In Tucuman, the desert places and woods abound with all kinds of game and wild animals, as pumas, jaguars, ant bears, bears, wild hogs, elks, deer, hares, rabbits, armadillos, guanucos, vicunas, and many other kinds. The American ostrich or cassowary frequents the plains, and innumerable birds are seen in its woods, &c. The immense boa, called in this country ampolaba, destroys the smaller animals which come within its reach, and appears, when lying among the grass, like the huge trunk of an old tree; besides the boa, there are also rattle-snakes, vipers and other reptiles common to warm climates. In the rivers and lakes are found abundance of fish, tapirs, cavies, water-pigs, and other amphibious animals. The great chain of the Andes, which borders and sends forth branches into Tucuman, is so high in some parts as to reach the regions of eternal snow; in it there are several mines, which were formerly worked by the Spaniards, and there remain striking vestiges of the mining operations carried on by the Peruvians. The rivers of Tucuman are numerous, the principal ones being the _Vermejo_, the _Salado_, the _Xuxuy_, the _Dulce_ and the _Quarto_. The _Vermejo_, or _Rio Grande_, rises near Casabinda, and flows with a stately stream into the La Plata, near Corrientes. The _Salado_ takes its waters from many streams which flow down from the mountains of Tucuman, in south latitude 24°, and chiefly from those of the valley of Calchaqui, where it receives a large stream which comes from the south-west; it then runs into the valley of Huachipas, which name it takes, but soon changes it for that of Charomores, from a place so called; it then flows westward, and is called Pasage; as being in the road from Buenos Ayres to La Plata, it must be here crossed by travellers with some risk, owing to the rapidity of its current; it then is called De Balbuena, from passing through the settlement of that name, and is joined near this place by the _Rio Piedras_, and passes down through the district of Santiago del Estoro, from whence it runs eighty leagues, under the name of _Salado_, and loses itself eighty-six miles north-north-west of the city of Santa Fé, in a lake named El Mar Chiquito. The _Chacos_, or _Dulce_, runs by the side of this river, after it passes through Salta, and at last falls into it. Its whole course is 200 leagues, and it formerly reached Santa Fé, where it formed a peninsula with an arm of the La Plata, but having opened itself new channels by its great swellings, it now loses itself in the lake, which is the case with almost all the rivers of this province, as they generally form large sheets of water, from which they rarely issue. The numerous lakes in this province are generally shallow, and produced by the overflowing of the rivers: but they have the singular quality of being mostly saline, particularly those in the neighbourhood of the Rio Vermejo.