lives
on roots; which, from the great strength of its gnawing
teeth, and the kind of places frequented by it, seems probable.
In the evening the bizcachas come out in numbers, and quietly
sit at the mouths of their burrows on their haunches. At
such times they are very tame, and a man on horseback passing
by seems only to present an object for their grave
contemplation. They run very awkwardly, and when running
out of danger, from their elevated tails and short front legs
much resemble great rats. Their flesh, when cooked, is very
white and good, but it is seldom used.
The bizcacha has one very singular habit; namely, dragging
every hard object to the mouth of its burrow: around
each group of holes many bones of cattle, stones, thistle-
stalks, hard lumps of earth, dry dung, etc., are collected into
an irregular heap, which frequently amounts to as much as
a wheelbarrow would contain. I was credibly informed that
a gentleman, when riding on a dark night, dropped his
watch; he returned in the morning, and by searching the
neighbourhood of every bizcacha hole on the line of road,
as he expected, he soon found it.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 99 of 402
Words from 50637 to 51142
of 208183