"Fauna Boreali-Americana"
volume 1 page 35.): this appears to me a curious physiological
fact. It is, perhaps, from their meat regimen that the Gauchos,
like other carnivorous animals, can abstain long from food. I was
told that at Tandeel some troops voluntarily pursued a party of
Indians for three days, without eating or drinking.
We saw in the shops many articles, such as horsecloths, belts, and
garters, woven by the Indian women. The patterns were very pretty,
and the colours brilliant; the workmanship of the garters was so
good that an English merchant at Buenos Ayres maintained they must
have been manufactured in England, till he found the tassels had
been fastened by split sinew.
SEPTEMBER 18, 1833.
We had a very long ride this day. At the twelfth posta, which is
seven leagues south of the Rio Salado, we came to the first
estancia with cattle and white women. Afterwards we had to ride for
many miles through a country flooded with water above our horses'
knees. By crossing the stirrups, and riding Arab-like with our legs
bent up, we contrived to keep tolerably dry. It was nearly dark
when we arrived at the Salado; the stream was deep, and about forty
yards wide; in summer, however, its bed becomes almost dry, and the
little remaining water nearly as salt as that of the sea.
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