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 farther north.
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