My companion assured me that they were the work of the Indians in the old time.

The heaps were similar, but on a much smaller scale, to those so commonly found on the mountains of Wales.

The desire to signalise any event, on the highest point of the neighbouring land, seems a universal passion with mankind.

At the present day, not a single Indian, either civilised or wild, exists in this part of the province; nor am I aware that the former inhabitants have left behind them any more permanent records than these insignificant piles on the summit of the Sierra de las Animas.
The general, and almost entire absence of trees in Banda Oriental is remarkable.

Some of the rocky hills are partly covered by thickets, and on the banks of the larger streams, especially to the north of Las Minas, willow-trees are not uncommon.