The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-25 00:00:00

SCOTCH BANKRUPTS.

Mrs. Elizabeth Winning or M'Farlane, grocer, Balmore.
Selingshire.
James King, builder, Houston, Ronfrewshire.
Rankin and Gray, carvers and gilders, Glasgow.
James Johnson, grocer, Gallowgate, Glasgow:
Henry G. Millar, grocer, Greenock.
Robert Wigham or Whigham, draper, Edinburgh.
Anthony Thomson, jun., farmer, Proudland, Ayrshire.
Andrew Peddie, smith and wright, Shettleston, near
Glasgow.

Alexander Leask and Son, flaxsiinners, West Mill,
Blairc,owrie,
Frederickh James Glendonwyn, Esq., M.D.. Parton-
houso, Kirkcudbrightshire

THE GRAN CHACO.

Of all the tracts of wild. territory existing in

South America, and known by the different appel
lotions of Pampas, Paramos, Campos Parexis, the
Puna, the Pajonal, Llanos, and Montanas, there is
none possessed of a greater interest than that of El
Gran Cnaco—perhaps net one that equals it in this
respect. It is interesting, not only from having a
peculiar soil, climate, and productions, but quite
as much from the character and history of its
inhabitants—both of which present us with traits
and episodes truly romantic. The " Gran Chaco" is
200,000 square miles in extent, or twice the size of
the British isles. Its eastern boundary is well de-

fined, being the Paraguay river, and its continua-
tion the Parana, down to thvoint where the latter
receives one of its great western tributaries—the
Salado ; and this last is usually regarded as the
southern and western boundary of the Chaco. North-
ward its limits are scarcely so definite, though the
highlands of Bolivia and the old missionary pro-
vinc3 of Chiquitos forming the watershed between
the rivers of the La Plata and the Amazonian ba-

sins—may be geographically regarded as the termi
nation of the Chaco in that direction. North and

South it extends through eleven degrees of lati-
tude ; east and west is of unequal breadth—some-
times expanding, sometimes contracting, according
to the ability of the white settlers along its borders
to maintain their frontier. On its eastern side, at
already stated, the frontier is definite, and termi-
nates on the banks of the Paraguay and Parana.
For a thousand miles up and down the two- races,
Europeans and Americans, hold the opposite banks
of this great stream. They gaze across at each
other : the one from the portico of his well-built
mansion, or perhaps from the street of the town ;
the other, standing by his humble " toldo," or mat-
coloured tent—more probably upon the back of
his half-wild horse, reined up for a moment on
some projecting promontory that commands a
view of the river. And thus have these two
races gaped at each other for three centuries, with
little other intercourse passing between them
than that of a deadly hostility. The surface of the
Gran Chaco is throughout of a champaign charac-
ter. It may be described as a vast plain. It is
not, howdver, a continuation of the Pampas—since
the two are separated by a more broken tract of
country, in which lie the sierras of Cordova and
San Luis, with the Argentine settlements already
mentioned. Besides, these two great plains differ
essentially in their character, even to a greater ex-
tent than do the Pampas themselves from the desert
steppes of Patagonia, Only a few of the animal and
vegetable productions of the Gran Chaco are
identical with those of the Pampas, and its Indian
inhabitants are altogether unlike the sanguinary
savages of the more southern plain. The Chaco,
approaching many degrees nearer to the equa-
tor, is more tropical in its character; in fact,
the northern portion of it is truly so—lying
as it does within the torrid zone, and presenting
the aspect of a tropical vegetation. Every inch of
the Chaco is within the palm region ; but in its
northern half these beautiful trees abound in num-
berless species, yet unknown to the botanist, and
forming the characteristic features of the landscape.
Some grow in forests of many miles in extent,
others only in " clumps," with open grass-covered
plains between, while still other species mingle
their graceful fronds with the leaves and branches
of dicotyledonous trees, or, clasped in the embrace
of luxuriant llianas and parisitical climbers, form
groves of most variegated verdure and fantastic
outlines. With such groves the whole surface
of the Chaco country is enamelled; the intervals
between occupied by plains of rich waving
grass, now and then tracts of morass covered with
tall and elegant reeds, a few arid spots brist-
ling with singular forms of algarobia and cactus,
and, in some places, isolated rocky mounds, of dome
or conical shape, rising above the general level of
the plains, as if intended to be used as watch towers
for their guardianship and safety. Such are the
landscapes which the Grau Chico presents to the eye
—far different from the bald and uniform monotony
exhibited in the aspect of either Prairie or Pampa ;
far grander and lovelier than either—in point of
scenic loveliness, perhaps, unequalled on earth.
No wonder, then, that the Indian of South
America esteems it as an earthly Elysium; no
wonder that the Spaniard dreams of it as such
—though to the Spanish priest and the Spanish
soldier it has ever proved more of a purgatory
that a Paradise. Both have entered upon its
borders, but neither has been able to dwell
within its domain ; and the attempts at its
conquest, by sword and'cross, have been alike un-
successful—equally and fatally repulsed, through-
out a period of more than 300 years. At this hour,
as at the time of the Peruvian conquest—as on the
day when the ships of Mendoza sailed up the waters
of the Parana—the Gran Chaco is an unconquered
country, owned by its aboriginal inhabitants, and
by them alone. It is true that it is claimed both by
Spaniard and Portuguese ; and by no less than four
separate claimants belonging to these two nation-
alities. Brazil and Bolivia, Paraguay and the Ar-
gentine Confederation, all assert their title to a
slice of this earthly paradise; and even quarrel as
to how their boundary lines should intersect it !
Odd People, by Captain Mayne Reid.

THE POTATO CROP IN SCOTLAND.- STRATHSPEY,
GRANTOWN.—In the course of the season it was predicted
that the potato and turnip crops would be over an average.
Both crops have proved very abundant. A diseased potato
is a thing almost unheard of, and the crop is not only
abundant, but of good quality. We have just seen some
very fine samples of turnips from the farms of Inverallan
and Ballifortla, in the shop of Mr. Gordon, merchant, from
whom the seed was procured, eight in number, and all
about the same size. We give the dimensions of two of
them ; green top yellow globe, 28 inches in circumference,
and weighing 131 b. ; purple top white globe, 27 inches in
circumference, and weighing 121 b. Judging from these,
and that no great search had been made for large speci-
mens, we may safely conclude that the turnip crop is a MY
flue one,—lnverness