So damp
was the ground, that there were large beds of a coarse cyperus, in
which great numbers of a very small water-rail lived and bred.
While staying in this upper region, we lived entirely upon
tortoise-meat: the breast-plate roasted (as the Gauchos do carne
con cuero), with the flesh on it, is very good; and the young
tortoises make excellent soup; but otherwise the meat to my taste
is indifferent.
One day we accompanied a party of the Spaniards in their whale-boat
to a salina, or lake from which salt is procured. After landing we
had a very rough walk over a rugged field of recent lava, which has
almost surrounded a tuff-crater at the bottom of which the
salt-lake lies. The water is only three or four inches deep and
rests on a layer of beautifully crystallised, white salt. The lake
is quite circular, and is fringed with a border of bright green
succulent plants; the almost precipitous walls of the crater are
clothed with wood, so that the scene was altogether both
picturesque and curious. A few years since the sailors belonging to
a sealing-vessel murdered their captain in this quiet spot; and we
saw his skull lying among the bushes.
During the greater part of our stay of a week the sky was
cloudless, and if the trade-wind failed for an hour the heat became
very oppressive.
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