"De ancho nueve leguas ó mas tiene
El rio por aqui, y muy hondable.
La nave hasta aqui segura viene
Que como el ancho mar es navigable."
The river's here nine leagues or more,
And very deep, twixt shore and shore;
So far the navigation's free,
As tho' twere on the open sea.
Argentina, Canto II.
And although, perhaps, a poet's authority to not the very best for a geological fact, I have the less hesitation in quoting his couplet, as it is, to a certain extent, corroborated by the circumstance that, amongst all the dangers and disasters recorded with so much minuteness by the historians of the first discoveries of those parts, there is no instance, that I am aware of, mentioned by them of a shipwreck in the river below San Gabriel, the port to which all vessels at that time directed their course after entering it:—from this I think any one who knows the dangers of the navigation of that part of the river now, will be disposed to infer that it really must have been in former times as Centenera describes it, much more free and safe than it is at the present day:—it is probable that the Ortiz bank especially has very much increased.
[47] In the proportion of an ounce of litharge to a quart of oil.
[48] The following comparative measurements of the bones of the megatherium and of an elephant eleven feet high, are furnished by Mr. Clift:—
| ELEPHANT. | MEGATHERIUM. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ft. | In. | Ft. | In. | |
| The expansion of the ossa ilia | 3 | 8 | 5 | 1 |
| Breadth of the largest caudal vertebra | 0 | 7 | 1 | 9 |
| Circumference of middle of femur | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Length of the os calcis | 0 | 7½ | 1 | 5 |
[49] Mr. Clift quotes a MS. memorandum in his possession, stating the measurement of the skeleton at Madrid to be, from the front of the nasal bones to the setting on of the tail, thirteen feet seven inches, and he is of opinion that, of the two, the specimen I brought home was the older and somewhat larger individual.