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Scattered facts, communicated to me by different people: Novemb: 1832

The waters of the Parana are very black, as seen mingling with that of the Uruguay. — (M^r. Meggett)¹ (a)

The waters of the Rio Negro very black & clear, excellent for drinking. — possess medicinal qualities causing a slight loosness at first: attribute to the Sarsaparilla. (M^r. Hughes)²

The waters of the Uruguay into which both the latter flow, pale coloured. In it, it is sand. Turtles & Crocodiles live.

M^rs. Meggett & Hughes

Riding up the West bank of the Uruguay: till you arrive in Lat: 32°. the country is flat & drinking water muddy. — at this part the soil is sandy. water. clear — the country is covered (Hence Arora del Palmas) with forests of Palm trees: it is a species with an edible tip & between 20 & 30 feet high: the land is composed of a succession of undulatory chains of granite rock these run in a North & South direction:

—M^r. Meggett.

¹ John Meggett was also mentioned in the Buenos Ayres notebook, p. 10b.

² Charles Hughes, a school fellow of Darwin's, attended Shrewsbury School, 1818-1819 and resident in Buenos Ayres, 1832-1833. He was also mentioned in the Buenos Ayres notebook.

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(a) Those who gave me this information had never read Humboldt. — How singularly do many of the facts agree, even to the popular explanation of the cause. —

The occurrence of crocodiles in the pale waters is perhaps owing to the high Lat 32° where they are found & not to the change of waters: —

Humboldt states that all the black waters are very near to the Equator: —¹

Lyell. refers to Buckland about silicifying rivers P 214 Vol I¹

I have seen in M^r [Rymans] possession a beautiful specimen of white silicified bone evidently of some large animal

¹ Humboldt 1819-1829, vol. 5, p. 188 states: "In the vast system of rivers which we have traversed (and this fact appears to me striking) the black waters are principally restricted to the equatorial band."

² Lyell 1830, p. 214.

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The bed of the Uruguay contains abundance of silicified wood (V specimens 831 ... 834) & Concretians. — They are found at Salto & other places. — (M^r Meggett & Morris).

Also at the Rio Negro (M^r Hughes) & it is said by many that at both places. such things. as ostriches eggs, — tobacco, peach. stones, cows hoofs. &c, are also silicified?? are they only encrusted or is it an imaginary resemblance; instances which I have seen?

About 6 leagues northwards of " Bajada" (opposite Santa Fe on the Parana) "there project from a ferruginous sandstone pieces of substance resembling petrified wood." — (M^r Tweedee)¹

Is it not probable that those occurring in the Uruguay owe their origin to being washed out of such beds?

There occurs in the B. Oriental South of the R. Negro. a rock which rings. — (Greenstone?)
(M^r Lumb)²

¹ John Tweedie (1775-1862), Scottish gardener and plant collector based at Buenos Ayres, who owned a garden at Retiro. Tweedie was also mentioned in the Beagle field notebooks.

² Edward Lumb (1804-75), English merchant in Buenos Ayres, also mentioned in the Beagle field notebooks.

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Salt is found in the ground south of the Plata

Mr Lumb

The Madrid Megatherium was found at Luxan said in Griffith¹ to be near B. Ayres. —

M^r Oakley² states there is a Villa de Luxan within some few leagues of the city.

Off M: Video. Beds of muscles shells. above surface of river. are they of same date as Ensenado. —

or do they denote a fall in bed of the river? —

¹ Cuvier 1830 (edited by Edward Griffith), p. 133, discussed recently published bones of the head assigned to the Megatherium.

² Mr Oakley, an American, was the agent of Woodbine Parish (1796-1882), the British consular representative. This information was first recorded in the Buenos Ayres notebook, p. 15b.