There is a very large tract of country in the ex tensite plains of South and North America, of which the soil is saturated with fossil salt. In this viceroyalty the saline plains extend about 600 or 700 miles in length, and 150 in breadth. It has been generally observed, that, in all the country westward of thti Paraguay, 'in all that tract which is comprehended under the denomination of the Chaco, and in the country also to the south of the Plats, from Cape St Anthony on the south to the Rio Verinejo on the north, there is not a single rivu let, lake, or well, which is not of a brackish taste during the heats of summer, when a quick evapora• tion takes place, or during a long course of dry weather, when no rain falls to correct, by its ,fresh nem, the natural saltness of the rivers and springs. All the rivers that flow from the western Andes yield excellent water, until they reach the salt ter ritory, after which their waters are not fit to be drunk until they reach the Parana. Even the great rivers the Pilcomayyo and the Vermejo have a brack ish taste during the dry season, when their waters are low. The rivers and springs are, however, more impregnated with salt in some party than is others. The fort of Melincue, which is situated about $3° 44/ S. lat. and about 150 miles to the north-west of Beetles Ayres, is almost entirely surrounded with salt lakes, whit* are frequently dry when there is a Beira, of vain. Avers mentions that, arriving in this quarter in the month of Muds, he found the seams of the ground, for about s league across, covered to the depth of four inches with Epsom ask. To 'the south-west of Buenos Ayres, about 130 leagues, tbere is a salt lake slways filled with excel lent common salt, which is preferred to of Eu rope oa account of its being entirely free from a slight tincture of bitternese, always supposed, in these countries, to adhere to European salt. Iii the neighbourhood, at the distance of from 400 to 450 miles, there is an abundance of salt lakes, which produce very line crystalline-grained salt. These lakes are large and broad. Some of theta are tuts rounded by woods to a considerable distance ; and their banks are white with salt, which needs an ether preparation than an exposure for some time to the beat of the tan. Journeys are undertaken frets Dumas Ayres to this part of the country, for the purpose of preemitig salt, and from 200 to 800 caste are neurally leaded with it for the supply of this, city. Numerous stlelakes of the same description occur in the neighbourhood of she river Vans*, and in the Chaco to the west of She Paraguay. At the city of Assumption, situated oat the Paraguay, in latitude *a° south, and longitude • 59° 35' west, a considerable quantity of salt in seficed from the earth. Between Santa Fe and. Cordosni, a still quantity is produced, and this quality of tire to St Jar del Estero, where the whole ground is covered with a white incrustation of salt, and even quite across the barren and desert plain which extends westward to the foot of the Cordille ra. Natural saltpetre is also produced in this cam, try in great abundance. After a shower of rain the ground appears white with it, so as to chill the feet excessively. A small quantity, however, is only eel+ lected, no more than is sufficient to inanufalsture fee works for the amusement of the converted Indians, at the. religious festivals of the Romish church.
In this country, as in Erma, and other pads of America, the cattle are accustomed to receive salt as part of their nourishment. In the pro. wince of Paraguay, they eat a sort of inked day which they find in the ditches, and when this ES* which sometimes happens in the eastern cateann of this province, and in the missions on the banks of she Uruguay, mothers of cattle-perish in the space of a few months. It is incredible with what avidity they feed upon this singular nutriment, and when they have wanted it for some time, no inducement, not even blows, will tempt them to quit the place where they have found it.
The western parts of this-viceroyalty, more earn] daily the provinces which were added from Peru, are generally mountainous, comprehending within their limits some of the highest ridges of the Andes. The province of Los Charcos includes a considerable proportion of the two principal chains that run from north to south along the eastern part of Peru, and between which lie the elevated plums of Cusco, with the districts of Los Charcos, rugged and barren, but rich in mineral treasures. From the great dude of the Andes, branches diverge in different pans, and enteral far into the inferior. Of these, the mountaies of Cordova and Atha* in the melees of Tucuman, and those of the more westerly pro vince of Cuyo, form secondary ridges ; and another ridge of this nature branches off in the latitude of . the great river Colorado, which, under the Indian appellation of Casuhati, runs nearly across to the At. 'antic. These southern mountains are covered with thick impenetrable woods, and are little known. The eastern mountains, which form the &milieu ridge, are also of secondary elevation. They are generally covered with thick forests, interspersed with exten sive tracts wholly devoid of vegetation. They form a cluster of mountains towards the interior provinces of Minas Geraes and Matto Grosse, by which the tributary strearns•of the great river of Amazons are divided from those which run south into Plata. Different ridges diverge from them to the north and south, and the main chain extends quite across the Continent, taking a north-westerly direc tion towards Santa Cruz, de la Sierra, and Potosi, and thus uniting with the great ridges of the western Cordillera. In this mountainous district, the sum mits of the Andes rise above the regions of the clouds, and are covered with eternal snows. In the lower parts of the mountain, where the snow is only occasional, sterile tracts of sandy deserts appear, which are bordered with various kinds of lichen that grow in crevices. To this imperfect vegeta tion succeeds a wiry kind of grass or rush, the natural food of the guanacos and the vicunas which haunt those upland deserts. The mountains of se condary elevation are covered with stately forests, and the embosomed vales which are interspersed amongst them, though frequendy of a higher eleva tion than the summits of the Pyrenees, enjoy from their sheltered situation a temperate and favourable climate, which adapts them to the .production, in great abundance, of all sorts of European fruits and grain. In many of those valleys, apples, peaches, cherries, plumbs, grow to great perfection. Wheat is cultivated with success, and there are extensive natural pastures, which afford herbage for large herds of cattle and flocks of sheep.
In the lower districts of the country, and in the plains, wheat, maize, cocoa, grapes, oranges, citrons, figs, olives, and sugar-canes, are among the most com mon productions ; and the herb paraguay, or matte, which furnishes the favourite beverage of all ranks, with the exception of the European Spaniards, is yielded in great abundance. This herb, which is called the tea of Paraguay, is drunk as an infusion, and the Creoles are so passionately fond of it, that they never travel without a supply of this favourite refreshment. About 100,000 strobes of this plant, of 26 lbs. each, are annually exported from Paraguay to Peru. The TS lue of each arroba is estimated at L.1, Ss. 4d. Ster ling, which makes the annual value of this merchan dise sent to Peru equal to L.116,666. . There are, besides, great quantities sent to Buenos Ayres from the city of Assumption, of which this herb constitutes one of the principal articles of export.