On one occasion, when in a boat, we were so entangled by these shallows that we could hardly find our way.

Nothing was visible but the flat beds of mud; the day was not very clear, and there was much refraction, or, as the sailors expressed it, "things loomed high." The only object within our view which was not level was the horizon; rushes looked like bushes unsupported in the air, and water like mudbanks, and mudbanks like water.
We passed the night in Punta Alta, and I employed myself in searching for fossil bones; this point being a perfect catacomb for monsters of extinct races.

The evening was perfectly calm and clear; the extreme monotony of the view gave it an interest even in the midst of mudbanks and gulls, sand-hillocks and solitary vultures.

In riding back in the morning we came across a very fresh track of a Puma, but did not succeed in finding it.

We saw also a couple of Zorillos, or skunks,--odious animals, which are far from uncommon.