possible to pass that
way. Without doubt, several hundred thousand animals thus perished in
the river. Their bodies, when putrid, floated down the stream, and many
in all probability were deposited in the estuary of the Plata. All the
small rivers became highly saline, and this caused the death of vast
numbers in particular spots, for when an animal drinks of such water it
does not recover. I noticed, but probably it was the effect of a gradual
increase, rather than of any one period, that the smaller streams in the
Pampas were paved with bones. Subsequently to this unusual drought, a
very rainy season commenced, which caused great floods. Hence it is
almost certain, that some thousands of these skeletons were buried by the
deposits of the very next year. What would be the opinion of a geologist
viewing such an enormous collection of bones, of all kinds of animals and
of all ages, thus embedded in one thick earthy mass? Would he not
attribute it to a flood having crept over the surface of the land, rather
than to the common order of things?"

Captain Owen mentions a curious effect of a drought on the elephants at
Benguela on the western coast of Africa:--"A number of these animals had
some time since entered the town in a body to possess themselves of the
wells, not being able to procure any water in the country. The
inhabitants mustered, when a desperate conflict ensued, which terminated
in the ultimate discomfiture of the invaders, but not until they had
killed one man, and wounded several others." The town is said to have a
population of nearly three thousand. Dr. Malcolmson states, that during
a great drought in India the wild animals entered the tents of some
troops at Ellore, and that a hare drank out of a vessel held by the
adjutant of the regiment.

In connexion with droughts may be mentioned a plan {133} proposed by Mr.
Espy of the United States of America, for remedying them by means of
_artificial rains_. That gentleman says, that if a large body of heated
air be made to ascend in a column, a large cloud will be generated, and
that such cloud will contain in itself a self-sustaining power, which may
move from the place over which it was formed, and cause the air over
which it passes to rise up into it and thus form more cloud and rain,
until the rain may become general.

It is proposed to form this ascending column of air by kindling large
fires which, Mr. Espy says, are known to produce rain.