Wellcome Library

22503579160

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With Best Wishes for

A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year

from

Henry S. Wellcome

Christmas, 1910

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THE VOYAGE

ROUND THE WORLD

First Issue i.
Reprinted .
Reprinted .
Reprinted .

this form . . June 1901

May 1902

. . . . January 1907

. August 1909

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2017 with funding from
Wellcome Library

https://archive.org/details/b29012703

ii.M.s. “liEAGi.E.” \^Fro}tlispiece.

JOURNAL OF RESEARCHES INTO
THE NATURAL HISTORY AND GE-
OLOGY OF THE COUNTRIES VISIT-
ED DURING THE VOYAGE ROUND
THE WORLD OF H.M.S ‘BEAGLE’
UNDER COMMAND OF CAPTAIN
FITZ ROY, R.N. + + + + + + +

By CHARLES DARWIN
M.A., F.R.S.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET

1909

DEDICATION OF THE SECOND EDITION

TO

CHARLES LYELL, Esq., F.R.S.,

THIS SECOND EDITION IS DEDICATED WITH GRATEFUL
PLEASURE, AS AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT THAT THE
CHIEF PART OF WHATEVER SCIENTIFIC MERIT
THIS JOURNAL AND THE OTHER WORKS
OF THE AUTHOR MAY POSSESS,

HAS BEEN DERIVED FROM
STUDYING THE WELL-
KNOWN ADMIRABLE

PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY

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FROM THE ORIGINAL PREFACE

I HAVE stated in the preface to the First Edition of this
work, and in the Zoology of the Voyage of the “ Beagle,”
that it was in consequence of a wish expressed by Captain
Fitz Roy, of having some scientific person on board, accom-
panied by an offer from him of giving up part of his own
accommodations, that I volunteered my services, which re-
ceived, through the kindness of the hydrographer. Captain
Beaufort, the sanction of the Lords of the Admiralty. As
I feel that the opportunities which I enjoyed of studying
tlie Natural History of the different countries we visited
have been wholly due to Captain Fitz Roy, I hope I may
here be permitted to repeat my expression of gratitude
to him ; and to add that, during the five years we were
together, I received from him the most cordial friendship
and steady assistance. Both to Captain Fitz Roy and to all
the officers of the Beagle* 1 shall ever feel most thankful
for the undeviating kindness with which I was treated during
our long voyage.

This volume contains, in the form of a Journal, a history
of our voyage, and a sketch of those observations in Natural
History and Geology which I think will possess some interest
for the general reader. I have in this edition largely con-

* I must take this opportunity of returning my sincere thanks to
Mr Bynoe, the surgeon of the Beagle, for his very kind attention to
me when I was ill at Valparaiso.

vii

PllEFACE

viii

densed and corrected some parts, and have added a little
to others, in order to render the volume more fitted for
popular reading ; but I trust that naturalists will remember
that they must refer for details to the larger publications,
which comprise the scientific results of the Expedition. The
Zoology of the Voyage of the “Beagle ” includes an account
of the Fossil Mammalia, by Professor Owen ; of the Living
Mammalia, by Mr Watei’house ; of the Birds, by Mr Gould ;
of the Fish, by the Rev. L. Jenyns ; and of the Reptiles,
by Mr Bell. I have appended to the desciiptions of each
species an account of its habits and range. These wmrks,
which I owe to the high talents and disinterested zeal of
the above distinguished authoi's, could not have been
undertaken had it not been for the liberality of the Lords
Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury, who, through the
representation of the Right Honourable the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, have been pleased to grant a sum of one
thousand pounds towards defraying part of the expenses of
publication.

1 shall have the pleasure of acknowledging the great
assistance which I have received from several other natur-
alists in the course of this and my other w'orks ; but I
must be here allow^ed to return my most sincere thanks to
the Rev. Professor Henslow, who, when I was an under-
graduate at Cambridge, was one chief means of giving me
a taste for Natural History — who, during my absence, took
charge of the collections I sent home, and by his corre-
spondence directed my endeavours — and who, since my
return, has constantly rendered me every assistance which
the kindest friend could offer.

June 1845.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Chapter I ...... 1

Porto Praya — Ribeira Grande — Atmospheric Dust with
Infusoria — Habits of a Sea-slug and Cuttle-fish — St Paul’s
Rocks, non-volcanic — Singular Incrustations — Insects the
first Colonists of Islands — Fernando Noronha — Bahia —
Burnished Rocks — Habits of a Diodon — Pelagic Confervas
and Infusoria — Causes of Discoloured Sea.

Chapter II . . . . .18

Rio de Janeiro — Excursion North of Cape Frio — Great
Evaporation — Slavery — Botofogo Bay — Terrestrial Planariae
— Clouds on the Corcovado — Heavy Rain — Musical Frogs —
Phosphorescent Insects — Elater, Springing Powers of — Blue
Haze— Noise made by a Butterfly — Entomology — Ants —

Wasp killing a Spider — Parasitical Spider — Artifices of an
Epeira — Gregarious Spider — Spider with an Unsymmetrical
Web.

Chapter III . . . . . .38

Monte Video — Maldonado — Excursion to R. Polanco —

Lazo and Bolas — Partridges — Absence of Trees — Deer —
Capybara, or River Hog — Tucutuco — Molothrus, Cuckoo-
like Habits — Tyrant Flycatcher — Mocking-bird — Carrion
Hawks — Tubes formed by Lightning — House struck.

Chapter IV . . . . .62

Rio Negro — Estancias attacked by the Indians — Salt Lakes
— Flamingoes — R. Negro to R. Colorado — Sacred Tree —
Patagonian Hare — Indian Families — General Rosas — Pro-
ceed to Bahia Bianca — Sand Dunes — Negro Lieutenant —

Bahia Blanca — Saline Incrustations — Punta Ala — Zorillo.

IX

X

CONTENTS

PAGE

Chapter V . , , . . .80

Bahia Blanca — Geology — Numerous Gigantic Extinct
Quadrupeds — Recent Extinction — Longevity of Species —

Large Animals do not require a Luxuriant Vegetation —
Southern Africa — Siberian Fossils — Two Species of Ostrich —

Habits of Oven-bird — Armadilloes — Venomous Snake, Toad,

Lizard — Hybernation of Animals — Habits of Sea-Pen —

Indian Wars and Massacres — Arrow-head — Antiquarian
Relic.

Chapter VI ..... . 105

Set out for Buenos Ayres — Rio Sauce — Sierra Ventana —

Third Posta — Driving Horses — Bolas — Partridges and Foxes
— Features of the Country — Long-legged Plover — Teru-tero
— Hailstorm — Natural Enclosures in the Sierra Tapalguen —

Flesh of Puma — Meat Diet — Guardia del Monte — Effects of
Cattle on the Vegetation — Cardoon — Buenos Ayres — Corral
where Cattle are Slaughtered.

Chapter VII . . . . . .122

Excursion to St Fe — Thistle Beds — Habits of the Bizcacha
— Little Owl — Saline Streams — Level Plains — Mastodon — St
Fe — Change in Landscape — Geology — Tooth of Extinct
Horse — Relation of the Fossil and Recent Quadrupeds of
North and South America — Effects of a Great Drought —

— Parana — Habits of the Jaguar — Scissor-beak — King-fisher,

Parrot, and Scissor-tail — Revolution — Buenos Ayres — State
Government.

Chapter VIII . . . .141

Excursion to Colonia del Sacramiento — Value of an
Estancia — Cattle, how counted — Singular Breed of Oxen —
Perforated Pebbles — Shepherd-Dogs — Horses broken in,
Gauchos Riding — Character of Inhabitants — Rio Plata —

Flocks of Butterflies — Aeronaut Spiders — Phosphorescence of
the Sea — Port Desire — Guanaco — Port St Julian — Geology of
Patagonia — Fossil Gigantic Animal — Types of Organisation
Constant — Change in the Zoology of America — Causes of
Extinction,

Chapter IX - . . . .177

Santa Cruz — Expedition up the River — Indians — Immense
Streams of Basaltic Lava — Fragments not Transported by the

CONTENTS

XI

PAGE

River — Excavation of the Valley — Condor, Habits of —
Cordillera — Erratic Boulders of Great Size — Indian Relics —

Return to the Ship — Falkland Islands — Wild Horses, Cattle,
Rabbits — Wolf-like Fox — Fire made of Bones — Manner of
hunting Wild Cattle — Geology — Streams of Stones — Scenes
of Violence — Penguin — Geese — Eggs of Doris — Compound
Animals.

Chapter X , . . . . . 205

Tierra del Fuego, first Arrival — Good Success Bay — An
Account of the Fuegians on Board — Interview with the
Savages — Scenery of the Forests — Cape Horn — Wigwam
Cove — Miserable Condition of the Savages — Famines —
Cannibals — Matricide — Religious Feelings — Great Gale —

Beagle Channel — Ponsonby Sound — Build Wigwams and
Settle the Fuegians — Bifurcation of the Beagle Channel —
Glaciers — Return to the Ship — Second Visit in the Ship to
the Settlement — Equality of Condition amongst the Natives.

Chapter XI ..... . 232

Strait of Magellan — Port Famine — Ascent of Mount Tarn
—Forests — Edible Fungus — Zoology — Great Sea-weed —

Leave Tierra del Fuego — Climate — Fruit Trees and Produc-
tions of the Southern Coasts — Height of Snow-line on the
Cordillera — Descent of Glaciers to the Sea — Icebergs
Formed — Transportal of Boulders — Climate and Produc-
tions of the Antarctic Islands — Preservation of Frozen
Carcasses — Recapitulation.

Chapter XII ..... 254

Valparaiso — Excursion to the Foot of the Andes — Structure
of the Land — Ascend the Bell of Quillota — Shattered Masses
of Greenstone — Immense Valleys — Mines — State of Miners
— Santiago — Hot-baths of Cauquenes — Gold Mines — Grind-
ing Mills — Perforated Stones — Habits of the Puma — El
Turco and Tapacolo — Humming-birds.

Chapter XIII ...... 275

Chiloe — General Aspect — Boat Excursion — Native Indians
— Castro — Tame Fox — Ascend San Pedro — Chonos Archi-
pelago— Peninsula of Tres Montes — Granitic Range — Boat-
wrecked Sailors — Low’s Harbour — Wild Potato — Formation

CONTENTS

xii

PAGE

of Peat — Myopotamus, Otter and Mice — Cheucau and
Barking-bird — Opetiorhynchus — Singular Character of Orni-
thology— Petrels.

Chapter XIV ... . . 294-

San Carlos, Chiloe — Osorno in eruption, contemporaneously
with Aconcagua and Coseguina — Ride to Cucao — Im-
penetrable F crests — Valdivia — Indians — Earthquake — Con-
cepcion— Great Earthquake — Rocks Fissured — Appearance
of the former Towns — The Sea black and boiling — Direction
of the Vibrations — Stones twisted round — Great Wave —
Permanent Elevation of the Land — Area of Volcanic
Phenomena — The Connection between the Elevatory and
Eruptive Forces — Cause of Earthquakes — Slow Elevation of
Mountain-chains.

Chapter XV . . . . . .317

Valparaiso — Portillo Pass — Sagacity of Mules — Mountain
Torrents — Mines, how discovered — Proofs of the Gradual
Elevation of the Cordillera — Effect of Snow on Rocks —
Geological Structure of the two Main Ranges — Their Distinct
Origin and Upheaval — Great Subsidence — Red Snow —

Winds — Pinnacles of Snow — Dry and Clear Atmosphere —
Electricity — Pampas — Zoology of the Opposite Side of the
Andes — Locusts — Great Bugs — Mendoza — Uspallata Pass —
Silicified Trees buried as they grew — Incas Bridge — Badness
of the Passes Exaggerated — Cumbre — Casuchas — Valparaiso.

Chapter XVI ...... 341

Coast-road to Coquimbo — Great Loads carried by the
Miners — Coquimbo — Earthquake — Step-formed Terraces —
Absence of Recent Deposits — Contemporaneousness of the
Tertiary Formations — Excursion up the Valley — Road to
Guasco — Deserts — Valley of Copiapo — Rain and Earth-
quakes— Flydrophobia — The Despoblado — Indian Ruins —
Probable Change of Climate — River-bed arched by an Earth-
quake— Cold Gales of Wind — Noises from a Hill — Iquique —

Salt Alluvium — Nitrate of Soda — Lima — Unhealthy Country
— Ruins of Callao, overthrown by an Earthquake — Recent
Subsidence — Elevated Shells on San Lorenzo, their De-
composition— Plain with Embedded Shells and Fragments of
Pottery — Antiquity of the Indian Race.

Chapter XVII ...... 377

Galapagos Archipelago — The Whole Group Volcanic —
Number of Craters — Leafless Bushes — Colony at Charles

CONTENTS

PAGE

Island — James Island — Salt-lake in Crater — Natural History
of the Group — Ornithology — Curious Finches Reptiles —

Great Tortoises, Habits of — Marine Lizard, feeds on Sea-
weed— Terrestrial Lizard, Burrowing Habits, Herbivorous —
Importance of Reptiles in the Archipelago — Fish, Shells,

Insects — Botany — American Type of Organisation — Differ-
ences in the Species or Races on Different Islands — Tameness
of the Birds — Fear of Man, an Acquired Instinct.

Chapter XVIII ...... 406

Pass through the Low Archipelago — Tahiti — Aspect —
Vegetation on the Mountains — View of Eimeo^ — Excursion
into the Interior — Profound Ravines — Succession of Waterfalls
— Number of Wild Useful Plants — Temperance of the In-
habitants— Their Moral State — Parliament Convened — New
Zealand — Bay of Islands — Hippahs — Excursion to Waimate
— Missionary Establishment — English Weeds now run wild —
Waiomio— Funeral of a New Zealand Woman — Sail for
Australia.

Chapter XIX ...... 435

Sydney — Excursion to Bathurst — Aspect of the Woods —

Party of Natives — Gradual Extinction of the Aborigines —
Infection Generated by Associated Men in Health — Blue
Mountains — View of the Grand Gulf-like Valleys — Their
Origin and Formation — Bathurst, general Civility of the
Lower Orders — State of Society — Van Diemen’s Land —
Hobart Town — Aborigines all Banished — Mount Wellington
— King George’s Sound — Cheerless Aspect of the Country —

Bald Head, Calcareous Casts of Branches of Trees — Party of
Natives — Leave Australia.

Chapter XX ...... 457

Keeling Island — Singular Appearance — Scanty Flora —
Transport of Seeds — Birds and Insects — Ebbing and Flowing
Wells — Fields of Dead Coral — Stones transported in the
Roots of Trees — Great Crab — Stinging Corals — Coral-eating
Fish — Coral Formations — Lagoon Islands, or Atolls — Depth
at which Reef- building Corals can live — Vast Areas inter-
spersed with Low Coral Islands — Subsidence of their
Foundations — Barrier Reefs — Fringing Reefs — Conversion
of Fringing Reefs into Barrier Reefs, and into Atolls —
Evidence of Changes in Level — Breaches in Barrier Reefs —
Maldiva Atolls : their Peculiar Structure — Dead and Sub-
merged Reefs — Areas of Subsidence and Elevation — Distribu-
tion of Volcanoes — Subsidence Slow, and Vast in Amount.

XIV

CONTENTS

Chapter XXI ......

Mauritius, Beautiful Appearance of— Great Crateriform
Ring of Mountains — Hindoos — St Helena — History of the
Changes in the Vegetation — Cause of the Extinction of Land-
shells — Ascension — Variation in the Imported Rats — Volcanic
Bombs — Beds of Infusoria — Bahia — Brazil — Splendour of
Tropical Scenery — Pernambuco — Singular Reef — Slavery —
Return to England — Retrospect on our Vovage,

Index b

PAGE

488

513

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

H.M.S. Beagle

Frontispiece

Diagrams of the Beagle

'I'o face page

1

Fernando Noronlia

V

53

24

Botofogo Ba}'^, Rio Ja^ieiro ....

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33

24

Rio Janeiro

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33

32

Vampire Bat {Desmodus d'Orbignyi). Caiight
on back of Darwin’s horse near Coquimbo

9?

33

48

Hydrochocrus Capyhara, or Water- Hog

>3

33

48

Skinning Uji, or Water-Serpents .

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33

98

All Sails Set

33

33

98

Mylodon ........

33

33

130

Basaltic Glen, Rio Negro

53

33

182

Condor {Sarcorhamphus Oryphus)

33

35

186

Cape Horn. Two Views

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33

212

Chilenos ........

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33

262

Chilian Miner

33

33

262

Chiloe. Two View's ......

33

33

294

16

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Antueo Volcano, near Talcahuano .

To face page 314

Bridge of the Incas, Uspallata Pass

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Beaks of the Geospiza

. page 384

Eimeo, and Barrier-Reef ....

. To face page 410

Fatahua Fall, Tahiti

„ 418

Whitsunday Island

. page 471

Barrier Reef round the Island of Bolabola

» 474

Sections of Coral Reefs ....

. pages 476, 478, 480

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niAGKAMS OF THE “BEAGLE.” [To face p.

CHARLES DARWIN’S JOURNAL

DURING THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. “BEAGLE”
ROUND THE WORLD

CHAPTER I

ST JAGO— CAPE DE VERB ISLANDS

PORTO PRAYA RIBEIRA ORANDE ATMOSPHERIC DUST WITH

INFUSORIA HABITS OF A SEA-SLUG AND CUTTLE-FISH

ST Paul’s rocks, non-volcanic — singular incrustations

INSECTS THE FIRST COLONISTS OF ISLANDS FERNANDO

NORONHA BAHIA BURNISHED ROCKS HABITS OF A DIODON

PELAGIC CONFERVA AND INFUSORIA CAUSES OF DIS-
COLOURED SEA.

having been twice driven back by heavy
i-western gales, Her Majesty’s ship Beagle,
i-gun brig, under the command of Captain
Roy, R.N., sailed from Devonport on the
of December 1831. The object of the
expedition was to complete the survey of Patagonia and Tierra
del Fuego, commenced under Captain King in 1826 to 1830
— to survey the shores of Chile, Peru, and of some islands in
the Pacific — and to carry a chain of chronometrical measure-
ments round the world. On the 6th of January we reached
Teneriffe, but were prevented landing, by fears of our bringing
the cholera: the next morning we saw the sun rise behind the
rugged outline of the Grand Canary Island, and suddenly
illumine the Peak of Teneriffe, whilst the lower parts were
veiled in fleecy clouds. This was the first of many delightful
days never to be forgotten. On the l6th of January 1832,
we anchored at Porto Praya, in St Jago, the chief island of
the Cape de Verd archipelago.

The neighbourhood of Porto Praya, viewed from the sea,
wears a desolate aspect. The volcanic fires of a past age,
and the scorching heat of a tropical sun, have in most places
rendered the soil unfit for vegetation. The country rises in
successive steps of table-land, interspersed with some truncate

2

ST JAGO— CAPE DE VERD ISLANDS

conical hills, and the horizon is bounded by an irregular chain
of more lofty mountains. The scene, as beheld through the
hazy atmosphere of this climate, is one of great interest : if,
indeed, a person, fresh from sea, and who has just walked for
the first time in a grove of cocoa-nut trees, can be a judge
of anything but his own happiness. The island would gener-
ally be considered as very uninteresting ; but to any one
accustomed only to an English landscape, the novel aspect
of an utterly sterile land possesses a grandeur which more
vegetation might spoil. A single green leaf can scarcely be
discovered over wide tracts of the lava plains ; yet flocks of
goats, together with a few cows, contrive to exist. It rains
very seldom, but during a short portion of the year heavy
ton*ents fall, and immediately afterwards a light vegetation
springs out of every crevice. This soon withers ; and upon
such naturally formed hay the animals live. It had not now
rained for an entire year. When the island was discovered,
the immediate neighbourhood of Porto Praya was clothed
with trees,* the reckless destruction of which has caused here,
as at St Helena, and at some of the Canary Islands, almost
entire sterility. The broad, flat-bottomed valleys, many of
which serve during a few days only in the season as water-
courses, are clothed with thickets of leafless bushes. Few
living creatures inhabit these valleys. The commonest bird
is a kingfisher (Dacelo lagoensis), which tamely sits on the
branches of the castor-oil plant, and thence darts on grass-
hoppers and lizards. It is brightly-coloured, but not so beauti-
ful as the European species : in its flight, manners, and place
of habitation, which is generally in the driest valley, there is
also a wide difference.

One day, two of the officers and myself rode to Ribeira
Grande, a village a few miles eastward of Porto Praya.
Until we reached the valley of St Martin, the country
presented its usual dull brown appearance ; but here, a very
small rill of water produces a most refreshing margin of
luxuriant vegetation. In the course of an hour we arrived at
Ribeira Grande, and were surprised at the sight of a large
ruined fort and cathedral. This little town, before its harbour

* I state this on the authority of Dr E. Dieffenbach, in his German transla-
tion of the fust edition of this Journal.

ST JAGO— CAPE DE VERD ISLANDS

S

was filled up, was the principal place in the island ; it now
presents a melancholy, but veiy picturesque appearance.
Having procured a black Padre for a guide, and a Spaniard
M'ho had served in the Peninsular War as an interpreter, we
visited a collection of buildings, of which an ancient church
formed the principal part. It is here the governors and
captain-generals of the islands have been buried. Some of
the tombstones recorded dates of the sixteenth century.* The
heraldic ornaments were the only things in this retired place
that reminded us of Europe. The church or chapel formed
one side of a quadrangle, in the middle of which a large clump
of bananas were growing. On another side was a hospital
containing about a dozen miserable-looking inmates.

We returned to the venda to eat our dinners. A consider-
able number of men, women, and children, all as black as jet,
collected to watch us. Our companions were extremely merry;
and everything we said or did was followed by their hearty
laughter. Before leaving the town we visited the cathedral.
It does not appear so rich as the smaller church, but boasts
of a little organ, which sent forth singularly inharmonious
cries. We presented the black priest with a few shillings,
and the Spaniard, patting him on the head, said, with
much candour, he thought his colour made no great differ-
ence. We then returned, as fast as the ponies would go, to
Porto Praya.

Another day we rode to the village of St Domingo, situated
near the centre of the island. On a small plain which we
crossed, a few stunted acacias were growing ; their tops had
been bent by the steady trade-wind, in a singular manner —
some of them even at right angles to their trunks. The
direction of the branches was exactly N.E. by N., and S.W.
by S., and these natural vanes must indicate the prevailing
direction of the force of the trade-wind. The travelling had
made so little impression on the barren soil, that we here
missed our track, and took that to Fuentes. This we did not
find out till we arrived there ; and we were afterwards glad
of our mistake. Fuentes is a pretty village, with a small
stream ; and everything appeared to prosper well, excepting,

*The Cape de Verd Islands were discovered in 1449. There was a tomb-
stone of a bishop with the date of 1571; and a crest of a hand and dagger,
dated 1497.

4

ST JAGO— CAPE DE VERB ISLANDS

indeed, that which ought to do so most — its inhabitants.
The black children, completely naked, and looking very
wretched, were carrying bundles of firewood half as big as
their own bodies.

Near Fuentes we saw a large flock of guinea-fowl — probably
fifty or sixty in number. They were exti'emely wary, and
could not be approached. They avoided us, like partridges
on a rainy day in September, running with their heads
cocked up ; and if pursued, they readily took to the wing.

The scenery of St Domingo possesses a beauty totally
unexpected, from the prevalent gloomy character of the rest
of the island. The village is situated at the bottom of a
valley, bounded by lofty and jagged walls of stratified lava.
The black rocks afford a most striking contrast with the bright
green vegetation, which follows the banks of a little stream of
clear water. It happened to be a grand feast-day, and the
village was full of people. On our return we overtook a party
of about twenty young black girls, dressed in excellent taste ;
their black skins and snow-white linen being set off by
coloured turbans and large shawls. As soon as we approached
near, they suddenly all turned round, and covering the path
with their shawls, sung with great energy a wild song, beating
time with their hands upon their legs. We threw them some
vintems, which were received with screams of laughter, and
we left them redoubling the noise of their song.

One morning the view was singularly clear ; the distant
mountains being projected with the sharpest outline on a
heavy bank of dark blue clouds. Judging from the appear-
ance, and from similar cases in England, I supposed that the air
was saturated with moisture. The fact, however, turned out
quite the contrary. The hygrometer gave a difference of 29 ’6
degrees between the temperature of the air and the point
at which dew was precipitated. This difference was nearly
double that which I had observed on the previous mornings.
This unusual degree of atmospheric dryness was accompanied
by continual flashes of lightning. Is it not an uncommon case,
thus to find a remarkable degree of aerial transparency with
such a state of weather ?

Generally the atmosphere is hazy ; and this is caused by
the falUng of impalpably fine dust, which was found to have
slightly injured the astronomical instruments. The morning

ST JAGO— CAPE DE VERD ISLANDS

5

before we anchored at Porto Praya, I collected a little packet
of this brown-coloured fine dust, which appeai'ed to have been
filtered from the wind by the gauze of the vane at the mast-
head. Mr Lyell has also given me four packets of dust which
fell on a vessel a few hundred miles northward of these islands.
Professor Ehrenberg * finds that this dust consists in great
part of infusoria with siliceous shields, and of the siliceous
tissue of plants. In five little packets which I sent him, he
has ascertained no less than sixty-seven different organic
forms ! The infusoria, with the exception of two maiine
species, are all inhabitants of fresh water. I have found no
less than fifteen different accounts of dust having fallen on
vessels when far out in the Atlantic. From the direction of
the wind whenever it has fallen, and from its having always
fallen during those months when the harmattan is known to
raise clouds of dust high into the atmosphere, we may feel sure
that it all comes from Africa. It is, however, a very singular
fact, that although Professor Ehrenberg knows many species
of infusoria peculiar to Africa, he finds none of these in the
dust which I sent him : on the other hand, he finds in it two
species which hitherto he knows as living only in South
America. The dust falls in such quantities as to dirty every-
thing on board, and to hurt people’s eyes ; vessels even have
run on shore owing to the obscurity of the atmosphere. It has
often fallen on ships when several hundred, and even more
than a thousand miles from the coast of Africa, and at points
sixteen hundred miles distant in a noi'th and south direction.
In some dust which was collected on a vessel three hundred
miles from the land, I was much surprised to find particles of
stone above the thousandth of an inch square, mixed with finer
matter. After this fact one need not be surprised at the
diffusion of the far lighter and smaller sporules of cryptogamic
plants.

The geology of this island is the most interesting part of
its natural history. On entering the harbour, a perfeetly
horizontal white band in the face of the sea-cliff may be seen
running for some miles along the coast, and at the height of

* I must take this opportunity of acknowledging the great kindness with
which this illustrious naturalist has examined many of my specimens. I
have sent (June 1845) ^ account of the falling of this dust to the
Geological Society.

6

ST JAGO— CAPE DE VERD ISLANDS

about forty-five feet above the water. Upon examination, this
white stratum is found to consist of calcareous matter, with
numerous shells embedded, most or all of which now exist on
the neighbouring coast. It rests on ancient volcanic rocks, and
has been covered by a stream of basalt, which must have entered
the sea when the white shelly bed was lying at the bottom.
It is interesting to trace the changes produced by the heat of
the overlying lava on the friable mass, which in parts has
been converted into a crystalline limestone, and in other
parts into a compact spotted stone. When the lime has been
caught up by the scoriaceous fragments of the lower surface
of the stream, it is converted into groups of beautifully radi-
ated fibi’es resembling an-agonite. The beds of lava rise in
successive gently-sloping plains towaixls the interior, whence
the deluges of melted stone have originally proceeded.
Within historical times, no signs of volcanic activity have, I
believe, been manifested in any part of St Jago. Even the
form of a crater can but rarely be discovered on the summits
of the many red cindery hills ; yet the more recent streams
can be distinguished on the coast, forming lines of cliffs of
less height, but stretching out in advance of those belonging
to an older series : the height of the cliffs thus affording a
rude measure of the age of the streams.

During our stay, I observed the habits of some marine
animals. A large Aplysia is very common. This sea-slug is
about five inches long ; and is of a dirty yellowish colour,
veined with purple. On each side of the lower surface, or foot,
there is a broad membrane, which appears sometimes to act
as a ventilator, in causing a current of water to flow over the
dorsal branchiae or lungs. It feeds on the delicate sea-weeds
which grow among the stones in muddy and shallow water ; and
I found in its stomach several small pebbles, as in the gizzard
of a bird. This slug, when disturbed, emits a very fine
purplish-red fluid, which stains the M^ater for the space of a
foot around. Besides this means of defence, an acrid secre-
tion, which is spread over its body, causes a sharp, stinging
sensation, similar to that produced by the Physalia, or Portu-
guese man-of-war.

I was much interested, on several occasions, by watching
the habits of an Octopus, or cuttle-fish. Although common
in the pools of water left by the retii-ing tide, these animals

ST J AGO— CAPE DE VERB ISLANDS

7

•were not easily eaught. By means of their long arms and
suckers, they could drag their bodies into very narrow crevices ;
and when thus fixed, it required great force to remove them.
At other times they darted tail first, with the rapidity of an
arrow, from one side of the pool to the other, at the same
instant discolouring the Avater with a dark chestnut-brown ink.
These animals also escape detection by a very extraordinary,
chameleon-like power of changing their colour. They appear
to vary their tints according to the nature of the ground over
which they pass ; when in deep Avater, their general shade
Avas brownish-purple, but when placed on the land, or in
shalloAv water, this dark tint changed into one of a yellowish-
green. The colour, examined more carefully, was a French
grey, Avith numerous minute spots of bright yellow : the
former of these varied in intensity ; the latter entirely disap-
peared and appeared again by turns. These changes were
effected in such a manner that clouds, varying in tint between
a hyacinth-red and a chestnut-brown,* were continually
passing over the body. Any part, being subjected to a slight
shock of galvanism, Ijecame almost black: a similar effect, but
in a less degree, was produced by scratching the skin with a
needle. These clouds, or blushes as they may be called, are
said to be produced by the alternate expansion and contrac-
tion of minute vesicles containing variously coloured fluids. t

The cuttle-fish displayed its chameleon-like power both
during the act of swimming and whilst remaining stationary
at the bottom. I was much amused by the various arts to
escape detection used by one individual, which seemed fully
aware that I Avas watching it. Remaining for a time motion-
less, it would then stealthily advance an inch or two, like a
cat after a mouse ; sometimes changing its colour : it thus
proceeded, till having gained a deeper part, it darted away,
leaving a dusky train of ink to hide the hole into which it had
crawled.

While looking for marine animals, with my head about two
feet above the rocky shore, I Avas more than once saluted by
a jet of water, accompanied by a slight grating noise. At
first I could not think what it was, but afterwards I found out

* So named according to Patrick Synies’ nomenclature,
t See Encyclop, of Anal, and Physiol. ■, article Cephalopoda.

8

ST PAUL’S ROCKS

that it was this cuttle-fish, which, though concealed in a hole,
thus often led me to its discovery. That it possesses the
power of ejecting water there is no doubt, and it ap-
peared to me that it could certainly take good aim by
directing the tube or siphon on the under side of its body.
Fi'om the difficulty which these animals have in carrying their
heads, they cannot crawl with ease when placed on the
ground. I observed that one which I kejit in the cabin was
slightly phosphorescent in the dark.

St Paul’s Rocks. — In crossing the Atlantic we hove-to,
during the morning of the l6th of February, close to the
island of St Paul’s. This cluster of rocks is situated in 0° 58'
north latitude, and 29° 15' west longitude. It is 540 miles
distant from the coast of America, and 850 from the island of
Fernando Noronha. The highest point is only fifty feet
above the level of the sea, and the entire circumference is
under three-quarters of a mile. This small point rises
abruptly out of the depths of the ocean. Its mineralogical
constitution is not simple ; in some parts the rock is of a
cherty, in others of a felspathic nature, including thin veins of
sei’pentine. It is a remarkable fact, that all the many small
islands, lying far from any continent, in the Pacific, Indian,
and Atlantic Oceans, with the exception of the Se)^chelles
and this little point of rock, are, I believe, composed either
of coral or of erupted matter. The volcanic nature of these
oceanic islands is evidently an extension of that law, and the
effect of those same causes, whether chemical or mechanical,
from which it results that a vast majority of the volcanoes now
in action stand either near sea-coasts or as islands in the
midst of the sea.

The rocks of St Paul appear from a distance of a brilliantly
white colour. This is partly owing to the dung of a vast
multitude of sea-fowl, and partly to a coating of a hard glossy
substance with a pearly lustre, which is intimately united to
the surface of the rocks. This, when examined with a lens, is
found to consist of numerous exceedingly thin layers, its total
thickness being about the tenth of an inch. It contains much
animal matter, and its origin, no doubt, is due to the action
of the rain or spray on the birds’ dung. Below some small
masses of guano at Ascension, and on the AbroUios Islets, I

ST PAUL’S ROCKS

9

found certain stalactitic branching bodies, formed apparently
in the same manner as the thin white coating on these rocks.
The branching bodies so closely resembled in general appear-
ance certain nulliporae (a family of hard calcareous sea-plants),
that iir lately looking hastily over my collection I did not
perceive the difference. The globular extremities of the
branches are of a pearly texture, like the enamel of teeth, but
so hard as just to scratch plate-glass. I may here mention,
that on a part of the coast of Ascension, where there is a vast
accumulation of shelly sand, an incrustation is deposited on
the tidal rocks, by the -water of the sea, resembling certain
crj’ptogamic plants (^Marchatiticv) often seen on damp walls.
The surface of the fronds is beautifully glossy ; and those
parts formed where fully exposed to the light are of a jet-
black colour, but those shaded under ledges are only grey. I
have shown specimens of this incrustation to several geologists,
and they all thought that they Avere of volcanic or igneous
origin ! In its hardness and translucency — in its polish,
equal to that of the finest oliva-shell — in the bad smell given
out, and loss of colour under the blow-pipe — it shows a close
similarity with living sea-shells. Moreover in sea-shells, it is
known that the parts habitually covered and .shaded by the
mantle of the animal are of a paler colour than those fully
exposed to the light, just as is the case Avith this incrustation.
When Ave remember that lime, either as a phosphate or
carbonate, enters into the composition of the hard parts,
such as bones and shells, of all living animals, it is an
interesting physiological fact* to find substances harder than
the enamel of teeth, and coloured surfaces as well polished
as those of a fresh shell, reformed through inorganic means
from dead organic matter — mocking, also, in shape some of
the loAver vegetable productions.

We found on St Paul’s only tAvo kinds of birds — the booby

* Mr Horner and Sir David Brewster have described {^Philosophical
Transactions, 1836, p. 65) a singular “artificial substance resembling shell.”
It is deposited in fine, transparent, highly-polished, brown-coloured laminre,
possessing peculiar optical properties, on the inside of a A-essel, in which
cloth, first prepared with glue and then with lime, is made to revolve
rapidly in water. It is much softer and more transparent, and contains
more animal matter, than the natural incrustation at Ascension ; but we
here again see the strong tendency which carbonate of lime and animal
matter evince to fo.-m a solid substance allied to shell.

10

FERNANDO NORONHA

and the noddy. The former is a species of gannet, and the
latter a tern. Both are of a tame and stupid disposition, and
are so unaccustomed to visitors, that I could have killed any
number of them with my geological hammer. The booby
lays her eggs on the bare rock ; but the tern makes a very
simple nest with seaweed. By the side of many of these
nests a small flying-fish was placed : which, I suppose, had
been brought by the male-bird for its partner. It was
amusing to watch how quickly a large and active crab
{Graspus), which inhabits the crevices of the rock, stole the
fish from the side of the nest, as soon as we had disturbed the
parent birds. Sir W. Symonds, one of the few persons w ho
have landed hei'e, informs me that he saw the crabs dragging
even the young birds out of their nests and devouring them.
Not a single plant, not even a lichen, grows on this islet ; yet
it is inhabited by several insects and spiders. The following
list completes, I believe, the terrestrial fauna : a fly (Olfersia)
living on the booby, and a tick which must have come here
£is a parasite on the birds ; a small browm moth, belonging to
a genus that feeds on feathers ; a beetle (Quedius) and a
woodlouse from beneath the dung ; and lastly, numerous
spiders which, I suppose, prey on these small attendants and
scavengers of the waterfowl. The often repeated description
of the stately palm and other noble trojjical plants, then birds,
and lastly man, taking possession of the coral islets as soon as
formed, in the Pacific, is probably not quite correct ; I fear it
destroys the poetry of this story, that feather and dirt-feeding
and parasitic insects and spiders should be the first inhabitants
of newdy formed oceanic land.

The smallest rock in the tropical seas, by giving a founda-
tion for the growth of innumerable kinds of seaweed and
compound animals, supports likew ise a large number of fish.
The sharks and the seamen in the boats maintained a constant
.struggle which should secure the greater share of the prey
caught by the fishing lines. I have heard that .a rock near
the Bermudas, lying many miles out at sea, and at a consider-
able depth, was first discovered by the circumstance of fish
having been observed in the neighbourhood.

Fernando Noronha, Feb. 20th. — As far as I w'as enabled to
observe, during the few hours we stayed at this place, the

BAHIA— BRAZIL

11

constitution of the island is volcanic, but probably not of a
recent date. The most remarkable feature is a conical hill,
about one thousand feet high, the upper part of which is
exceedingly steeji, and on one side overhangs its base. The
rock is phonolite, and is divided into in-egular columns. On
vie\\'ing one of these isolated masses, at first one is inclined to
believe that it has been suddenly pushed up in a semi-fluid
state. At St Helena, however, I ascertained that some
pinnacles, of a nearly similar figure and constitution, had been
formed by the injection of melted rock into yielding strata,
which thus had formed the moulds for these gigantic obelisks.
The whole island is covered Avith wood ; but from the dry-
ness of the climate there is no appearance of luxuriance.
Half-way up the mountain, some great masses of the columnar
rock, shaded by laurel-like trees, and ornamented by others
covered Avith fine pink flowers but without a single leaf, gave
a pleasing effect to the nearer parts of the scenerJ^

Bahia, or San Salvador. Brazil, Feh 29/A. — The day has
passed delightfully. Delight itself, hoAvever, is a weak term
to express the feelings of a naturalist Avho, for the first time,
has Avandered by himself in a Brazilian forest. The elegance
of the grasses, the novelty of the parasitical plants, the beauty
of the floAvers, the glossy green of the foliage, but above all
the general luxuriance of the vegetation, filled me with
admiration. A most paradoxical mixture of sound and silence
pervades the shady parts of the Avood. The noise from the
insects is so loud, that it may be heard even in a vessel
anchored seA'eral hundred yards from the shore ; yet within
the recesses of the forest a universal silence appears to reign.
To a person fond of natural history, such a day as this brings
Avith it a deeper pleasure than he can ever hojie to experience
again. After wandering about for some hours, I returned to
the landing-place ; but, before reaching it, I was overtaken by
a tropical storm. I tried to find shelter under a tree, which
was so thick that it Avould never have been penetrated by
common English rain ; but here, in a couple of minutes, a
little torrent floAved down the trunk. It is to this violence of
the rain that we must attribute the verdure at the bottom of
the thickest woods : if the showers were like those of a colder
clime, the greater part would be absorbed or evaporated

12

BAHIA— BRAZIL

before it I’eached the ground. I will not at present attempt
to describe the gaudy scenery of this noble bay, because, in
our homeward voyage, we called here a second time, and I
shall then have occasion to remark on it.

Along the whole cost of Brazil, for a length of at least 2000
miles, and certainly for a considerable space inland, wherever
solid I’ock occurs, it belongs to a granitic formation. The
circumstance of this enormous area being constituted of
materials which most geologists believe to have been crystal-
lised when heated under pressure, gives rise to many curious
reflections. Was this effect produced beneath the depths of a
profound ocean ? or did a covering of strata formerly extend
Over it, which has since been removed ? Can we believe that
any power, acting for a time short of infinity, could have
denuded the granite over so many thousand square leagues }

On a point not far from the city, where a rivulet entered
the sea, I observed a fact connected with a subject discussed
by Humboldt.* At the cataracts of the great rivers Orinoco,
Nile, and Congo, the syenitic rocks are coated by a black
substance, appearing as if they had been polished with plum-
bago. The layer is of extreme thinness ; and on analysis by
Berzelius it was found to consist of the oxides of manganese
and iron. In the Orinoco it occurs on the rocks periodically
washed by the floods, and in those parts alone where the
stream is rapid ; or, as the Indians say, “ the rocks are black
where the waters are white.” Here the coating is of a rich
brow'n instead of a black colour, and seems to be composed of
ferruginous matter alone. Hand specimens fail to give a j ust
idea of these brown burnished stones which glitter in the
sun’s rays. They occur only within the limits of the tidal
waves ; and as the rivulet slowly trickles down, the surf must
supply the polishing power of the cataracts in the great rivers.
In like manner, the I'ise and the fall of the tide probably
answer to the periodical inundations ; and thus the same
effects are produced under apparently different but really
similar circumstances. The origin, however, of these coatings
of metallic oxides, w'hich seem as if cemented to the rocks,
is not understood ; and no reason, I believe, can be assigned
for their thickness remaining the same.

* Personal Narrative, vol. v. pt. i. p. l8.

BAHIA— BRAZIL

13

One day I was amused by watching the habits of the
Diodon antennatus, which was caught swimming near the
shore. This fish, with its flabby skin, is well known to
possess the singular power of distending itself into a nearly
spherical form. After having been taken out of water for a
short time, and then again immersed in it, a considerable
quantity both of water and air is absorbed by the mouth, and
perhaps likewise by the branchial orifices. This process is
effected by two methods : the air is swallowed, and is then
forced into the cavity of the body, its return being prevented
by a muscular contraction which is externally visible ; but the
water enters in a gentle stream through the mouth, which is
kept wide open and motionless ; this latter action must,
therefore, depend on suction. The skin about the abdomen
is much looser than that on the back ; hence, during the
inflation, the lower surface becomes far more distended than
the upper ; and the fish, in consequence, floats with its back
downwards. Cuvier doubts whether the Diodon in this
position is able to swim ; but not only can it thus move
forward in a straight line, but it can turn round to either side.
This latter movement is effected solely by the aid of the
pectoral fins ; the tail being collapsed, and not used. From
the body being buoyed up with so much air, the branchial
openings are out of water, but a stream drawn in by the
mouth constantly flows through them.

The fish, having remained in this distended state for a short
time, generally expelled the air and water with considerable
force from the branchial apertures and mouth. It could emit,
at will, a certain portion of the water ; and it appears, there-
fore, probable that this fluid is taken in partly for the sake of
regulating its specific gravity. This Diodon possessed several
means of defence. It could give a severe bite, and could
eject water from its mouth to some distance, at the same time
making a curious noise by the movement of its jaws. By the
inflation of its body, the papillae, with which the skin is
covered, become erect and pointed. But the most curious
circumstance is, that it secretes from the skin of its belly,
when handled, a most beautiful carmine-red fibrous matter,
which stains ivory and paper in so permanent a manner, that
the tint is retained with all its brightness to the present day :
I am quite ignorant of the nature and use of this secretion. I

14

DISCOLOURED SEA

have heard from Dr Allan of Forres, that he has frequently
found a Diodon, floating alive and distended, in the stomach
of the shark ; and that on several occasions he has known it
eat its way, not only through the coats of the stomach, but
through the sides of the monster, which has thus been killed.
Who would ever have imagined that a little soft fish could
have destroyed the great and savage shark ?

March \8th. — We sailed from Bahia. A few days after-
wards, when not far distant from the Abrolhos Islets, my
attention was called to a reddish-brown appearance in the sea.
The whole surface of the water, as it appeared under a weak
lens, seemed as if covered by chopped bits of hay, with their
ends jagged. These are minute cylindrical confervae, in
bundles or rafts of from twenty to sixty in each. Mr Berkeley
informs me that they are the same species {Trichodesmiuin
erythrmmi) with that found over large spaces in the Red Sea,
and whence its name of Red Sea is derived.* Their numbers
must be infinite : the ship passed through several bands of
them, one of which was about ten yards wide, and, judging
from the mud-like colour of the water, at least two and a-
half miles long. In almost every long voyage some account
is given of these confervae. They appear especially common
in the sea near Australia ; and off Cape Leeuwin I found an
allied, but smaller and apparently different, species. Captain
Cook, in his third voyage, remarks, that the sailors gave to
this appearance the name of sea-sawdust.

Near Keeling Atoll, in the Indian Ocean, I obseiwed many
little masses of confervfe a few inches square, consisting of
long cylindrical threads of excessive thinness, so as to be
barely visible to the naked eye, mingled with other rather
larger bodies, finely conical at both ends. They vary in
length from -04 to -06, and even to -08 of an inch in length ;
and in diameter from -006 to "008 of an inch. Near one
extremity of the cylindrical parts a green septum, formed of
granular matter, and thickest in the middle, may generally be
seen. This, I believe, is the bottom of a most delicate,
colourless sac, composed of a pulpy substance, which lines the

* M. Montague, in Comptes Rendus, etc., Juillet 1844 ; and Annales
des Sciences Naturelles, Dec. 1844.

DISCOLOURED SEA

15

exterior case, but does not extend within the extreme conical
points. In some specimens, small but perfect spheres of
brownish granuiar matter supplied the places of the septa ;
and I observed the curious process by which they were pro-
duced. The pulpy matter of the internal coating suddenly
grouped itself into lines, some of which assumed a form
radiating from a common centre ; it then continued, with an
irregular and rapid movement, to contract itself, so that in the
course of a second the whole was united into a perfect little
sphere, which occupied the position of the septum at one end
of the now quite hollow case. The formation of the granular
sphere was hastened by any accidental injury. I may add, that
frequently a pair of these bodies were attached to each other,
cone beside cone, at that end where the septum occurs.

I will here add a few other observations comiected with
the discoloration of the sea from organic causes. On the
coast of Chile, a few leagues north of Concepcion, the Beagle
one day passed through great bands of muddy water, exactly
like that of a swollen river ; and again, a degree south of
Valparaiso, when fifty miles from the land, the same appear-
ance was still more extensive. Some of the water placed in
a glass was of a pale reddish tint ; and, examined under a
microscope, was seen to sw'arm with minute animalcula darting
about, and often exploding. Their shape is oval, and con-
tracted in the middle by a ring of vibrating curved ciliae. It
was, however, very difficult to examine them with care, for
almost the instant motion ceased, even while crossing the field
of vision, their bodies burst. Sometimes both ends burst at
once, sometimes only one, and a quantity of coarse, brownish,
granular matter was ejected. The animal an instant before
bursting expanded to half again its natural size ; and the
explosion took place about fifteen seconds after the rapid
progressive motion had ceased ; in a few cases it was preceded
; for a short interval by a rotatory movement on the longer axis.

I About two minutes after any number were isolated in a drop
I of water, they thus perished. The animals move with the
i narrow apex forwai-ds, by the aid of their vibratory ciliae, and
» generally by rapid starts. They are exceedingly minute, and
I quite invisible to the naked eye, only covering a space equal
I to the square of the thousandth of an inch. Their numbers
were infinite ; for the smallest drop of water which I could

16

DISCOLOURED SEA

remove contained very many. In one day we passed through
two spaces of water thus stained, one of which alone must
have extended over several square miles. What incalculable
numbers of these microscopical animals ! The colour of the
water, as seen at some distance, was like that of a river which
has flowed through a red clay district ; but under the shade
of the vessel’s side it was quite as dark as chocolate. The
line whei’e the red and blue water joined was distinctly
defined. The weather for some days previously had been
calm, and the ocean abounded, to an unusual degree, with
living creatures.*

In the sea, around Tien-a del Fuego, and at no great
distance from the land, I have seen narrow lines of water of a
bright red colour, from the number of Crustacea, which some-
what resemble in form large prawns. The sealers call them
whale-food. Whether whales feed on them I do not know ;
but terns, cormorants, and immense herds of great unwieldy
seals derive, on some part of the coast, their chief sustenance
from these swimming crabs. Seamen invariably attribute the
discoloration of the water to spawn ; but I found this to be
the case only on one occasion. At the distance of several
leagues from the Archipelago of the Galapagos, the ship
sailed through three strips of a dark yellowish or mud-like
water ; these strips were some miles long, but only a few yards
wide, and they were separated from the surrounding water by
a sinuous yet distinct margin. The colour was caused by
little gelatinous balls, about the fifth of an inch in diameter,
in which numerous minute spherical ovules were embedded ;
they were of two distinct kinds, one being of a reddish colour
and of a different shape from the other. I cannot form a
conjecture as to what two kinds of animals these belonged.
Captain Colnett remarks, that this appearance is very common
among the Galapagos Islands, and that the direction of the
bands indicates that of the currents ; in the described case,

* M. Lesson ( Voyage de la Coquille, tom. i. p. 255) mentions red water
off Lima, apparently produced by the same cause. Peron, the distinguished
naturalist, in the Voyage aux Terres Australes, gives no less than twelve
references to voyagers who have alluded to the discoloured waters of the
sea (vol. ii. p. 239). To the references given by Peron may be added
Humboldt’s Fers. Narr., vol. vi. p. 804 ; Flinders’ Voyage, vol. i. p. 92 ;
Labilladiere, vol. i. p. 287 ; Ullioa’s Voyage ; Voyage of the Astrolabe and
of the Coquille ; Captain King’s Survey of Australia, etc.

DISCOLOURED SEA

17

however, the line was caused by the wind. The only other
appearance which I have to notice, is a thin oily coat on the
water which displays iridescent colours. I saw a considerable
tract of the ocean thus covered on the coast of Brazil ; the
seamen attribute it to the putrefying carcass of some whale,
which probably was floating at no great distance. I do not
here mention the minute gelatinous particles, hereafter to
be referred to, which are frequently dispersed throughout
the water, for they are not sufficiently abundant to create any
change of colour.

There are two circumstances in the above accounts which
appear remarkable : first, how do the various bodies which
form the bands with defined edges keep together In the
case of the prawn-like crabs, their movements were as co-
instantaneous as in a regiment of soldiers ; but this cannot
happen from anything like voluntary action with the ovules,
or the confervse, nor is it probable among the infusoria.
Secondly, what causes the length and narrowness of the
bands ? The appearance so much resembles that which
may be seen in every torrent, where the stream uncoils into
long streaks the froth collected in the eddies, that I must
attribute the effect to a similar action either of the current of
I the air or sea. Under this supposition, we must believe that
I the various organised bodies are produced in certain favour-
I able places, and are thence removed by the set of either wind
1 or water. I confess, however, there is a very great difficulty
: in imagining any one spot to be the birthplace of the millions
I of millions of animalcula and confervae : for whence come the
r germs at such points ? — the parent bodies having been dis-
1 tributed by the winds and waves over the immense ocean.
1 But on no other hypothesis can I understand their linear
t grouping. I may add that Scoresby remarks, that green
« water abounding with pelagic animals is invariably found in
a certain 23art of the Arctic Sea.

B

CHAPTER II

RIO DE JANEIRO

RIO DE JANEIRO EXCURSION NORTH OF CAPE FRIO GREAT

EVAPORATION SLAVERY BOTOFOGO BAV TERRESTRIAL

PLANARI^ CLOUDS ON THE CORCOVADO HEAVY RAIN

MUSICAL FROGS PHOSPHORESCENT INSECTS ELATER, SPRING-
ING POWERS OF BLUE HAZE NOISE MADE BY A BUTTERFLY

ENTOMOLOGY ANTS W'ASP KILLING A SPIDER PARASITI-
CAL SPIDER ARTIFICES OF AN EPEIRA GREGARIOUS SPIDER

SPIDER WITH AN UNSYMMETRICAL WEB.

RIL Mh to July 5th, 1832. — A few days after our
arrival I became acquainted with an English-
man who was going to visit his estate, situated,
rather more than a hundred miles from the
capital, to the northward of Cape Frio. I gladly
accepted his kind offer of allowing me to accompany him.

Apiil 8th. — Our party amounted to seven. The first stage
was very interesting. The day was powerfully hot, and as
we passed through the woods everything was motionless,
excepting the large and brilliant butterflies, which lazily
fluttered about. The view seen when crossing the hills
behind Praia Grande was most beautiful ; the colours were
intense, and the prevailing tint a dark blue ; the sky and the
calm waters of the bay vied with each other in splendour.
After passing through some cultivated country, we entered a
forest, which in the grandeur of all its parts could not be
exceeded. We arrived by midday at Ithacaia ; this small
village is situated on a plain, and round the central house are
the Imts of the negroes. These, from their regular form and
position, reminded me of the drawings of the Hottentot
habitations in Southern Africa. As the moon rose early, we
determined to start the same evening for our sleeping-place
at the Lagoa Marica. As it was growing dark we passed
under one of the massive, bare, and steep hills of granite

i8

RIO DE JANEIRO

19

which are so common in this country. This spot is notorious
from having been, for a long time, the residence of some
runaway slaves, who, by cultivating a little ground near the
top, contrived to eke out a subsistence. At length they were
discovered, and a party of soldiers being sent, the whole were
seized, with the exception of one old woman, who, sooner than
again be led into slavery, dashed herself to pieces from the
summit of the mountain. In a Roman matron this would
have been called the noble love of freedom ; in a poor negress
it is mere brutal obstinacy. We continued riding for some
hours. For the few last miles the road was intricate, and it
passed through a desert waste of marshes and lagoons. The
scene by the dimmed light of the moon was most desolate.
A few fireflies flitted by us ; and the solitary snipe, as it rose,
uttered its plaintive cry. The distant and sullen roar of the
sea scarcely broke the stillness of the night.

April 9/A — We left our miserable sleeping-place before sun-
rise. The road passed through a narrow sandy plain, lying
between the sea and the interior salt lagoons. The number
of beautiful fishing birds, such as egrets and cranes, and the
succulent plants assuming most fantastical forms, gave to the
scene an interest which it would not otherwise have pos-
sessed. The few stunted trees were loaded with parasitical
plants, among w'hich the beauty and delicious fragrance of
I some of the orchideae were most to be admired. As the sun
I rose, the day became extremely hot, and the reflection of the
E light and heat from the w’hite sand was very distressing. We
1 dined at Mandetiba : the thermometer in the shade being
1 84°. The beautiful view of the distant wooded hills, reflected
in the perfectly calm water of an extensive lagoon, quite
i refreshed us. As the venda * here was a very good one, and
i I have the pleasant, but rare, remembrance of an excellent
1 dinner, I will be grateful and presently describe it, as the
[ type of its class. These houses are often large, and are built
’ of thick upright posts, with boughs interw'oven, and after-
t wards plastered. They seldom have floors, and never glazed
li windows ; but are generally pretty well roofed. Universally
» the front part is open, forming a kind of verandah, in which
d tables and benches are placed. The bedrooms join on each

* * Vinda, Ihe Portuguese name for an inn.

20

RIO DE JANEIRO

side, and ]iei*e the passenger may sleep as comfortably as he
can, on a wooden jjlatform, covered by a thin straw mat.
The venda stands in a courtyard, where the horses are fed.
On first ai'riving, it was our custom to unsaddle the horses
and give them their Indian corn ; then, with a low bow, to
ask the senhor to do us the favour to give us something to
eat. “ Anything you choose, sir,” was his usual answer. For
the few first times, vainly I thanked Providence for having
guided us to so good a man. The conversation proceeding,
the case universally became deplorable. “Any fish canyon
do us the favour of giving ? ” — “ Oh ! no, sir.” — “ Any soup ? ”
— “No, sir.” — “Any bread?” — “Oh! no, sir.” — “Any dried
meat ? ” — “ Oh I no, sir.” If we were lucky, by waiting a
couple of houi’s, we obtained fowls, rice, and farinha. It not
unfrequently happened that we were obliged to kill, with
stones, the poultry for our own supper. When, thoroughly
exhausted by fatigue and hunger, we timorously hinted that
we should be glad of our meal, the pompous and (though
true) most unsatisfactory answer was, “ It will be ready when
it is ready.” If we had dared to remonstrate any further,
we should have been told to proceed on our journey, as
being too impei’tinent. The hosts are most ungracious and
disagreeable in their manners ; their houses and their persons
are often filthily dirty ; the want of the accommodation of
forks, knives, and spoons is common ; and I am sure no
cottage or hovel in England could be found in a state so
utterly destitute of eveiy comfort. At Campos Novos, how-
ever, we fared sumptuously ; having rice and fowls, biscuit,
wine, and spirits for dinner ; coffee in the evening, and fish
with coffee for breakfast. All this, with good food for the
horses, only cost 2s. 6d. per head. Yet the host of this
venda, being asked if he knew anything of a whip which
one of the party had lost, gruffly answered : “ How should I
know ? why did you not take care of it ? — I suppose the
dogs have eaten it.”

Leaving Mandetiba, we continued to pass through an
intricate wilderness of lakes ; in some of which were fresh,
in others salt-water shells. Of the former kind, I found a
LhnncBa in great numbers in a lake, into which, the inhabit-
ants assured me, that the sea enters once a year, and some-
times oftener, and makes the water quite salt. I have no

RIO DE JANEIRO

21

doubt many interesting facts in relation to marine and fresh-
water animals might be observed in this chain of lagoons,
which skirt the coast of Brazil. M. Gay * has stated that
he found in the neighbourhood of Rio, shells of the marine
genera solen and mytilus, and fresh-water ampullarite, living
together in brackish water. I also frequently observed in
the lagoon near the Botanic Garden, where the water is only
a little less salt than in the sea, a species of hydrophilus,
veiy similar to a water-beetle common on the ditches of
England : in the same lake the only shell belonged to a
genus generally found in estuaries.

Leaving the coast for a time, we again entered the forest.
The trees were very lofty, and remarkable, compared with
those of Europe, from the whiteness of their trunks. I see
by my note-book, ‘‘ wonderful and beautiful flowering para-
sites,” invariably struck me as the most novel object in these
grand scenes. Travelling onwards we passed through tracts
of pasturage, much injured by the enormous conical ants’
nests, which were nearly twelve feet high. They gave to
the plain exactly the appearance of the mud volcanoes at
Jorullo, as figured by Humboldt. We arrived at Engenhodo
after it was dark, having been ten hours on horseback. I
never ceased, during the whole journey, to be surprised at
the amount of labour which the horses were capable of en-
during ; they appeared also to recover from any injury much
sooner than those of our English breed. The vampire bat is
I often the cause of much trouble, by biting the horses on
their withers. The injury is generally not so much owing to
I the loss of blood, as to the inflammation which the pressure of
[ the saddle afterwards produces. The whole circumstance
! has lately been doubted in England ; I was therefore fortun-
: ate in being present when one {l)esviodus d’orbignyi, Wat.)
I was actually caught on a horse’s back. We were bivouacking
I late one evening near Coquimbo, in Chile, when my servant,
c noticing that one of the horses was very restive, went to see
I what Avas the matter, and fancying he could distinguish
V something, suddenly put his hand on the beast’s withers,

I and secured the vanqjire. In the morning the spot where

II the bite had been inflicted was easily distinguished from

Annul, des Sa'enc. Nat. for 1833.

32

ARRIVAL AT SOCEGO

bein^ slightly swollen and bloody. The third day after-
wards we rode the horse without any ill effects.

April 13//<. — After three days’ travelling we arrived at
Socego, the estate of Senh6r Manuel Figuireda, a relation of
one of our party. The house was simple, and, though like a
barn in form, w'as well suited to the climate. In the sitting-
room gilded chairs and sofas were oddly contrasted with the
whitewashed walls, thatched roof, and windows without glass.
The house, together with the granaries, the stables, and
workshops for the blacks, who had been taught various
trades, formed a rude kind of quadrangle ; in the centre of
which a large pile of coffee was drying. These buildings
stand on a little hill, overlooking the cultivated ground, and
surrounded on every side by a wall of dark green luxuriant
forest. The chief produce of this part of the country is
coffee. Each tree is supposed to yield annually, on an
average, two pounds ; but some give as much as eight.
Mandioca or cassada is likewise cultivated in great quantity.
Every part of this plant is useful : the leaves and stalks are
eaten by the horses, and the roots are ground into a pulp,
which, when pressed dry and baked, forms the farinha, the
principal article of sustenance in the Brazils. It is a curious,
though well-known fact, that the juice of this most nutritious
plant is highly poisonous. A few years ago a cow died at
this fazenda, in consequence of having drunk some of it.
Senh6r Figuireda told me that he had planted, the year
before, one bag of feijad or beans, and three of rice ; the
former of which produced eighty, and the latter three
hundred and twenty-fold. The pasturage supports a fine
stock of cattle, and the woods are so full of game that a
deer had been killed on each of the three previous days.
This profusion of food showed itself at dinner, where, if the
tables did not groan, the guests surely did : for each person
is expected to eat of every dish. One day, having, as I
thought, nicely calculated so that nothing should go away
untasted, to my utter dismay a roast turkey and a pig
appeared in all their substantial reality. During the meals,
it was the employment of a man to drive out of the room
sundry old hounds and dozens of little black children,
which crawled in together at every opportunity. As long as
the idea of slavery could be banished, there was something

RIO DE JANEIRO

23

exceedingly fascinating in this simple and patriarchal style
of living : it was such a perfect retirement and independence
from the rest of the world. As soon as any stranger is
seen arriving a large bell is set tolling, and generally some
small cannon are fired. The event is thus announced to the
rocks and woods, but to nothing else. One morning I
walked out an hour before daylight to admire the solemn
stillness of the scene ; at last, the silence was broken by
the morning hymn, raised on high by the whole body of the
blacks ; and in this manner their daily work is generally
begun. On such fazendas as these, I have no doubt the slaves
pass happy and contented lives. On Saturday and Sunday
they woi-k for themselves, and in this fertile climate the
labour of two days is sufficient to support a man and his
fomily for the whole week.

April 14///. — Leaving Socego, we rode to another estate on
the Rio Macae, which was the last patch of cultivated ground
in that direction. The estate was two and a-half miles long,
and the owner had forgotton how many broad. Only a very
small piece had been cleared, yet almost every acre was
cajxable of yielding all the various rich productions of a
tropical land. Considering the enormous area of Brazil, the
proportion of cultivated ground can scarcely be considered as
anything, compared to that which is left in the state of nature :
at some future age, how vast a population it will support !
During the second day’s journey we found the I'oad so shut
up, that it was necessary that a man should go ahead with a
sword to cut away the creepers. The forest abounded with
beautiful objects ; among which the tree ferns, though not
large, were, from their bright green foliage, and the elegant
curvature of their fronds, most worthy of admiration. In the
evening it rained very heavily, and although the thermometer
stood at 65°, I felt very cold. As soon as the rain ceased, it
was curious to observe the extraordinary evaporation which
commenced over the whole extent of the forest. At the
height of a hundred feet the hills were buried in a dense
white vapour, which rose like columns of smoke from the most
thickly-wooded parts, and especially from the valleys. I
observed this phenomenon on several occasions ; I suppose it
is owing to the large surface of foliage, previously heated by
the sun’s rays.

24

APPEARANCE OF THE FORESTS

Wliile staying at this estate I was very nearly being an eye-
witness to one of those atrocious acts which can only take
place in a slave country. Owing to a quarrel and a lawsuit,
the owner was on the point of taking all the women and
children from the male slaves, and selling them separately at
the jiublic auction at Rio. Interest, and not any feeling of
compassion, prevented this act. Indeed, I do not believe the
inhumanity of separating thirty families, who had lived to-
gether for many years, even occurred to the owner. Yet I
will pledge myself, that in humanity and good feeling he was
superior to the common run of men. It may be said there
exists no limit to the blindness of interest and selfish habit.
I may mention one very trifling anecdote, which at the time
struck me more forcibly than any story of cruelty. I was
crossing a ferry with a negro, who was uncommonly stupid.
In endeavouring to make him understand, I talked loud, and
made signs, in doing which I passed my hand near his face.
He, I suppose, thought I was in a passion, and was going to
strike him ; for instantly, with a frightened look and half-shut
eyes, he dropped his hands. I shall never forget my feelings
of surprise, disgust, and shame, at seeing a great powerful
man afraid even to ward off a blow, directed, as he thought,
at his face. This man had been trained to a degradation
lower than the slavery of the most helpless animal.

April 18th. — In returning we spent two days at Soc6go,
and I employed them in collecting insects in the forest.
The greater number of trees, although so lofty, are not more
than three or four feet in circumference. There are, of
course, a few of much greater dimension. Senhor Manuel
was then making a canoe 70 feet in length fi’om a solid
trunk, which had originally been 110 feet long, and of great
thickness. The contrast of palm trees growing amidst the
common branching kinds never fails to give the scene an
intertropical character. Here the woods were ornamented
by the Cabbage Palm — one of the most beautiful of its
family. With a stem so narrow that it might be clasped
with the two hands, it waves its elegant head at the height
of forty or fifty feet above the ground. The M'oody creepers,
themselves covered by other creepers, were of great thick-
ness : some which I measured were two feet in circumference.
Many of the older trees presented a very curious appearance

F E R X A X DO X O RO X HA.

[7y /rtiV /. 24.

liOTOFOOU liAV, RIU JAXKIRii.

APPEARANCE OF THE FORESTS

25

from tlie tresses of a liana hanging from their boughs, and
resembling bundles of hay. If the eye was turned from the
world of foliage above, to the ground beneath, it was
attracted by the extreme elegance of the leaves of the ferns
and mimosae. The latter, in some parts, covered the surface
with a brushw'ood only a few inches high. In walking
across these thick beds of mimosae, a broad track was marked
by the change of shade, produced by the drooping of their
sensitive petioles. It is easy to specify the individual
objects of admiration in these grand scenes ; but it is not
possible to give an adequate idea of the higher feelings of
wonder, astonishment, and devotion, which fill and elevate
the mind.

April \9th. — Leaving Socego, during the tw'O first days, we
retraced our steps. It was very wearisome work, as the road
generally ran across a glaring hot sandy plain, not far from
the coast. I noticed that each time the horse put its foot
on the fine siliceous sand, a gentle chirping noise was
produced. On the third day we took a different line, and
passed through the gay little village of Madre de De6s.
This is one of the principal lines of road in Brazil ; yet it was
in so bad a state that no w'heel vehicle, excepting the clumsy
bullock-waggon, could pass along. In our whole journey
we did not cross a single bridge built of stone ; and those
made of logs of wood were frequently so much out of repair,
that it was necessary to go on one side to avoid them. All
distances are inaccurately knowoi. The road is often marked
by crosses, in the place of milestones, to signify where human
blood has been spilled. On the evening of the 23rd we
arrived at Rio, having finished our pleasant little excursion.

During the remainder of my stay at Rio, I resided in a cottage
at Botofogo Bay. It was impossible to wish for anything more
delightful than thus to spend some weeks in so magnificent
a country. In England any person fond of natural history
enjoys in his walks a great advantage, by always having
something to attract his attention ; but in these fertile
climates, teeming with life, the attractions are so numerous,
that he is scarcely able to walk at all.

The few observations which I was enabled to make were
almost exclusively confined to the invertebrate animals. The
existence of a division of the genus IHanaria, which inhabits

26

RIO DE JANEIRO

the dry land, interested me much. These animals are of so
simple a structure, that Cuvier has arranged them with the
intestinal Avorms, though never found within the bodies of
other animals. Numerous species inhabit both salt and fresh
water ; but those to which I allude were found, even in the
drier parts of the forest, beneath logs of rotten wood, on
which I believe they feed. In general form they resemble
little slugs, but are very much narrower in proportion,
and several of the species are beautifully coloured with
longitudinal stripes. Their structure is very simple : near
the middle of the under or crawling surface there are two
small transverse .slits, from the anterior one of which a
funnel-shaped and highly irritable mouth can be protruded.
For some time after the rest of the animal was completely
dead from the effects of salt water or any other cause, this
organ still retained its vitality.

I found no less that twelve different species of terrestrial
Planmice in different parts of the southern hemisphere.*
Some specimens which I obtained at Van Diemen’s Land, I
kept alive for nearly two months, feeding them on rotten
wood. Having cut one of them transversely into two nearly
equal parts, in the course of a fortnight both had the shape
of perfect animals. I had, however, so divided the body,
that one of the halves contained both the inferior orifices,
and the other, in consequence, none. In the course of
twenty-five days from the operation, the more perfect half
could not have been distinguished from any other specimen.
The other had increased much in size ; and towards its
posterior end, a clear .space was formed in the parenchy-
matous mass, in which a rudimentary cup-shaped mouth
could clearly be distinguished ; on the other surface, how-
ever, no corresponding slit was yet open. If the increased
heat of the weather, as we approached the equator, had not
destroyed all the individuals, there can be no doubt that
this last step would have completed its structure. Although
so well-known an experiment, it was interesting to watch
the gradual production of every essential organ, out of the
simple extremity of another animal. It is extremely difficult

* I have described and named these species in the Annals of Natural
History, vol. xiv. p. 241.

RIO DE JANEIRO

27

to preserve these Planarice; as soon as the cessation of life
allows the ordinary laws of change to act, their entire bodies
become soft and fluid, w'ith a rapidity which I have never
seen equalled.

I first visited the forest in whicn these Planaria; were
found in company with an old Portuguese priest, who took
me out to hunt with him. The sport consisted in turning
into the cover a few dogs, and then patiently waiting to fire
at any animal which might appear. We were accompanied
by the son of a neighboui'ing farmer — a good specimen of a
wild Brazilian youth. He was dressed in a tattered old shirt
and trousers, and had his head uncovei-ed : he carried an
old-fashioned gun and a large knife. The habit of carrying
the knife is universal ; and in traversing a thick wood it is
almost necessary, on account of the creeping plants. The
frequent occurrence of murder may be partly attributed to
this habit. The Brazilians are so dexterous with the knife,
that they can throw it to some distance with precision, and
with sufficient force to cause a fatal wound. I have seen a
number of little boys practising this art as a game of play,
and from their skill in hitting an upright stick, they promised
well for more earnest attempts. My companion, the day
before, had shot two large bearded monkeys. These animals
have prehensile tails, the extremity of which, even after
death, can support the whole weight of the body. One of
them thus remained fast to a branch, and it was necessary
to cut down a large tree to procure it. This was soon
effected, and down came tree and monkey with an awful
crash. Our day’s sport, besides the monkey, was confined
to sundry small green parrots and a few toucans. I profited,
however, by my acquaintance with the Portuguese padre, for
on another occasion he gave me a fine specimen of the
Yagouaroundi cat.

Every one has heard of the beauty of the scenery near
Botofogo. The house in which I lived w'as seated close
beneath the well-known mountain of the Corcovado. It has
been remarked, with much truth, that abruptly conical hills
are characteristic of the formation which Humboldt designates
as gneiss-granite. Nothing can be more striking than the
effect of these huge rounded masses of naked rock rising out
of the most luxuriant vegetation.

28

PHOSPHORESCENT INSECTS

I was often interested by w'atching the clouds, which,
rolling in from seaward, formed a bank just beneath the
highest point of the Corcovado. This mountain, like most
others, when thus partly veiled, apj)eared to rise to a far
prouder elevation than its real height of 2300 feet. Mr
Daniell has observed, in his meteorological essays, that a
cloud sometimes appears fixed on a mountain summit, while
the wind continues to blow over it. The same phenomenon
here presented a slightly different appearance. In this case
the cloud was clearly seen to curl over, and rapidly pass by
the summit, and yet was neither diminished nor increased
in size. The sun was setting and a gentle southerly breeze,
striking against the southern side of the rock, mingled its
current with the colder air above, and the vapour was thus
condensed ; but as the light wreaths of clouds passed over
the ridge, and came within the influence of the warmer
atmosphere of the northern sloping bank, they w'ere imme-
diately re-dissolved.

The climate, during the months of May and June, or the
beginning of winter, was delightful. The mean tempera-
ture, from observations taken at nine o’clock, both morning
and evening, was only 72°. It often i-ained heavily, but
the drying southerly winds soon again rendered the -walks
pleasant. One morning, in the course of six hours, 1 -6 inches
of rain fell. As this storm passed over the forests which
surround the Corcovado, the sound produced by the drops
pattering on the countless multitude of leaves -was very
remarkable ; it could be heard at the distance of a quarter
of a mile, and was like the rushing of a great body of water.
After the hotter days, it was delicious to sit quietly in the
garden and watch the evening pass into night. Nature, in
these climes, chooses her vocalists from more humble per-
formers than in Europe. A small fi'og, of the genus Hi/la,
sits on a blade of grass about an inch above the surface of
the water, and sends forth a pleasing chirp : when several
are together they sing in harmony on different notes. I
had some difficulty in catching a specinen of this frog. The
genus Hyla has its toes terminated by small suckers ; and
I found this animal could crawl up a pane of glass, when
])laced absolutely perpendicular. Various cicadae and crickets,
at the same time, keep up a ceaseless shrill cry, but which.

PHOSPHORESCENT INSECTS

29

softened by the distance, is not unpleasant. Every evening
after dark this great concert commenced ; and often have
I sat listening to it, until my attention has been drawn
away by some curious passing insect.

At these times the fireflies are seen flitting about from
hedge to hedge. On a dark night the light can be seen at
about two hundred jmces distant. It is remarkable that in all
the different kinds of glowworms, shining elaters, and various
marine animals (such as the Crustacea, medusfe, nereidaj, a
coralline of the genus Cli/tia, and Pi/rosomci), which I have
observed, the light has been of a well-marked green colour.
All the fireflies, which I caught here, belonged to the
Lampt/ridce (in which fiimily the English glowworm is
included), and the greater number of specimens were of
Lanipijris occklentalis* I found that this insect emitted the
most brilliant flashes when irritated : in the intervals, the
abdominal rings were obscured. The flash was almost co-
instantaneous in the tw'o rings, but it was just percejjtible
first in the anterior one. The shining matter was fluid and
very adhesive : little sjjots, where the skin had been tom,
continued bright with a scintillation, whilst the uninjured
parts were obscured. When the insect was decapitated the
rings remained uninterruptedly bright, but not so brilliant as
before : local irritation with a needle always increased the
vividness of the light. The rings in one instance retained
their luminous property nearly twenty-four hours after the
death of the insect. From these facts it would appear
probable, that the animal has only the power of concealing or
extinguishing the light for short intervals, and that at other
times the display is involuntary. On the muddy and wet
gravel-walks I found the larvae of this lampyris in great
numbers : they resembled in general form the female of
the English glo^vAvoian. These larvae possessed but feeble
luminous powers ; very differently from their pai'ents, on the
slightest touch they feigned death, and ceased to shine ; nor
did irritation excite any fresh display. I kept several of them
alive for some time : their tails are very singular organs, for
they act, by a well-fitted contrivance, as suckers or organs of

* I am greatly indebted to Mr Waterhouse for his kindness in naming for
me this and many other insects, and in giving me much valuable assistance.

30

RIO DE JANEIRO

attachment^ and likewise as reservoirs for saliva^ or some such
fluid. I repeatedly fed them on raw meat ; and I invariably
observed, that every now and then the extremity of the tail
was applied to the mouth ; and a drop of fluid exuded on the
meat which was then in the act of being consumed. The
tail, notwithstanding so much practice, does not seem to be
able to find its way to the mouth ; at least the neck was always
touched first, and apparently as a guide.

When we were at Bahia, an elater or beetle (Pyrophoriis
hnninosus, Illig.) seemed the most common luminous insect.
The light in this case was also rendered more brilliant by
irritation. I amused myself one day by observing the spring-
ing powers of this insect, which have not, as it appears to me,
been pro2ierly described.* The elater, when placed on its
back and preparing to spring, moved its head and thorax
backwards, so that the pectoral spine Avas draAvn out, and
rested on the edge of its sheath. The same backward
movement being continued, the spine, by the full action of
the muscles, was bent like a spring ; and the insect at this
moment rested on the extremity of its head and wing-cases.
The effort being suddenly relaxed, the head and thorax fleAv
up, and in consequence, the base of the wing-cases struck the
suj)porting surface with such force that the insect, by the
reaction, was jerked upwards to the height of one or two
inches. The projecting points of the thorax, and the sheath
of the spine, served to steady the whole body during the
spring. In the descriptions which I have read, sufficient
stress does not ajijiear to have been laid on the elasticity
of the sjiine : so sudden a spring could not be the result
of simple muscular contraction, without the aid of some
mechanical contrivance.

On several occasions I enjoyed some short, but most
pleasant, excursions in the neighbouring countiy. One day
I went to the Botanic Garden, where many plants, well known
for their great utility, might be seen growing. The leaves of
the camphor, pepper, cinnamon, and clove trees were delight-
fully aromatic ; and the bread-fruit, the jaca, and the mango
vied with each other in the magnificence of their foliage.
The landscape in the neighbourhood of Bahia ahnost takes its

• Kirby’s Entomology, vol. ii. p. 317.

RIO DE JANEIRO

31

character from the two latter trees. Before seeing them, I
had no idea that any trees could cast so black a shade on the
ground. Both of them bear to the evergreen vegetation of
these climates the same kind of relation which laurels and
hollies in England do to the lighter green of the deciduous
trees. It may be observed, that the houses within the tropics
are surrounded by the most beautiful forms of vegetation,
because many of them are at the same time most useful to
man. Who can doubt that these qualities are united in the
banana, the cocoa-nut, the many kinds of palm, the orange,
and the bread-fruit tree ?

During this day I was particularly struck with a remark of
Humboldt’s, who often alludes to “ the thin vapour which,
without changing the transparency of the air, renders its tints
more harmonious, and softens its effects.” This is an appear-
ance which I have never observed in the temperate zones.
The atmosphere, seen through a short space of half or three-
quarters of a mile, was perfectly lucid, but at a greater
distance all colours were blended into a most beautiful haze,
of a pale French grey, mingled with a little blue. The con-
dition of the atmosphere between the morning and about
noon, when the effect was most evident, had undergone little
change, excepting in its dryness. In the interval, the differ-
ence between the dew point and temperature had increased
from T'o" to 17°.

On another occasion I started early and walked to the Gavia,
or topsail mountain. The air was delightfully cool and fragrant ;
and the drops of dew still glittered on the leaves of the large
lilaceous plants, which shaded the streamlets of clear water.

' Sitting down on a block of granite, it was delightful to watch
! the various insects and birds as they flew past. The humming-
bird seems particularly fond of such shady retired spots.

> Whenever I saw these little creatures buzzing round a flower,
with their wings vibrating so rapidly as to be scarcely visible,
I was reminded of the sphinx moths : their movements and
; habits are indeed in many respects very similar.

Following a pathway, I entered a noble forest, and from a
i height of five or six hundred feet, one of those splendid views
1 was presented, which are so common on every side of Rio.
t At this elevation the landscape attains its most brilliant
I tint ; and every form, every shade, so completely surpasses

32

RIO DE JANEIRO

in magnificence all that the European has ever beheld in his
own country, that he knows not how to express his feelings.
The general effect frequently recalled to my mind the gayest
scenery of the Opera House or the great theatres. I never
returned from these excursions empty-handed. This day I
found a specimen of a curious fungus, called Hymenophallus.
Most people know the English Phallus, which in autumn
taints the air with its odious smell : this, however, as the
entomologist is aware, is to some of our beetles a delightful
fragrance. So was it here ; for a Strongylus, attracted by the
odour, alighted on the fungus as I carried it in my hand. We
here see in two distant countries a similar relation between
plants and insects of the same families, though the species
of both are different. When man is the agent in introducing
into a country a new species, this relation is often broken : as
one instance of this I may mention, that the leaves of the
cabbages and lettuces, which in England afford food to such
a multitude of slugs and caterpillars, in the gai'dens near
Rio are untouched.

During our stay at Brazil I made a large collection of
insects. A few general observations on the comparative
importance of the different orders may be interesting to
the English entomologist. The large and brilliantly-coloured
Lepidoptera bespeak the zone they inhabit far more plainly
than any other race of animals. I allude only to the butter-
flies ; for the moths, contrary to what might have been ex-
pected from the rankness of the vegetation, certainly appeared
in much fewer numbers than in our own temperate regions.
I was much surprised at the habits of Papilio feronia. This
butterfly is not uncommon, and genei’ally frequents the orange-
groves. Although a high flier, yet it very frequently alights
on the trunks of trees. On these occasions its head is in-
variably placed downwards ; and its wings are expanded in
a horizontal plane, instead of being folded vertically, as is
commonly the case. This is the only butterfly which I have
ever seen that uses its legs for running. Not being aware of
this fact, the insect, more than once, as I cautiously approached
with my forceps, shuffled on one side just as the instrument
was on the point of closing, and thus escaped. But a far more
singular fact is the power which this species possesses of
making a noise. Several times when a pair, probably male

RIO DE JANEIRO

33

and female, were chasing each other in an irregular course,
they passed within a few yards of me ; and I distinctly heard
a clicking noise, similar to that produced by a toothed wheel
passing under a spring catch. The noise was continued at
short intervals, and could be distinguished at about twenty yards
distant : I am certain there is no error in the observation.*

I was disappointed in the general aspect of the Coleoptera.
The number of minute and obscurely-coloured beetles is
exceedingly great, f The cabinets of Europe can, as yet,
boast only of the larger species from tropical climates.
It is sufficient to disturb the composure of an entomologist’s
mind, to look forward to the future dimensions of a complete
catalogue. The carnivorous beetles, or Carabidce, appear in
' extremely few numbers within the tropics : this is the more
r remarkable when compared to the case of the carnivorous
quadrupeds, which are so abundant in hot countries. I was
' struck with this observation, both on entering Brazil and when
I saw the many elegant and active forms of the Harpalidce
■; re-appearing on the temperate plains of La Plata. Do the
) very numerous spiders and rapacious Hipnenoplera supply the
I place of the carnivorous beetles ? The carrion-feeders and
\ Brachelytera are very uncommon ; on the other hand, the
\ Rhyncophora and Chrysomelidce, all of which depend on the
3 vegetable world for subsistence, are present in astonishing
ji numbers. I do not here refer to the number of different

3 species, but to that of the individual insects ; for on this it is
that the most striking character in the entomology of different

* Mr Doubleday has lately described (before the Entomological Society,
i] March 3rd, 1845) a peculiar structure in the wings of this butterfly, which
S seems to be the means of its making its noise. He says : “ It is remarkable
t for having a sort of drum at the base of the fore wings, between the costal
^ nervure and the subcostal. These two nervures, moreover, have a peculiar

i screw-like diaphragm or vessel in the interior,” I find in LangsdorfFs
travels (in the years 1803-7, p. 74) h is said, that in the Island of St
Catherine’s on the coast of Brazil, a butterfly called Februa Hoffmanseggi,
makes a noise, when flying away, like a rattle.

t I may mention, as a common instance of one day’s (June 23rd) collect-
ing, when I was not attending particularly to the Coleoptera, that I caught
sixty-eight species of that order. Among these, there were only two of

5 the Carabidit, four Brachelytera, fifteen Rhyncophora, and fourteen of the
Chrysomelidce. Thirty-seven species of Arachnidce, which I brought home,
I will be sufficient to prove that I was not paying overmuch attention to
I the generally favoured order of Coleoptera,

34

SPIDERS

countries depends. The orders Orthoplera and Hemiptera are
particularly numerous ; as likewise is the stinging division
of the Hymenoptera, the bees, perhaps, being excepted. A
person, on first entering a tropical forest, is astonished at the
labours of the ants : well-beaten paths branch off in every
direction, on which an army of never-failing foragers may be
seen, some going forth, and others returning, burdened with
pieces of green leaf, often larger than their own bodies.

A small dark-coloured ant sometimes migrates in countless
numbers. One day, at Bahia, my attention was drawn by
observing many spiders, cockroaches, and other insects, and
some lizards, rushing in the greatest agitation across a bare
piece of ground. A little way behind, every stalk and leaf
was blackened by a small ant. The swarm having crossed the
bare space, divided itself, and descended an old wall. By this
means many insects were fairly enclosed ; and the efforts
which the poor little creatures made to extricate themselves
from such a death were wonderful. When the ants came to
the road they changed their course, and in narrow files re-
ascended the wall. Having placed a small stone so as to
intercept one of the lines, the whole body attacked it, and
then immediately retired. Shortly afterwards another body
came to the charge, and again having failed to make any im-
pression, this line of march was entirely given up. By going
an inch round, the file might have avoided the stone, and this
doubtless would have happened if it had been originally there ;
but having been attacked, the lion-hearted little warriors
scorned the idea of yielding.

Certain wasp-like insects, which construct in the corners of
the verandahs clay cells for their larvae, are very numerous in
the neighbourhood of Ilio. These cells they stuff full of half-
dead spiders and caterpillars, which they seem wonderfully to
know how to sting to that degree as to leave them paralysed
but alive, until their eggs are hatched ; and the larvae feed on
the horrid mass of powerless, half-killed victims — a sight
which has been described by an enthusiastic naturalist* as
curious aind pleasing ! I was much interested one day by

* In a MS. in the British Museum by Mr Abbott, who made his observa-
tions in Georgia ; see Mr A. White’s paper in the Annals of Natural
History, vol. vii. p. 472. Lieut. Hutton has described a sphex with
similar habits in India, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, vol. i. p. 555.

SPIDERS

35

watching a deadly contest between a Pepsis and a large
spider of the genus Lycosa. The wasp made a sudden dash
at its prey, and tlien flew away : the spider was evidently
womided, for, trying to escape, it rolled down a little slope,
but had still strength sufficient to crawl into a thick tuft of
grass. The wasp soon returned, and seemed surprised at
not immediately finding its victim. It then commenced as
regular a hunt as ever hound did after fox ; making short
semi-circular casts, and all the time rapidly vibrating its wings
and antennae. The spider, though well concealed, was soon
discovered ; and the wasp, evidently still afraid of its adver-
sary’s jaws, after much manoeuvring, inflicted two stings on
the under side of its thorax. At last, carefully examining
with its antennae the now motionless spider, it proceeded to
I drag away the body. But I stopped both tyrant and prey.*
The number of spiders in proportion to other insects is here,
compared with England, very much larger ; perhaps more so
i than with any other division of the articulate animals. The
f variety of species among the jumping spiders appears almost
i infinite. 'The genus, or rather family, of Epeira is here
) characterised by many singular forms ; some species have
j pointed coriaceous shells, others enlarged and spiny tibiae.
i Every path in the forest is barricaded with the strong yellow
n web of a species belonging to the same division with the
i Epeira clavipes of Fabricius, which was formerly said by
i Sloane to make, in the West Indies, webs so sti’ong as to
9 catch birds. A small and pretty kind of spider, with very

4 long fore-legs, and which appears to belong to an undescribed
I genus, lives as a parasite on almost every one of these webs.
1 I suppose it is too insignificant to be noticed by the great

I Epeira, and is therefore allowed to prey on the minute insects,
« M^hich, adhering to the lines, would otherwise be wasted.

5 When frightened, this little spider either feigns death by
{ extending its front legs, or suddenly drops from the web. A
• large Epeira of the same division with Epeira tuberculata and
» conica is extremely common, especially in dry situations. Its

* Don Felix Azara (vol. i. p. I7S), mentioning a hymenopterous insect,
» probably of the same genus, says he saw it dragging a dead spider through

II tall grass in a straight line to its nest, which was one hundred and sixty-
f three paces distant. He adds that the wasp, in order to find the road,

» every now and then made j'demi-tours d’environ trois palmes.”

I,

36

SPIDERS

web, which is generally placed among the great leaves of the
common agave, is sometimes strengthened near the centre by
a pair, or even four, zigzag ribbons, which connect two adjoin-
ing rays. When any lai-ge insect, as a grasshopper or wasp, is
caught, the spider, by a dexterous movement, makes it revolve
very rapidly, and at the same time emitting a band of threads
from its spinners, soon envelopes its prey in a case like the
cocoon of a silkworm. The spider now examines the power-
less victim, and gives the fatal bite on the hinder part of its
thorax ; then retreating, patiently waits till the poison has
taken effect. The virulence of this poison may be judged
of from the fact that in half-a-minute I opened the mesh,
and found a large wasp quite lifeless. This Epeira always
stands with its head downwards near the centre of the web.
When disturbed, it acts differently according to circumstances :
if there is a thicket below, it suddenly falls down ; and I have
distinctly seen the thread from the spinners lengthened by
the animal whilst yet stationary, as preparatory to its fall. 1 f
the ground is clear beneath, the Epeira seldom falls, but
moves quickly through a central passage from one to the
other side. When still further disturbed, it practises a most
curious manoeuvre : standing in the middle, it violently jerks
the web, which is attached to elastic twigs, till at last the
whole acquires such a rapid vibratory movement that even
the outline of the spider’s body becomes indistinct.

It is well known that most of the British spiders, when a
large insect is caught in their webs, endeavour to cut the
lines and liberate their prey, to save their nets from being
entirely spoiled. I once, however, saw in a hot-house in
Shropshire a large female wasp caught in the irregular web of
a quite small spider ; and this spider, instead of cutting the
web, most perseveringly continued to entangle the body, and
especially the wings, of its prey. The wasp at first aimed in
vain repeated thrusts with its sting at its little antagonist.
Pitying the wasp, after allowing it to struggle for more than
an hour, I killed it and put it back into the web. The spider
soon returned ; and an hour afterwards I was much surprised
to find it with its jaws buried in the orifice through which the
sting is protruded by the living wasp. I drove the spider
away two or three times, but for the next twenty-four hours I
always found it again sucking at the same place. The spider

SPIDERS

37

became much distended by the juices of its prey, which was
many times larger than itself.

I may here just mention that I found, near St Bajada,
many large black spiders, with ruby-coloured marks on their
backs, having gregarious habits. The webs were placed verti-
cally, as is invariably the case with the genus Epeira : they
were separated from each other by a space of about two
feet, but were all attached to certain common lines, which
were of great length, and extended to all parts of the com-
munity. In this manner the tops of some large bushes
were encompassed by the united nets. Azara* has described
a gregarious spider in Paraguay, which Walckenaer thinks
must be a Theridion, but probably it is an Epeira, and per-
haps even the same species with mine. I cannot, however,
recollect seeing a central nest as large as a hat, in which,
during autumn, when the spiders die, Azara says the eggs
are deposited. As all the spiders which I saw were of the
same size, they must have been nearly of the same age.
This gregarious habit, in so typical a genus as Epeira, among
insects, which are so bloodthirsty and solitary that even
the two sexes attack each other, is a very singular fact.

In a lofty valley of the Cordillei’a, near Mendoza, I found
another spider with a singularly formed web. Strong lines
radiated in a vertical plane from a common centre, where the
insect had its station ; but only two of the rays were con-
nected by a symmetrical mesh-work ; so that the net, instead
of being, as is generally the case, circular, consisted of a
wedge-shaped segment. All the webs were similarly con-
structed.

* .\zara’s Voyage, vol. i. p. 213.

CHAPTER III
MALDONADO

MONTE VIDEO MALDONADO EXCURSION TO THE RIO POLANCO

LAZO AND BOLAS PARTRIDGES ABSENCE OF TREES

DEER CAPYBARA, OR RIVER HOG TUCUTUCO MOLOTHRUS,

CUCKOO-LIKE HABITS TYRANT-FLYCATCHER MOCKING BIRD

CARRION HAWKS TUBES FORMED BY LIGHTNING HOUSE

STRUCK.

ULY 5th, 1832. — In the morning we got imder
weigh, and stood out of the splendid harbour
of Rio de Janeiro. In our passage to the Plata,
we saw nothing particular, excepting on one day
a great shoal of porpoises, many hundreds in
number. The whole sea was in places furrowed by them ;
and a most extraordinary spectacle was presented, as hundreds,
proceeding together by jumps, in which their whole bodies
were exposed, thus cut the water. ^Vhen the ship was
running nine knots an hour, these animals could cross and re-
cross the bows ■with the greatest ease, and then dash away
right ahead. As soon as w e entered the estuary of the Plata,
the W'eather w^as veiy unsettled. One dark night w^e w'ere
surrounded by numerous seals and penguins, wdiich made
such strange noises that the officer on watch reported he
could hear the cattle bellowing on shore. On the second
night we ■witnessed a splendid scene of natural fireAvorks ;
the mast-head and yard-arm-ends shone with St Elmo’s light;
and the form of the vane could almost be traced, as if it
had been rubbed with phosphorus. The sea was so highly
luminous that the tracks of the penguins were marked by a
fiery wake, and the darkness of the sky was momentarily
illuminated by the most vivid lightning.

When within the mouth of the river, I w'as interested by
observing how slowly the waters of the sea and river mixed.
38

MALDONADO

39

The latter, nuuldy and discoloured, from its less specific
gravity, floated on the surface of the salt water. This was
curiously exhibited in the wake of the vessel, where a line of
blue water was seen mingling in little eddies with the ad-
joining fluid.

July 9.6th. — We anchored at Monte Video. The Beagle was
employed in surveying the extreme southern and eastern
coasts of America, south of the Plata, during the two
succeeding years. To prevent useless repetitions, I will
extract those parts of my journal which refer to the same
districts, without always attending to the order in which we
visited them.

Maldonado is situated on the northern bank of the Plata,

I and not very far from the mouth of the estuary. It is a most
quiet, forlorn little town ; built, as is universally the case in
these coujitries, with the streets running at right angles to
1 each other, and having in the middle a large plaza or square,
which, from its size, renders the scantiness of the population
I more evident. It possesses scarcely any trade ; the exports
I being confined to a few hides and living cattle. The inhabit^
; ants are chiefly landowners, together with a few shopkeepers
» and the necessary tradesmen, such as blacksmiths and car-
[ penters, who do nearly all the business for a circuit of

: fifty miles round. The tovra is separated from the river by

I a band of sand hillocks, about a mile broad : it is surrounded

» on all other sides by an open slightly -undulating country,

• covered by one uniform layer of fine green turf, on which

I countless herds of cattle, sheep, and horses graze. There is

' very little land cultivated even close to the town. A few

i hedges made of cacti and agave mark out where some wheat

» or Indian corn has been planted. The features of the

1 country are very similar along the whole northern bank of the

[ Plata. The only difference is, that here the granitic hills are

i a little bolder. The scenery is very uninteresting : there is

1 scarcely a house, an enclosed piece of ground, or even a tree,
t to give it an air of cheerfulness. Yet, after being imprisoned

1 for some time in a ship, there is a charai in the unconfined

t feeling of walking over boundless plains of turf. Moreover,

I if your view is limited to a small space, many objects possess

I beauty. Some of the smaller birds are brilliantly coloured ;

40

IGNORANCE OF THE PEOPLE

and the bright green sward, browsed short by the cattle, is
ornamented by dwarf flowers, among which a plant looking
like the daisy claimed the place of an old friend. What
would a florist say to whole tracts so thickly covered by
the Verbena melindres, as, even at a distance, to appear of
the most gaudy scarlet i

I stayed ten weeks at Maldonado, in which time a nearly
perfect collection of the animals, birds, and reptiles, was pro-
cured. Before making any observations respecting them, I
will give an account of a little excursion I made as far as the
river Polanco, which is about seventy miles distant, in a
northerly direction. I may mention, as a proof how cheap
everything is in this country, that I paid only two dollars
a day, or eight shillings, for two men, together with a troop
of about a dozen riding horses. My companions were well
armed with pistols and sabres ; a precaution which I thought
rather unnecessary; but the first piece of news w^e heard
was that the day before a traveller from Monte Video had
been found dead on the road, with his throat cut. This
happened close to a cross, the record of a former murder.

On the first night we slept at a retired little country-house ;
and there I soon found out that I possessed two or three
articles, especially a pocket-compass, which created un-
bounded astonishment. In every house I w'as asked to show
the compass, and by its aid, together with a map, to point
out the direction of various places. It excited the liveliest
admiration that I, a perfect stranger, should know the road
(for direction and road are synonymous in this open country)
to places where I had never been. At one house, a young
woman who was ill in bed sent to entreat me to come and
show her the compass. If their surprise was great — mine was
greater — to find such ignorance among people who possessed
their thousands of cattle, and '^estancias ” of great extent. It
can only be accounted for by the circumstance that this
retired part of the country is seldom visited by foreigners. I
was asked whether the earth or sun moved ; whether it was
hotter or colder to the north ; where Spain was, and many
other such questions. The greater number of the inhabitants
had an indistinct idea that England, London, and North
America were different names for the same place ; but the
better informed well knew that London and North America

IGNORANCE OF THE PEOPLE

41

were sejiarate countries close together, and that England was
a large town in London ! I carried with me some promethean
matches, which I ignited by biting ; it was thought so wonder-
ful that a man should strike fire with his teeth, that it was
usual to collect the whole family to see it : I was once offered
a dollar for a single one. Washing my face in the morning
caused much speculation at the ^^llage of Las Minas ; a
superior tradesman closely cross-questioned me about so
singular a practice ; and likewise v/hy on board we wore our
beards ; for he had heard from my guide that we did so. He
eyed me with much suspicion ; perhaps he had heard of
ablutions in the Mohammedan religion, and knowing me to
be a heretic, probably he came to the conclusion that all
heretics were Turks. It is the general custom in this country
to ask for a night’s lodging at the first convenient house.
The astonishment at the compass, and my other feats in
jugglery, was to a certain degi’ee advantageous, as with that
and the long stories my guide told of my breaking stones,
knowing venomous from harmless snakes, collecting insects,
etc., I repaid them for their hospitality. I am writing as if I
had been among the inhabitants of Central Africa : Banda
Oriental would not be flattered by the comparison ; but such
were my feelings at the time.

The next day we rode to the \allage of Las Minas. The
( country was rather more hilly, but otherwise continued the
same ; an inhabitant of the Pampas no doubt would have con-
; sidered it as truly Alpine. The country is so thinly inhabited,
; that during the whole day we scarcely met a single person.

Las Minas is much smaller even than Maldonado. It is seated
I on a little plain, and is surrounded by low rocky mountains.

It is of the usual symmetrical form ; and, with its white-
i; washed church standing in the centre, had rather a pretty
' appearance. The outskirting houses rose out of the plain like
' isolated beings, without the accompaniment of gardens or
! courtyards. This is generally the case in the country, and all
) the houses have, in consequence, an uncomfortable aspect,
j At night we stopped at a pulperia, or drinking-shop. During
) the evening a great number of Gauchos came in to drink
i spirits and smoke cigars : their appearance is very striking ;
) they are generally tall and handsome, but with a proud and
'» dissolute expression of countenance. They frequently wear

4.2

LAZO AND BOLAS

their moustaches, and long black hair curling down their
backs. With their brightly coloured garments, great spurs
clanking about their heels, and knives stuck as daggers (and
often so used) at their waists, they look a very different race
of men from what might be expected from their name of
Gauchos, or simple countrymen. Their politeness is excessive ;
they never drink their spirits without expecting you to taste
it ; but whilst making their exceedingly graceful bow, they
seem quite as ready, if occasion offered, to cut your throat.

On the third day we pursued rather an irregular course, as I
was employed in examining some beds of marble. On the fine
plains of turf we saw many ostriches {Stndhio rhea). Some of
the flocks contained as many as twenty or thirty birds. These,
when standing on any little eminence, and seen against the
clear sky, presented a very noble appearance. I never met
with such tame ostriches in any other part of the counti-y : it
was easy to gallop up within a short distance of them ; but
then, expanding their wings, they made all sail right before
the wind, and soon left the horse astern.

At night we came to the house of Don Juan Fuentes, a rich
landed proprietor, but not personally known to either of my
companions. On approaching the house of a stranger, it is
usual to follow several little points of etiquette : riding up
slowly to the door, the salutation of “ Ave Maria ” is given, and
until somebody comes out and asks you to alight, it is not
customary even to get off your horse ; the formal answer of the
owner is “ sin pecado concebida ” — that is, conceived without
sin. Having entered the house, some general conversation
is kept up for a few minutes, till permission is asked to pass
the night there. This is granted as a matter of course. The
stranger then takes his meals with the family, and a room is
assigned him, where, with the horse-clothes belonging to his
recado (or saddle of the Pampas), he makes his bed. It is
curious how similar circumstances produce such similar results
in manners. At the Cape of Good Hope the same hospitality,
and very nearly the same points of etiquette, are universally
observed. The difference, however, between the character of
the Spaniard and that of the Dutch Boer is shown, by the
former never asking his guest a single question beyond
the strictest rule of politeness, while the honest Dutch-
man demands where he has been, where he is going, what is

LAZO AND BOLAS

4.3

his business, and even how many brothers, sisters, or chilcbren
he may happen to have.

Shortly after our arrival at Don Juan’s, one of the large
herds of cattle was driven in towards the house, and three
beasts were picked out to be slaughtered for the supply of
the establishment. These half-wild cattle are very active ;
and knowing full well the fatal lazo, they led the horses a
long and laborious chase. After witnessing the rude wealth
( displayed in the number of cattle, men, and horses, Don

, Juan’s miserable house was quite curious. The floor consisted

I of hardened mud, and the windows were without glass ; the

>. sitting-room boasted only of a few of the roughest chairs and

' stools, ■with a couple of tables. The supper, although several

i strangers were present, consisted of two huge piles, one of

1 roast beef, the other of boiled, with some pieces of pumpkin ;

:i besides this latter there was no other vegetable, and not even

r a morsel of bread. For drinking, a large earthenware jug of

I water served*the whole party. Yet this man was the owner

a of several square miles of land, of which nearly every acre

« would produce com, and, with a little trouble, all the common
■ vegetables. The evening was spent in smoking, with a little

r impromptu singing, accompanied by the guitar. The signor-

' itas all sat together in one comer of the room, and did not
< sup with the men.

So many works have been written about these countries,

3 that it is almost superfluous to describe either the lazo or the
J bolas. The lazo consists of a very strong, but thin, well-

I plaited rope, made of raw hide. One end is attached to the

d broad surcingle, which fastens together the complicated gear
u of the recado, or saddle used in the Pampas ; the other is
1 terminated by a small ring of iron or brass, by which a noose

3 can be formed. The Gaucho, when he is going to use the

I lazo, keeps a small coil in his bridle-hand, and in the other
(1 holds the running noose, which is made very large, generally
d having a diameter of about eight feet. This he whirls round
1 his head, and by the dexterous movement of his wrist keeps
) the noose open ; then, throwing it, he causes it to fall on any

I particular spot he chooses. The lazo, when not used, is tied

II up in a small coil to the after part of the recado. The bolas
c or balls, are of two kinds ; the simplest, which is chiefly used
i for catching ostriches, consists of two round stones, covered

44

LAZO AND BOLAS

with leather, and united by a thin plaited thong, about eight
feet long. The other kind differs only in having three balls
united by the thongs to a common centre. The Gaucho
holds the smallest of the three in his hand, and whirls the
other two round and round his head ; then, taking aim, sends
them like chain shot revolving through the air. The balls no
sooner strike any object, than winding round it, they cross
each other and become firmly hitched. The size and weight
of the balls varies, according to the purpose for which they
are made ; when of stone, although not larger than an apple,
they are sent with such force as sometimes to break the leg
even of a horse. I have seen the balls made of wood, and as
large as a turnip, for the sake of catching these animals •with-
out injuring them. The balls are sometimes made of iron,
and these can be hurled to the greatest distance. The main
difficulty in using either lazo or bolas is to ride so well as to
be able at full speed, and while suddenly turning about, to
whirl them so steadily round the head as to take aim ; on
foot any person would soon learn the art. One day, as I was
amusing myself by galloping and whirling the balls round my
head, by accident the free one struck a bush ; and its revolving
motion being thus destroyed, it immediately fell to the ground,
and like magic caught one hind-leg of my horse ; the other
ball was then jerked out of my hand, and the horse fairly
secured. Luckily he was an old practised animal, and knew
what it meant ; otherwise he would probably have kicked till
he had thrown himself down. The Gauchos roared with
laughter; they cried out that they had seen every sort of
animal caught, but had never before seen a man caught by
himself.

During the two succeeding days I reached the farthest
point which I was anxious to examine. The country wore the
same aspeet, till at last the fine green turf became more weari-
some than a dusty turnpike roai We everywhere saw great
numbers of partridges (Nolliura majoT\ These birds do not
go in coveys, nor do they conceal themselves like the English
kind. It appears a very silly bird. A man on horseback, by
riding round and round in a circle, or rather in a spiral, so as
to approach closer each time, may knock on the head as
many as he pleases. The more common method is to catch
them with a running noose, or little lazo, made of the stem of

CLIMATE AND VEGETATION

45

an ostrich’s feather, fastened to the end of a long stick. A boy
on a quiet old horse will frequently thus catch thirty or forty in
a day. In Arctic North America* the Indians catch the Varying
Hare by walking spirally round and round it, when on its
form ; the middle of the day is reckoned the best time, when
the sun is high, and the shadow of the hunter not very long.

On our return to Maldonado, we followed rather a different
line of road. Near Pan de Azucar, a landmark well known to
all those who have sailed up the Plata, I stayed a day at the
house of a most hospitable old Spaniard. Early in the morning
we ascended the Sierra de las Animas. By the aid of the
rising sun the scenery was almost picturesque. To the west-
ward the view extended over an immense level plain as far as
t the Mount, at Monte Video, and to the eastward, over the
i mammillated country of Maldonado. On the summit of the
I mountain there were several small heaps of stones, which

) evidently had lain there for many years. My companion

1 assured me that they were the work of the Indians in the old

J time. The heaps were similar, but on a much smaller scale,

1 to those so commonly found on the mountains of Wales. The

} desire to signalise any event, on the highest point of the
I neighbouring land, seems an universal passion with mankind.
\ At the present day, not a single Indian, either civilised or
r wild, exists in this part of the province ; nor am I aware that

} the former inhabitants have left behind them any more per-

I manent records than these insignificant piles on the summit
i of the Sierra de las Animas.

The general, and almost entire absence of trees in Banda
) Oriental is remarkable. Some of the rocky hills are partly

) covered by thickets, and on the banks of the larger streams,

> especially to the north of Las Minas, willow-trees are not un-
) common. Near the Arroy Tapes I heard of a wood of palms ;
< and one of these trees, of considerable size, I saw near the Pan
j de Azucar, in lat. 35°. These, and the trees planted by the
i Spaniards, offer the only exceptions to the general scarcity of
t wood. Among the introduced kinds may be enumerated
1 poplars, olives, peach, and other fruit-trees ; the peaches
j succeed so well, that they afford the main supply of firewood

* Hearnes’ p. 383.

46

CLIMATE AND VEGETATION

to the city of Buenos Ayres. Extremely level countries, such
as the Pampas, seldom appear favourable to the growth of
trees. This may possibly be attributed either to the force of
the winds, or the kind of drainage. In the nature of the land,
however, around Maldonado, no such reason is apparent ; the
rocky mountains afford protected situations, enjoying various
kinds of soil ; streamlets of water are common at the bottoms
of nearly every valley ; and the clayey nature of the earth
seems adapted to retain moisture. It has been inferred with
much probability, that the presence of woodland is generally
determined* by the annual amount of moisture ; yet in this
province abundant and heavy rain falls during the winter; and
the summer, though dry, is not so in any exeessive degree, f
We see nearly the whole of Australia covered by lofty trees,
yet that country possesses a far more arid climate. Hence we
must look to some other and unknown cause.

Confining our view to South America, we should certainly
be tempted to believe that trees flourished only under a very
humid climate ; for the limit of the forest-land follows, in a
most remarkable manner, that of the damp winds. In the
southei’n part of the continent, where the western gales,
charged with moisture from the Pacific, prevail, every island
on the broken west coast, from lat. 38° to the extreme point
of Tierra del Fuego, is densely covered by impenetrable
forests. On the eastern side of the Cordillera, over the same
extent of latitude, where a blue sky and a fine climate prove
that the atmosphere has been deprived of its moisture by
passing over the mountains, the arid plains of Patagonia
support a most scanty vegetation. In the more northern
parts of the continent, within the limits of the constant
south-eastern trade-wind, the eastern side is ornamented by
magnificent forests ; whilst the western coast, from lat. 4° S.
to lat. 32° S., may be described as a desert : on this western
coast, northward of lat. 4° S., where the trade-wind loses its
regularity, and heavy torrents of rain fall periodically, the
shores of the Pacific, so utterly desert in Peru, assume near
Cape Blanco the character of luxuriance so celebrated at
Guayaquil and Panama. Hence in the southern and northern

* Maclaren, article ‘^Af/terica,'” Encyclop. Britann.

fAzara says, “Je crois que la quantity annuelle des pluies est, dans
toutes ces contr^es, plus considriable qu’en Espagne ” — vol. i. p. 36.

MALDONADO

♦7

parts of the continent, the forest and desert lands occupy
reversed positions with respect to the Cordillera, and these
positions are apparently determined by the direction of the
prevalent winds. In the middle of the continent there is a
broad intermediate band, including central Chile and the
provinces of La Plata, where the rain-bringing winds have
not to pass over lofty mountains, and where the land is
neither a desert nor covered by forests. But even the rule,
if conhned to South America, of trees flourishing only in a
climate rendered humid by rain-bearing winds, has a strongly
marked exception in the case of the Falkland Islands. These
islands, situated in the same latitude with Tierra del Fuego,
and only between two and three hundred miles distant from
it, having a nearly similar climate, with a geological formation
almost identical, with favourable situations and the same
kind of peaty soil, yet can boast of few plants deserving even
the title of bushes; whilst in Tierra del Fuego it is impossible
to find an acre of land not covered by the densest forest. In
this case, both the direction of the heavy gales of wind and
of the currents of the sea are favourable to the transport of
seeds from Tierra del Fuego, as is shown by the canoes and
trunks of trees drifted from that country, and frequently
thrown on the shores of the Western Falkland. Hence
perhaps it is, that there are many plants in common to the
two countries ; but with respect to the trees of Tierra del
Fuego, even attempts made to transplant them have failed.

During our' stay at Maldonado I collected several quad-
rupeds, eighty kinds of birds, and many reptiles, including
nine species of snakes. Of the indigenous mammalia, the
only one now left of any size, which is common, is the Cervus
cavipestris. This deer is exceedingly abundant, often in small
herds, throughout the countries bordering the Plata and in
Northern Patagonia. If a person crawling close along the
ground slowly advances towards a herd, the deer frequently,
out of curiosity, approach to reconnoitre him. I have by this
means killed, from one spot, three out of the same herd.
Although so tame and inquisitive, yet when approached
on horseback, they are exceedingly wary. In this country
nobody goes on foot, and the deer knows man as its enemy
only when he is mounted and armed with the bolas. At
Bahia Blanca, a recent establishment in Northern Patagonia,

4-8

MALDONADO

I was surprised to find how little the deer cared for the noise
of a gun : one day I fired ten times from within eighty yards
at one animal ; and it was much more startled at the ball
cutting up the ground than at the report of the rifle. My
powder being exhausted^ I was obliged to get up (to my
shame as a sportsman be it spoken^ though well able to kill
birds on the wing) and halloo till the deer ran away.

The most curious fact with respect to this animal is the
overpoweringly strong and offensive odour which proceeds
from the buck. It is quite indescribable : several times
whilst skinning the specimen which is now mounted at the
Zoological Museum I was almost overcome by nausea. I
tied up the skin in a silk pocket-handkerchief, and so carried
it home : this handkerchief, after being well w'ashed, I
continually used, and it was of course as repeatedly washed ;
yet every time, for the space of one year and seven months,
when first unfolded, I distinctly perceived the odour. This
appears an astonishing instance of the permanence of some
matter, which nevertheless in its nature must be most subtle
and volatile. Frequently, when passing at the distance of
half-a-mile to leeward of a herd, I have perceived the whole
air tainted with the effluvium. I believe the smell from the
buck is most powerful at the period when its horns are
perfect, or free from the hairy skin. When in this state the
meat is, of course, quite uneatable ; but the Gauchos assert,
that if buried for some time in fresh earth the taint is
removed. I have somewhere read that the islanders in the
north of Scotland treat the rank carcasses of the fish-eating
birds in the same manner.

The order Rodentia is here very numerous in species : of
mice alone I obtained no less than eight kinds.* The largest
gnawing animal in the world, the Hydrochoeru.i capybara (the
water-hog), is here also common. One which I shot at Monte
Video weighed ninety-eight pounds : its length, from the end

* In South America I collected altogether twenty-seven species of mice ;
and thirteen more are known from the works of Azara and other authors.
Those collected by myself have been named and described by Mr Waterhouse
at the meetings of the Zoological Society. I must be allowed to take this
opportunity of returning my cordial thanks to Mr Waterhouse, and to the
other gentlemen attached to that Society, for their kind and most liberal as-
sistance on all occasions.

VAMPIRE BAT (DESMODUS d’ORBIGNYI), CAUGHT ON BACK OF DARWIN’s HORSE
NEAR COQUIMBO. HEAD, FULL SIZE.

MALDONADO

4.1)

of the snout to the stump-like tail, was three feet two inches ;
and its girth three feet eight. These great Rodents occasion-
ally frequent the islands in the mouth of the Plata, where the
water is quite salt, but are far more abundant on the borders
of fresh-water lakes and rivers. Near Maldonado three or
four generally live together. In the daytime they either lie
among the aquatic plants, or openly feed on the turf plain.*
WTien viev/ed at a distance, from their manner of walking and
colour they resemble pigs : but when seated on their haunches,
and attentively watching any object with one eye, they re-
assume the appearance of their congeners, cavies and rabbits.
Both the front and side view of their head has quite a ludicrous
aspect, from the great depth of their jaw. These animals
at Maldonado were very tame ; by cautiously walking, I ap-
I proached within three yards of four old ones. This tameness

I may probably be accounted for by the Jaguar having been ban-

i ished for some years, and by the Gaucho not thinking it worth

t his while to hunt them. As I approached nearer and nearer

) they frequently made their peculiar noise, which is a low

> abrupt grunt, not having much actual sound, but rather arising

il from the sudden expulsion of air : the only noise I know at all

( like this, is the first hoarse bark of a large dog. Having

f, watched the four from almost within arm’s-length (and they

I me) for several minutes, they rushed into the water at full

^ gallop with the greatest impetuosity, and emitted at the same

t time their bark. After diving a short distance they came

y again to the surface, but only just showed the upper part of

1 their heads. When the female is swimming in the water, and

.1 has young ones, they are said to sit on her back. These

t animals are easily killed in numbers ; but their skins are of

1 trifling value, and the meat is very indifferent. On the islands

c in the Rio Parana they are exceedingly abundant, and afford

d the ordinary prey to the Jaguar.

The Tucutuco {Ctenomys Braidiensis') is a curious small
1 animal, which may be briefly described as a Gnawer, with

* In the stomach and duodenum of a capybara which I opened I found a
K very large quantity of a thin yellowish fluid, in which scarcely a fibre could
! be distinguished. Mr Owen informs me that a part of the oesophagus is so
» constnicted that nothing much larger than a crowquill can be passed down,
t Certainly the broad teeth and strong jaws of this animal are well fitted to
1 grind into pulp the aquatic plants on which it feeds.

D

50

MALDONADO

the habits of a mole. It is extremely numerous in some parts
of the country, but it is difficult to be procured, and never, I
believe, comes out of the ground. It throws up at the mouth
of its burrows hillocks of earth like those of the mole but
smaller. Considerable tracts of country are so completely
undermined by these animals that horses, in passing over, sink
above their fetlocks. The tucutucos appear, to a certain
degree, to be gregarious ; the man who procured the specimens
for me had caught six together, and he said this was a common
occurrence. They are nocturnal in their habits ; and their
principal food is the roots, of plants, which are the object of
their extensive and superficial burrows. This animal is uni-
versally known by a very peculiar noise which it makes when
beneath the ground. A person, the first time he hears it, is
much surprised ; for it is not easy to tell whence it comes, nor
is it possible to guess what kind of creature utters it. The
noise consists in a short, but not rough, nasal grunt, which is
monotonously repeated about four times in quick succession :*
the name Tucutuco is given in imitation of the sound. Where
this animal is abundant, it may be heard at all times of the
day, and sometimes directly beneath one’s feet. When kept
in a room, the tucutucos move both slowly and clumsily, "wLich
appears owing to the outward action of their hind legs ; and
they are quite incapable, from the socket of the thigh-bone
not having a certain ligament, of jumping even the smallest
vertical height. They are very stupid in making any attempt
to escape ; when angry or frightened they uttered the tucu-
tuco. Of those I kept alive, several, even the first day,
became quite tame, not attempting to bite or to run away ;
others were a little wilder.

The man who caught them asserted that very many are
invariably found blind. A specimen which I preserved in
spirits was in this state ; Mr Reid considers it to be the effect
of inflammation in the nictitating membrane. When the

* At the R. Negro, in Northern Patagonia, there is an animal of the same
habits and probably a closely allied species, but which I never saw. Its
noise is different from that of the Maldonado kind ; it is repeated only twice
instead of three or four times, and is more distinct and sonorous : when
heard from a distance it so closely resembles the sound made in cutting down
a small tree with an axe, that I have sometimes remained in doubt con-
cerning it.

BIRDS

51

aiiiinal was alive I placed my finger within half-an-inch of its
head, and not the slightest notice was taken ; it made its way,
however, about the room nearly as well as the others.
Considering the strictly subterranean habits of the tucutuco,
the blindness, though so common, cannot be a very serious
evil ; yet it appears strange that any animal should possess an
organ frequently subject to be injured. Lamarck would have
been delighted with this fact, had he known it, when specu-
lating * (probably with more truth than usual with him) on the
gradually-flC(/«ired blindness of the Aspalax, a Gnawer living
under ground, and of the Proteus, a reptile living in dark
caverns filled with water ; in both of which animals the eye is
in an almost rudimentary state, and is covered by a tendinous
membrane and skin. In the common mole the eye is extra-
1 ordinarily small but perfect, though many anatomists doubt
whether it is connected with the true optic nerve ; its vision
I must certainly be imperfect, though probably useful to the
i animal when it leaves its buiTow. In the tucutuco, which I

1 believe never comes to the surface of the ground, the eye is

1 rather larger, but often rendered blind and useless, though
! without apparently causing any inconvenience to the animal ;
.1 no doubt Lamarck would have said that the tucutuco is now
u passing into the state of the Aspalax and Proteus.

Birds of many kinds are extremely abundant on the undu-
lating grassy plains around Maldonado. There are several
species of a family allied in structure and manners to our
Starling : one of these Molothrus (tiiger) is remarkable from
its habits. Several may often be seen standing together on
the back of a cow or horse : and while perched on a hedge,
pluming themselves in the sun, they sometimes attempt to
; sing, or rather to hiss ; the noise being very peculiar, resem-

t bling that of bubbles of air passing rapidly from a small orifice

I under water, so as to produce an acute sound. According

> to Azara, this bird, like the cuckoo, deposits its eggs in other

' birds’ nests. I was several times told by the country-people,

1 that there certainly is some bird having this habit ; and my

assistant in collecting, who is a very accurate person, found a
I nest of the sparrow of this country (Zojiotnchia malutind),

with one egg in it larger than the others, and of a different

* nuiosoph. Zoolog. tom. i. p. 242.

52

BIRDS

colour and shape. In Nortli America there is another species
of Molothrus (M. pecoris\ which has a similar cuckoo-like habit,
and which is most closely allied in every respect to the species
from the Plata, even in such trifling peculiarities as standing on
the backs of cattle ; it differs only in being a little smaller, and
in its plumage and eggs being of a slightly different shade of
colour. This close agreement in structure and habits, in
representative species coming from opposite quarters of a great
continent, always strike one as interesting, though of common
occurrence.

Mr Swainson has well remarked,* that with the exception
of Molothrus pecoris, to which must be added the M. niger,
the cuckoos are the only birds which can be called truly
parasitical — namely, such as “ fasten themselves, as it were, on
another living animal, wdiose animal heat brings their young
into life, whose food they live upon, and whose death w^ould
cause theirs during the period of infancy.” It is remarkable
that some of the species, but not all, both of the Cuckoo and
Molothrus, should agree in this one strange habit of their para-
sitical propagation, whilst opposed to each other in almost
every other habit : the molothrus, like our starling, is eminently
sociable, and lives on the open plains without art or disguise :
the cuckoo, as eveiyone knows, is a singularly shy bird ; it fre-
quents the most retired thickets, and feeds on fruit and cater-
pillars. In structure also these tw^o genera are w'idely removed
from each other. Many theories, even phrenological theories,
have been advanced to explain the origin of the cuckoo laying
its eggs in other birds’ nests. M. Prevost alone, I think, has
thrown light by his observations! on this puzzle : he finds that
the female cuckoo, which, according to most observers, lays at
least from four to six eggs, must pair with the male each time
after laying only one or two eggs. Now', if the cuckoo was
obliged to sit on her own eggs, she w'ould either have to sit
on all together, and therefore leave those first laid so long,
that they probably would become addled ; or she w'ould have to
hatch separately each egg or two eggs, as soon as laid : but as
the cuckoo stays a shorter time in this country than any other

* Magazine of Zoology and Botany, vol. i. p. 217.

+ Read before the Academy of Sciences in Paris. V Institute 1834,

p. 1 48.

BIRDS

53

migratory bird, she certainly would not have time enough for
the successive hatchings. Hence we can perceive in the fact
of the cuckoo pairing several times, and laying her eggs at
intervals, the cause of her depositing her eggs in other birds’
nests, and leaving them to the care of foster-parents. I am
strongly inclined to believe that this view is correct, from
having been independently led (as we shall hereafter see) to
an analogous conclusion with regard to the South American
ostrich, the females of which are parasitical, if I may so
express it, on each other : each female laying several eggs, in
the nests of several other females, and the male ostrich under-
taking all the cares of incubation, like the strange foster-
parents with the cuckoo.

I will mention only two other birds, which are very common,
and render themselves prominent from their habits. The
Saurophagus sulphuralus is typical of the great American tribe
of tyrant flyeatchers. In its structure it closely approaches
the true shi-ikes, but in its habits may be compared to many
bii'ds. I have frequently observed it, hunting a field, hovering
over one spot like a hawk, and then proceeding on to another.
When seen thus suspended in the air, it might very readily at
a short distance be mistaken for one of the Rapacious order ;
its stoop, however, is very inferior in force and rapidity to that
I of a hawk. At other times the Saurophagus haunts the
1 neighbourhood of water, and there, like a kingfisher, remain-
i ing stationary, it catches any small fish which may come near
1 the margin. These birds are not unfrequently kept either
i in cages or in comdyards, with their wings cut. They soon
i become tame, and are very amusing from their cunning odd
(I manners, which were described to me as being similar to those
1, of the common magpie. Their flight is undulatory, for the
!, weight of the head and bill appear too great for the body.
1 In the evening the Saurophagus takes its stand on a bush,
1 often by the roadside, and continually repeats without change
1 a shrill and rather agreeable cry, which somewhat resembles
articulate words ; the Spaniards say it is like the words “ Bien te
veo” (I see you well), and accordingly have given it this name.

A mocking-bird (^Minus orpheiis), called by the inhabitants
Calandria, is remarkable, from possessing a song far superior to
1 that of any other bird in the country : indeed it is nearly the
i only bird in South America which I have observed to take

54.

CARRION HAWKS

its stand for the purpose of singing. The song may be com-
pared to that of the Sedge warbler, but is more powerful ;
some harsh notes and some very high ones being mingled with
a pleasant warbling. It is heard only during the spring. At
other times its cry is harsh and far from harmonious. Near
Maldonado these birds were tame and bold ; they constantly
attended the country houses in numbers, to pick the meat
which was hung up on the posts or walls : if any other small
bird joined the feast, the Calandi-ia soon chased it away. On
the wide uninhabited plains of Patagonia another closely allied
species, O. Patagonica of d’Orbigny, which frequents the
valleys clothed with spiny bushes, is a wilder bird, and has a
slightly different tone of voice. It appears to me a curious
circumstance, as showing the fine shades of difference in habits,
that judging from this latter respect alone, when I first saw
this second species, I thought it M-as different from the Mal-
donado kind. Having afterwards procured a specimen, and
comparing the two without particular care, they appeared so
very similar that I changed my opinion ; but now Mr Gould
says that they are certainly distinct : a conclusion in conformity
with the trifling difference of habit, of which, however, he was
not aware.

The number, tameness, and disgusting habits of the carrion-
feeding hawks of South America, make them pre-eminently
striking to any one accustomed only to the birds of Northern
Europe. In this list may be included four species of the
Caracara or Polyborus, the Turkey-buzzard, the Gallinazo, and
the Condor. The Caracaras are, from their structure, placed
among the eagles ; we shall soon see how ill they become so
high a rank. In their habits they well supply the place
of our carrion-crows, magpies, and ravens ; a tribe of birds
widely distributed over the rest of the world, but entirely
absent in South America. To begin with the Polybontti
Brasiliensis : this is a common bird, and has a wide geo-
graphical range ; it is most numerous on the grassy savannahs
of La Plata (where it goes by the name of Carrancha), and is
far from unfrequent throughout the sterile plains of Pata-
gonia. In the desert between the rivers Negro and Colorado
numbers constantly attend the line of road to devour the
carcasses of the exhausted animals which chance to perish
from fatigue and thirst. Although thus common in these

CARRION HAWKS

55

dry and open countries, and likewise on the arid shores of
the Pacific, it is nevertheless found inhabiting the damp
impervious forests of west Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.
The Carranchas, together with the Chimango, constantly
attend in numbers the estancias and slaughtering-houses.
If an animal dies on the plain, the Gallinazo commences the
feast, and then the two species of Polyborus pick the bones
clean. These birds, although thus commonly feeding to-
gether, are far from being friends. When the Carrancha is
quietly seated on the branch of a tree or on the ground,
the Chimango often continues for a long time flying back-
wards and forwards, up and down, in a semi-circle, trying
each time at the bottom of the curve to strike its larger
relative. The Camincha takes little notice, except by
bobbing its head. Although the Carranchas frequently
assemble in numbers, they are not gregarious ; for in desert
places they may be seen solitary, or more commonly by pairs.

The Carranchas are said to be very crafty, and to steal
great numbers of eggs. They attempt, also, together with
the Chimango, to pick off the scabs from the sore backs of
horses and mules. The poor animal, on the one hand, with
its ears down and its back arched ; and, on the other, the
hovering bird, eyeing at the distance of a yard the disgusting
morsel, form a picture, which has been described by Captain
Head with his own peculiar spirit and accuracy. These false
eagles most rarely kill any living bird or animal ; and their
vulture-like, necrophagous habits are very evident to any one
who has fallen asleep on the desolate plains of Patagonia,
for when he wakes he will see, on each surrounding hillock,
one of these birds patiently watching him with an evil eye ;
it is a feature in the landscape of these countries which will
be recognised by eveiy one who has wandered over them.
If a party of men go out hunting with dogs and horses, they
will be accompanied, during the day, by several of these
attendants. After feeding, the uncovered craw protrudes ;
at such times, and indeed generally, the Can-ancha is an
inactive, tame, and cowardly bird. Its flight is heavy and
slow, like that of an English rook. It seldom soars ; but I
have twice seen oTie at a great height gliding through the
air wth much ease. It runs (in contradistinction to hopping),
but not quite so quickly as its congeners. At times the

56

CARRION HAWKS

CaiTancha is noisy, but is not generally so : its cry is loud,
very harsh and peculiar, and may be likened to the sound
of the Spanish guttural g, followed by a rough double r r ;
when uttering this cry it elevates its head higher and higher,
till at last, with its beak wide open, the crown almost touches
the lower part of the back. This fact, which has been
doubted, is quite true ; I have seen them several times with
their heads backwards in a completely inverted position. To
these observations I may add, on the high authority of Azara,
that the Carrancha feeds on worms, shells, slugs, grasshoppers,
and frogs ; that it destroys young lambs by tearing the um-
bilical cord ; and that it pursues the Gallinazo till that bird
is compelled to vomit up the carrion it may have recently
gorged. Lastly, Azara states that several Carranchas, five or
six together, will unite in chase of large birds, even such as
herons. All these facts show that it is a bird of very versa-
tile habits and considerable ingenuity.

The Polyborus Chimango is considerably smaller than the
last species. It is truly omnivorous, and will eat even bread ;
and I was assured that it materially injures the potato-crops
in Chiloe, by stocking up the roots when first planted. Of
all the carrion-feeders it is generally the last which leaves the
skeleton of a dead animal, and may often be seen ^vithin the
ribs of a cow or horse, like a bird in a cage. Another species
is the Polyboriis Novce Zelandice, which is exceedingly common
in the Falkland Islands. These birds in many respects
resemble in their habits the Carranchas. They live on the
flesh of dead animals and on marine productions ; and on the
Ramirez rocks their whole sustenance must depend on the
sea. They are extraordinarily tame and fearless, and haunt
the neighbourhood of houses for offal. If a hunting party
kills an animal, a number soon collect and patiently await,
standing on the ground on all sides. After eating, their
uncovered craws are largely protruded, giving them a dis-
gusting appearance. They readily attack wounded birds ;
a cormorant in this state having taken to the shore, was
immediately seized on by several, and its death hastened by
their blows. The Beagle was at the Falklands only during
the summer, but the officers of the Adventure, who were there
in the winter, mention many extraordinary instances of the
boldness and rapacity of these birds. They actually pounced

CARRION HAWKS

57

on a dog that was Ijing fast asleep close by one of the party ;
and the sportsmen had difficulty in preventing the wounded
geese from being seized before their eyes. It is said that
several together (in this respect resembling the Carranchas)
wait at the mouth of a rabbit-hole, and together seize
on the animal when it comes out. They were constantly
Hying on board the vessel when in the harbour ; and it was
necessary to keep a good look-out to prevent the leather
being torn from the rigging, and the meat or game from the
stern. These birds are very mischievous and inquisitive ;
they will pick up almost anything from the ground ; a large
black glazed hat was carried nearly a mile, as was a pair of
I the heavy balls used in catching cattle. Mr Usborne ex-
perienced during the survey a more severe loss, in their
; stealing a small Kater’s compass in a red morocco leather
case, which was never recovered. These birds are, moreover,

] quarrelsome and very passionate ; tearing up the grass with
their bills from rage. They are not truly gregarious ; they
i do not soar, and their flight is heavy and clumsy ; on the
; ground they run extremely fast, very much like pheasants.

) They are noisy, uttering several harsh cries ; one of which is
j like that of the English rook ; hence the sealers always call
them rooks. It is a curious circumstance that, when crying
$ out, they throw their heads upwards and backwards, after the
I same manner as the Carrancha. They build in the rocky
i cliffs of the sea-coast, but only on the small adjoining islets,
I and not on the t^vo main islands : this is a singular precaution
r in so tame and fearless a bird. The sealers say that the flesh
1 of these birds, when cooked, is quite white, and very good
a eating ; but bold must the man be who attempts such a meal.

We have now only to mention the turkey-buzzard (Vullu?
a aura) and the Gallinazo. The former is found wherever the
0 country is moderately damp, from Cape Horn to North
America. Differently from the Polyhorus Brasiliensis and
V Chimango, it has found its way to the Falkland Islands,
f The turkey-buzzard is a solitary bird, or at most goes in pairs.

; It may at once be recognised from a long distance by its
4 lofty, soaring, and most elegant flight. It is well known to
t be a true carrion-feeder. On the west coast of Patagonia,

I among the thickly-wooded islets and broken land, it lives
1 exclusively on what the sea throws up, and on the carcasses

58

TUBES FORMED BY LIGHTNING

of dead seals. Wherever these animals are congregated on
the rocks, there the vultures may be seen. The Gallinazo
(Catharles atralus) has a different range from the last species,
as it never occurs southward of lat. 41°. Azara states that
there exists a tradition that these birds, at the time of the
Conquest, were not found near Monte Video, but that they
subsequently followed the inhabitants from more northern
districts. At the present day they are more numerous in
the valley of the Colorado, which is three hundred miles due
south of Monte Video. It seems probable that this additional
migration has happened since the time of Azara. The
Gallinazo generally prefers a humid climate, or rather, the
neighbourhood of fresh water ; hence it is extremely abun-
dant in Brazil and La Plata, while it is never found on the
desert and arid plains of Northern Patagonia, excepting near
some stream. These birds frequent the whole Pampas to the
foot of the Cordillera, but I never saw nor heard of one in Chile :
in Peru they are preserved as scavengers. These vultures
certainly may be called gregarious, for they seem to have
pleasure in society, and are not solely brought together by
the attraction of a common prey. On a fine day a flock
may often be observed at a great height, each bird wheeling
round and round without closing its wings, in the most
graceful evolutions. This is clearly perfonued for the mere
pleasure of the exercise, or perhaps is connected wuth their
mati’imonial alliances.

I have now mentioned all the carrion-feeders, excepting
the Condor, an account of which will be more appropriately
introduced when we visit a country more congenial to its
habits than the plains of La Plata.

In a broad band of sand-hillocks which separate the
Laguna del Potrero from the shores of the Plata, at the
distance of a few miles from Maldonado, I found a group of
those vitrified, siliceous tubes, which are formed by lightning
entering loose sand. These tubes resemble in every par-
ticular those from Drigg in Cumberland, described in the
Geological Transactions* The sand-hillocks of Maldonado,

* Geological Transactions yVo\. ii.p. 528. In the Philosophical Transcut ions
(1790, p. 294) Dr Priestley has described some imperfect siliceous tubes and
a melted pebble of quartz, found in digging into the ground, under a tree,
where a man had been killed by lightning.

TUBES FORMED BY LIGHTNING

59

not being protected by vegetation, are constantly changing
their position. From this cause the tubes projected above
the surface ; and numerous fragments lying near showed
that they had formerly been buried to a greater de})th. Four
sets entered the sand perpendicularly : by woi-king with my
hands I traced one of them two feet deep ; and some frag-
ments which evidently had belonged to the same tube, when
added to the other part, measured five feet three inches.
The diameter of the whole tube was nearly equal, and
therefore w'e must suppose that originally it extended to a
much greater depth. These dimensions are, however, small,
compared to those of the tubes from Drigg, one of which was
traced to a depth of not less than thirty feet.

The internal surface is completely vitrified, glossy, and
smooth. A small fragment examined under the microscope
appeared, from the number of minute entangled air or
perhaps steam bubbles, like an assay fused before the blow-
pipe. The sand is entirely, or in greater part, siliceous ; but
some points are of a black colour, and from their glossy
surface possess a metallic lustre. The thickness of the wall
of the tube varies from a thirtieth to a twentieth of an inch,
and occasionally even equals a tenth. On the outside the
grains of sand are rounded, and have a slightly glazed appear-
ance : I could not distinguish any signs of crystallisation.
In a similar manner to that described in the Geological
Trajisactioiis, the tubes are generally compressed, and have
deep longitudinal furrows, so as closely to resemble a
shrivelled vegetable stalk, or the bark of the elm or cork tree.
Their circumference is about tw^o inches, but in some frag-
ments, which are cylindrical and without any furrows, it is as
much as four inches. The compression from the surrounding
loose sand, acting while the tube was still softened from the
effects of the intense heat, has evidently caused the creases
or furrows. Judging from the uncompressed fragments,
the measure or bore of the lightning (if such a term may be
used) must have been about one inch and a quarter. At
Paris, M. Hachette and M. Beudant* succeeded in making
tubes, in most respects similar to these fulgurites, by passing
very strong shocks of galvanism through finely-powdered glass :

* Annales de Chimie et d» Physique ^ tom. xxxvii. p. 319.

60

TUBES FORMED BY LIGHTNING

when salt was added, so as to increase its fusibility, the tubes
were larger in every dimension. They failed both with
powdered felspar and quartz. One tube, formed with pounded
glass, was very nearly an inch long — namely, '982 — and had an
internal diameter of ‘019 of an inch. When we hear that
the strongest battery in Paris was used, and that its power on
a substance of such easy fusibility as glass was to forai tubes
so diminutive, we must feel greatly astonished at the force
of a shock of lightning, which, striking the sand in several
places, has formed cylinders, in one instance of at least
thirty feet long, and having an internal bore, where not
compressed, of full an inch and a-half ; and this in a material
so extraordinarily refractory as quartz !

The tubes, as I have already remarked, enter the sand
nearly in a vertical direction. One, however, which was less
regular than the others, deviated from a right line, at the
most considerable bend, to the amount of thirty-three degrees.
From this same tube two small branches, about a foot apart,
were sent off ; one pointed downwards, and the other upwards.
This latter case is remarkable, as the electric fluid must have
turned back at the acute angle of 26“, to the line of its main
course. Besides the four tubes which I found vertical, and
traced beneath the surface, there were several other groups of
fragments, the original sites of which without doubt were near.
All occurred in a level area of shifting sand, sixty yards by
twenty, situated among some high sand-hillocks, and at the
distance of about half-a-mile from a chain of hills four or five
hundred feet in height. The most remarkable circumstance,
as it appears to me, in this case as well as in that of Drigg,
and in one described by M. Ribbentrop in Germany, is the
number of tubes found within such limited spaces. At Drigg,
within an area of fifteen yards, three were observed, and the
same number occurred in Germany. In the case which I have
described, certainly more than four existed within the space
of the sixty by twenty yards. As it does not appear probable
that the tubes are produced by successive distinct shocks, w’e
must believe that the liglitning, shortly before entering the
ground, divides itself into separate branches.

The neighbourhood of the Rio Plata seems peculiarly subject
to electric phenomena. In the year 1793,* one of the most

Azara’s Voyage, vol. i. p. 36.

TUBES FORMED BY LIGHTNING

61

destructive thunderstorms perhaps on record happened at
Buenos Ayres : thirty-seven places within the city were struck
I by lightning, and nineteen people killed. From facts stated
I in several books of travels, I am inclined to suspect that
I thunderstorms are very common near the mouths of great
i rivers. Is it not possible that the mixture of large bodies of
I fresh and salt Avater may disturb the electrical equilibrium ?
r Even during our occasional visits to this part of South America,
I we heard of a ship, two churches, and a house having been
I struck. Both the house and a church I saw shortly afterwards :
the house belonged to Mr Hood, the consul-general at Monte
Video. Some of the effects were curious : the paper, for
, nearly a foot on each side of the line where the bell-wires had
1 run, was blackened. The metal had been fused, and although
3 the room was about fifteen feet high, the globules, dropping
on the chair’s and furniture, had drilled in them a chain of
I minute holes. A part of the wall was shattered as if by
L gunpowder, and the fragments had been blown off with
•! force sufficient to dent the wall on the opposite side of the
c room. The frame of a looking-glass was blackened, and the
1 gilding must have been volatilised, for a smelling-bottle,

■ which stood on the chimney-piece, was coated with bright
I metallic particles, which adhered as firmly as if they had
t been enamelled.

CHAPTER IV

RIO NEGRO TO BAHIA BLANCA

RIO NEGRO ESTANCIAS ATTACKED BY THE INDIANS SALT LAKES

FLAMINGOES RIO NEGRO TO RIO COLORADO SACRED TREE

PATAGONIAN HARE INDIAN FAMILIES GENERAL ROSAS

PROCEED TO BAHIA BLANCA SAND DUNES NEGRO LIEUTENANT

BAHIA BLANCA SALINE INCRUSTATIONS — PUNTA ALTA

ZORILLO,

LY ^Mh, 1833. — The Beagle sailed from Maldon-
ado, and on the 3rd of August she arrived off the
mouth of the Rio Negro. This is the principal
river on the whole line of coast between the
Strait of Magellan and the Plata. It enters the
sea about three huirdred miles south of the estuary of the
Plata. About fifty years ago, under the old Spanish govern-
ment, a small colony was established here ; and it is still the
most southern position (lat. 41°) on this eastern coast of
America inhabited by civilised man.

The country near the mouth of the river is wretched in the
extreme ; on the south side a long line of perpendicular cliffs
commences, which exposes a section of the geological nature
of the country. The strata are of sandstone, and one layer
was remarkable from being composed of a firndy-cemented
conglomerate of pumice pebbles, which must have travelled
more than four hundred miles from the Andes. The surface
is everywhere covered up by a thick bed of gravel, which
extends far and M'ide over the open plain. Water is extremely
scarce, and, where found, is almost invariably brackish. The
vegetation is scanty ; and although there are bushes of many
kinds, all are armed with formidable thorns, which seem to
warn the stranger not to enter on these inhospitable regions.

The settlement is situated eighteen miles up the river.
The road follows the foot of the sloping cliff, which forms the
62

RIO NEGRO

63

northern boundary of the great valley in whidi the Rio
Negro flows. On the way we passed the ruins of some fine
“ estancias,” which a few years since had been destroyed by
the Indians. They withstood several attacks. A man present
at one gave me a very lively description of what took place.
The inhabitants had sufficient notice to drive all the cattle
and horses into the “ corral ”* which surrounded the house,
and likewise to mount some small cannon. The Indians were
Araucanians from the south of Chile, several hundreds in
number, and highly disciplined. They first appeared in two
bodies on a neighbouring hill ; having there dismounted, and
taken off their fur mantles, they advanced naked to the
charge. The only weapon of an Indian is a veiy long bamboo
or chuzo, ornamented with ostrich feathers, and pointed by a
' sharp spear-head. My informer seemed to remember with
the greatest horror the quivering of these chuzos as they
I approached near. When close, the cacique Pincheira hailed
! the besieged to give up their arms, or he would cut all their
I throats. As this ^vould probably have been the result of
their entrance under any circumstances, the answer was given
I by a volley of musketry. The Indians, with great steadiness,

I came to the very fence of the con-al ; but to their surprise they

< found the posts fastened together by iron nails instead of
leather thongs, and, of course, in vain attempted to cut them

r with their knives. This saved the lives of the Chi'istians :
j many of the w'onnded Indians were carried away by their

< companions ; and at last one of the under caciques being
I wounded, the bugle sounded a retreat. They retired to their
I! horses, and seemed to hold a council of war. This was an
* awful pause for the Spaniards, as all their ammunition, with
I the exception of a few cartridges, was expended. In an in-

stant the Indians mounted their horses, and galloped out of
'j sight. Another attack was still more quickly repulsed. A
X cool Frenchman managed the gun ; he stopped till the
If Indians approached close, and then raked their line with
grape-shot ; he thus laid thirty-nine of them on the ground ;

> and, of eourse, such a blow immediately routed the whole
I party.

* The corral is an enclosure made of tall and strong stakes. Every
eslancia, or fanning estate, has one attached to it.

64

SALT-LAKES OR SALINAS

The town is indifferently called El Carmen or Patagones.
It is built on the face of a cliff which fronts the river, and
many of the houses are excavated even in the sandstone. The
river is about two or three hundred yards wide, and is deep
and rapid. The many islands, with their willow-trees, and the
flat headlands, seen one behind the other on the northern
boundary of the broad green valley, form, by the aid of a
bright sun, a view almost picturesque. The number of in-
habitants does not exeeed a few hundreds. These Spanish
colonies do not, like our British ones, carry within them-
selves the elements of growth. Many Indians of 2iure blood
reside here : the tribe of the Cacique Lucanee constantly
have their toldos * on the outskirts of the town. The local
government partly supplies them with provisions by giving
them all the old worn-out horses, and they earn a little by
making horse-rugs and other articles of riding-gear. These
Indians are considered civilised ; but what their character
may have gained by a lesser degree of ferocity, is almost
counterbalanced by their entire immorality. Some of the
younger men are, however, improving ; they are willing to
labour, and a short time since a party went on a sealing-
voyage, and behaved very well. They were now enjoying the
fruits of their labour by being dressed in very gay, clean
clothes, and by being very idle. The taste they showed m
their dress was admirable ; if you could have turned one of
these young Indians into a statue of bronze, his drapery would
have been perfectly graceful.

One day I rode to a large salt lake, or salina, which is
distant fifteen miles from the town. During the winter it
consists of a shallow lake of brine, which in summer is con-
verted into a field of snow-white salt. The layer near the
margin is from four to five inches thick, but towards the
centre its thickness increases. This lake >vas two and a-half
miles long, and one broad. Others occur in the neighbourhood
many times larger, and with a floor of salt, two and three feet
in tbickness, even when under water during the Avinter. One
of these brilliantly-white and level expanses, in the midst of
the brown and desolate plain, offers an extraordinary spectacle.
A large quantity of salt is annually drawn from the salina ; and

* The hovels of the Indians are thus called.

SALT-LAKES OR SALINAS

65

great piles, some hundred tons in weight, were lying ready
for exportation. The season for working the salinas forms the
harvest of Patagones ; for on it the prosperity of the place
depends. Nearly the whole population encamps on the bank
of the river, and the people are employed in drawing out the
salt in bullock-waggons. This salt is crystallised in great
cubes, and is remarkably pure ; Mr Trenham Reeks has kindly
analysed some for me, and he finds in it only 0'26 of gypsum,
and 0'22 of earthy matter. It is a singular fact that it does
not serve so w'ell for preserving meat as sea-salt from the Gipe
de Verd Islands; and a merchant at Buenos A)Tes told me
that he considered it as fifty per cent, less valuable. Hence
the Cape de Verd salt is constantly imported, and is mixed
with that from these salinas. The purity of the Patagonian salt,
or absence from it of those other saline bodies found in all sea-
water, is the only assignable cause for this inferiority ; a con-
clusion which no one, I think, would have suspected, but
which is supported by the fact lately ascertained,* that those
salts answer best for preserving cheese which contain most of
the deliquescent chlorides.

The border of the lake is formed of mud ; and in this
f numerous large crystals of gypsum, some of which are three
I inches long, lie embedded ; whilst on the surface others of
sulphate of soda lie scattered about. The Gauchos call the
1 former the “ Padre del sal,” and the latter the “ Madre ” ;
; they state that these progenitive salts always occur on the
« borders of the salinas when the water begins to evaporate.

The mud is black, and has a fetid odour. I could not at first
a imagine the cause of this ; but I afterwards perceived that the
1 froth which the wind drifted on shore was coloured green, as
1 if by confervae : I attempted to carry home some of this green
matter, but from an accident failed. Parts of the lake seen
' from a short distance appeared of a reddish colour, and this
perhaps was owing to some infusorial animalcula. The mud
in many places was thrown up by numbers of some kind of
worm, or annelidous animal. How surprising it is that any
- creatures should be able to exist in brine, and that they should
; be crawling among crystals of sulphate of soda and lime !

* Report of the Agricult, Chem. Assoc, in the Agricult. Gazette, 1845,
P- 93-

R

66

RIO NEGRO TO RIO COLORADO

And what becomes of these worms when, during the long
summer, the surface is hardened into a solid layer of salt ?
Flamingoes in considerable numbers inhabit this lake, and
breed here ; throughout Patagonia, in Northern Chile, and at
the Galapagos Islands, I met with these birds wherever there
were lakes of brine, I saw them here wading about in search
of food — probably for the worms which burrow in the mud ;
and these latter probably feed on infusoria or confervae. Thus
we have a little living world within itself, adapted to these
inland lakes of brine. A minute crustaceous animal (Cancer
salinus')\s said* to live in countless numbers in the brine-pans
at Lymington ; but only in those in which the Huid has
attained, from evaporation, considerable strength — namely,
about a quarter of a pound of salt to a pint of water. Well
may we affirm that every part of the world is habitable !
Whether lakes of brine, or those subterranean ones hidden
beneath volcanic mountains — warm mineral springs — the wide
expanse and depths of the ocean — the upper regions of the
atmosphere, and even the surface of jierpetual snow — all
support organic beings.

To the northward of the Rio Negro, between it and the
inhabited country near Buenos Ayres, the Spaniards have
only one small settlement, recently established at Bahia
Blanca. The distance in a straight line to Buenos Ayres is
very nearly five hundred British miles. The w'andering tribes
of horse Indians, which have always occupied the greater
part of this countiy, having of late much harassed the out-
lying estancias, the government at Buenos Ayres equipped
some time since an army under the command of General
Rosas for the purpose of exterminating them. The troops

* Linnean Trans., vol. xi. p. 205. It is remarkable how all the circum-
stances connected with the salt-lakes in Siberia and Patagonia are similar.
Siberia, like Patagonia, appears to have been recently elevated above the
waters of the sea. In both countries the salt-lakes occupy shallow depres-
sions in the plains ; in both the mud on the borders is black and fetid ;
beneath the crust of common salt, sulphate of soda or of magnesia occurs,
imperfectly crystallised ; and in both, the muddy sand is mixed with lentils
of gypsum. The Siberian salt-lakes are inhabited by small crustaceous
animals; and flamingoes (Edin. New Philos. /our.,]3.T\. 1830) likewise
frequent them. As these circumstances, apparently so trifling, occur in two
distant continents, we may feel sure that they are the necessary results of
common causes. — See Pallas’ Travels, 1793 to 1794) PP- * 29- 134.

RIO NEGRO TO RIO COLORADO

67

were now encamped on the banks of the Colorado, a river
lying about eighty miles northward of the Rio Negro, When
General Rosas left Buenos Ayres he struck in a direct line
across the unexplored plains ; and as the countiy 'was thus
pretty well cleared of Indians, he left behind him, at wide
intervals, a small party of soldiers with a troop of horses (a
posta), so as to be enabled to keep up a communication with
the capital. As the Beagle intended to call at Bahia Blanca,
I determined to proceed there by land ; and ultimately I
extended my plan to travel the whole way by the postas to
Buenos Ayres.

August Wth. — Mr Harris, an Englishman residing at Pata-
gones, a guide, and five Gauchos, who were proceeding to the
army on business, were my companions on the journey. The
Colorado, as I have already said, is nearly eighty miles distant;
and as we travelled slowly, we were two days and a-half on
the road. The whole line of country deserves scarcely a
better name than that of a desert. Water is found only in
two small wells ; it is called fresh ; but even at this time of
the year, during the rainy season, it was quite brackish. In
the summer this must be a distressing passage ; for now it
was sufficiently desolate. The valley of the Rio Negro, broad
as it is, has merely been excavated out of the sandstone plain;
for immediately above the bank on which the town stands, a
level country commences, which is interrupted only by a few
trifling valleys and depressions. Everywhere the landscape
wears the same sterile aspect ; a dry gravelly soil supports
tufts of brown withered grass, and low scattered bushes,
i armed with thorns.

Shortly after passing the first spring we came in sight of a
t famous tree, which the Indians reverence as the altar of

'' Walleechu. It is situated on a high part of the plain, and

f hence is a landmark visible at a great distance. As soon as a

1 tribe of Indians come in sight of it, they offer their adorations

1 by loud shouts. The tree itself is low, much branched, and

J thorny ; just above the root it has a diameter of about three

1 feet. It stands by itself without any neighbour, and was

li indeed the first tree we saw ; afterwards we met with a few

c others of the same kind, but they were far from common.

I Being winter, the tree had no leaves, but in their place

B numberless threads by which the various offerings, such as

68

HIO NEGRO TO RIO COLORADO

cigars, bread, meat, pieces of cloth, etc., had been suspended.
Poor Indians, not having anything better, only pull a thread
out of their ponchos, and fasten it to the tree. Richer
Indians are accustomed to pour spirits and mate into a certain
hole, and likewise to smoke upwards, thinking thus to afford
all possible gratification to Walleechu. To complete the
scene, the tree was surrounded by the bleached bones of
horses which had been slaughtered as sacrifices. All Indians
of every age and sex make their offerings ; they then think
that their horses will not tire, and that they themselves shall
be prosperous. The Gaucho who told me this said that in
the time of peace he had witnessed this scene, and that he
and others used to wait till the Indians had passed by, for the
sake of stealing from Walleechu the offerings.

The Gauchos think that the Indians consider the tree as
the god itself ; but it seems far more probable that they
regard it as the altar. The only cause which I can imagine for
this choice is its being a landmark in a dangerous passage.
The Sierra de la Ventana is visible at an immense distance;
and a Gaucho told me that he was once riding with an Indian
a few miles to the north of the Rio Colorado, when the
Indian commenced making the same loud noise, which is
usual at the first sight of the distant tree ; putting his hand to
his head, and then pointing in the direction of the Sierra.
Upon being asked the reason of this, the Indian said in
broken Spanish, “ First see the SieiTa." About two leagues
beyond this curious tree we halted for the night ; at this
instant an unfortunate cow was espied by the lynx-eyed
Gauchos, who set off in full chase, and in a few minutes
dragged her in with their lazos, and slaughtered her. We
here had the four necessaries of life “ en el campo,” — pasture
for the horses, water (only a muddy puddle), meat, and
firewood. The Gauchos were in high spirits at finding all
these luxuries ; and we soon set to work at the poor cow.
This was the first night which I passed under the open sky,
with the gear of the recado for my bed. There is high
enjoyment in the independence of the Gaucho life — to be
able at any moment to pull up your horse and say, “ Here we
will pass the night.” The death-like stillness of the plain,
the dogs keeping watch, the gipsy-group of Gauchos making
their beds round the fire, have left in my mind a strongly-^

RIO NEGRO TO RlO COLORADO 69

marked picture of this first night, which will never be
forgotten.

The next day the country continued similar to that above
described. It is inhabited by few birds or animals of any
kind. Occasionally a deer, or a guanaco (wild llama) may
be seen ; but the agouti {Cavia Patag07iica) is the commonest
quadruped. This animal here represents our hares. It
differs, however, from that genus in many essential respects ;
for instance, it has only three toes behind. It is also nearly
twice the size, weighing from twenty to twenty-five pounds.
The Agouti Is a true friend of the desert ; it is a common
feature in the landscape to see two or three hopping quickly
one after the other in a straight line across these wild plains.
They are found as far north as the Sierra Tapalguen (lat.
37° 30'), where the plain rather suddenly becomes greener
and more humid ; and their southern limit is between Port
Desire and St Julian, where there is no change in the nature
of the country. It is a singular fact, that although the agouti
is not now found as far south as Port St Julian, yet that
Captain Wood, in his voyage in l670, talks of them as being
numerous there. What cause can have altered, in a wide,
uninhabited, and rarely visited country, the range of an
animal like this ? It appears also from the number shot by
Captain Wood in one day at Port Desire, that they must have
been considerably more abundant there formerly than at
present. Where the bizcacha lives and makes its burrows,
the agouti uses them ; but where, as at Bahia Blanca, the
bizcacha is not found, the agouti burrows for itself. The
same thing occurs with the little owl of the Pampas {Athene
cunicularia), which has so often been described as standing
like a sentinel at the mouth of the burrows ; for in Banda
Oriental, owing to the absence of the bizcacha, it is obliged
to hollow out its own habitation.

The next morning, as we approached the Rio Colorado, the
appearance of the country changed ; we soon came on a plain
covered with turf, which, from its flowers, tall clover, and
little ow'ls, resembled the Pampas. We passed also a muddy
swamp of considerable extent, which in summer dries, and
becomes encrusted with various salts ; and hence is called a
salitral. It was covered by low succulent plants of the same
kind with those growing on the seashore. The Colorado, at

7o

ENCAMPMENT OF GENERAL ROSAS

the pass where we crossed it, is only about sixty yards wide ;
generally it must be nearly double that width. Its course is
very tortuous, being marked by willow-trees and beds of
reeds : in a direct line the distance to the mouth of the river
is said to be nine leagues, but by water twenty-five. We
were delayed crossing in the canoe by some immense troops
of mares, which were swimming the river in order to follow a
division of troops into the interior. A more ludicrous spectacle
I never beheld than the hundreds and hundreds of heads, all
directed one way, with pointed ears and distended snorting
nostrils, appearing just above the water like a great shoal of
some amphibious animal. Mare’s flesh is the only food which
the soldiers have when on an expedition. This gives them a
great facility of movement ; for the distance to which horses
can be driven over these plains is quite sui*prising; I have been
assured that an unloaded horse can travel a hundred miles a
day for many days successively.

The encampment of General Rosas was close to the river.
It consisted of a square fonned by waggons, artillery, straw-
huts, etc. The soldiers were nearly all cavalry ; and I should
think such a villainous, banditti-like army was never before
collected together. The greater number of men were of a
mixed breed, between Negro, Indian, and Spaniard. I know
not the reason, but men of such origin seldom have a good
expression of countenance. I called on the secretary to show
my passport. He began to cross-question me in the most
dignified and mysterious manner. By good luck I had a
letter of recommendation from the government of Buenos
A)rres* to the commandant of Patagones. This was taken to
General Rosas, who sent me a veiy obliging message; and the
secretaiy returned all smiles and gi'aciousness. We took up
our residence in the rancho, or hovel, of a curious old Spaniard,
who had served with Napoleon in the expedition against
Russia.

We stayed two days at the Colorado ; I had little to do,
for the surrounding country was a swamp, Avhich in summer
(December), when the snow melts on the Cordillera, is over-

* I am bound to express, in the strongest terms, my obligation to the
government of Buenos Ayres for the obliging manner in which passports to
^1 parts of tlie country were given me, as naturalist of the Beagle.

(

ENCAMPMENT OF GENERAL ROSAS

71

flowed by the river. My chief camusement was watching the
Indian families as they came to buy little articles at the
rancho where we stayecL It was supposed that General Rosas
had about six hundred Indian allies. The men were a tall,
fine race ; yet it was afterwards easy to see in the Fuegian
savage the same countenance rendered hideous by cold, want
of food, and less civilisation. Some authors, in defining the
primary races of mankind, have sepfirated these Indians into
two classes; but this is certainly incoiTect. Among the young
women or chinas, some deserve to be called even beautiful.
Their hair was coarse, but bright and black ; and they wore it
in two plaits hanging down to the waist. They had a high
colour, and eyes that glistened with brilliancy ; their legs,
feet, and arms were small and elegantly formed ; their ankles,
and sometimes their waists, were ornamented by broad
bracelets of blue beads. Nothing could be more interesting
than some of the family groups. A mother with one or two
daughters would often come to our rancho, mounted on the
same horse. They ride like men, but with their knees
t tucked up much higher. This habit perhaps ai’ises from their
! being aocustomed, when travelling, to ride the loaded horses.

The duty of the women is to load and unload the horses ; to
I make the tents for the night; in short to be, like the wives
I of all savages, useful slaves. The men fight, hunt, take care

I of the horses, and make the riding gear. One of their

I chief indoor occupations is to knock two stones together till
I they become round, in order to make the bolas. With this
I important weapon the Indian catches his game, and also his
I horse, which roams free over the plain. In fighting, his first
I attempt is to throw down the horse of his adversary with the

I bolas, and when entangled by the fall to kill him with the

) chuzo. If the balls only catch the neck or body of an animal,
t they are often carried away and lost. As the making the
e stones round is the labour of two days, the manufacture of the

I balls is a very common employment. Several of the men and
women had their faces painted red, but I never saAV the
1 horizontal bands which are so common among the Fuegians.
I Their chief pride consists in having everything made of silver;
I I have seen a cacique with his spurs, stirrups, handle of his
i! knife, and bridle made of this metal ; the head-stall and
1 reins being of wire, were uot tiiicker than whipcord ; and to

72

ENCAMPMENT OF GENERAL ROSAS

see a fiery steed wheeling about under the command of so
light a chain, gave to the horsemanship a remarkable character
of elegance.

General Rosas intimated a wish to see me ; a circumstance
which I was afterwards very glad of. He is a man of an extra-
ordinary character, and has a most predominant influence
in the country, which it seems probable he will use to its
prosperity and advancement.* He is said to be the owner of
seventy-four square leagues of land, and to have about three
hundred thousand head of cattle. His estates are admirably
managed, and are far more productive of corn than those of
others. He first gained his celebrity by his laws for his o^vn
estancias, and by disciplining several hundred men, so as to
resist with success the attacks of the Indians. There are
many stories current about the rigid manner in which his laws
were enforced. One of these was, that no man, on penalty
of being put into the stocks, should carry his knife on a
Sunday ; this being the principal day for gambling and drink-
ing, many quarrels arose, which from the general manner of
fighting with the knife often proved fatal. One Sunday the
Governor came in great form to pay the estancia a visit, and
General Rosas, in his hurry, walked out to receive him with
his knife, as usual, stuck in his belt. The steward touched
his arm, and reminded him of the law ; upon which, turning to
the Governor, he said he was extremely sorry, but that he
must go into the stocks, and that till let out, he possessed no
power even in his own house. After a time the steward was
persuaded to open the stocks, and to let him out, but no
sooner was this done than he turned to the steward and said,
“ You now have broken the laws, so you must take my place in
the stocks.” Such actions as these delighted the Gauchos,
who all possess high notions of their own equality and
dignity.

General Rosas is also a perfect horseman — an accom-
plishment of no small consequence in a country where an
assembled ai-my elected its general by the following trial : A
troop of unbroken horses being driven into a corral, were let
out through a gateway, above which was a cross-bar ; it was
agreed whoever should drop from the bar on one of these wild
animals, as it rushed out, and should be able, without saddle

■‘•*.This prophecy has turned out entirely and miserably wrong. 1845.

BAHIA BLANCA

7S

or bridle, not only to ride it, but also to bring it back to the
door of the corral, should be their general. The person who
succeeded was accordingly elected ; and doubtless made a fit
general for such an army. This extraordinary feat has also
been performed by Rosas.

By these means, and by conforming to the dress and habits of
the Gauchos, he has obtained an unbounded popularity in the
country, and in consequence a despotic power. I was assured
by an English merchant, that a man who had murdered
another, when arrested and questioned concerning his motive,
answered, " He spoke disrespectfully of General Rosas, so I
killed him.” At the end of a week the murderer was at
liberty. This doubtless was the act of the general’s party, and
not of the general himself.

In conversation he is enthusiastic, sensible, and very grave.
His gravity is carried to a high pitch : I heard one of his mad
buffoons (for he keeps two, like the barons of old) relate the
I following anecdote : — " I wanted very much to hear a certain
1 piece of music, so I went to the general two or three times to
ask him ; he said to me, ‘ Go about your business for I am
engaged.’ I went a second time; he said, ^If you come
I again I will punish you.’ A third time I asked, and he laughed.

I rushed out of the tent, but it was too late ; he ordered
' two soldiers to catch and stake me. I begged by all the saints
! in heaven he would let me off ; but it would not do ; — when
1 the general laughs he spares neither mad man nor sound.”

The poor flighty gentleman looked quite dolorous at the very
I recollection of the staking. This is a very severe punish-
1 ment ; four posts are driven into the ground, and the man is
extended by his arms and legs horizontally, and there left to
I stretch for several hours. The idea is evidently taken from
I the usual method of drying hides. My interview passed
' away without a smile, and I obtained a passport and order for
1 the government post-horses, and this he gave me in the most
I obliging and ready manner.

In the morning we started for Bahia Blanca, which we
: reached in two days. Leaving the regular gncampment, we
i passed by the toldos of the Indians. Th6^ are round like
1 ovens, and covered with hides ; by the mouth of each a tapering
d chuzo was stuck in the ground. The toldos were divided into
i separate groups, w’hich belonged to the different caciques’

1

7i

BAHIA BLANCA

tribes, and the groups were again divided into smaller ones,
according to the relationship of the owners. For several
miles we travelled along the valley of the Colorado. The
alluvial plains on the side appeared fertile, and it is supposed
that they are well adapted to the growth of corn. Turning
northward from the river, we soon entered on a country
differing fi'om the plains south of the river. The land still
continued diy and sterile ; but it suppoi-ted many different
kinds of plants, and the grass, though brown and withered, was
more abundant as the thorny bushes were less so. These latter
in a short space entirely disappeared, and the plains were left
without a thicket to cover their nakedness. This change
in the vegetation marks the commencement of the grand
calcareo-argillaceous deposit, which forms the wide extent of
the Pampas, and covers the granitic rocks of Banda Oriental.
From the Strait of Magellan to the Colorado, a distance of about
eight hundred miles, the face of the country is everywhere
composed of shingle; the pebbles are chiefly of poi*phyry,
and probably owe their origin to the rocks of the Cordillera.
North of the Colorado this bed thins out, and the pebbles
become exceedingly small, and here the characteristic vegeta-
tion of Patagonia ceases.

Having ridden about twenty-five miles, we came to a broad
belt of sand-dunes, which stretches as far as the eye can reach
to the east and west. The sand hillocks resting on the clay
allow small pools of water to collect, and thus afford in this
dry country an invaluable supply of fresh water. The great
advantage arising from depressions and elevations of the soil
is not often brought home to the mind. The two miserable
springs in the long passage between the Rio Negro and
Colorado were caused by trifling inequalities in the plain ;
without them not a drop of water would have been found.
The belt of sand-dunes is aboat eight miles wide; at some
former period it probably formed the mai'gin of a grand estuarjq
where the Colorado now flows. In this district, where absolute
proofs of the recent elevation of the land occur, such specula-
tions can hardly be neglected by any one, although merely
considering the physical geography of the countiy. Having
crossed the sandy tract, we arrived in the evening at one of
the post-houses ; and, as the fresh horses were grazing at a
distance, we determined to pass the night there.

BAHIA BLANCA

75

The house was situated at the base of a ridge, between
one and two hundred feet liigh — a most remarkable feature
in this country. This posta was commanded by a negro
lieutenant, born in Africa ; to liis credit be it said, there
was not a rancho between the Colorado and Buenos Ayres
in nearly such neat order as his. He had a little room for
strangers, and a small corral for the horses, all made of sticks
and reeds ; he had also dug a ditch round his house, as a
defence in case of being attacked. This would, howevei’,
have been of little avail if the Indians had come ; but his
chief comfort seemed to rest in the thought of selling his life
dearly. A short time before, a body of Indians had travelled
past in the night ; if they had been aware of the posta, our
black friend and his four soldiers would assuredly have been
slaughtered. I did not anywhere meet a more civil and oblig-
ing man than this negro ; it was therefore the more painful
to see that he would not sit down and eat with us.

In the morning we sent for the horses very early, and
started for another exhilarating gallop. We passed the
Cabeza del Buey, an old name given to the head of a large
marsh, which extends from Bahia Blanca. Here we changed
horses, and passed through some leagues of swamps and
saline marshes. Changing horses for the last time, we again
began wading through the mud. My animal fell, and I was
well soused in black mire — a very disagreeable accident, when
one does not possess a change of clothes. Some miles from
the fort we met a man, who told us that a great gun had been
fired, which is a signal that Indians are near. We immediately
left the road, and followed the edge of a marsh, which, when
chased, offers the best mode of escape. We were glad to
an-ive within the walls when we found all the alarm was about
nothing, for the Indians turned out to be friendly ones who
wished to join General Rosas.

Bahia Blanca scarcely deserves the name of a village. A few
houses and the barracks for the troops are enelosed by a deep
ditch and foi’tified wall. The settlement is only of recent
standing (since 1828); and its gi-owth has been one of trouble.
The government of Buenos Ayres unjustly oceupied it by
force, instead of following the wise example of the Spanish
viceroys, who purchased the land near the older settlement
of the Rio Negro from the Indians. Hence the need of the

76

BAHIA BLANCA

fortifications ; hence the few houses and little cultivated land
without the limits of the walls ; even the cattle are not safe
from the attacks of the Indians beyond the boimdaries of the
plain on which the fortress stands.

The part of the harbour where the Beagle intended to
anchor being distant twenty-five miles, I obtained from the
commandant a guide and horses to take me to see whether
she had arrived. Leaving the plain of green turf, which ex-
tended along the course of a little brook, we soon entered on
a wide level waste consisting either of sand, saline marshes,
or bare mud. Some parts were clothed by low thickets, and
others with those succulent plants which luxuriate only where
salt abounds. Bad as the country was, ostriches, deers,
agoutis, and armadilloes were abundant. My guide told me,
that two months before he had a tnost narrow escape of his
life; he was out hunting with two other men, at no great
distance from this part of the country, when they -were
suddenly met by a party of Indians, who, giving chase, soon
overtook and kdled his two friends. His own horse’s legs
were also caught by the bolas : but he jumped off, and with
his knife eut them free ; while doing this he was obliged to
dodge round his horse, and received two severe wounds from
their chuzos. Springing on the saddle, he managed, by a
most wonderful exertion, just to keep ahead of the long
spears of his pursuers, who followed him to within sight of
the fort. From that time there was an order that no one
should stray far from the settlement. I did not know of this
when I started, and was surprised to observe how earnestly
my guide watched a deer, which appeared to have been
frightened from a distant quarter.

We found the Beagle had not arrived, and consequently set
out on our return, but the horses soon tiring, we were obliged
to bivouac on the plain. In the morning we had caught
an armadillo, which, although a most excellent dish when
roasted in its shell, did not make a very substantial breakfast
and dinner for two hungry men. The ground at the place
where we stopped for the night was incrusted with a layer
of sulphate of soda, and hence, of course, was without water.
Yet many of the smaller rodents managed to exist even here, and
the tucutuco was making its odd little grimt beneath my head
during half the night. Our horses were very poor ones, and

BAHIA BLANCA

77

in the morning they -were soon exhausted from not having had
anything to drink, so that we were obliged to walk. About noon
the dogs killed a kid which we roasted. I ate some of it, but
it made me intolerably thirsty. This was the more distress-
ing as the road, from some recent rain, was full of little puddles
of clear water, yet not a drop was cb-inkable. I had scarcely
been twenty hours without water, and only part of the time
under a hot sun, yet the thirst rendered me very weak. How
people survive two or three days under such circumstances, 1
cannot imagine ; at the same time I must confess that my
guide did not suffer at all, and was astonished that one day’s
deprivation should be so troublesome to me.

I have several times alluded to the surface of the ground
being incrusted with salt. This phenomenon is quite different
from that of the salinas, and more extraordinary. In many
parts of South America, wherever the climate is moderately
dry, these incrustations occur ; but I have nowhere seen them
so abundant as near Bahia Blanca. The salt here, and in other
parts of Patagonia, consists chiefly of sulphate of soda with
some common salt. As long as the ground remains moist in
these salitrales (as the Spaniards improperly eall them, mistak-
ing this substance for saltpetre), nothing is to be seen but an
extensive plain composed of a black, muddy soil, supporting
scattered tufts of succulent plants. On returning through one
of these tracts, after a week’s hot weather, one is surprised to
see square miles of the plain white, as if from a slight fall of
snow, here and there heaped up by the wind into little drifts.
This latter appearance is ehiefly eaused by the salts being
drawn up, during the slow evaporation of the moisture, round
blades of dead grass, stumps of wood, and pieces of broken
earth, instead of being crystallised at the bottoms of the
; puddles of water. The salitrales oceur either on level tracts
elevated only a few feet above the level of the sea, or on
alluvial land bordering rivers. M. Parchappe* found that the
saline incrustation on the plain, at the distance of some miles
from the sea, consisted chiefly of sulphate of soda, with only
seven per cent, of common salt ; whilst nearer to the coast, the
common salt increased to thirty-seven parts in a hundred.

* Voyage dans r Amirique Merid., par M. A. d’Orbigny. Part. Hist.,
tom. i. p. 664.

78

BAHIA BLANCA

This circumstance would tempt one to believe that the sulphate
of soda is generated in the soil, from the muriate left on the
surface during the slow and recent elevation of this dry
country. The whole phenomenon is well worthy the attention
of naturalists. Have the succulent, salt-loving plants, which
are well known to contain much soda, the power of decompos-
ing the muriate Does the black fetid mud, abounding with
organic matter, yield the sulphur and ultimately the sulphuric
acid ?

Two days afterwards I again rode to the harbour ; when not
far from our destination, my companion, the same man as before,
spied three people hunting on horseback. He immediately
dismounted, and watching them intently, said, “Tliey don’t
ride like Christians, and nobody can leave the fort.” The
three hunters joined company, and likevdse dismounted, from
their horses. At last one mounted again, and rode over the
hill out of sight. My companion said, “ We must now get on
our horses : load your pistol and he looked to his own sword.
I asked, “ Are they Indians }” — " Quien sabe ? ” (who knows .?)
‘^if there are no more than three, it does not signify.” It then
struck me that the one man had gone over the hill to fetch the
rest of his tribe. I suggested this ; but all the answer I could
extort was, “Quien sabe.^” His head and eye never for a
minute ceased scanning slowly the distant horizon. I thought
his uncommon coolness too good a joke, and asked him why he
did not return home. I was startled when he answered, “ We
are returning, but in a line so as to pass near a swamp, into
which we can gallop the horses as far as they can go, and then
trust to our own legs ; so that there is no danger.” I did not
feel quite so confident of this, and wanted to increase our pace.
He said, “No, not until they do.” When any little inequality
concealed us, we galloped ; but when in sight, continued
walking. At last we reached a valley, and turning to the left,
galloped quickly to the foot of a hill ; he gave me his horse to
hold, made the dogs lie down, and then crawled on his hands
and knees to reconnoitre. He remained in this position for
some time, and at last, bursting out in laughter, exclaimed,
“ Mugeres ! ” (women !) He knew them to be the "wnfe and
sister-in-law of the major’s son, hunting for ostriches’ eggs. I
have described this man’s conduct, because he acted under the

BAHIA BLANCA

79

full impression that they were Indians. As soon, however, as
the absurd mistake was found out, he gave me a hundred
reasons why they could not have been Indians ; but all these
were forgotten at the time. We then rode on in peace and
quietness to a low point called Punta Alta, whence we could
see nearly the whole of the great harbour of Bahia Blanca.

The wide expanse of water is choked up by numerous great
mud-banks, which the inhabitants call Cangrejales, or crabberies,
from the number of small crabs. The mud is so soft that it is
impossible to walk over them, even for the shortest distance.
Many of the banks have their surfaces covered with long rushes,
the tops of which alone are visible at high water. On one oc-
casion, when in a boat, we were so entangled by these shallows
that we could hardly find our way. Nothing was visible but
i the flat beds of mud ; the day was not very clear, and there
was much refraction, or as the sailors expressed it, ''Things .
loomed high.” The only object within our view which was not
^ level was the horizon ; rushes looked like bushes unsupported
in the air, and water like mud-banks and mud-banks like
water.

We passed the night in Punta Alta, and I employed myself
( in searching for fossil bones ; this point being a perfect cata-
comb for monsters of extinct races. The evening was perfectly
i calm and clear ; the extreme monotony of the view gave it an
I interest even in the midst of mud-banks and gulls, sand-
’ hillocks and solitary vultures. In riding back in the morning
j we came across a very fresh track of a Puma, but did not
I succeed in finding it. We saw also a couple of Zorillos, or
3 skunks, — odious animals, Avhich are far from uncommon. In
9 general appearance the Zorillo resembles a polecat, but it is
tj rather larger, and much thicker in proportion. Conscious of its

< power, it roams by day about the open plain, and fears neither

< dog nor man. If a dog is urged to the attack, its courage is
'j instantly checked by a few drops of the fetid oil, which brings
I on violent sickness and running at the nose. Whatever is
•I once polluted by it, is forever useless. Azara says the smell
I can be perceived at a league distant ; more than once, when
ij entering the harbour of Monte Video, the wind being off shore,

: we have perceived the odour on board the Beagle. Certain it

is, that every animal most willingly makes room for the
» Zorillo.

CHAPTER V
BAHIA BLANCA

BAHIA BLANCA — GEOLOGY NUMEROUS GIGANTIC EXTINCT QUAD-
RUPEDS RECENT EXTINCTION LONGEVITY OF SPECIES — ■

LARGE ANIMALS DO NOT REQUIRE A LUXURIANT VEGETATION

SOUTHERN AFRICA SIBERIAN FOSSILS TWO SPECIES OF

OSTRICH HABITS OF OVEN-BIRD ARMADILLOES VENOMOUS

SNAKE, TOAD, LIZARD HYBERNATION OF ANIMALS HABITS

OF SEA-PEN INDIANS’ WARjS AND MASSACRES ARROW-HEAD,

ANTIQUARIAN RELIC.

SHE Beagle arrived here on the S^th of August, and
a week afterwards sailed for the Plata. With
Captain Fitz Roy’s consent I was left behind, to
travel by land to Buenos Ayres. I -will here add
some observations which were made during this
visit and on a previous occasion, when the Beagle was employed
in surveying the harbour.

The plain, at a distance of a few miles from the coast,
belongs to the great Pampean formation, which consists in
part of a reddish clay, and in part of a highly calcareous marly
rock. Nearer the coast there are some plains formed fi-om the
wreck of the upper plain, and from mud, gravel, and sand
thrown up by the sea during the slow elevation of the land, of
which elevation we have evidence in upraised beds of recent
shells, and in rounded pebbles of pumice scattered over the
country. At Punta Alta we have a section of one of these
later-formed little plains, which is highly interesting from the
number and extraordinary character of the remains of gigantic
land-animals embedded in it. These have been fully described
by Professor Owen, in the Zoology of the voyage of the Beagle,
and are deposited in the College of Surgeons. I will here give
only a brief outline of their nature.

8o

BAHIA BLANCA

81

First, parts of three heads and other bones of tlie Mep^a-
therium, the huge dimensions of M'hich are expressed by its
name. Secondly, the Megalonyx, a great allied animal.
Thirdly, the Scelidotheriimi, also an allied animal, of which
I obtained a nearly perfect skeleton. It must have been as
large as a rhinoceros : in the structure of its head it comes,
according to Mr Owen, nearest to the Cape ant-eater, but in
some other respects it approaches to the armadilloes. Fourthly,
the Mi/lodon Danvinii, a closely related genus of little inferior
size. Fifthly, another gigantic edenbil quadruped. Sixthly,
a large animal, Avith an osseous coat, in compartments, very
like that of an armadillo. Seventhly, an extinct kind of horse,
to which I shall have again to refer. Eighthly, a tooth of a
pachydermatous animal, probably the same with the Mac-
rauchenia, a huge beast with a long neck like a camel, which I
shall also refer to again. Lastly, the Toxodon, perhaps one of
the strangest animals ever discovered : in size it equalled an
elephant or megatherium, but the structure of its teeth, as Mr
Owen states, proves indisputably that it was intimately related
to the Gnawers, the order which at the present day includes
most of the smallest quadrupeds ; in many details it is allied
to the Pachydermata : judging from the position of its eyes,
ears, and nostrils, it was probably aquatic, like the dugong and
manatee, to which it is also allied. How wonderfully are
the different orders at the present time so well separated,
blended together in different points of the structure of the
Toxodon !

The remains of these nine great quadrupeds, and many
detached bones were found embedded on the beach, within
the space of 200 yards square. It is a remarkable circumstance
that so many different species should be found together ; and
it proves how numerous in kind the ancient inhabitants of this
country must have been. At the distance of about thirty
miles from Punta Alta, in a cliff of red earth, I found several
fragments of bones, some of large size. Among them were
the teeth of a gnawer, equalling in size and closely resembling
those of the capybara, whose habits have been described ; and
therefore probably an aquatic animal. There was also part of
the head of a Ctenomys ; the species being different from the
tucutuco, but with a close general resemblance. The red
earth, like that of the Pampas, in which these remains were

F

82

EXTINCT QUADRUPEDS

embedded, contains, according to Professor Ehrenberg, eight
fresh-water and one salt-water infusorial animalcule ; therefore,
probably it was an estuary deposit.

The remains at Punta Alta were embedded in stratified
gravel and reddish mud, just such as the sea might now wash
up on a shallow bank. They were associated with twenty-
three species of shells, of which thirteen are recent and four
others very closely related to recent forms ; whether the re-
maining ones are extinct or simply unknown must be doubt-
ful, as few collections of shells have been made on this coast.
As, however, the recent species were embedded in nearly the
same proportional numbers with those now living in the bay,
I think there can be little doubt that this accumulation belongs
to a very late tertiary period. From the bones of the Scelido-
therium, including even the knee-cap, being intombed in
their proper relative positions, and from the osseous armour of
the great armadillo-like animal being so well preserved, to-
gether with the bones of one of its legs, we may feel assured
that these remains were fresh and united by their ligaments
when deposited in the gravel together with the shells. Hence
we have good evidence that the above enumerated gigantic
quadrupeds, more different from those of the present day
than the oldest of the tertiary quadrupeds of Europe, lived
whilst the sea was peopled with most of its present inhabit-
ants ; and we have confirmed that remarkable law so often
insisted on by Mr Lyell — namely, that the “ longevity of the
species in the mammalia is upon the whole inferior to that
of the testacea.”*

The great size of the bones of the Megatheroid animals,
including the Megatherium, Megalonyx, Scelidotherium, and
Mylodon, is truly wonderful. The habits of life of these
animals were a complete puzzle to naturalists, until Professor
Owenf lately solved the problem with remarkable ingenuity.
The teeth indicate, by their simple structure, that these
Megatheroid animals lived on vegetable food, and probably
on the leaves and small twigs of trees ; their ponderous
forms and great strong curved claws seem so little adapted

* Principles of Geo/opp, vol. iv. p. 40.

t This theory was first developed in the Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle,
and subsequently in Professor Owen’s Memoir on Mylodon robustus.

KXTINCT QUADRUPEDS

83

for locomotiorij that some eminent naturalists have actually
believed that, like the sloths, to which they are intimately
related, they subsisted by climbing back downwards on trees,
and feeding on the leaves. It was a bold, not to say pre-
posterous, idea to conceive even antediluvian trees, with
branches strong enough to bear animals as large as elephants.
Professor Owen, with far more probability, believes that,
instead of climbing on the trees, they pulled the branches
doMm to them, and tore up the smaller ones by the roots, and
so fed on the leaves. The colossal bi*eadth and weight of
their hinder quarters, which can hardly be imagined without
having been seen, become, on this view, of obvious service,
instead of being an encumbrance ; their apparent clumsi-
ness disappears. With their great tails and their huge heels
firmly fixed like a tripod on the ground, they could freely exert
the full force of their most powerful arms and great claws.
Strongly rooted, indeed, must that tree have been, which
could have resisted such force ! The Mylodon, moreover, was
furnished "with a long extensile tongue like that of the giraffe,
which, by one of those beautiful provisions of nature, thus
reaches with the aid of its long neck its leafy food. I may
remark, that in Abyssinia, the elephant, according to Bruce,
when it cannot reach with its proboscis the branches, deeply
scores with its tusks the trunk of the tree, up and down and
all round, till it is sufficiently weakened to be broken down.

The beds including the above fossil remains stand only from
fifteen to twenty feet above the level of high w’ater ; and
hence the elevation of the land has been small (without there
has been an intercalated period of subsidence, of which we
have no evidence) since the great quadrupeds wandered over
the surrounding plains ; and the external features of the
country must then have been very nearly the same as now.
What, it may naturally be asked, was the character of the
vegetation at that period ? was the country as wretchedly
sterile as it now is ? As so many of the co-embedded shells
are the same with those now living in the bay, I was at first
inclined to think that the former vegetation was j)robably
similar to the existing one ; but this would have been an
erroneous inference, for some of these same shells live on the
luxuriant coast of Brazil ; and generally, the character of the
inhabitants of the sea is useless as a guide to judge of those

84

BAHIA BLANCA

on the land. Nevertheless^ from ihe following considerations,
I do not believe that the simple fact of many gigantic
quadrupeds having lived on the plains round Bahia Blanca,
is any sure guide that they formerly were clothed with a
luxuriant vegetation : I have no doubt that the sterile
country a little southward, near the Rio Negro, with its
scattered thorny trees, would support many and large
quadnqoeds.

That large animals require a luxuriant vegetation has
been a general assumption which has passed from one work
to another ; but I do not hesitate to say that it is completely
false, and that it has vitiated the reasoning of geologists on
some points of great interest in the ancient history of the
world. The prejudice has probably been derived from India
and the Indian Islands, where troops of elephants, noble
forests, and impenetrable jungles are associated together in
every one’s mind. If, however, w'e refer to any w'ork of
travels through the southern parts of Africa, we shall find
allusions in almost every page either to the desert character
of the country, or to the numbers of large animals inhabit-
ing it. The same thing is rendered evident by the many
engravings which have been published of various parts of
the interior. When the Beagle was at Cape Town, I made
an excursion of some days’ length into the country, w'hich at
least was sufficient to render that which I had read more
fully intelligible.

Dr Andrew Smith, who, at the head of his adventurous
party, has lately succeeded in passing the Tropic of Capricorn,
informs me that, taking into consideration the wdiole of the
southern part of Africa, there can be no doubt of its being
a sterile countiy. On the southern and south-easteiai coasts
there are some fine forests, but with these exceptions the
traveller may pass for days together through open plains,
covered by a poor and scanty vegetation. It is difficult to
convey any accimate idea of degrees of comparative fertility ;
but it may be safely said that the amount of vegetation
supported at any one time* by Great Britain, exceeds, perhaps

* I mean by this to exclude the total amount which may have been
successively produced and consumed during a given period.

FOOD OF LARGE QUADRUPEDS

85

even tenfold, the quantity on an equal area, in the interior
parts of Southern Africa. The fact that bullock-waggons can
travel in any direction, excepting near the coast, without
more than occasionally half-an-hour’s delay in cutting down
bushes, gives, perhaps, a more definite notion of the scantiness
of the vegetation. Now, if we look to the animals inhabiting
•these wild plains, we shall find their numbers extraordinarily
great, and their bulk immense. We must enumerate the
elephant, three species of rhinoceros, and probably, according
to Dr Smith, tw'o others, the hippopotamus, the giraffe, the
bos caffer — as large as a full-grown bull — and the elan, but
little less, two zebras, and the quaccha, two gnus, and several
antelopes even larger than these latter animals. It may be
supposed that although the species are numerous, the
individuals of each kind are few. By the kindness of Dr
Smith, I am enabled to show that the case is very different.
He informs me, that in lat. 24'“, in one day’s march with the
bullock-waggons, he saw, without wandering to any great
disbince on either side, between one hundred and one hun-
dred and fifty rhinoceroses, which belonged to three species ;
the same day he saw several herds of giraffes, amounting to-
gether to nearly a hundred ; and that, though no elephant
was observed, yet they are found in this district. At the
distance of a little more than one hour’s march from their
place of encampment on the previous night, his party actually
killed at one spot eight hippopotamuses, and saw many more.
In this same river there were likewise crocodiles. Of course
it was a case quite extraordinary to see so many great animals
crowded together, but it evidently proves that they must exist
in gi’eat numbers. Dr Smith describes the country passed
through that day as being thinly covered with grass, and
bushes about four feet high, and still more thinly with mimosa-
trees.” The waggons were not prevented travelling in a
nearly straight line.

Besides these large animals, every one the least acquainted
with the natural history of the Gipe has read of the herds of
antelopes, which can be compared only with the flocks of
migratory birds. The numbers indeed of the lion, panther,
and hyaena, and the multitude of birds of prey, plainly speak
of the abundance of the smaller quadrupeds : one evening
seven lions were counted at the same time prowling round Dr

86

FOOD OF LARGE QUADRUPEDS

Smith’s encampment. As this able naturalist remarked to
me, the caniage each day in Southern Africa must indeed be
terrific ! I confess it is tnily surpi-ising how such a number of
animals can find support in a country producing so little food.
The larger quadrupeds no doubt roam over wild tracts in
search of it ; and their food chiefly consists of underwood,
which probably contains much nutriment in a small bulk. Dr
Smith also informs me that the vegetation has a rapid growth ;
no sooner is a part consumed, than its place is supplied by a
fresh stock. There can be no doubt, however, that our ideas
respecting the apparent amount of food necessary for the
support of large quadrupeds are much exaggerated ; it should
have been remembered that the camel, an animal of no mean
bulk, has always been considered as the emblem of the desert.

The belief that where large quadrupeds exist, the vegetation
must necessarily be luxuriant, is the more remarkable, because
the converse is far from true. Mr Burchell observed to me
that, when entering Brazil, nothing struck him more forcibly
than the splendour of the South American vegetation con-
trasted with that of South Africa, together with the absence
of all large quadrupeds. In his Travels* he has suggested that
the comparison of the respective weights (if there were
sufficient data) of an equal number of the largest herbivorous
quadrupeds of each country would be extremely curious. If
we take on the one side the elephant,! hippopotamus, giraffe,
bos caffer, elan, certainly three, and probably five species of
rhinocei’os ; and on the American side, two tapii-s, the guanaco,

* Travels in the hiterior of South Africa, vol. ii. p. 207.

t The elephant which was killed at Exeter Change was estimated (being
partly weighed) at five tons and a-half. The elephant actress, as I was
informed, weighed one ton less ; so that we may take five as the average of
a full-grown elephant. I was told at the Surrey Gardens that a hippopota-
mus which was sent to England cut up into pieces was estimated at three
tons and a-half ; we will call it three. From these premises we may give
three tons and a-half to each of the five rhinoceroses; perhaps a ton to the
giraife, and half to the bos caffer as well as to the elan (a large ox weighs
from 1200 to 1^00 pounds). This will give an average (from the above
estimates) of 27 of a ton for the ten largest herbivorous animals of Southern
Africa. In South America, allowing I2CX3 pounds for the two tapirs to-
gether, 550 for the guanaco and vicuna, 5C» for three deer, 300 for the
capybara, peccari, and a monkey, we shall have an average of 250 pounds,
which I believe is overstating the result. The ratio will therefore be as
$048 to ?5o, or 24 to I, for the ten largest animals from the two continents.

FOOD OF LARGE QUADRUPEDS

87

three deer, the vicuna, peccari, capybara (after wliich we must
clioose from the monkeys to complete the number), and then
place these two groups alongside each other, it is not easy to
conceive ranks more disproportionate in size. After the
above facts, we are compelled to conclude against anterior
probability,* that among the mammalia there exists no close
relation between the bulk of the species and the quantity of
the vegetation in the countries which they inhabit.

With regard to the number of large quadrupeas, tnere
certainly exists no quarter of the globe which will bear
comparison with Southern Africa. After the different state-
ments which have been given, the extremely desert character
of that region will not be disputed. In the European
division of the world, we must look back to the tertiary
epochs, to find a condition of things among the mammalia,
resembling that now existing at the Cape of Good Hope.
Those tertiary epochs, which we are apt to consider as
abounding to an astonishing degree with large animals,
because we find the remains of many ages accumulated at
certain spots, could hardly boast of more large quadrupeds
than Southern Africa does at present. If we speculate on
the condition of the vegetation during those epochs, we are
at least bound so far to consider existing analogies, as not to
urge as absolutely necessary a luxuriant vegetation, when we
see a state of things so totally different at the Cape of Good
Hope.

We knowf that the extreme regions of North America,
many degrees beyond the limit where the ground at a depth
of a few feet remains perpetually congealed, are covered by
forests of large and tall trees. In a like manner, in Siberia,
we have woods of birch, fir, aspen, and larch, growing in a

* If we suppose the case of the discovery of a skeleton of a Greenland
whale in a fossil state, not a single cetaceous animal being known to exist,
what naturalist would have .ventured conjecture on the possibility of a
carcass so gigantic being supported on the minute Crustacea and mollusca
living in the frozen seas of the extreme north ?

t See Zoological Remarks to Captain Back’s Expedition, by Dr Richard-
son. He says : “ The subsoil north of latitude 56° is perpetually frozen, the
thaw on the coast not penetrating above three feet, and at Bear Lake, in
latitude 64°, not more than twenty inches. The frozen substratum does not
of itself destroy vegetation, for forests flourish on the surface at a distance
from the coast,”

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BAHIA BLANCA

latitude* (C4°) where the mean temperature of the air falls
below the freezing point, and where the earth is so completely
frozen, that the carcass of an animal embedded in it is
perfectly preserved. With these facts we must grant, as far
as quantity alone of vegetation is concerned, that the great
quadrupeds of the latter tertiary epochs might, in most parts
of Northern Europe and Asia, have lived on the spots where
their remains are now found. I do not here speak of the
kind of vegetation necessary for their support ; because as
there is evidence of physical changes, and as the animals have
become extinct, so may we suppose that the species of plants
have likewise been changed.

These remarks, I may be permitted to add, directly bear on
the case of the Siberian animals preserved in ice. The firm
conviction of the necessity of a vegetation possessing a char-
acter of tropical luxuriance, to support such large animals,
and the impossibility of reconciling this with the proximity
of perpetual congelation, was one chief cause of the several
theories of sudden revolutions of climate, and of overwhelming
catastrophes, which were invented to account for their en-
tombment. I am far from supposing that the climate has not
changed since the period when those animals lived, which
now lie buried in the ice. At present I only wish to show
that as far as quantity of food alone is concerned, the ancient
rhinoceroses might have roamed over the steppes of central
Siberia (the northern parts probably being under water) even
in their present condition, as well as the living rhinoceroses
and elephants over the Karros of Southern Africa.

I will now give an account of the habits of some of the
more interesting birds which are common on the wild plains
of Northern Patagonia ; and first for the largest, or South
American ostrich. The ordinary habits of the ostrich are
familiar to every one. They live on vegetable matter, such
as roots and grass ; but at Bahia Blanca I have repeatedly
seen three or four come down at low water to the extensive
mud-banks which are then dry, for the sake, as the Gauchos
say, of feeding on small fish. Although the ostrich in its

* See Humboldt, Fragmens Asiatigues, p. 386 ; Bartons’ Geography of
Plants ; and Malte Brun. In the latter work it is said that the limit of the
growth of trees in Siberia may be drawn under the parallel of 70°,

BAHIA BLANCA

89

habits is so shy, waiy, and solitary, and although so fleet in
its pace, it is caught without much difficulty by the Indian
or Gaucho armed with the bolas. When several horsemen
appear in a semicircle, it becomes confounded, and does not
know which w'ay to escape. They generally prefer running
against the wind ; yet at the first start they expand their
wings, and like a vessel make all sail. On one fine hot day
I saw several ostriches enter a bed of tall rushes, where they
squatted concealed, till quite closely approached. It is not
generally known that ostriches readily take to the water. Mr
King informs me that at the Bay of San Bias, and at Port
I Valdes in Patagonia, he saw these birds swimming several
times from island to island. They ran into the water both
, when driven down to a point, and likewise of their own
I accord when not frightened : the distance crossed was about
/ two hundred yards. When swimming, very little of their

. bodies appear above water ; their necks are extended a little

forward, and their progress is slow. On two occasions I saw
some ostriches swimming across the Santa Cruz river, where
its course was about four hundred yards wide, and the stream
rapid. Captain Sturt,* when descending the Murrumbidgee,
I in Australia, saw two emus in the act of swimming.

The inhabitants of the countiy readily distinguish, even at
a distance, the cock bird from the hen. The former is larger
and darker-coloured,! and has a bigger head. The ostrich,
I believe the cock, emits a singular, deep-toned, hissing note :
I when first I heard it, standing in the midst of some sand-
ii hillocks, I thought it w’as made by some wild beast, for it is
.< a sound that one cannot tell whence it comes, or from how
f| far distant. When we were at Bahia Blanca in the month of
t| September and October, the eggs, in extraordinary numbers,
1 were found all over the country. They lie either scattered
f and single, in which case they are never hatched, and are
called by the Spaniards huachos ; or they are collected to-
! gether into a shallow excavation, which forms the nest. Out
of the four nests w'hich I saw, three contained twenty-two
:;j eggs each, and the fourth twenty-seven. In one day’s
\ hunting on horseback sixty-four eggs were found ; forty-

* * Sturt’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 74.

t t A Gaucho assured me that he had once seen a snow-white or Albino
1 variety, and that it was a most beautiful bird.

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BAHIA BLANCA

four of these were in two nests, and the remaining twenty
scattered huachos. The Gauchos unanimously affirm, and
there is no reason to doubt their statement, that the male
bird alone hatches the eggs, and for some time afterwards
accompanies the young. The cock when on the nest lies
very close ; I have myself almost ridden over one. It is
asserted that at such times they are occasionally fierce, and
even dangerous, and that they have been known to attack
a man on horseback, trying to kick and leap on him. My
informer pointed out to me an old man, whom he had seen
much terrified by one chasing him. I observed in Burchell’s
travels in South Africa, that he remarks, “ Having killed a
male ostrich, and the feathers being dirty, it was said by the
Hottentots to be a nest bird.” I understand that the male
emu in the Zoological Gardens takes charge of the nest ; this
habit, therefore, is common to the family.

The Gauchos unanimously affirm that several females lay
in one nest. I have been positively told that four or five
hen birds have been watched to go in the middle of the
day, one after the other, to the same nest. I may add,
also, that it is believed in Africa that two or more
females lay in one nest.* Although this habit at first
appears very strange, I think the cause may be explained
in a simple manner. The number of eggs in the nest
varies from twenty to forty, and even to fifty ; and
according to Azara, sometimes to seventy or eighty. Now,
although it is most probable, from the number of eggs found
in one district being so extraordinarily great in proportion to
the parent birds, and likewise from the state of the ovarium
of the hen, that she may in the course of the season lay
a large number, yet the time required must be vei-y long.
Azara states,! that a female in the state of domestication
laid seventeen eggs, each at the interval of three days one
from another. If the hen was obliged to hatch her own eggs,
before the last was laid, the first probably would be addled ;
but if each laid a few eggs at successive periods, in different
nests, and several hens, as is stated to be the case, combined
together, then the eggs in one collection would be nearly of
the same age. If the number of eggs in one of these nests

Bvircliell’s Travels, vol. i. p. 280,

t Azara, vol. iv. p. 173.

THE AVESTRUZ PETISE

91

is, as I believe, not greater on an average than the number
laid by one female in the season, then there must be as many
nests as females, and each cock bird will have its fair share of
the labour of incubation ; and that during a period when the
females probably could not sit, from not having finished
laying.* I have before mentioned the gi'eat numbers of
huachos, or deserted eggs ; so that in one day’s hunting
twenty were found in this state. It appears odd that so
many should be wasted. Does it not arise from the difficulty
of several females associating together, and finding a male
ready to undertake the office of incubation ? It is evident
that there must at first be some degree of association be-
tween at least two females ; otherwise the eggs would
remain scattered over the wide plains, at distances far too
great to allow of the male collecting them into one nest :
some authors have believed that the scattered eggs were
deposited for the young birds to feed on. This can hardly
be the case in America, because the huachos, although often
found addled and putrid, are generally whole.

When at the Rio Negro in Northern Patagonia, I re-
peatedly heard the Gauchos talking of a very rare bird
which they called Avestruz Petise. They described it as
being less than the common ostrich (which is there abundant),
but with a very close general resemblance. They said its
colour was dark and mottled, and that its legs were shorter,
and feathered lower down than those of the common ostrich.
It is more easily caught by the bolas than the other species.
The few inhabitants who have seen both kinds, affirm that
they could distinguish them apart from a long distance. The
eggs of the small species appeared, however, more generally
known ; and it was remarked with surprise that they were very
little less than those of the Rhea, but of a slightly different
form, and Avith a tinge of pale blue. This species occurs most
rarely on the plains bordering the Rio Negro ; but about a
degree and a-half farther south they are tolerably abundant.
When at Port Desire, in Patagonia (lat. 48”), Mr Martens shot

* Lichtenstein, however, asserts ^Travels, vol. ii. p. 25), that the hens
begin sitting when they have laid ten or twelve eggs ; and that they con-
tinue laying, I presume, in another nest. This appears to me very
improbable. He asserts that four or five hens associate for incubation with
one cock, who sits only at night.

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THE AVESTRUZ PETISE

an ostrich ; and I looked at it, forgetting at the moment, in
the most unaccountable manner, the whole subject of the
Petises, and thought it was a not full-grown bird of the
common sort. It was cooked and eaten before my memory
returned. Fortunately the head, neck, legs, wings, many of
the larger feathers, and a large part of the skin, had been
preserved ; and from these a very nearly perfect specimen has
been put together, and is now exhibited in the museum of
the Zoological Society. Mr Gould, in describing this new
species, has done me the honour of calling it after my name.

Among the Patagonian Indians in the Strait of Magellan,
we found a half Indian, who had lived some years with the
tribe, but had been born in the northern provinces. I asked
him if he had ever heard of the Avestruz Petise. He
answered by saying, ^'Why, there are none others in these
southern countries.” He informed me that the number of
eggs in the nest of the petise is considerably less than in that
of the other kind — namely, not more than fifteen on an aver-
age ; but he asserted that more than one female deposited
them. At Santa Cruz we saw several of these birds. They
were excessively wary ; I think they could see a person
approaching when too far off to be distinguished themselves.
In ascending the river few were seen ; but in our quiet and
rapid descent, many, in pairs and by fours or fives, were
observed. It was remarked that this bird did not expand its
wings, when first starting at full speed, after the manner of
the northern kind. In conclusion, I may observe that the
Struthio rhea inhabits the country of La Plata as far as a
little south of the Rio Negro in lat. 41°, and that the Struthio
Darwifiii takes its place in Southern Patagonia, the part about
the Rio Negro being neutral territory. M. A. d’Orbigny,*
when at the Rio Negro, made great exertions to procure this
bird, but never had the good fortune to succeed. Dobrizhofferf
long ago was aware of there being two kinds of ostriches ; he

* When at the Rio Negro, we heard much of the indefatigable labours
of this naturalist. M. Alcide d’Orbigny, during the years 1825 to 1833,
traversed several large portions of South America, and has made a
collection, and is now publishing the results on a scale of magnificence
which at once places himself in the list of American travellers second only
to Humboldt.

\4(count of the AbiponeSy A.D. 1749, vol. i. {English Translation) p. 314.

BAHIA BLANCA

9S

says, You must know, moreover, that emus differ in size and
habits in different tracts of land ; for those that inhabit the
plains of Buenos Ayres and Tucuman are larger, and have
black, white, and grey feathers ; those near to the Strait of
Magellan are smaller and more beautiful, for their white
feathers are tipped with black at the extremity, and their
black ones in like manner terminate in white.”

A very singular little bird, Tmochorus nmicivorus, is here
common : in its habits and general appearance it nearly
equally partakes of the characters, different as they are, of
the quail and snipe. The Tinochorus is found in the whole
of southern South America wherever there are sterile plains
or open dry pasture-land. It frequents in pairs or small flocks
the most desolate places, where scarcely another living creature
can exist. Upon being approached they squat close, and then
are very difflcult to be distinguished from the ground. When
I feeding they walk rather slowly, with their legs wide apart.

I They dust themselves in roads and sandy places, and frequent
j particular spots, where they may be found day after day : like
I partridges, they take wing in a flock. In all these respects,
i in the muscular gizzard adapted for vegetable food, in the
I arched beak and fleshy nostrils, short legs and form of foot,
1 the Tinochorus has a close affinity with quails. But as soon
3 as the bird is seen flying, its whole appearance changes ; the
J long pointed wings, so different from those in the gallinaceous
5 order, the irregular manner of flight, and plaintive cry uttered
I at the moment of rising, recall the idea of the snipe. The
I sportsmen of the Beagle unanimously called it the short-billed
i snipe. To this genus, or rather to the family of the Waders,
li its skeleton shows that it is really related.

The Tinochorus is closely related to some other South
I American birds. Two species of the genus Attagis are in
J almost every respect ptarmigans in their habits ; one lives in
I Tierra del Fuego, above the limits of the forest land ; and the
d other just beneath the snow-line on the Cordillera of Central
8 Chile. A bird of another closely allied genus, Chionis alba, is
u an inhabitant of the Antarctic regions ; it feeds on seaweed
u and shells on the tidal rocks. Although not web-footed, from
i some unaccountable habit, it is frequently met with far out at
> sea. This small family of birds is one of those which, from its

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BAHIA BLANCA

varied relations to other families^ although at present offer-
ing only difficulties to the systematic naturalist, ultimately
may assist in revealing the grand scheme, common to the
present and past ages, on which organised beings have been
created.

The genus Fumanns contains several species, all small birds,
living on the ground, and inhabiting open dry countries. In
structure they cannot be compared to any European form.
Ornithologists have generally included them among the
creepers, although opposed to that family in every habit.
The best known species is the common oven-bird of La Plata,
the casara or housemaker of the Spaniards. The nest, whence
it takes its name, is placed in the most exposed situations, as
on the top of a post, a bare rock, or on a cactus. It is com-
posed of mud and bits of straw, and has strong thick walls :
in shape it precisely resembles an oven, or depressed beehive.
The opening is large and arched, and directly in front, Avithin
the nest, there is a partition, which reaches nearly to the roof,
thus forming a passage or antechamber to the true nest.

Another and smaller species of Fumamis (F. cimicularius),
resembles the oven-bird in the general reddish tint of its
plumage, in a peculiar shrill reiterated cry, and in an odd
manner of running by starts. From its affinity, the Spaniards
call it casarita (or little housebuilder), although its nidifi-
cation is quite different. The casarita builds its nest at the
bottom of a narrow cylindrical hole, which is said to extend
horizontally to nearly six feet underground. Several of the
country-people told me that, when boys, they had attempted
to dig out the nest, but had scarcely ever succeeded in getting
to the end of the passage. The bird chooses any low bank of
firm sandy soil by the side of a road or stream. Here (at Bahia
Blanca) the walls round the houses are built of hardened mud ;
and I noticed that one, which enclosed a courtyard where I
lodged, was bored through by round holes in a score of places.
On asking the OAvner the cause of this, he bitterly complained
of the little casarita, several of which I afterwards observed at
work. It is rather curious to find how incapable these birds
must be of acquiring any notion of thickness, for although
they were constantly flitting over the low wall, they continued
vainly to bore through it, thinking it an excellent bank for
their nests. I do not doubt that each bird, as often as it

BAHIA BLANCA

95

came to dayliglit on the opposite side, was greatly surprised
at the marvellous fact.

I have already mentioned nearly all the mammalia common
in this country. Of armadilloes three species occur — namely,
the Dasi/piis minuhts or pichy, the D. villosus or pehtdo, and the
apar. The first extends ten degrees farther south than any
other kind : a fourth species, the viulita, does not come as far
south as Bahia Blanca. The four species have nearly similar
habits ; the jieludo, however, is nocturnal, while the others
wander by day over the open plains, feeding on beetles, larvae,
roots, and even small snakes. The apar, commonly called the
malaco, is remarkable by having only three movable bands ;
the rest of its tesselated covering being nearly inflexible.
It has the power of rolling itself into a perfect sphere, like
one kind of English woodlouse. In this state it is safe from
the attack of dogs ; for the dog not being able to take the
whole in its mouth, tries to bite one side, and the ball slips
away. The smooth hard covering of the mataco offers a
better defence than the sharp spines of the hedgehog. The
pichy prefers a very dry soil ; and the sand-dunes near the
coast, where for many months it can never taste water, are its
favourable resort : it often tries to escape notice by squatting
close to the ground. In the course of a day’s ride near Bahia
Blanca, several were generally met with. The instant one
was perceived, it was necessary, in order to catch it, almost to
tumble off one’s horse ; for in soft soil the animal burrowed so
quickly that its hind-quarters would almost disappear before
one could alight. It seems almost a pity to kill such nice
little animals, for, as a Gaucho said, while sharpening his
knife on the back of one, "Son tan mansos” (they are so
quiet).

Of reptiles there are so many kinds : one snake (a Trigono-
cephalus, or Cophias), from the size of the poison channel in
its fangs, must be very deadly. Cuvier, in opposition to some
other naturalists, makes this a sub-genus of the rattlesnake,
and intermediate between it and the viper. In confirmation
of this opinion, I observed a fact which appears to me very
curious and instructive, as showing how every character, even
though it may be in some degree independent of structure,
has a tendency to vary by slow degrees. 'The extremity of
the tail of this snake is terminated by a point, which is very

96

BAHIA BLANCA

slightly enlarged; and as the animal glides along, it constantly
vibrates the last inch ; and this part striking against the dry
grass and brushwood, produces a rattling noise, which can be
distinctly heard at the distance of six feet. As often as the
animal was irritated or surprised, its tail was shaken ; and the
vibrations were extremely rapid. Even as long as the body
retained its irritability, a tendency to this habitual movement
was evident. This Trigonoccphalus has, therefore, in some
respects, the structure of a viper, with the habits of a rattle-
snake: the noise, however, being produced by a simpler device.
The expression of this snake’s face was hideous and fierce ; the
pupil consisted of a vertical slit in a mottled and coppery iris ;
the jaws were broad at the base, and the nose terminated in a
triangular projeetion. I do not think I ever saw anything
more ugly, excepting, perhaps, some of the vampire bats. I
imagine this repulsive aspect originates from the features
being jdaced in positions, with respect to each other, some-
what proportional to those of the human face ; and thus we
obtain a scale of hideousness.

Amongst the Batrachian reptiles, I found only one little
toad (Pkryniscus nigricans'), which was most singular from its
colour. If we imagine, first, that it had been steeped in the
blackest ink, and then, when dry, allowed to crawl over a
board, freshly painted with the brightest vermilion, so as to
colour the soles of its feet and parts of its stomach, a good idea
of its appearance will be gained. If it had been an unnamed
species, surely it ought to have been ealled DiaboUcns, for it
is a fit toad to preach in the ear of Eve. Instead of being
nocturnal in its habits as other toads are, and living in damp
obscure recesses, it erawls during the heat of the day about
the dry sand-hillocks and arid plains, where not a single drop
of water can be found. It must necessarily depend on the
dew for its moisture ; and this probably is absorbed by the
skin, for it is known that these reptiles possess great powers
of cutaneous absorption. At Maldonado I found one in a
situation nearly as dry as at Bahia Blanca, and thinking to
give it a great treat, carried it to a pool of water ; not only was
the little animal unable to swim, but I think without help it
would soon have been drowned.

Of lizards there were many kinds, but only one (Procto-
trctus muhimaculatus) remarkable from its habits. It lives on

HYBERNATING ANIMAUS

97

the bare sand near the sea coast, and from its mottled colour,
the brownish scales being speckled with white, yellowish-red,
and dirty blue, can hardly be distinguished from the sur-
rounding surface. When frightened, it attempts to avoid
discovery by feigning death, with outstretched legs, depressed
body, and closed eyes : if fui’ther molested, it buries itself
with gi-eat quickness in the loose sand. The lizard, from its
flattened body and short legs, cannot run quickly.

I will here add a few remarks on the hybernation of animals
in this part of South America. When we first arrived at Bahia
Blanca, September 7 th, 1832, we thought nature had granted
scarcely a living creature to this sandy and dry country. By
digging, hoAvever, in the gi-ound, several insects, large spiders,
and lizards were found in a half-torpid state. On the 15th
a few animals began to appear, and by the 18th (three days
from the equinox) eveiy thing announced the commencement
of spring. The plains w'ere ornamented by the flowers of a
pink wood-soiTel, wild peas, cenotherae, and geraniums ; and
the birds began to lay their eggs. Numerous Lamellicorn
and Heteromerous insects, the latter remarkable for their
deeply-sculptured bodies, were slowly crawling about ; while
the lizard tribe, the constant inhabitants of a sandy soil,
darted about in every direction. During the first eleven days,
whilst nature was dormant, the mean temperature, taken from
» observations made every two hours on board the Beagle, was
, 51°; and in the middle of the day the thermometer seldom

I ranged above 55°. On the eleven succeeding days, in which
all living things became so animated, the mean was 58°, and
t the range in the middle of the day between sixty and seventy.

I Here, then, an increase of seven degrees in mean temperature,

I but a greater one of extreme heat, was sufficient to awake the
I functions of life. At Monte Video, from which we had just
! before sailed, in the twenty-three days included between the
- 26th of July and the 19th of August, the mean temperature
1 from 276 observations was 58*4° : the mean hottest day being
65‘5°, and the coldest 46°. The lowest point to -which the
thermometer fell was 41-5°, and occasionally in the middle of
the day it rose to 69° or 70°. Yet with this high temperature,
almost every beetle, several genera of spiders, snails, and
land-shells, toads and lizards, were all lying torpid beneath
stones. But we have seen that at Bahia Blanca, which is

o

98

HYBERNATING ANIMALS

four degrees southward^ and therefore with a climate only a
very little colder, this same temperature, with a rather less
extreme heat, was sufficient to awake all orders of animated
beings. This shows how nicely the stimulus required to
arouse hybemating animals is governed by the usual climate
of the district, and not by the absolute heat. It is well
knov/n that within the tropics the hybernation, or more
properly aestivation, of animals is determined, not by the
temperature, but by the times of drought. Near Rio de
Janeiro, I was at first surprised to observe that, a few days
after some little depressions had been filled with water, they
were peopled by numerous full-grown shells and beetles,
which must have been lying dormant. Humboldt has related
the strange accident of a hovel having been erected over a
spot where a young crocodile lay buried in the hardened mud.
He adds, The Indians often find enonnous boas, which they
call Uji, or water serpents, in the same lethargic state. To
re-animate them they must be irritated or wetted with water.”

I will only mention one other animal, a zoophyte (I believe
Virgularia Patagonicd), a kind of sea-pen. It consists of a
thin, straight, fleshy stem, with alternate rows of polypi on
each side, and surrounding an elastic stony axis, varying in
length from eight inches to two feet. The stem at one
extremity is truncate, but at the other is terminated by a
vermifoi’m fleshy appendage. The stony axis which gives
strength to the stem may be traced at this extremity into
a mere vessel filled with granular matter. At low water
hundreds of these zoophytes might be seen, projecting like
stubble, with the truncate end upwards, a few inches above
the surface of the muddy sand. When touched or jjulled
they suddenly drew themselves in with force, so as nearly or
quite to disappear. By this action, the highly elastic axis
must be bent at the lower extremity, where it is naturally
slightly curved ; and I imagine it is by this elasticity alone
that the zoophyte is enabled to rise again through the mud.
Each polypus, though closely united to his brethren, has a
distinct mouth, body, and tentacula. Of these polypi, in a
large specimen, there must be many thousands ; yet we see
that they act by one movement ; they have also one central
axis connected with a system of obscure circulation, and the
ova are produced in an organ distinct from the sepjirate

SKINNING UJI, OR WATKR SERPENTS.

BAHIA BLANCA

99

individuals.* Well inay one be allowed to ask, Wliat is an
individual? It is always interesting to discover the founda-
tion of the strange biles of the old voyagers ; and I have no
doubt but that the habits of this Virgularia explain one such
case. Captain Lancaster, in his voyagef in l601, narrates
that on the sea-sands of the island of Sombrero, in the East
Indies, he “found a small twig growing up like a young tree,
and on offering to pluck it up it shrinks down to the ground,
and sinks, unless held very hard. On being plucked up, a
great worm is found to be its root, and as the tree groweth in
greatness, so doth the worm diminish ; and as soon as the
worm is entirely turned into a tree it rooteth in the earth,
and so becomes great. This transformation is one of the
strangest w’onders that I saw in all my travels ; for if this tree
is plucked up, while young, and the leaves and bark stripped
off, it becomes a hard stone when dry, much like white coral;
thus is this worm twice transformed into different natures.
Of these we gathered and brought home many.”

During my stay at Bahia Blanca, while waiting for the

Beagle, the place was in a constant state of excitement, from

rumours of wars and victories, between the troops of Rosas and

the wild Indians. One day an account came that a small

jiarty forming one of the postas on the line to Buenos Ayi*es

had been found all murdered. The next day three hundred

men arrived from the Colorado, under the command of

*

Commandant Miranda. A large portion of these men were
i Indians {inansos, or tame) belonging to the tribe of the

' * The cavities leading from the fleshy compartments of the extremity

I were filled with a yellow pulpy matter, which, examined under a micro-

J scope, presented an extraordinary appearance. The mass consisted of

{ rounded, semi - transparent, irregular grains, aggregated together into

f particles of various sizes. All such particles, and the separate grains,

I possessed the power of rapid movement ; generally revolving around

I different axes, but sometimes progressive. The movement was visible

< with a very weak power, but even with the highest its cause could not be

I perceived. It was very different from the circulation of the fluid in the

I elastic bag, containing the thin extremity of the axis. On other occasions,

k when dissecting small marine animals beneath the micioscope, I have seen

^ particles of pulpy matter, some of large size, as soon as they were dis-

I engaged, commence revolving. I have imagined, I know not with how

I much truth, that this granulopulpy matter was in process of being con-

i verted into ova. Certainly in this zoophyte such appeared to be the case.

‘ t Kerr’s ColUclion of Voyages, vol. viii. p. 119.

I

100

BAHIA BLANCA

Cacique Bernantio. Tliey passed the night here ; and it was
impossible to conceive anything more wld and savage than
the scene of their bivouac. Some drajik till they were
intoxicated ; others swallowed the streaming blood of the
cattle slaughtered for their suppers, and then, being sick from
drunkenness, they cast it up again, and were besmeared with
filth and gore.

“ Nam simul expletus dapibus, vinoque sepultus
Cervicem inflexam posuit, jacuitque per antrum
Immensus, saniem eructans, ac frusta cruenta
Per somnum commixta mero.”

In the morning they started for the scene of the murder,
with orders to follow the “ rastro,” or track, even if it led them
to Chile. We subsequently heard that the wild Indians had
escaped into the great Pampas, and from some cause the
track had been missed. One glance at the rastro tells these
people a whole history. Supposing they examine the track of
a thousand horses, they will soon guess the number of mounted
ones by seeing how many have cantered ; by the depth of the
other impressions, whether any horses were loaded with
cargoes ; by the irregularity of the footsteps, how far tired ; by
the manner in Avhich the food has been cooked, whether the
pursued travelled in haste ; by the general appearance, how
long it has been since they passed. They consider a rastro of
ten days or a fortnight quite recent enough to be hunted out.
We also heard that Miranda struck from the west end of the
Sierra Ventana, in a direct line to the island of Cholechel,
situated seventy leagues up the Rio Negro. This is a distance
of between two and three hundred miles, through a country
completely unknown. What other troojjs in the world are so
independent With the sun for their guide, mares’ flesh for
food, their saddle-cloths for beds, — as long as there is a little
water, these men would penetrate to the end of the world.

A few days afterwards I saw another troop of these
banditti-like soldiers start on an expedition against a tribe of
Indians at the small Salinas, who had been betrayed by a
prisoner cacique. The Spaniard who brought the orders for
this expedition was a very intelligent man. He gave me an
account of the last engagement at which he was present.
Some Indians who had been taken prisoners gave information

BAHIA BLANCA

101

of a tribe living north of the Colorado. Two hundred soldiers
were sent ; and they first discovered the Indians by a cloud of
dust from their horses’ feet, as they chanced to be travelling.
The countiy was mountainous and wild, and it must have been
far in the interior, for the Coi’dillera were in sight. The Indians,
men, women, and children, were about one hundred and ten
in number, and they were nearly all taken or killed, for the
soldiers sabre every man. The Indians are now so terrified
that they offer no resistance in a body, but each flies, neglect-
ing even his wife and children ; but when overtaken, like wild
animals, they fight against any number to the last moment.
One dying Indian seized with his teeth the thumb of his
adversary, and allowed his own eye to be forcetl out sooner
than relinquish his hold. Another, who Avas wounded, feigned
death, keeping a knife ready to strike one more fatal blow.
My inforaier said, when he was pursuing an Indian, the man
cried out for mercy at the same time that he was covertly
loosing the bolas from his Avaist, meaning to Avhirl it round his
head and so strike his pursuer. “ I, hoAvever, struck him Avith
my sabre to the ground, and then got off my horse, and cut
his throat with my knife.” This is a dark picture ; but how
much more shocking is the unquestionable fact, that all the
Avomen who appear above twenty years old are massacred in
cold blood ! When I exclaimed that this appeared rather
inhuman, he ansAvered, “ Why, what can be done ? They
breed so ! ”

Every one here is fully convinced that this is the most just
war, because it is against barbarians. Who would believe
in this age that such atrocities could be committed in a
Christian civilised country } The children of the Indians are
saved, to be sold or given away as servants, or rather slaves,
for as long a time as the OAAuiers can make them believe
themselves slaves ; but I believe in their treatment there is
little to complain of.

In the battle four men ran away together. They were
pursued, one was killed, and the other three were taken alive.
They turned out to be messengers or ambassadors from a
large body of Indians, united in the common cause of
defence, near the Cordillera. The tribe to which they had
been sent was on the point of holding a grand council : the
feast of mares’ flesh Avas ready, and the dance prepared : in

102

BAHIA BLANCA

the morning the ambassadors were to have returned to the
Cordillera. They were ranarkably fine men, very fair, above
six feet high, and all under thirty years of age. The three
survivors, of course, possessed very valuable information ; and
to extort this they were placed in a line. The two first being
questioned, answered, “No se” (I do not know), and were one
after the other shot. The third also said, “ No s6” ; adding,
“ Fire, I am a man and can die ! ” Not one syllable would they
breathe to injure the united cause of their country ! The con-
duct of the above-mentioned cacique was very different : he
saved his life by betraying the intended plan of warfare, and
the point of union in the Andes. It was believed that there
were already six or seven hundred Indians together, and that
in summer their numbers would be doubled. Ambassadors
were to have been sent to the Indians at the small Salina.s,
near Bahia Blanca, whom I have mentioned that this same
cacique had betrayed. The communication, therefore, between
the Indians extends from the Cordillera to the coast of the
Atlantic.

General Rosas’ plan is to kill all stragglers, and having
driven the remainder to a common point, to attack them in
a body, in the summer, with the assistance of the Chilenos.
This operation is to be repeated for three successive years. I
imagine the summer is chosen as the time for the main
attack, because the plains are then without water, and the
Indians can only travel in particular directions. The escape
of the Indians to the south of the Rio Negro, where in such a
vast unknown country they would be safe, is prevented by a
treaty with the Tehuelches to this effect ; — that Rosas pays
them so much to slaughter every Indian who passes to
the south of the river, but if they fiiil in so doing, they them-
selves are to be exterminated. The war is waged chiefly
against the Indians near the Cordillera ; for many of the
tribes on this eastern side are fighting nith Rosas. The
general, however, like Lord Chesterfield, thinking that his
friends may in a future day become his enemies, always
places them in the front ranks, so that their numbers may be
thinned. Since leaving South America we have heard that
this war of extermination completely failed.

Among the captive girls taken in the same engagement,
there were two very pretty Spanish ones, who had been

CAPTIVE INDIANS

103

carried away by the Indians when young, and coidd now only
speak the Indian tongue. From their account they must
have come from Salta, a distance in a straight line of nearly
one thousand miles. This gives one a grand idea of the
immense territory over which the Indians roam ; yet, great
as it is, I think there mil not, in another half-century, be a
wild Indian northward of the Rio Negro. The warfare is too
bloody to last ; the Christians killing every Indian, and the
Indians doing the same by the Christians. It is melancholy
to trace how the Indians have given way before the Spanish
invaders. Schirdel* says that in 1535, when Buenos Ayres
was founded, there were villages containing two and three
thousand inhabitants. Even in Falconer’s time (1750) the
Indians made inroads as far as Luxan, Areco, and Arrecife,
but now they are driven beyond the Salado. Not only have
whole tribes been exterminated, but the remaining Indians
have become more barbarous : instead of living in large
villages, and being employed in the arts of fishing, as well
as of the chase, they now wander about the open plains,
without home or fixed occupation.

I heard also some account of an engagement which took
place a few weeks previously to the one mentioned, at
Cholechel. This is a very important station on account of
being a pass for horses ; and it was, in consequence, for some
time the headquarters of a division of the army. When the
troops first arrived there they found a ti’ibe of Indians, of
whom they killed twenty or thirty. The cacique escaped in a
manner which astonished every one. The chief Indians always
have one or two picked horses, which they keep ready for
any urgent occasion. On one of these, an old white horse,
the cacique sprung, taking with him his little son. The horse
had neither saddle nor bridle. To avoid the shots, the
Indian rode in the peculiar method of his nation — namely,
with an arm round the horse’s neck and one leg only on its
back. Thus hanging on one side, he was seen patting the
horse’s head, and talking to him. The pursuers urged every
effort in the chase ; the Commandant three times changed his
horse, but all in vain. The old Indian father and his son
escaped, and were free. What a fine picture one can form in

* Purchas’ Collection of Voyages. I believe the date was really 1537.

104.

CAPTIVE INDIANS

one’s inind^ — the naked, bronze-like figure of the old man
with his little boy, riding like a Mazeppa on the white horse,
thus leaving far behind him the host of his pursuers !

I saw one day a soldier striking fire with a piece of flint,
which I immediately recognised as having been a part of the
head of an arrow. He told me it was found near the island of
Cholechel, and that they are frequently picked up there. It
was between two and three inches long, and therefore twice
as large as those now used in Tierra del Fuego ; it was made
of opaque cream-coloured flint, but the point and barbs had
been intentionally broken off. It is well known that no
Pampas Indians now use bows and arrows. I believe a small
tribe in Banda Oriental must be excepted ; but they are
widely separated from the Pampas Indians, and border close
on those tribes that inhabit the forest, and live on foot. It
appears, therefore, that these arrow-heads are antiquarian*
relics of the Indians, before the great change in habits
consequent on the introduction of the horse into South
America.

* Azara has even doubted whether the Pampas Indians ever used bows.

CHAPTER VI

BAHIA BLANCA TO BUENOS AYRES

SET OUT FOR BUENOS AYRES RIO SAUCE SIERRA VENTANA —

THIRD POSTA DRIVING HORSES BOLAS PARTRIDGES AND

FOXES FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY LONG-LEGGED PLOVER

TERU-TERO HAILSTORM NATURAL ENCLOSURES IN THE

SIERRA TAPALGUEN FLESH OF PUMA MEAT DIET GUARDIA

DEL MONTE EFFECTS OF CATTLE ON THE VEGETATION

CARDOON BUENOS AYRES CORRAL WHERE CATTLE ARE

SLAUGHTERED.

EPTEMBER 8th, — I hired a Gaucho to accom-
pany me on my ride to Buenos Ayres, though
with some difficulty, as the father of one man
was afraid to let him go, and another, wlio seemed
mlling, was described to me as so fearful, that
I was afraid to take him, for I w^as told that even if he saw an
ostrich at a distance, he would mistake it for an Indian, and
would fly like the wind away. The distance to Buenos Ayres is
about four hundred miles, and nearly the whole way through
an uninhabited country. We started early in the morning :
ascending a few hundred feet from the basin of green turf on
which Bahia Blanca stands, we entered on a wide desolate
plain. It consists of a crumbling argillaceo-calcareous rock,
which, from the dry nature of the climate, supports only
scattered tufts of wthered grass, without a single bush or
tree to break the monotonous uniformity. The weather was
fine, but the atmosphere remarkably hazy ; I thought the ap-
pearance forboded a gale, but the Gauchos said it was owing
to the plain, at some great distance in the interior, being on
fire. After a long gallop, having changed horses twice, we
reached the Rio Sauce : it is a deep, rapid, little stream not
above twenty-five feet wide. The second posta on the road to
Buenos Ayres stands on its banks ; a little above there is a

loj

106 BAHIA BLANCA TO BUENOS AYRES

ford for horses, where the water does not reach to the horses’
belly ; but from that point, in its course to the sea, it is quite
impassable, and hence makes a most useful barrier against the
Indians.

Insignificant as this stream is, the Jesuit Falconer, whose
information is generally so very correct, figures it as a con-
siderable river, rising at the foot of the Cordillera. With
respect to its source, I do not doubt that this is the case ;
for the Gauchos assured me that, in the middle of the dry
summer, this stream, at the same time with the Colorado, has
periodical floods ; which can only originate in the snow melt-
ing on the Andes. It is extremely improbable that a stream so
small as the Sauce then was should traverse the entire width
of the continent ; and indeed, if it were the residue of a large
river, its waters, as in other ascertained cases, would be saline.
During the winter we must look to the springs round the
Sierra Ventana as the source of its pure and limpid stream. I
suspect the plains of Patagonia, like those of Australia, are
traversed by many water-courses, which only perform their
proj^er parts at certain periods. Probably this is the case with
the water which flows into the head of Port Desire, and like-
wise with the Rio Chupat, on the banks of which masses of
highly cellular scoriae were found by the officers employed in
the survey.

As it was early in the afternoon when we arrived, we took
fresh horses, and a soldier for a guide, and started for the
SieiTa de la Ventana. This mountain is visible from the
anchorage at Bahia Blanca ; and Captain Fitz Roy calculates
its height to be 3340 feet — an altitude very remarkable on this
eastern side of the continent. I am not aware that any
foreigner, previous to my visit, had ascended this mountain ;
and indeed veiy few of the soldiers at Bahia Blanca knew
anything about it. Hence we heard of beds of coal, of gold
and silver, of caves, and of forests, all of which inflamed my
curiosity, only to disappoint it. The distance from the posta
was about six leagues, over a level plain of the same character
as before. The ride was, however, interesting, as the mountain
began to show its true foiun. When we reached the foot of the
main ridge, we had much difficulty in finding any water, and we
thought we should have been obliged to have passed the night
without any. At last we discovered some by looking close to

BAHIA BLANCA TO BUENOS AYRES 10?

tlie mountain^ for, at the distance even of a few hundred yards,
the streamlets were buried and entirely lost in the friable
calcareous stone and loose detritus. I do not think nature ever
made a more solitary, desolate pile of rock ; — it well deserves
its name of Hurtado, or separated. The mountain is steep,
extremely rugged, and broken, and so entirely destitute of
trees, and even bushes, that we actually could not make a
skewer to stretch out our meat over the fire of thistle-stalks.*
The strange aspect of this mountain is contrasted by the sea-
like plain, which not only abuts against its steep sides, but
likewise separates the parallel ranges. The uniformity of the
colouring gives an extreme quietness to the view ; — the
whitish-grey of the quartz rock, and the light brown of the
withered grass of the plain, being unrelieved by any brighter
tint. From custom one expects to see in the neighbourhood
of a lofty and bold mountain a broken country strewed over
with huge fragments. Here nature shows that the last move-
ment before the bed of the sea is changed into dry land may
sometimes be one of tranquillity. Under these circumstances
I was curious to observe how far from the parent rock any
pebbles could be found. On the shores of Bahia Blanca, and
near the settlement, there were some of quartz, which
certainly must have come from this source : the distance is
forty-five miles.

The dew, which in the early part of the night wetted the
saddle-cloths under which we slept, was in the morning frozen.
The plain, though appearing horizontal, had insensibly sloped
up to a height of between 800 and 900 feet above the sea. In
the morning (9th of September) the guide told me to ascend
the nearest ridge, which he thought would lead me to the four
peaks that crown the summit. The climbing up such rough rocks
was very fatiguing ; the sides were so indented, that what was
gained in one five-minutes was often lost in the next. At last,
when I reached the ridge, my disappointment was extreme in
finding a precipitous valley as deep as the plain, which cut the
chain transversely in two, and separated me from the four
points. This valley is very narrow, but flat-bottomed, and it
forms a fine horse-pass for the Indians, as it connects the plains
on the northern and southern sides of the range. Having

* I call these thistle-stalks for the want of a more correct name. I believe
it is a species of Eryngium,

108

BAHIA BLANCA TO BUENOS AYRES

descended — and while crossing it, I saw two horses grazing — I
immediately hid myself in the long grass, and began to recon-
noitre ; but as I could see no signs of Indians, I proceeded
cautiously on my second ascent. It was late in the day, and
this part of the mountain, like the other, was steep and rugged.
I was on the top of the second peak by two o’clock, but got
there with extreme difficulty ; every twenty yards I had the
cramp in the upper part of both thighs, so that I was afraid
I should not have been able to have got down again. It was
also necessary to return by another road, as it was out of the
question to pass over the saddle-back. I was therefore
obliged to give up the two higher peaks. Their altitude was
but little greater, and eveiy purpose of geology had been
answered ; so that the attempt was not worth the hazard of
any further exertion. I presume the cause of the cramp was
the great change in the kind of muscular action, from that
of hard riding to that of still harder climbing. It is a lesson
worth remembering, as in some cases it might cause much
difficulty.

I have already said the mountain is composed of white
quai'tz rock, and with it a little glossy clay-slate is associated.
At the height of a few hundred feet above the plain, patches
of conglomerate adhered in several places to the solid rock.
They resembled in hardness, and in the nature of the cement,
the masses which may be seen daily forming on some coasts.
I do not doubt these pebbles were in a similar manner aggre-
gated, at a period when the great calcareous formation was
depositing beneath the surrounding sea. We may believe that
the jagged and battered forms of the hard quartz yet show the
effects of the waves of an open ocean.

I was, on the whole, disappointed with this ascent. Even
the view was insignificant ; — a plain like the sea, but -without
its beautiful colour and defined outline. The scene, however,
was novel, and a little danger, like salt to meat, gave it a
relish. That the danger was very little was certain, for my
two companions made a good fire — a thing which is never
done when it is suspected that Indians are near. I reached
the place of our bivouac by sunset, and drinking much mat^,
and smoking several cigaritos, soon made up my bed for the
night. The wind was very strong and cold, but I never slept
more comfortably.

BAHIA BLANCA TO BUENOS AYRES 109

September \0th. — In the morning, having fairly scudded
before the gale, "we arrived by tlie middle of the day at the
Sauce posta. On the road we saw great numbers of deer, and
near the mountain a guanaco. The plain, which abuts against
the Sierra, is traversed by some curious gulleys, of which one
Avas about twenty feet wide, and at least thirty deep ; we were
obliged in consequence to make a considerable circuit before
Ave could find a pass. We stayed the night at the posta, the
conversation, as was generally the case, being about the Indians.
The Sierra Ventana AA'as formerly a great place of resort; and
three or four years ago there was much fighting there. My
guide had been present Avhen many Indians Avere killed : the
Avomen escaped to the top of the ridge, and fought most
desperately AAith great stones ; many thus saAung themselves.

September Wth. — Proceeded to the third posta in company
AA'ith the lieutenant Avho commanded it. The distance is
called fifteen leagues ; but it is only guess-wnrk, and is generally
overstated. The i-oad Avas uninteresting, over a dry grassy
plain ; and on our left hand, at a greater or less distance,
there were some Ioav hills, a continuation of which we crossed
close to the posta. Before our amval we met a large herd of
cattle and horses, guarded by fifteen soldiers ; but Ave were
told many had been lost. It is very difficult to drive animals
across the plains ; for if in the night a puma, or even a fox,
approaches, nothing can prevent the horses dispersing in every
I direction ; and a stonn will have the same effect. A short time
I since, an officer left Buenos Ayres Avith five hundred horses,
and Avhen he arrived at the army he had under tAventy.

Soon afterwards Ave perceived, by the cloud of dust, that a
i party of horsemen Avere coming towards us ; when far distant
( my companions knew them to be Indians by their long hair

* streaming behind their backs. The Indians generally have a
' fillet round their heads, but never any covering ; and their
I black hair bloA\ing across their swarthy faces, heightens to an
» uncommon degree the wildness of their appearance. They
1 turned out to be a party of Bernantio’s friendly tribe going

to a salina for salt. The Indians eat much salt, their
i children sucking it like sugar. This habit is very different

* from that of the Spanish Gauchos, who, leading the same kind
of life, eat scarcely any : according to Mungo Park,* it is

* * 1 ravels in Africa, p. 233.

no

THROWING 'HIE BOLAS

people who live on vegetable food who have an nneonquer-
able desire for salt. The Indians gave us good-humoured
nods as they passed at full gallop^ driving before them a troop
of horses, and followed by a train of lanky dogs.

September \9,th and 13111. — I stayed at this posta two days
waiting for a troop of soldiers, which. General Rosas had the
kindness to send to inform me, would travel shortly to Buenos
Ayi’es ; and he advised me to take the opportunity of the
escort. In the morning Ave rode to some neighbouring hills
to view the country, and to examine the geology. After
dinner the soldiers divided themselves into two parties for a
trial of skill with the bolas. Two spears Avere stuck in the
ground thirty-five yards apart, but they were struck and en-
tangled only once in four or five times. The balls can be
thrown fifty or sixty yards, but A\ith little certainty. This,
however, does not apply to a man on horseback ; for when the
speed of the horse is added to the force of the arm, it is said
that they can be whirled with effect to the distance of eighty
yards. As a proof of their force I may mention, that at the
Falkland Islands, when the Spaniards murdered some of their
OAvn countrymen and all the Englishmen, a young friendly
Spaniard was running aAAay, Avhen a great tall man, by name
Luciano, came at full gallop after him, shouting to him to stop,
and saying that he only Avanted to speak to him. Just as the
Spaniard was on the point of reaching the boat, Luciano thrcAv
the balls ; they stnick him on the legs with such a jerk as to
throw him doAvn and to render him for some time insensible.
The man, after Luciano had had his talk, Avas allowed to escape.
He told us that his legs were marked by great weals, where
the thong had wound round, as if he had been flogged Avith a
whijA. In the middle of the day tAvo men arrived, Avho brought
a parcel from the next posta to be forAvarded to the general :
so that besides these tAvo, our party consisted this evening of
my guide and self, the lieutenant and his four soldiers. The
latter were strange beings ; the first a fine young negro ; the
second, half Indian and negro ; and the tAvo others nondescripts
— namely, an old Chilian miner, the colour of mahogany,
and another partly a mulatto : but two such mongrels, Avith
such detestable expressions, I never saw before. At night,
when they were sitting around the fire, and playing at cards,
I retired to view such a Salvator Rosa scene. They AAere sealed

BAHIA BLANCA TO BUENOS AYRES

111

under a low cliff, so that I could look down upon them ; around
the party were lying dogs, arms, remnants of deer and ostriches ;
and their long spears were stuck in the turf. Farther in the
dark background, their horses were tied up, ready for any
sudden danger. If the stillness of the desolate plain was
broken by one of the dogs barking, a soldier, leaving the fire,
would place his head close to the ground, and thus slowly scan
the horizon. Even if the noisy teru-tero uttered its scream,
there -would be a pause in the conversation, and every head,
for a moment, a little inclined.

What a life of misery these men appear to us to lead I They
M'ere at least ten leagues from the Sauce posta, and since the
murder committed by the Indians, twenty from another. The
Indians are supposed to have made their attack in the middle
of the night, for very early in the morning after the murder
they were luckily seen aj^proaching this posta. The whole
party here, however, escaj^ed, together with the troop of
horses ; each one taking a line for himself, and driving with
him as many animals as he was able to manage.

The little hovel, built of thistle-stalks, in which they slept,
neither kept out the wind nor rain ; indeed, in the latter case
the only effect the roof had was to condense it into larger
drops. They had nothing to eat excepting what they could
catch, such as ostriches, deer, annadilloes, etc., and their only
fuel was the dry stalks of a small plant, somewhat resembling
an aloe. The sole luxury which these men enjoyed was
smoking the little paper cigars, and sucking mate. I used to
think that the carrion vultures, man’s constant attendants on
these dreary plains, while seated on the little neighbouring
cliffs, seemed by their veiy patience to say, Ah ! when the
Indians come we shall have a feast.”

In the morning we all .sallied forth to hunt, and although
we had not much success, there were some animated chases.
Soon after starting the party separated, and so arranged their
plans that at a certain time of the day (in guessing which
they show much skill) they should all meet from different
points of the compass on a plain piece of ground, and thus
drive together the wild animals. One day I went out hunt-
ing at Bahia Blanca, but the men there merely rode in a
crescent, each being about a quarter of a mile apart from the
other. A fine male ostrich being turned by the headmost

112 BAHIA BLANCA TO BUENOS AYRES

riders, tried to escape on one side. The Gauchos pursued at
a reckless pace, twisting their horses about with the most
admirable command, and each man whirling the balls round
his head. At length the foremost threw them, revolving
through the air; in an instant the ostrich rolled over and
over, its legs fairly lashed together by the thong.

The plains abound Avith three kinds of partridge,* two of
which are as large as hen pheasants. Their destroyer, a small
and pretty fox, was also singularly numerous; in the course of
the day we could not have seen less than forty or fifty. They
were generally near their earths, but the dogs killed one.
When we returned to the posta, we found two of the party
returned who had been hunting by themselves. They had
killed a puma, and had found an ostrich’s nest Avith twenty-
seven eggs in it. Each of these is said to equal in weight
eleven hens’ eggs ; so that we obtained from this one nest as
much food as two hundred and ninety-seven hens’ eggs would
have given.

Sejjtember IMh. — As the soldiers belonging to the next
posta meant to return, and Ave should together make a party
of five, and all armed, I determined not to wait for the ex-
pected troops. My host, the lieutenant, pressed me much to
stop. As he had been very obliging — not only providing me
Avith food, but lending me his private horses — I Avanted to
make him some remuneration. I asked my guide Avhether I
might do so, but he told me certainly not ; that the only
answer I should receive probably would be, ^'We have meat
for the dogs in our country, and therefore do not grudge it
to a Christian.” It must not be supposed that the rank of
lieutenant in such an army would at all prevent the accept-
ance of payment ; it was only the high sense of hospitality,
which every traveller is bound to acknoAvledge as nearly
universal throughout these provinces. After galloping some
leagues, we came to a Ioav SAvampy counby, which extends for
nearly eighty miles northward, as far as the Sierra Tapalguen.
In some parts there were fine damp plains, covered AA-ith grass,
while others had a soft, black, and peaty soil. There Avere
also many extensive but shalloAv lakes, and large beds of reeds.

* Two species of Tinamus, and Eiidromta elegans of A. d’Orbigny,
which can only be called a partridge with regard to its habits.

BAHIA BLANCA TO BUENOS AYRES US

The country on the whole resembled the better parts of the
Cambridgeshire fens. At night we had some difficulty in
finding, amidst the s^vamps, a di-y place for our bivouac.

September 1 5lh. — Rose very early in the morning, and shortly
after passed the posta where the Inpians had murdered the
five soldiers. The officer had eighteen chuzo wounds in his
body. By the middle of the day, after a hard gallop, we
reached the fifth posta: on account of some difficulty in pro-
curing horses we stayed there the night. As this point was
the most exposed on the whole line, twenty-one soldiers were
stationed here ; at sunset they I'eturned from hunting, bring-
ing with them seven deer, three ostriches, and many arma-
dilloes and partridges. When riding through the country,
it is a common practice to set fire to the plain; and hence
at night, as on this occasion, the horizon was illuminated in
several places by brilliant conflagrations. This is done partly
for the sake of puzzling any stray Indians, but chiefly for
improving the pasture. In grassy plains unoccupied by the
larger ruminating quadinipeds, it seems necessary to remove
the superfluous vegetation by fire, so as to render the new
year’s growth serviceable.

The rancho at this place did not boast even of a roof, but
merely consisted of a ring of thistle-stalks, to break the force
of the wind. It was situated on the borders of an extensive
but shallow lake, swarming with wild fowl, among which the
black-necked swan was conspicuous.

The kind of plover which appears as if mounted on stilts
{Himantopus nigricollis) is here common in flocks of consider-
able size. It has been wi-ongfully accused of inelegance ;
when wading about in shallow water, which is its favourite
resort, its gait is far fi'om awkward. These birds in a flock
utter a noise that singularly resembles the cry of a pack of
I small dogs in full chase : waking in the night, I have more
1 than once been for a moment startled at the distant sound.

The teru-tero {Vanelliis cay anus) is another bird which often
i disturbs the stillness of the night. In appearance and habits
it resembles in many respects our peewits ; its wings, how'ever,
f are armed with sharp spurs, like those on the legs of the com-
I mon cock. As our peewit takes its name from the sound of
a its voice, so does the teru-tero. While riding over the grassy
1 plains, one is constantly pursued by these birds, which appear

H

114

A VIOLENT HAILSTORM

to hate mankind, and I am sure deserve to be hated for their
never-ceasing, unvaried, harsh screams. To the sportsman
they are most annoying, by telling every other bird and
animal of his approach ; to the traveller in the country they
may possibly, as Molina says, do good, by warning him of the
midnight robber. During the breeding season they attempt,
like our peewits, by feigning to be wounded, to draw away
from their nests dogs and other enemies. The eggs of this
bird are esteemed a great delicacy.

September l6lh. — To the seventh posta at the foot of the
Sierra Tapalguen. The countiy was quite level, with a coarse
herbage and a soft peaty soil. The hovel was here remark-
ably neat, the jjost and rafters being made of about a dozen
dry thistle-stalks bound together with thongs of hide ; and by
the support of these Ionic-like columns, the roof and sides
were thatched with reeds. We were here told a fact, which
I would not have credited if I had not had partly ocular proof
of it — namely, that, during the jji’evious night, hail as large
as small apples, and extremely hard, had fallen with such
violence as to kill the greater number of the wild animals.
One of the men had already found thirteen deer {Cervus cam-
pestris) lying dead, and I saw their hides; another of the
party, a few minutes after my arrival, brought in seven more.
Now, I well know that one man without dogs could hardly
have killed seven deer in a week. The men believed they
had seen about fifteen dead ostriches (part of one of which
we had for dinner) ; and they said that several were running
about evidently blind in one eye. Numbers of smaller birds,
as ducks, hawks, and partridges, were killed. I saw one of
the latter with a black inai'k on its back, as if it had been
struck with a paving-stone. A fence of thistle-stalks round
the hovel was nearly broken down, and my informer, putting
his head out to see what w'as the matter, received a severe
cut, and now wore a bandage. The storm was said to have
been of limited extent : we certainly saw from our last night’s
bivouac a dense cloud and lightning in this direction. It is
marvellous how such strong animals as deer could thus have
been killed ; but I have no doubt, from the evidence I have
given, that the story is not in the least exaggerated. I am
glad, however, to have its credibility supported by the Jesuit
Drobrizhoffer,* wdio, speaking of a country much to the north-

* History of the Abifoncs, vol. ii. p. 6,

BAHIA BLANCA TO BUENOS AYRES

115

ward, says hail fell of an enormous size and killed vast
numbers of cattle ; the Indians hence call the place Lalegrai-
cavalca, meaning “ the little white things.” Dr Malcolmson,
also, informs me that he witnessed in 18.31 in India a hail-
stonn which killed numbers of large birds, and much injured
the cattle. These hailstones were flat, and one was ten
inches in circumference, and another weighed two ounces.
They ploughed up a gravel walk like musket-balls, and passed
through glass windows, making round holes, but not cracking
them.

Having finished our dinner of hail-stricken meat, we crossed
the SieiTa Tapalguen ; a low range of hills a few hundred feet
in height, which commences at Cape Corrientes. The rock
in this part is pure quartz ; farther eastward I understand it
is gi-anitic. The hills are of a remarkable form ; they consist
of flat patches of table-land sun-ounded by low perpendicular
cliffs, like the outliers of a sedimentary deposit. The hill
which I ascended was very small, not above a couple of
hundred yards in diameter; but I saw others larger. One,
which goes by the name of the “ CoiTal,” is said to be two or
three miles in diameter, and encompassed by perpendicular
cliffs betw'een thirty and foi’ty feet high, excepting at one spot,
where the entrance lies. Falconer* gives a curious account
of the Indians driving troops of wild horses into it, and then,
by guarding the entrance, keeping them secure. I have
never heard of any other instance of table-land in a formation
of quartz, and which, in the hill I examined, had neither
cleavage nor stratification. I was told that the rock of the
“ Corral ” was white, and would strike fire.

We did not reach the posta on the Rio Tapalguen till after
it was dark. At supper, from something which was said, I
was suddenly struck with horror at thinking that I was eating
one of the favourite dishes of the country — namely, a half-
formed calf, long before its proper time of birth. It turned
out to be puma ; the meat is very white, and remarkably like
veal in taste. Dr Shaw was laughed at for stating that “ the
flesh of the lion is in great esteem, having no small affinity
with veal, both in colour, taste, and flavour.” Such certainly
is the case with the puma. The Gauchos differ in their

Falconer’s Patagonia, p. 70.

116 BAHIA BLANCA TO BUENOS AYRES

opinion whether tlie Jaguar is good eatings but are unanimous
in saying that cat is excellent.

September \lih. — We followed the course of the Rio Tapal-
guen through a very fertile country to the ninth posta.
Tapalguen itself, or the town of Tapalguen, if it may be so
called, consists of a perfectly level plain, studded over, as far
as the eye can reach, with the toldos, or oven-shaped huts of
the Indians. The families of the friendly Indians, who were
fighting on the side of Rosas, resided here. We met and
passed many young Indian women, riding by two or three
together on the same horse ; they, as well as many of the
young men, were strikingly handsome, their fine ruddy com-
plexions being the picture of health. Besides the toldos,
there were three ranchos : one inhabited by the Commandant,
and two others by Spaniards with small shops.

We were here able to buy some biscuit. I had now been
several days without tasting anything besides meat : I did
,not at all dislike this new regimen ; but I felt as if it w'ould
only have agreed with me with hard exercise. I have heard
that patients in England, when desired to confine themselves
exclusively to an animal diet, even with the hope of life
before their eyes, have hardly been able to endure it. Yet
the Gaucho in the Pampas, for months together, touches
nothing but beef. But they eat, I observe, a very large
proportion of fat, which is of a less animalised nature ; and
they particularly dislike dry meat, such as that of the Agouti.
Dr Richardson,* also, has remarked, that when people have
fed for a long time solely upon lean animal food, the desire
for fat becomes so insatiable that they can consume a large
quantity of unmixed and even oily fat without nausea ” : this
appears to me a curious physiological fact. It is, perhaps,
from their meat regimen that the Gauchos, like other car-
nivorous animals, can abstain long from food. I was told
that at Tandeel some troops voluntarily pursued a party of
Indians for three days, without eating or drinking.

We saw in the shops many articles, such as horse-cloths,
belts, nd garters, woven by the Indian women. The patterns
were very pretty, and the colours brilliant ; the workmanship
of the garters was so good that an English merchant at

* Fauna Boreali- Americana^ vol. i. p. 35.

BAHIA BLANCA TO BUENOS AYRES 117

Buenos Ayres maintained that they must have been manu-
factured in England, till he found the tassels had been
fastened by split sinew.

September 18/A. — We had a very long ride this day. At the
twelfth posta, which is seven leagues south of the Rio Salado,
we came to the first estancia with cattle and white women.
Afterwards we had to ride for many miles through a country
flooded "with water above our horses’ knees. By crossing the
stirrups, and riding Arab-like with our legs bent up, we con-
trived to keep tolerably dry. It was nearly dark when we
arrived at the Salado ; the stream was deep and about forty
yards wde ; in summer, however, its bed becomes almost dry,
and the little remaining water nearly as salt as that of the sea.
We slept at one of the great estancias of General Rosas. It
was fortified, and of such an extent that, arriving in the
dark, I thought it was a town and fortress. In the morning
we saAv immense herds of cattle, the general here having
seventy-four square leagues of land. Formerly nearly three
hundred men were employed about this estate, and they
defied all the attacks of the Indians.

September 19/A. — Passed the Guardia del Monte. This
is a nice scattered little town, with many gardens, full of
peach and quince trees. The plain here looked like that
around Buenos Ayres, the turf being short and bright green,

, with beds of clover and thistles, and with bizcacha holes. I
' was very much struck with the marked change in the aspect
< of the country after having crossed the Salado. From a
' coarse herbage we pass on to a carpet of fine green verdure.

I at first attributed this to some change in the nature of the
T soil, but the inhabitants assured me that here, as well as in
i Banda Oriental, where there is as great a difference between
1 the country around Monte Video and the thinly-inhabited

I savannahs of Colonia, the whole was to be attributed to the
i manuring and grazing of the cattle. Exactly the same fact

II has been observed in the prairies* of North America, where
r coarse grass, between five and six feet high, when grazed by
1 cattle, changes into common pasture-land. I am not botanist
[ enough to say whether the change here is owing to the intro-

* See Mr Atwater’s account of the Prairies in Silliman’s A’’, yt. /oi4rnalf
I vol. i. p. 1 1 7.

118 liAHIA BLANCA TO BUENOS AYRES

duction of new species, to the altered growth of the same, or
to a difference in tlieir proportional numbers. Azara has also
observed Avith astonishment this change : he is likewise much
perplexed by the immediate appearance of plants, not occur-
ring in the neighbourhood, on the borders of any track that
leads to a newly-constructed hovel. In another part he
says,* “ces chevaux (sauvages) ont la nianie de preferer les
chemins, et le bord des routes pour d^poser leurs excremens,
dont on trouve des monceaux dans ces endroits.” Does this
not partly explain the circumstance ? We thus have lines of
richly-manured land serving as channels of communication
across wide districts.

Near the Guardia we find the southern limit of two
European plants, now become extraordinarily common. The
fennel in great jwofusion covers the ditch-banks in the
neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres, Monte Video, and other
towns. But the cardoon {Cynara cardunculus)\ has a far wider
range ; it occurs in these latitudes on both sides of the
Cordillera, across the continent. I saw it in unfrequented
spots in Chile, Entre Rios, and Banda Oiaental. In the latter
country alone, very many (probably several hundred) square
miles are covered by one mass of these prickly plants, and
are impenetrable by man or beast. Over the undulating
plains, where these great beds occur, nothing else can now
live. Before their introduction, however, the surface must
have supported, as in other parts, a rank herbage. I doubt
whether any case is on record of an invasion on so gi'and a
scale of one plant over the aborigines. As I have already said,
I nowhere saw the cardoon south of the Salado ; but it is

*Azara’s Voyage, vol. i. p. 373.

tM. A. d’Orbigny (vol. i. p. 474) says that the cardoon and artichoke
are both found wild. Dr Hooker {Botanical Magazine, vol. Iv. p. 2862)
has described a variety of the cynara from this part of South America under
the name of Inermis. He states that botanists are now generally agreed
that the cardoon and the artichoke are varieties of one plant. I may add
that an intelligent farmer assured me that he had observed in a deserted
garden some artichokes changing into the common cardoon. Dr Hooker
Believes that Head’s vivid description of the thistle of the Pampas applies to
the cardoon ; but this is a mistake. Captain Head referred to the plant,
which I have mentioned a few lines lower down, under the title of giant
thistle. Whether it is a true thistle I do not know ; but it is quite different
from the cardoon, and more like the thistle properly so called.

BAHIA BLANCA TO BUENOS AYRES

probable that in proportion as that country becomes inhabited,
the cardoon will extend its limits. The case is different with
the giant thistle (with variegated leaves) of the Pampas, for
I met with it in the valley of the Sauce. According to the
principles so Avell laid doAvn by Mr Lyell, few countries have
undergone more remarkable changes since the year 1535, when
the first colonist of La Plata landed with seventy-two horses.
The countless herds of horses, cattle, and sheep, not only have
altered the whole character of the vegetation, but they have
almost banished the guanaco, deer, and ostrich. Numberless
other changes must likewise have taken place ; the wild pig
in some parts probably replaces the peccari; packs of wild
dogs may be heard howling on the wooded banks of the less
frequented streams ; and the common cat, altered into a large
and fierce animal, inhabits rocky hills. As M. d’Orbigny has
remarked, the increase in numbers of the carrion-vulture,
since the introduction of the domestic animals, must have
been infinitely great; and vre have given reasons for believing
that they have extended their southern range. No doubt
many plants, besides the cardoon and fennel, are naturalised ;
thus the islands near the mouth of the Parana are thickly
clothed with peach and orange trees, springing from seeds
carried there by the waters of the river.

While changing horses at the Guardia several people
I questioned us much about the army, — I never saw anything

I like the enthusiasm for Rosas, and for the success of the

' ‘'most just of all wars, because against barbarians.” This

) expression, it must be confessed, is very natui'al, for till lately

ii neither man, w’oman, nor horse was safe from the attacks of

^ the Indians. We had a long ride over the same rich green

b plain, abounding with various flocks, and with here and there

1 a solitary estancia, and its one oynba tree. In the evening it

f. rained heavily : on arriving at a post-house we were told by

t the owner that if we had not a regular passport we must pass

Jon, for there were so many robbers he would trust no one.

When he read, however, my passport, which began with “ El
It Naturalista Don Carlos,” his respect and civility were as un-
it bounded as his suspicions had been before. What a naturalist
4 might be, neither he nor his countrymen, I suspect, had any
S idea; but nrobably my title lost notliing of its value from that
I cause.

120

BUENOS AYRES

September 20lh. — We arrived by the middle of tlie day at
Buenos Ayres. The outskirts of the city looked quite pretty,
with the agave hedges, and groves of olive, peach, and willow-
trees, all just throwing out their fresh green leaves. I rode to
the house of Mr I.,umb, an English merchant, to whose kind-
ness and hospitality, during my stay in the country, I was
greatly indebted.

The city of Buenos Ayres is large * ; and I should think
one of the most regular in the world. Every street is at right
angles to the one it crosses, and the parallel ones being
equi-distant, the houses are collected into solid .squares of
equal dimensions, which are called quadras. On the other
hand, the houses themselves are hollow squares, all the rooms
opening into a neat little courtyard. They are generally only
one storey high, with flat roofs, which are fitted with seats,
and are much frecjuented by the inhabitants in summer. In
the centre of the town is the Plaza, where the public offices,
fortress, cathedral, etc., stand. Here, also, the old viceroys,
before the revolution, had their palaces. The general
assemblage of buildings possesses considerable architectural
beauty, although none individually can boast of any.

The great corral, whei’e the animals are kept for slaughter
to supply food to this beef-eating population, is one of the
spectacles best worth seeing. The strength of the horse as
compared to that of the bullock is quite astonishing; a man on
horseback, having thrown his lasso round the horns of a beast,
can drag it anywhere he chooses. The animal ploughing up
the ground with outstretched legs, in vain efforts to resist
the force, generally dashes at full speed to one side ; but the
horse immediately turning to receive the shock, stands so
firmly that the bullock is almost thro^vn down, and it is
surprising that their necks are not broken. The struggle is
not, however, one of fair strength ; the horse’s girth being
matched against the bullock’s extended neck. In a similar
manner a man can hold the wildest horse, if caught with the
lasso just behind the ears. When the bullock has been
dragged to the spot where it is to be slaughtered, the
malc^or with great caution cuts the hamstrings. Then is

* It is said to contain 60,000 inhabitants. Monte Video, the second town
of importance on the banks of the Plata, has 15,000.

BUENOS AYRES

121

given the death bellow : a noise more expressive of fierce
agony than any I know ; I have often distinguished it from
a long distance, and have always known that the struggle
was then drawing to a close. The whole sight is horrible
and revolting : the ground is almost made of bones ; and
the horses and riders are drenched with gore.

CHAPTER VJI

BUENOS AYRES TO ST FE

EXCURSION TO ST FE THISTLE BEDS HABITS OF THE BIZCACHA

LITTLE OWL SALINE STREAMS LEVEL PLAINS MASTODON

— ST FE CHANGE IN LANDSCAPE GEOLOGY TOOTH OF

EXTINCT HORSE RELATION OF THE FOSSIL AND RECENT

QUADRUPEDS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA EFFECTS OF

A GREAT DROUGHT PARANA HABITS OF THE JAGUAR

SCISSOR-BEAK KINGFISHER, PARROT, AND SCISSOR-TAIL

REVOLUTION BUENOS AYRES STATE OF GOVERNMENT.

EPTEMBER 27tfi. — In the evening I set out on
an excursion to St F4, which is situated nearly
three hundred English miles from Buenos Ayres,
on the banks of the Parana. The roads in the
neighbourhood of the city, after the rainy
weather, were extraordinarily bad. I should never have
thought it possible for a bullock waggon to have crawled
along : as it was, they scarcely went at the rate of a mile an
hour, and a man was kept ahead, to survey the best line for
making the attempt. The bullocks were ten-ibly jaded : it
is a great mistake to suppose that with improved roads, and
an accelerated rate of travelling, the sufferings of the animals
increase in the same proportion. We passed a train of
waggons and a troop of beasts on their road to Mendoza. The
distance is about five hundred and eighty geographical miles,
and the journey is generally performed in fifty days. These
waggons are very long, narrow, and thatched with reeds ; they
have cnly two wheels, the diameter of which in some cases
is as much as ten feet. Each is di-awm by six bullocks, which
are urged on by a goad at least twenty feet long ; this is sus-
pended from within the roof ; for the wheel bullocks a smaller
one is kept ; and for the intermediate pan-, a point projects at
122

PAMPAS

123

right angles from the middle of the long one. The whole
apparatus looked like some implement of war.

September 28<A. — We passed the small town of Luxan,
where there is a wooden bridge over the river — a most
unusual convenience in this country. We passed also Areco.
The plains appeared levels but were not so in fact ; for in
various places the horizon was distant. The estancias are
here wide apart ; for there is little good pasture, owing to the
land being covered by beds either of an acrid clover or of the
great thistle. The latter, well known from the animated
description given by Sir F. Head, were at this time of the
year two-thirds grown ; in some parts they w'ere as high as
the horse’s back, but in others they had not yet sprung up,
and the ground Avas bare and dusty as on a turnpike road.
The clumps were of the most brilliant green, and they made
a pleasing miniature-likeness of broken forest-land. When
the thistles are full-groAra, the great beds are impenetrable,
except by a few tracks, as intricate as those in a lab5rrinth.
These are only known to the robbers, who at this season
inhabit them, and sally forth at night to rob and cut throat's
vith impunity. Upon asking at a house whether robbers were
numerous, I was answ'ered, “ The thistles are not up yet ” ; —
the meaning of Avhich rejily was not at first very obvious.
There is little interest in passing over these tracts, for they
are inhabited by few animals or birds, excepting the bizcacha
and its friend the little owl.

The bizcacha* is well knoAvn to form a prominent feature in
I the zoology of the Pampas. It is found as far south as the Rio
i Negro, in lat. 41°, but not beyond. It cannot, like the agouti,
j subsist on the gravelly and desert plains of Patagonia, but
l prefers a clayey or sandy soil, which produces a different, and
I more abundant, vegetation. Near Mendoza, at the foot of the
t Cordillera, it occurs in close neighbourhood with the allied
I Alpine species. It is a veiy curious circumstance in its geo-
t graphical distribution, that it has never been seen, fortunately
< for the inhabitants of Banda Oriental, to the eastward of the
f river Ui-uguay : yet in this province there are plains which

* The h\zc2Lcha.{Lagostomi{s inchodactylus) somewhat resembles a large
1 rabbit, but with bigger gnawing teeth and a long tail : it has, however, only
It three toes behind, like the agouti. During the last three or four years the
1 skins of these animals have been sent to England for the sake of the fur.

124

PAMPAS

appear admirably adapted to its habits. The Uruguay has
formed an insuperable obstacle to its migration ; although the
broader barrier of the Parana has been passed, and the biz-
cacha is common in Entre Rios, the province between these
two great rivers. Near Buenos Ayres these animals are
exceedingly common. Their most favourite resort appears to
be those parts of the plain which during one half of the year
are covered with giant thistles, to the exclusion of other plants.
The Gauchos affirm that it lives on roots ; which, from the
great strength of its gnawing teeth, and the kind of places
frequented by it, seems probable. In the evening the biz-
cachas come out in numbers, and quietly sit at the mouths of
their burrows on their haunches. At such times they are very
tame, and a man on horseback passing by seems only to
present an object for their grave contemplation. They run
very awkwardly, and when running out of danger, from their
elevated tails and short front legs, much resemble great rats.
Their flesh, when cooked, is very white and good, but is
seldom used.

The bizcacha has one very singular habit — namely, dragging
every hard object to the mouth of its burrow ; around each
group of holes many bones of cattle, stones, thistle-stalks, hard
lumps of earth, dry dung, etc., are collected into an irregular
heap, which frequently amounts to as much as a wheel-barrow
would contain. I was credibly informed that a gentleman,
when riding on a dark night, dropped his watch ; he returned
in the morning, and by searching the neighbourhood of every
bizcacha hole on the line of road, as he expected, he soon
found it. This habit of picking up whatever may be lying on
the ground anywhere near its habitation must cost much
trouble. For what purpose it is done, I am quite unable to
form even the most remote conjecture : it cannot be for
defence, because the rubbish is chiefly placed above the mouth
of the burrow, which enters the gi’ound at a very small inclina-
tion. No doubt there must exist some good reason ; but the
inhabitants of the country are quite ignorant of it. The only
fact which I know analogous to it is the habit of that extra-
ordinary Australian bird, the Calodera maculata, which makes
an elegant vaulted passage of twigs for playing in, and which
collects near the spot, land and sea shells, bones, and the
feathers of birds, especially brightly-coloured ones. Mr Gould,

PAMPAS

125

who has described these facts, informs me that the natives,
when they lose any hai-d object, search the playing passages,
and he has known a tobacco-pipe thus recovered.

The little owl (^Athene ciniiciilarla), which has been so often
mentioned, on the plains of Buenos Ayres exclusively inhabits
the holes of the bizcacha ; but in Banda Oriental it is its own
workman. During the open day, but more especially in the
evening, these birds may be seen in every direction standing
frequently by pairs on the hillock near their burrows. If
disturbed they either enter the hole, or, uttering a shrill
harsh cry, move with a remarkable undulatory flight to a short
distance, and then turning round, steadily gaze at their
pursuer. Occasionally in the evening they may be heard
hooting. I found in the stomachs of two which I opened the
remains of mice, and I one day saw a small snake killed and
carried away. It is said that snakes are their common prey
during the daytime. I may here mention, as showing on
what various kinds of food owls subsist, that a species killed
among the islets of the Chonos Archipelago, had its stomach
full of good-sized crabs. In India* there is a fishing genus of
ow'ls, which likewise catches crabs.

In the evening we crossed the Rio Arrecife on a simple raft
made of barrels lashed together, and slept at the post-house
on the other side. I this day paid horse-hire for thirty-one
1 leagues ; and although the sun was glaring hot I was but little
I fatigued. When Captain Head talks of riding fifty leagues a
day, I do not imagine the distance is equal to one hundred
1 and fifty English miles. At all events, the thirty-one leagues
were only seventy-six miles in a straight line, and in an open
country 1 should think four additional miles for tuniings
) would be a sufficient allowance.

September 2Qth and 30th. — We continued to ride over plains
’ of the same character. At San Nicolas I first saw the noble
t river of the Parana. At the foot of the cliff on which the
1 town stands, some large vessels were at anchor. Before
r arriving at Rozario, we crossed the Saladillo, a stream of fine
? clear running water, but too saline to drink. Rozario is a
1 large town built on a dead level plan, which forms a cliff
* about sixty feet high over the Parana. The river here is very
r broad, with many islands, which are low and wooded, aS is

Journal of Asiatic Soc., vof. v. p. 363.

126

PAMPAS

also the opposite shore. The view would resemble that of a
great lake, if it were not for the linear-shaped islets, which
alone give the idea of running water. The cliffs are the most
picturesque part ; sometimes they ai’e absolutely perpendicular,
and of a red colour ; at other times in large broken masses,
covered with cacti and mimosa-trees. Tlie real grandeur,
however, of an immense river like this is derived from
reflecting how important a means of communication and
commerce it forms between one nation and another ; to what
a distance it travels ; and from how vast a territory it drains
the great body of fresh water which flows past your feet.

For many leagues north and south of San Nicolas and
Rozario the country is really level. Scarcely anything which
travellers have wiitten about its extreme flatness can be con-
sidered as exaggeration. Yet I could never find a spot where,
by slowly turning round, objects were not seen at greater
distances in some directions than in others ; and this mani-
festly proves inequality in plain. At sea, a person’s eye being
six feet above the surface of the water, his horizon is two nailes
and four-fifths distant. In like manner, the more level the
plain, the more nearly does the horizon approach within these
narrow limits ; and this, in my opinion, entirely destroys that
grandeur which one would have imagined that a vast level
plain would have possessed.

October 1st. — We started by moonlight and arrived at the
Rio Tercero by sunrise. This river is also called the Saladillo,
and it deserves the name, for the water is brackish. I stayed
here the greater part of the day, searching for fossil bones.
Besides a perfect tooth of the Toxodon, and many scattered
bones, I found two immense skeletons near each other pro-
jecting in bold relief from the perpendicular cliff of the
Parana. They were, however, so completely decayed that I
could only bring away small fragments of one of the great
molar teeth ; but these are sufficient to show that the remains
belonged to a Mastodon, probably to the same species with
that which formerly must have inhabited the Cordillera in
Upper Peru in such great numbers. The men who took me
in the canoe sai4 they had long known of these skeletons,
and had often wondered how they had got there : the
necessity of a theory being felt, they came to the conclusion
that, like the bizcacha, the mastodon was formerly a bur-

ST FE

127

rowing animal ! In the evening we rode another stage, and
crossed the Monge, another brackish stream, bearing the
dregs of the wasliings of tlie Pampas.

October 2nd. — We passed througli Coinnda, which, from the
luxin-iance of its gardens, was one of the prettiest villages I
saw. From this point to St F4 the road is not very safe.
The western side of the Parana northward ceases to be in-
habited ; and hence the Indians sometimes come down thus
far and waylay travellers. The nature of the country also
favours this, for instead of a grassy plain, there is an open
woodland, composed of low prickly mimosas. We passed some
houses that had been ransacked and since deserted ; we saw
also a spectacle, which my guides viewed with high satisfac-
tion : it was the skeleton of an Indian with tlie dried skin
hanging on the bones, suspended to tlie branch of a tree.

In the morning we arrived at St Fe. I was surprised to
observe how great a change of climate a difference of only
three degrees of latitude between this place and Buenos Ayres
had caused. This was evident from the di'ess and complexion
of the men, from the increased size of the ombu tree, the
number of new cacti and other plants, and especially from the
i birds. In the course of an hour I remarked half-a-dozen birds
which I had never seen at Buenos Ayres. Considering that
i there is no natural boundary between the two places, and that
' the character of the country is nearly similar, the difference
. was much greater than I should have expected.

October 3rd and Mh. — I was confined for these two days to
'I my bed by a headache. A good-natured old woman, who
' attended me, wished me to try many odd remedies. A
« common practice is to bind an orange-leaf or a bit of black
plaster to each temple ; and a still more general plan is to split
a bean into halves, moisten them, and place one on each
I temple, where they will easily adhere. It is not thought
t proper ever to remove the beans or plaster, but to allow them
to drop off ; and sometimes if a man with patches on his head
; is asked what is the matter, he will answer, “ I had a headache
) the day before yesterday.” Many of the remedies used by
s the people of the country are ludicrously strange, but too
disgusting to be mentioned. One of the least nasty is to kill
) and cut open two puppies and bind them on each side of a
r broken limb. Little hairless dogs are in great request to sleep
' at the feet of invalids.

128

ST FR

St Fc is a quiet little town, and is kept clean and in good
order. The governor, Lopez, was a common soldier at the
time of the revolution; but has now been seventeen years in
power. This stability of government is owing to his tyrannical
habits ; for tyranny seems as yet better adapted to these
countries than Republicanism. The goveimor’s favourite occu-
pation is hunting Indians ; a short time since he slaughtered
forty-eight, and sold the children at the rate of three or four
pounds apiece.

October 5th. — We crossed the Parana to St F^ Bajade, a town
on the opposite shore. The passage took some hours, as the
river here consisted of a labyrinth of small streams, separated
by low wooded islands. I had a letter of introduction to an
old Catalonian Spaniard, who treated me with the most un-
common hospitality. The Bajada is the capital of Entre Rios.
In 1825 the town contained 6000 inhabitants, and the province
30,000 ; yet, few as the inhabitants are, no province has
suffered more from bloody and desperate revolutions. They
boast here of representatives, ministers, a standing army, and
governors : so it is no wonder that they have their revolutions.
At some future day this must be one of the richest countries
of La Plata. The soil is varied and productive ; and its
almost insular form gives it two grand lines of communication
by the rivers Parana and Uruguay.

I was delayed hei’e five days, and employed myself in
examining the geology of the surrounding country, which was
very interesting. We here see at the bottom of the cliffs,
beds containing sharks’ teeth and sea-shells of extinct species,
passing above into an indurated marl, and from that into the
red clayey earth of the Pampas, with its calcareous concretions
and the bones of terrestrial quadrupeds. This vertical section
clearly tells us of a large bay of pure salt-watei', gradually en-
croached on, and at last converted into the bed of a muddy
estuary, into which floating carcasses were swept. At Punta
Gorda, in Banda Oriental, I found an alteration of the
Pampaean estuary deposit, with a limestone containing some
of the same extinct sea-shells ; and this shows either a change
in the former cun'ents, or, more probably, an oscillation of
level in the bottom of the ancient estuary. Until lately, my
reasons for considering the Pampaean formation to be an

ST FE

12f)

estuaiy deposit were — its general appearance, its position at
the mouth of the existing great river the Plata, and the
presence of so many bones of terrestrial quadrupeds ; but now
Professor Ehrenberg has had the kindness to examine for me
a little of the red earth taken from low down in the deposit,
close to the skeletons of the mastodon, and he finds in it
many infusoria, partly salt-water, partly fresh-water forms,
with the latter rather preponderating ; and therefore, as he
remarks, the water must have been brackish. M. A. d’Orbigny
found on the banks of the Parana, at the height of a hundred
feet, great beds of an estuary shell, now living a hundred
miles lower down nearer the sea ; and I found similar shells
at a less height on the banks of the Uruguay : this shows that
just before the Pampas was slowly elevated into dry land, the
water covering it was brackish. Below Buenos Ayres there
are upraised beds of sea-shells of existing species, which also
proves that the period of elevation of the Pampas was within
the recent period.

In the Pampaean deposit at the Bajada, I found the osseous
armour of a gigantic armadillo-like animal, the inside of which,
when the earth was removed, was like a great cauldron ; I
found also teeth of the Toxodon and Mastodon, and one tooth
of a horse, in the same stained and decayed state. This latter
tooth greatly interested me,* and I took scrupulous care in
ascertaining that it had been embedded contemporaneously
with the other remains ; for I was not then aware that
amongst the fossils from Bahia Blanca there was a horse’s
tooth hidden in the matrix ; nor was it then known with
certainty that the remains of the horse are common in North
America. Mr Lyell has lately brought from the United
States a tooth of a horse ; and it is an interesting fact that
Professor Owen could find in no species, either fossil or recent,
a slight but peculiar curvature characterising it, until he
thought of comparing it wth my specimen found here : he
has named this American horse Equus cu7’videns. Certainly
it is a marvellous fact in the history of the Mammalia, that in
South America a native horse should have lived and dis-
appeared, to be succeeded in after ages bv the countless

* I need hardly state here that there is good evidence against any horse
living in America at the time of Columbus.

I

130

ST FE

herds descended from the few introduced with the Spanish
colonists !

The existence in South America of a fossil horse, of the
mastodon, possibly of an elephant,* and of a hollow-horned
ruminant, discovered by MM. Lund and Clausen in the caves
of Brazil, are highly interesting facts Avith respect to geo-
graphical distribution of animals. At the present time, if we
divide America, not by the Isthmus of Panama, but by the
southern part of Mexico t in lat. 20", where the great table-
land presents an obstacle to the migi’ation of species, by
affecting the climate, and by forming, with the exception of
some valleys and of a fringe of low land on the coast, a broad
barrier ; we shall then have the two zoological provinces of
North and South America strongly contrasted with each other.
Some few species alone have passed the barrier, and may be
considered as wanderers from the south, such as the puma,
opossum, kinkajou, and peccari. South America is character-
ised by possessing many peculiar gnawers, a family of monkeys,
the llama, peccari, tapir, opossums, and, especially, several
genera of Edentata, the order which includes the sloths, ant-
eaters, and armadilloes. North America, on the other hand,
is characterised (putting on one side a few wandering species)
by numerous peculiar gnawers, and by four genera (the ox,
sheep, goat, and antelope) of hollow-homed mminants, of
which great division South America is not known to possess
a single species. Formerly, but within the period when
most of the now existing shells were living. North America
possessed, besides hollow-horned ruminants, the elephant,
mastodon, horse, and three genera of Edentata — namely, the
Megatherium, Megalonyx, and Mylodon. Within nearly this
same period (as proved by the shells at Bahia Blanca) South
America possessed, as we have just seen, a mastodon, horse,

* Cuvier, Ossemens Fossites, tom. i. p. 158.

t This is the geographical division followed by Lichtenstein, Swainson,
Erichson, and Richardsop. The section from Vera Cruz to Acapulco, given
by Humboldt in the Polit. Essay on Kingdom of N. Spain, will show how
immense a barrier the Mexican table-land forms. Dr Richardson, in his
admirable Report on the Zoology of N. Atnerica, read before the Brit. Assoc.
1836 (p. 157), talking of the identification of a Mexican animal with the
Synetheres prehensilis, says : “ We do not know with what propriety, but if
correct, it is, if not a solitary instance, at least very nearly so, of a rodent
animal being common to North and South America.”

MYLODOX.

122.

[To face p.

Height, 7 ft. 6 in. ;girlhroundchest,6ft.6in. ; maximum breadth of pelvis, 3ft. 7 in.

ST FE

131

hollow-horned ruminant, and the same three genera (as well
as several others) of the Edentata. Hence it is evident that
North and South America, in having within a late geological
period these several genera in common, were much more
closely related in the character of their terrestrial inhabitants
than they now are. The more I reflect on this case, the more
interesting it appears : I know of no other instance where we
can almost mark the period and manner of the splitting up of
one great region into two well-characterised zoological pro-
vinces. The geologist who is fully impressed with the vast
oscillations of level which have affected the earth’s crust
•within late periods ■will not fear to speculate on the recent
elevation of the Mexican platform, or, more probably, on the
recent submergence of land in the West Indian Archipelago,
as the cause of the present zoological separation of North and
South America. The South American character of the West
Indian mammals* seems to indicate that this archipelago was
formerly united to the southern continent, and that it has
subsequently been an area of subsidence.

When America, and especially North America, possessed its
elephants, mastodons, horse, and hollow-horned ruminants, it
was much more closely related in its zoological characters to
the temperate parts of Europe and Asia than it now is. As
the remains of these genera are found on both sides of
Behring’s Straits t and on the plains of Siberia, we are led to
look to the north-western side of North America as the former
point of communication between the Old and so-called New
World. And as so many species, both living and extinct, of
these same genera inhabit, and have inhabited, the Old World,
it seems most probable that the North American elephants,
mastodons, horse, and hollow-horned ruminants migrated, on
land since submerged near Behring’s Straits, from Siberia into
North America, and thence, on land since submerged in the

* See Dr Richardson’s Report, p. 157 ; also VInsiitut, 1837, p. 253.
Cuvier says the kinkajou is found in the Larger Antilles, but this is doubtful.
M. Gervais states that the Didelphis crancrivora is found there. It is
certain that the West Indies possess some mammifers peculiar to themselves.
A tooth of a mastodon has been brought from Bahama : Edin. , New Phil.
Jotti-n., 1826, p. 395.

t See the admirable Appendix by Dr Buckland to Beechy^s Voyage ; also
the writings of Chamisso in Kotzebuds Voyage.

182

THE GREAT DROUGHT

West Indies, into South America, wiiere for a time they
mingled with the forms characteristic of that southern con-
tinent, and have since become extinct.

While travelling through the coimtry, I received several
vivid descriptions of the effects of a late great drought ; and
the account of this may throw some light on the cases where
vast numbers of animals of all kinds have been embedded
together. The period included between the years 1827 and
1832 is called the “ gran seco,” or the great drought. During
this time so little rain fell that the vegetation, even to the
thistles, failed ; the brooks were dried up, and the whole
countiy assumed the appearance of a dusty high-road. This
was especially the case in the northern part of the province of
Buenos Ayres and the southern part of St Fe. Very great
numbers of birds, wild animals, cattle, and horses perished
from the want of food and water. A man told me that the
deer* used to come into his courtyard to the well, which he
had been obliged to dig to supply his own family -with water ;
and that the partridges had hardly strength to fly away when
pursued. The lowest estimation of the loss of cattle in the
province of Buenos Ayres alone was taken at one million
head. A proprietor at San Pedro had previously to these
years 20,000 cattle ; at the end not one remained. San
Pedro is situated in the middle of the finest country ; and even
now abounds again with animals ; yet during the latter part
of the “gran seco,” live cattle were brought in vessels for the
consumption of the inhabitants. The animals roamed from
their estancias, and, wandering far southward, M'ere mingled
together in such multitudes that a government commission
was sent from Buenos Ayres to settle the disputes of the

* In Capt. Owen’s Surveying Voyage (vol. ii. p. 274) there is a curious
account of the effects of a drought on the elephants at Benguela (west 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
informs me, 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.

THE GREAT DROUGHT

1S3

owners. Sir Woodbine Parish informed me of another and
very curious source of dispute : the ground being so long dry,
such quantities of dust were blown about, that in this open
country the landmarks became obliterated, and people could
not tell the limits of their estates.

I was informed by an eye-wdtness that the cattle, in herds
of thousands, rushed into the Parana, and being exhausted
by hunger, they were unable to crawl up the muddy banks,
and thus were drowned. The arm of the river which runs
by San Pedro was so full of putrid carcasses that the master
of a vessel told me that the smell rendered it quite impass-
able. Without doubt several hundred thousand animals thus
perished in the river; their bodies when putrid were seen
floating 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 num-
bers in particular spots : for when an animal drinks of such
water it does not recover. Azara describes* the fury of the
wild horses on a similar occasion, rushing into the marshes,
those which arrived first being overwhelmed and crushed by
those which followed. He adds that more than once he has
seen the carcasses of upwards of a thousand vrild horses thus
destroyed. I noticed that the smaller streams in the Pampas
were paved with a breccia of bones, but this probably is the
effect of a gradual increase, rather than of the destruction
at any one period. Subsequently to the drought of 1827 to
1 832, a very rainy season follow'ed, which caused great floods.
Hence it is almost certain that some thousands of the
skeletons were buried by the deposits of the very next year.
^^’hat 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 swept over the surface
of the land, rather than to the common order of things } f

October \ — I had intended to push my excursion farther,

but not being quite well, I was compelled to return by a
balandra, or one-masted vessel of about a hundred tons

* Travels, vol. i. p. 374.

t These droughts, to a certain degree, seem to be almost periodical ; I
was told the dates of several others, and the intervals were about fifteen
years.

i34

HABITS OF THE JAGUAR

burden, which was bound to Buenos Ayres. As tne weather
was not fair, we moored early in the day to a branch of a tree
on one of the islands. The Parana is full of islands, which
undergo a constant round of decay and renovation. In the
memoiy of the master several large ones had disappeared, and
others again had been formed and protected by vegetation.
They are composed of muddy sand, Avithout even the smallest
})ebble, and were then about four feet above the level of the
river ; but during the periodical floods they are inundated.
They all present one character ; numerous willows and a few
other trees are bound together by a great variety of creeping
plants, thus forming thick jungle. These thickets afford a
retreat for capybaras and jaguars. The fear of the latter
animal quite destroyed all pleasure in scrambling through the
woods. This evening I had not proceeded a hundred yards
before, finding indubitable signs of the recent presence of the
tiger, I was obliged to come back. On every island there
were tracks ; and as on the former excursion “ el rastro de los
Indies ” had been the subject of conversation, so in this was
“ el rastro del tigre.”

The wooded banks of the great rivers appear to be the
favourite haunts of the jaguar; but south of the Plata, I
was told that they frequented the reeds bordering lakes :
wherever they are, they seem to require water. Their
common prey is the capybara, so that it is generally said,
where capybaras are numerous there is little danger from the
jaguar. Falconer states that near the southern side of the
mouth of the Plata there are many jaguai-s, and that they
chiefly live on fish ; this account I have heard repeated. On
the Parana they have killed many wood-cutters, and have
even entered vessels at night. There is a man now living in
the Bajada, who, coming up from below when it was dark,
was seized on the deck ; he escaped, howevei*, with the loss of
the use of one arm. When the floods drive these animals
from the islands, they are most dangerous. I was told that a
few years since a very large one found its way into a church
at St Fe ; two padres, entering one after the other, were
killed, and a third, who came to see what was the matter,
escaped with difficulty. The beast was destroyed by being
shot from a corner of the building which was unroofed.
They commit also at these times great ravages among cattle

HABIl'S OF THE JAGUAR

135

and horses. It is said tliat they kill their prey by breaking
their necks. If driven from the carcass they seldom return
to it. The Gauchos say that the jaguar, when wandering
about at night, is much tormented by the foxes yelping as
they follow him. This is a curious coincidence with the fact
which is generally affirmed of the jackals accompanying, in a
similarly officious manner, the East Indian tiger. The jaguar
is a noisy animal, roaring much by night, and especially
before bad weather.

One day, when hunting on the banks of the Uruguay, I
was shown certain trees to which these animals constantly
recur for the purpose, as it is said, of sharpening their claws.
I sa-w three well-known trees ; in front, the bark was worn
smooth, as if by the breast of the animal, and on each side
there were deep scratches, or rather grooves, extending in an
oblique line, nearly a yard in length. The scars were of
different ages. A common method of ascertaining whether a
jaguar is in the neighbourhood is to examine these trees.
I imagine this habit of the jaguar is exactly similar to one
which may any day be seen in the common cat, as with
outstretched legs and exserted claws it scrapes the leg of a
chair ; and I have heard of young fruit-trees in an orchard in
England having been thus much injured. Some such habit
must also be common to the puma, for on the bare hard soil
of Patagonia I have frequently seen scores so deep that no
other animal could have made them. The object of this
practice is, I believe, to tear off the ragged points of their
claws, and not, as the Gauchos think, to sharpen them. The
jaguar is killed, without much difficulty, by the aid of dogs
baying and driving him up a tree, where he is despatched
with bullets.

Owing to bad weather we remained two days at our
moorings. Our only amusement was catching fish for our
dinner; there were several kinds, and all good eating. A fish
called the armado ” (a Silimis) is remarkable from a harsh
grating noise which it makes when caught by hook and line,
and which can be distinctly heard when the fish is beneath
the water. This same fish has the power of firmly catching
hold of any object, such as the blade of an oar or the fishing-
line, with the strong spine both of its pectoral and dorsal fin.
In the evening the weather was quite tropical, the thermo-

136

RIO PARANA

meter standing at 79°. Numbers of fireflies were hovering
about, and the mosquitoes were very troublesome. I exposed
my hand for five minutes, and it was soon black with them ;
I do not suppose there could have been less than fifty, all
busy sucking.

October \5th. — We got under way and passed Punta Gorda,
where there is a colony of tame Indians from the province of
Missiones. We sailed rapidly down the current, but before
sunset, from a silly fear of bad weather, we brought-to in a
narrow arm of the river. I took the boat and rowed some
distance up this creek. It was very narrow, winding, and
deep ; on each side a wall thirty or forty feet high, formed by
trees entwined with creepers, gave to the canal a singularly
gloomy appearance. I here saw a very extraordinary bird,
called the Scissor-beak (Rhynchops nigra). It has short legs,
web feet, extremely long-pointed wings, and is of about the
size of a tern. The beak is flattened laterally — that is, in
a plane at right angles to that of a spoon-bill or duck. It
is as flat and elastic as an ivoxy paper-cutter, and the lower
ixiandible, differently fi’om every other bird, is an inch and a-
half longer than the upper. In a lake near Maldonado, from
which the water had been nearly drained, and which, in
consequence, swarmed with small fry, I saw several of these
birds, generally in small flocks, flying rapidly backwards and
forwards close to the surface of the lake. They kept their
bills wide open, and the lower mandible half-buried in the
water. Thus skimming the surface, they ploughed it in their
course : the water was quite smooth, and it formed a most
curious spectacle to behold a flock, each bird leaving its
naiTOw wake on the mirror-like surface. In their flight they
frequently twist about with extreme quickness, and dexter-
ously manage with their pi’ojecting lower mandible to plough
up small fish, which are secured by the upper and shorter
half of their scissor-like bills. This fact I repeatedly saw as,
like swallows, they continued to fly backwards and forwards
close before me. Occasionally, when leaving the surface of
the water, their flight was wild, ii-regulai-, and rapid ; they
then uttered loud harsh cries. When these birds are fishing,
the advantage of the long pi'imary feathers of their wings, in
keeping them dry, is very evident. When thus employed,
their forms resemble the symbol by which many artists re-

RIO PARANA

137

present marine birds. Their tails are much used in steering
their irregular course.

These birds are common far inland along the course of the
Rio Parana; it is said that they remain hei‘e during the whole
year, and breed in the marshes. During the day they rest in
flocks on the grassy plains, at some distance from the water.
Being at anchor, as I have said, in one of the deep creeks
between the islands of the Parana, as the evening drew to
a close, one of these scissor-beaks suddenly appeared. The
water was quite still, and many little fish were rising. The
bird continued for a long time to skim the surface, flying in
its wild and irregular manner up and doM'n the narrow canal,
now dark with the growing night and the shadows of the
overhanging trees. At Monte Video I observed that some
large flocks during the day remained on the mud-banks at
the head of the harbour, in the same manner as on the grassy
plains near the Parana ; and every evening they took flight
seaward. From these facts I suspect that the Rhynchops
generally fishes by night, at which time many of the lower
animals come most abundantly to the surface. M. Lesson
states that he has seen these birds opening the shells of the
inactroi buried in the sand-banks on the coast of Chile ; from
their weak bills, with the lower mandible so much projecting,
their short legs and long wings, it is very improbable that
this can be a general habit.

In our course down the Parana, I observed only three
other birds whose habits are worth mentioning. One is a
small kingfisher (Ceryle Amencand) ; it has a longer tail than
the European species, and hence does not sit in so stiff and
upright a position. Its flight, also, instead of being direct
and rapid like the course of an arrow, is weak and undulatory,
as among the soft-billed birds. It utters a low note, like the
clicking together of two small stones. A small green parrot
{Conurus miirinus), with a grey breast, appears to prefer the
tall trees on the islands to any other situation for its building-
place. A number of nests are placed so close together as to
form one great mass of sticks. These parrots always live in
flocks, and commit great ravages on the corn-fields. I was
told that near Colonia 2500 were killed in the course of one
year. A bird with a forked tail, terminated by two long
feathers (^Tyrannus mvand), and named by the Spaniards

138

RIO PARANA

scissor-tail, is very common near Buenos Ayres ; it commonly
sits on a branch of the ombu tree, near a house, and thence
takes a short flight in pursuit of insects, and returns to the
same spot. When on the wing it presents in its manner of
flight and general appearance a caricature-likeness of the
common swallow. It has the power of turning very shortly
in the air, and in so doing opens and shuts its tail, sometimes
in a horizontal or lateral and sometimes in a vertical direction,
just like a pair of scissors.

October \6th. — Some leagues below Rozario, the western
shore of the Parana is bounded by perpendicular cliffs, which
extend in a long line to below San Nicolas; hence it more
resembles a sea-coast than that of a fresh-water river. It is
a great drawback to the scenery of the Parana that, from the
soft nature of its banks, the water is very muddy. The
Uruguay, flowing through a granitic country, is much clearer;
and where the two channels unite at the head of the Plata,
the waters may for a long distance be distinguished by their
black and red colours. In the evening, the wind being not
quite fair, as usual we immediately moored, and the next day,
as it blew rather freshly, though with a favouring current,
the master was much too indolent to think of starting. At
Bajada, he was described to me as “ hombre muy aflicto ” —
a man always miserable to get on ; but certainly he bore all
delays with admirable resignation. He was an old Spaniard,
and had been many years in this country. He professed a
great liking to the English, but stoutly maintained that the
battle of Trafalgar was merely won by the Spanish captains
having been all bought over; and that the only really gallant
action on either side was performed by the Spanish admiral.
It struck me as rather characteristic, that this man should
prefer his countrymen being thought the worst of traitors,
rather than unskilful or cowardly.

October l%th and 19//*. — We continued slowly to sail down
the noble stream ; the current helped us but little. We met,
during our descent, very few vessels. One of the best gifts
of nature, in so grand a channel of communication, seems
here wilfully thrown away — a river in which ships might navi-
gate from a temperate countrj’, as surprisingly abundant in
certain productions as destitute of others, to another possessing
a tropical climate, and a soil which, according to the best of

REVOLUTION AT BUENOS AYRES

i;59

judges, M. Bonpland, is perhaps unequalled in fertility in any
jiiirt of the world. How different would have been the aspect
of this river if English colonists had by good fortune first
sailed up the Plata ! What noble towns would now have
occupied its shores ! Till the death of Francia, the Dictator of
Paraguay, these two countries must remain distinct, as if placed
on opposite sides of the globe. And when the old bloody-
minded tyrant is gone to his long account, Paraguay will be
torn by revolutions, violent in proportion to the previous
unnatm’af calm. That country will have to learn, like every
other South American state, that a republic cannot succeed
till it contains a certain body of men imbued with the prin-
ciples of justice and honour.

October 20th. — Being andved at the mouth of the Parana,
and as I M'as very anxious to reach Buenos Ayres, I went on
shore at Las Conchas, with the intention of riding there. Upon
landing I found to my great surprise that I was to a certain
degree a prisoner. A violet revolution having broken out, all
the ports were laid under an embargo. I could not return to
my vessel, and as for going by land to the city, it was out of
the question. After a long conversation with the commandant,
I obtained permission to go the next day to General Rolor,
who commanded a division of the rebels on this side the capital.
In the morning I rode to the encampment. The general,
officers, and soldiers, all appeared, and I believe really were,
great villains. The general, the very evening before he left
the city, voluntarily went to the governor, and with his hand
to his heart, pledged his word of honour that he at least would
remain faithful to the last. The general told me that the city
was in a state of close blockade, and that all he could do was
to give me a passport to the commander-in-chief of the rebels
at Quilmes. We had therefore to take a great sweep round
the city, and it was with much difficulty that we procured
horses. My reception at the encampment was quite civil, but
I was told it was quite impossible that I could be allowed to
enter the city. I was very anxious alx)ut this, as I anticipated
the Beagle’s departure from the Rio Plata earlier than it took
place. Having mentioned, however. General Rosas’ obliging
kindness to me when at the Colorado, magic itself could not
have altered circumstances quicker than did this conversation.
I was distantly told that though they could not give me a

REVOLUTION AT BUENOS AYRES

uo

passport, if I chose to leave my guide and horses, I might pass
their sentinels. I was too glad to accept of this, and an officer
was sent with me to give directions that I should not be
stopped at the bridge. The road for the space of a league
was quite deserted. I met one party of soldiers, who were
satisfied by gravely looking at an old passport ; and at length
I was not a little pleased to find myself within the city.

This revolution was supported by scarcely any pretext of
grievances ; but in a state which, in the course of nine months
(from February to October 1 820), underwent fifteen changes
in its government — each governor, according to the constitu-
tion, being elected for three years — it would be very unreason-
able to ask for pretexts. In this case a party of men — who,
being attached to Rosas, were disgusted with the Governor
Balcarce — to the number of seventy left the city, and with
the cry of Rosas the whole country took arms. The city
was then blockaded, no provisions, cattle, or horses, were
allowed to enter ; besides this, there was only a little skirmish-
ing, and a few men daily killed. The outside party well knew
that by stopping the supply of meat they would certainly be
victorious. General Rosas could not have known of this rising ;
but it appears to be quite consonant with the plans of his
party. A year ago he was elected governor, but he refused it,
unless the Sala would also confer on him extraordinary’ powers.
This was refused, and since then his pai-ty have shown that
no other governor can keep his place. The warfare on both
sides was avowedly protracted till it was possible to hear from
Rosas. A note arrived a few days after I left Buenos Ayres,
which stated that the General disapproved of peace having
been broken, but that he thought the outside party had
justice on their side. On the bare reception of this, the
governor, ministers, and pai’t of the military, to the number
of some hundreds, fled from the city. The rebels entered,
elected a new governor, and were paid for their services to the
number of 5500 men. From these proceedings, it was clear
that Rosas ultimately would become the dictator : to the term
king the people in this, as in other republics, have a particular
dislike. Since leaving South America we have heard that
Rosas has been elected with powers and for a time altogether
opposed to the constitutional principles of the republic.

CHAPTER Vin

BANDA ORIENTAL AND PATAGONIA

EXCURSION TO COLONIA DEL SACRAMIENTO VALUE OF AN ESTAN-

CIA CATTLE, HOW COUNTED SINGULAR BREED OF OXEN

PERFORATED PEBBLES SHEPHERD DOGS HORSES BROKEN-IN,

GAUCHOS RIDING CHARACTER OF INHABITANTS RIO PLATA

FLOCKS OF BUTTERFLIES AERONAUT SPIDERS PHOSPHOR-
ESCENCE OF THE SEA PORT DESIRE GUANACO PORT ST

JULIAN GEOLOGY OF PATAGONIA FOSSIL GIGANTIC ANIMAL

TYPES OF ORGANISATION CONSTANT CHANGE IN THE

ZOOLOGY OF AMERICA CAUSES OF EXTINCTION.

V^ING been delayed for nearly a fortnight in the
city, I was glad to escape on board a packet
bound for Monte Video. A town in a state of
blockade must always be a disagreeable place of
residence ; in this case, moreover, there were
constant apprehensions from robbers within. The sentinels
were the worst of all ; for, from their office and from having
arms in their hands, they robbed with a degree of authority
which other men could not imitate.

Our passage was a very long and tedious one. The Plata
looks like a noble estuary on the map ; but is in truth a poor
affair. A wide expanse of muddy water has neither grandeur
nor beauty. At one time of the day, the two shores, both of
which are extremely low, could just be distinguished from the
deck. On arriving at Monte Video I found that the Beagle
would not sail for some time, so I prepared for a short ex-
cursion in this part of Banda Oriental. Everything which I
have said about the country near Maldonado is applicable to
Monte Video ; but the land, with the one exception of the
Green Mount, 450 feet high, from which it takes its name,
is far more level. Very little of the undulating grassy plain
is enclosed ; but near the town there are a few hedge-banks,
covered vith agaves, cacti, and fennel.

141

142

BANDA ORIENTAL

Novcnihcr 14/A. — We left Monte Video in the afternoon. I
intended to proceed to Colonia del Sacramiento, situated on
the northern bank of the Plata and opposite to Buenos Ayres,
and thence, following up the Uruguay, to the village of Mer-
cedes on the Rio Negro (one of the many rivers of this name
in South America), and from this point to return direct to Monte
Video. We slept at the house of my guide at Canelones. In
the morning we rose early, in the hopes of being able to ride
a good distance ; but it was a vain attempt, for all the rivers
were flooded. We passed in boats the streams of Canelones,
St Lucia, and San Jose, and thus lost much time. On a
former excursion I crossed the Lucia near its mouth, and I
was surprised to observe how easily our horses, although not
used to swim, passed over a width of at least six hundred yards.
On mentioning this at Monte Video, I was told that a vessel
containing some mountebanks and their horses being -WTecked
in the Plata, one horse swam seven miles to the shore. In
the course of the day I was amused by the dexterity with
which a Gaucho forced a restive horse to swim a river. He
stripped off his clothes, and, jumping on its back, rode into
the water till it was out of ite depth ; then, slipping off over
the crupper, he caught hold of the tail, and as often as the
horse turned round, the man frightened it back by splashing
water in its face. As soon as the horse touched the bottom
on the other side, the man pulled himself on, and was finnly
seated, bridle in hand, before the horse gained the bank. A
naked man on a naked horse is a fine spectacle ; I had no idea
how well the two animals suited each other. The tail of
a horse is a very useful appendage ; I have passed a river in a
boat with four people in it, which was ferried across in the
same way as the Gaucho. If a man and horse have to cross a
broad river, the best plan is for the man to catch hold of the
pommel or mane, and help himself with the other arm.

We slept and stayed the following day at the post of Gufre.
In the evening the postman or letter-carrier arrived. He was
a day after his time, owing to the Rio Rozario being flooded.
It would not, however, be of much consequence ^ for although
he had passed through some of the principal towns in Banda
Oriental, his luggage consisted of two letters ! The view from
the house was pleasing ; an undulating green surface, with
<listant glimpses of the Plata. I find that I look at this pro-

BANDA ORIENTAL

US

vince M'itli very different eyes from what I did upon my first
arrival. I recollect I then thought it singularly level ; but
now, after galloping over the Pampas, my only surprise is,
what could have induced me ever to have called it level. The
country is a series of undulations, in themselves perhaps not
absolutely great, but, as compared to the plains of St Fe, real
mountains. From these inequalities there is an abundance of
small rivulets, and the turf is green and luxuriant.

November \lth. — We crossed the Rozario, which was deep
and rapid, and, passing the village of Colla, arrived at mid-day
at Colonia del Sacramiento. The distance is twenty leagues,
through a country covered with fine grass, but poorly stocked
with cattle or inhabitants. I was invited to sleep at Colonia,
and to accompany on the follo\ving day a gentleman to his
estancia, where there were some limestone rocks. The town
is built on a stony promontory, something in the same manner
as at Monte Video. It is strongly fortified, but both fortifi-
cations and town suffered much in the Brazilian war. It is
very ancient ; and the irregularity of the streets, and the
surrounding groves of old orange and peach trees, gave it a
pretty appearance. The church is a curious ruin ; it was used
as a powder-magazine, and was struck by lightning in one
of the ten thousand thunderstorms of the Rio Plata. Two-
thirds of the building were blown away to the very foundation ;
and the rest stands a shattered and curious monument of the
united powers of lightning and gunpowder. In the evening I
wandered about the half-demolished walls of the town. It was
the chief seat of the Brazilian war ; — a war most injurious to
this country, not so much in its immediate effects, as in being
the origin of a multitude of generals and all other grades of
officers. More generals are numbered (but not paid) in the
United Provinces of La Plata than in the United Kingdom of
Great Britain. These gentlemen have learned to like ])ower,
and do not object to a little skirmishing. Hence there are
many always on the watch to create disturbance, and to over-
turn a government which as yet never rested on any stable
foundation. I noticed, however, both here and in other
places, a very general interest in the ensuing election for the
President ; and this appears a good sign for the prosperity
of this little country. The inhabitants do not require much
education in their representatives ; I heard some men discus-

144.

BANDA ORIENTAL

sing the merits of those for Colonia ; and it was said that,
“ although they were not men of business, they could all sign
their names ” : with this they seemed to think every reason-
able man ought to be satisfied.

November 18//?. — Rode with my host to his estancia, at the
Arroyo de San Juan. In the evening we took a ride round
the estate : it contained two square leagues and a-half, and
was situated in what is called a rincon ; that is, one side was
fronted by the Plata, and the two others guarded by im-
passable brooks. There was an excellent port for little vessels,
and an abundance of small wood, which is valuable as supply-
ing fuel to Buenos Ayres. I was curious to know the value
of so complete an estancia. Of cattle there were 3000, and
it would well support three or four times that number ; of
mares 800, together with 150 broken-in horses, and 600 sheep.
There was plenty of water and limestone, a rough house,
excellent corrals, and a peach orchard. For all this he had
been offered £2000, and he only wanted <£500 additional, and
probably would sell it for less. The chief trouble with an
estancia is driving the cattle twice a week to a central spot, in
order to make them tame, and to count them. This latter opera-
tion would be thought difficult where there are ten or fifteen
thousand head together. It is managed on the principle that
the cattle invariably divide themselves into little troops of
from forty to one hundred. Each troop is recognised by a few
peculiarly marked animals, and its number is known : so that,
one being lost out of ten thousand, it is perceived by its
absence from one of the tropillas. During a stormy night the
cattle all mingle together ; but the next morning the tropillas
separate as before ; so that each animal must know its fellow
out of ten thousand others.

On two occasions I met with in this province some oxen
of a very curious breed, called nSta or niata. They appear
externally to hold nearly the same relation to other cattle
which bull or pug dogs do to other dogs. Their forehead is
very short and broad, with the nasal end turned up, and the
upper lip much drawn back ; their lower jaw's project beyond
the upper, and have a corresponding upward curve ; hence
their teeth are always exposed. Their nostrils are seated
high up and are very open ; their eyes project outwards,
when walking they carry their heads low, on a short neck ;

BANDA ORIENTAL

145

and their hinder legs are rather longer compared witli the
front legs than is usual. Their bare teeth, their short heads,
and upturned nostrils gave them the most ludicrous self-
confident air of defiance imaginable.

Since my return, I have procured a skeleton head, through
the kindness of my friend Cajitain Sulivan, R.N., which is
now deposited in the College of Surgeons.* Don F. Muniz,
of Luxan, has kindly collected for me all the information
which he could respecting this breed. From his account it
seems that about eighty or ninety years ago they were rare,
and kept as curiosities at Buenos Ayres. The breed is uni-
versally believed to have originated amongst the Indians
southward of the Plata, and that it was with them the com-
monest kind. Even to this day, those reared in the provinces
near the Plata show their less civilised origin, in being fiercer
than common cattle, and in the cow easily deserting her first
calf, if visited too often or molested. It is a singular fact
that an almost similar structure to the abnormalf one of the
niata breed characterises, as I am informed by Dr Falconer,
that great extinct ruminant of India, the Sivatherium. The
breed is very tme ; and a niata bull and cow invariably pro-
duce niata calves. A niata bull with a common cow, or
the reverse cross, produces offspring having an intermediate
» character, but M'ith the niata characters strongly displayed :
s according to Sehor Muniz, there is the clearest evidence,
) contrary to the common belief of agriculturists in analogous

5 cases, that the niata cow when crossed with a common bull

1 transmits her peculiarities more strongly than the niata bull
'» when crossed with a common cow. When the pasture is

d tolerably long, the niata cattle feed with the tongue and

S palate as Avell as common cattle ; but during the great
droughts, when so many animals perish, the niata breed is
t under a great disadvantage, and would be exterminated if

B not attended to ; for the common cattle, like horses, are able

e just to keep alive by browsing with their lips on twigs of

* Mr Waterhouse has drawn up a detailed description of this head,
r which I hope he will publish in some journal.

t A nearly similar abnormal, but I do not know whether hereditary,
) structure has been observed in the carp, and likewise in the crocodile of
i the Ganges; Histoire des Atiomalus, par M. Isid. Geoffroy St Hilaire,
I tom. i. p. 244.

K

146

BANDA ORIENTAL

trees and reeds ; this the niatas cannot so well do, as their
lips do not join, and hence they are found to perish before
the common cattle. This strikes me as a good illustration of
how little we are able to judge from the ordinary habits of
life on what circumstances, occurring only at long intervals,
the rarity or extinction of a species may be determined.

November \Qth. — Passing the valley of Las Vacas, we slept
at a house of a North American, who worked a lime-kiln on
the Arroyo de las Vivoras. In the morning we rode to a
jjrojecting headland on the banks of the river, called Punta
Gorda. On the way we tried to find a jaguar. There were
plenty of fresh tracks, and we visited the trees on which they
are said to sharpen their claws ; but we did not succeed in
disturbing one. From this point the Rio Uruguay presented
to our view a noble volume of water. From the clearness and
rapidity of the stream, its appearance was far superior to that
of its neighbour the Parana. On the opposite coast, several
branches from the latter river entered the Uruguay. As the
sun was shining, the two colours of the waters could be seen
quite distinctly.

In the evening we proceeded on our road towards Mercedes,
on the Rio Negro. At night we asked permission to sleep
at an estancia at which we happened to arrive. It was a very
large estate, being ten leagues square, and the owner is one
of the greatest landowners in the country. His nephew had
charge of it, and with him there was a captain in the armj',
who the other day ran away from Buenos Ayres. Considering
their station, the conversation was rather amusing. They
expressed, as was usual, unbounded astonishment at the globe
being round, and could scarcely credit that a hole would, if
deep enough, come out on the other side. They had, how-
ever, heard of a country where there were six months’ light
and six of darkness, and where the inhabitants were very tall
and thin ! They were curious about the ]>rice and condition
of horses and cattle in England. Upon finding out we did
not catch our animals with the lazo, they cried out, “ Ah,
then, you use nothing but the bolas”: the idea of an enclosed
country was quite new to them. The captain at last said he
had one question to ask me, which he should be very much
obliged if I would answer with all truth. I trembled to think

O

how deeply scientific it would be : it was, “ Whether the

BANDA ORIENTAL

14.7

ladies of Buenos Ayres were not the handsomest in tlie
world?” I replied, like a renegade, ‘'Charmingly so.” He
added, “ I have one other question : Do ladies in any other
])arts of the world wear such large combs?” I solemnly
assured him that they did not. They Avere absolutely de-
lighted. The captain exclaimed, “ Look there ! a man who
has seen half the world says it is the case; we always thought
so, but noAV we know it” My excellent judgment in combs
and beauty procured me a most hospitable reception ; the
captain forced me to take his bed, and he would sleep on his
recado.

November Slst — Started at sunrise, and rode slowly during
the whole day. The geological natime of this part of the
province was different fi'om the rest, and closely resembled
that of the Pampas. In consequence, there were immense
beds of the thistle, as well as of the cardoon : the whole
country, indeed, may be called one great bed of these plants.
The tAvo sorts groAv separate, each plant in company with its
oAvn kind. The cardoon is as high as a horse’s back, but the
Pampas thistle is often higher than the croAvn of the rider’s
head. To leave the road for a yard is out of the question ;
and the road itself is partly, and in some cases entirely, closed.
Pasture, of course, there is none ; if cattle or horses once
I enter the bed, they are for the time completely lost. Hence

i it is very hazardous to attempt to drive cattle at this season

» of the year ; for Avhen jaded enough to face the thistles, they

1 rush among them, and are seen no more. In these districts

i there are very feAv estancias, and these few are situated in the

I neighbourhood of damp valleys, Avhere fortunately neither of

4 these overwhelming plants can exist. As night came on

J before we arrived at our journey’s end, we slept at a miserable

il little hovel inhabited by the poorest people. The extreme
j though rather formal courtesy of our host and hostess, con-
i sidering their grade of life, Avas quite delightful.

November 29.nd. — Ai'rived at an estancia on the Berquelo
t belonging to a very hospitable Englishman, to whom I had a
I letter of introduction from my friend Mr Lumb. I stayed
t here three days. One morning 1 rode Avith my host to the

? Sierra del Pedro Flaco, about twenty miles up the Rio Negro.

< Nearly the Avhole country was covered Avith good though

) coarse grass, which was as high as a horse’s belly ; yet there

148

BANDA ORIENTAL

were square leagues without a single head of cattle. The
province of Banda Orientalj if well stocked, would support
an astonishing number of animals ; at present the annual
export of hides from Monte Video amounts to tliree hundred
thousand ; and the home consum^ition, from waste, is very
considerable. An estanciero told me that he often had to
send lai'ge herds of cattle a long journey to a salting establish-
ment, and that the tired beasts were frequently obliged to be
killed and skinned ; but that he could never persuade the
Gauchos to eat of them, and every evening a fresh beast was
slaughtered for their suppers ! The view of the Rio Negro
from the Sierra was more picturesque than any other which
I saw in this province. The river, broad, deep, and rapid,
wound at tire foot of a rocky precipitous cliff ; a belt of wood
followed its course, and the horizon terminated in the distant
undulations of the turf-plain.

When in this neighbourhood, I several times heard of the
Sierra de las Cuentas : a hill distant many miles to the north-
ward. The name signifies hill of beads. I was assured that
vast numbers of little round stones, of various colours, each
with a small cylindrical hole, are found there. Foianerly the
Indians used to collect them for the purpose of making neck-
laces and bracelets — a taste, I may observe, which is common
to all savage nations, as well as to the most polished. 1 did
not know what to understand from this story, but upon
mentionuig it at the Cape of Good Hope to Dr Andrew
Smith, he told me that he recollected finding on the south-
eastern coast of Africa, about one hundred miles to the east-
ward of St John’s river, some quartz crystals with their edges
blunted from attrition, and mixed with gravel on the sea-
beach. Each crystal was about five lines in diameter, and
from an inch to an inch and a-half iir length. Many of them
had a small canal extending from one extremity to the other,
perfectly cylindrical, and of a size that readily admitted a
coarse thread or a piece of fine catgut. Their colour ■was
red or dull white. The natives were acquairrted with this
structure in crystals. I have mentioned these circumstances
because, although no crysUdlised body is at pi'^sent knowir to
assume this form, it may lead some future traveller to investi-
gate the real nature of such stones.

SHEPHERD-DOGS

149

Wliile staying at this estancia, I was amused with what I
saw and heard of the shepherd-dogs of the country.* When
riding, it is a common thing to meet a large flock of sheep
guarded by one or two dogs, at the distance of some miles
from any house or man. I often wondered how so firm a
friendship had been established. The method of education
consists in separating the puppy, while very young, from the
bitch, and in accustoming it to its future companions. An
ewe is held three or four times a day for the little thing to
suck, and a nest of wool is made for it in the sheep-pen ; at
no time is it allowed to associate with other dogs, or with the
children of the family. The puppy is, moreover, generally
castrated ; so that, when grown up, it can scarcely have any
feelings in common with the rest of its kind. From this
eduoation it has no wish to leave the flock, and just as
another dog will defend its master, man, so will these the
sheep. It is amusing to observe, when approaching a flock,
how the dog immediately advances barking, and the sheep
all close in his rear, as if round the oldest ram. These dogs
are also easily taught to bring home the flock at a certain
hour in the evening. Their most troublesome fault, when
young, is their desire of playing with the sheep ; for in their
sport they sometimes gallop their poor subjects most un-
mercifully.

The shepherd-dog comes to the house every day for some
meat, and as soon as it is given him, he skulks away as if
ashamed of himself. On these occasions the house-dogs are
very tyrannical, and the least of them wall attack and pursue
the stranger. The minute, however, the latter has reached
the flock, he turns round and begins to bark, and then all the
house-dogs tfike very quickly to their heels. In a similar
manner a whole pack of the hungry wild dogs will scarcely
ever (and I was told by some never) venture to attack a flock
guarded by even one of these faithful shepherds. The whole
account appears to me a curious instance of the pliability of
the affections in the dog ; and yet, whether wild or however
educated, he has a feeling of respect or fear for those that
are fulfilling their instinct of association. For we can under-

* M. A. d’Orbigny has given nearly a similar account of these dogs,
tom. i. p. 175.

150

BANDA ORIENTAL

stand on no principle the wild dogs being driven away by the
single one with its flock, except that they consider, from some
confused notion, that the one thus associated gains power, as
if in company with its own kind. F. Cuvier has obseiwed,
that all animals that readily enter into domestication con-
sider man as a member of their own society, and thus fulfil
their instinct of association. In the above case the shepherd-
dog ranks the sheep as its fellow-brethren, and thus gains
confidence ; and the wild dogs, though knowing that the
individual sheep are not dogs, but are good to eat, yet partly
consent to this view when seeing them in a flock with a
shepherd-dog at their head.

One evening a " domidor ” (a subduer of horses) came for
the purpose of breaking-in some colts. I will describe the
preparatory steps, for I believe they have not been mentioned
by other travellers. A troop of wild young horses is driven
into the con-al, or large enclosure of stakes, and the door is
shut. We will suppose that one man alone has to catch and
mount a horse, which as yet had never felt bridle or saddle.
I conceive, except by a Gaucho, such a feat would be utterly
impracticable. The Gaucho picks out a full-grown colt ; and
as the beast rushes round the circus, he throws his lazo so as
to catch both the front legs. Instantly the horse rolls over
with a heavy shock, and whilst struggling on the ground, the
Gaucho, holding the lazo tight, makes a circle so as to catch
one of the hind legs, just beneath the fetlock, and draws
it close to the two front legs : he then hitches the lazo, so
that the three are bound together. Then sitting on the
hoi’se’s neck, he fixes a strong bridle, without a bit, to the
lower jaw : this he does by passing a nai-row thong through
the eye-holes at the end of the reins, and several times round
both jaw and tongue. The two front legs are now tied
closely together with a strong leathern thong, fastened by
a slip-knot. The lazo, which bound the three together, being
then loosed, the horse rises with difficulty. The Gaucho now
holding fast the bridle fixed to the loAver jaw, leads the
horse outside the corral. If a second man is present (other-
wise the trouble is much greater) he holds the animal’s head
whilst the first puts on the horse-cloths and saddle, and girths
the whole together. During this operation, the horse, from
dread and astonishment at thus being bound round the waist,

BANDA ORIENTAL

151

throws himself over and over on the ground, and, till beaten,
is unwilling to rise. At last, when the saddling is finished,
the poor animal can hardly breathe from fear, and is white
Avith foam and sweat. The man now prepares to mount by
pressing heavily on the stirrup, so that the horse may not lose
its balance ; and at the moment he throws his leg over the
animal’s back he pulls the slip-knot binding the front legs,
and the beast is free. Some “ domidors ” pull the knot
while the animal is lying on the ground, and, standing over
the saddle, allow him to rise beneath them. The horse, wild
with dread, gives a few most violent bounds, and then starts
oft’ at full gallop ; when quite exhausted, the man, by
patience, brings him back to the corral, where, reeking hot
and scarcely alive, the poor beast is let free. Those animals
which will not gallop away, but obstinately throw themselves
on the ground, are by far the most troublesome. This pro-
cess is tremendously severe, but in two or three trials the
horse is tamed. It is not, however, for some weeks that the
animal is ridden with the iron bit and solid ring, for it must
learn to associate the will of its rider with the feel of the
rein before the most powerful bridle can be of any service.

Animals are so abundant in these countries that humanity
and self-interest are not closely united ; therefore I fear it is
that the former is here scarcely known. One day, riding in
the Pampas with a very respectable estanciero, my horse, being
tired, lagged behind. The man often shouted to me to spur
him. When I remonstrated that it was a pity, for the horse
was quite exhausted, he cried out, “Why not? — never mind —
spur him — it is my horse.” I had then some difficuly in making
him comprehend that it was for the horse’s .sake, and not on
his account, that I did not choose to use my spurs. He
exclaimed, with a look of great surprise, “Ah, Don Carlos, que
cosa ! ” It was clear that such an idea had never before
entered his head.

The Gauchos are well known to be perfect riders. The
idea of being thrown, let the horse do what it likes, never
enters their head. Their criterion of a good rider is, a man
who can manage an untamed colt, or who, if his horse falls,
alights on his own feet, or who can perform other such
exploits. 1 have heard of a man betting that he would
throw his horse down twenty times, and that nineteen times

152

BANDA ORIENTAL

he would not fall himself. I recollect seeing a Gaucho riding
a very stubborn horse, which three times successively reared
so high as to fall backwards with great violence. The man
judged with uncommon coolness the proper moment for
slipping off, not an instant before or after the right time ; and
as soon as the horse got up, the man jumped on his back, and
at last they started at a gallojj. The Gaucho never appears
to exert any muscular force. I was one day watching a good
rider, as we were galloping along at a rapid pace, and
thought to myself, ‘‘ Surely if the horse starts, you appear so
careless on your seat, you must fall.” At this moment a male
ostrich sprang from its nest right beneath the horse’s nose :
the young colt bounded on one side like a stag; but as for the
man, all that could be said was, that he started and took
fright along with his horse.

In Chile and Peru more pains are taken with the mouth of
the horse than in La Plata, and this is evidently a conse-
quence of the more intricate nature of the country. In Chile
a horse is not considered perfectly broken till he can be
brought up standing, in the midst of his full speed, on any
particular spot, — for instance, on a cloak thrown on the
ground : or, again, he will charge a wall and, rearing, scrape
the sm’face with his hoofs. I have seen an animal bounding
with spirit, yet merely reined by forefinger and thumb,
taken at full gallop across a courtyard, and then made to
wheel round the post of a verandah with great speed, but at
so equal a distance that the rider, with outstretched arm, all
the while kept one finger rubbing the post. Then making a
demi-volte in the air, with the other arm outstretched in a
like manner, he wheeled round with astonishing force in an
opposite direction.

Such a horse is well broken ; and although this at first may
appear useless, it is far otherwise. It is only carrying that
which is daily necessary into perfection. When a bullock is
checked and caught by the lazo, it will sometimes gallop
round and round in a circle, and the horse, being alarmed at
the great strain, if not well broken, will not readily turn like
the pivot of a wheel. In consequence many men have been
killed ; for if the lazo once takes a twist round a man’s body
it will instantly, from the power of the two opposed animals,
a,lmost cut him in twain. On the same principle the races arq

BANDA ORIENTAL

153

managed ; tlie course is only tAvo or three hundred yards long,
the Avish being to have horses that can make a rapid dash.
The race-horses are trained not only to stand Avith their hoofs
touching a line, but to draAV all four feet together, so as at
the first spring to bring into play the full action of the hind-
quarters. In Chile I Avas told an anecdote, Avhich I believe
Avas true; and it offers a good illustration of the use of a Avell-
broken animal. A respectable man riding one day met two
others, one of whom was mounted on a horse which he knew
to have been stolen from himself. He challenged them ;
they ansAvered him by draAving their sabres and giving chase.
The man, on his good and fleet beast, kept just ahead : as he
passed a thick bush he Avheeled round it, and brought up Ins
liorse to a dead check. The pursuei's were obliged to shoot
on one side and ahead. Then instantly dashing on, right
behind them, he buried his knife in the back of one,
Avounded the other, recovered his horse from the dying
robber, and rode home. For these feats of horsemanship two
things are necessary: a most severe bit, like the Mameluke,
the power of which, though seldom used, the horse knows
full Avell ; and large blunt spurs, that can be applied either
as a mere touch or as an instrument of extreme pain. I con-
ceive that with English spurs, the slightest touch of which
pricks the skin, it would be impossible to break in a horse
after the South American fashion.

At an estancia near Las Vacas large numbers of mares are
Aveekly slaughtered for the sake of their hides, although
Avorth only five paper dollars, or about half-a-croAvn apiece. It
seems at first strange that it can answer to kill mares for such
a trifle ; but as it is thought ridiculous in this country ever to
break in or ride a mare, they are of no value except for
breeding. The only thing for Avhich 1 ever saw mares used
Avas to ti’ead out wheat from the ear ; for which purpose they
Avere driven round a circular enclosui’e, Avhere the wheat-
sheaves Avere strewed. The man employed for slaughtering
the mares happened to be celebrated for his dexterity with
the lazo. Standing at a distance of twelve yards from the
mouth of the corral, he has laid a wager that he Avould catch
by the legs every animal, without missing one, as it rushed
past him. There Avas another man Avho said he would enter
the coiral on foot, catch a mare, fasten her front legs

154

REMAINS OF THE TOXODON

together, drive her out, throw her down, kill, skin, and stake
the hide for dyeing (which latter is a tedious job) ; and he
engaged that he would perfonn this whole operation on
twenty- two animals in one day. Or he would kill and take
the skin off fifty in the same time. This would have been a
prodigious task, for it is considered a good day’s work to skin
and stake the hides of fifteen or sixteen animals.

November 9,6th. — I set out on my return in a direct line
for Monte Video. Having heard of some giants’ bones at
a neighbouring farm-house on the Sarandis, a small stream
entering the Rio Negro, I rode there accompanied by my
host, and purchased for the value of eighteenpence the
head of the Toxodon.* When found it was quite perfect ;
but the boys knocked out some of the teeth with stones, and
then set up the head as a mark to throw at. By a most
fortunate chance I found a perfect tooth, which exactly fitted
one of the sockets in this skull, embedded by itself on the
banks of the Rio Tercero, at the distance of about one
hundred and eighty miles fi'om this place. I found remains
of this extraordinary animal at two other places, so that it
must formerly have been common. I found here, also, some
large portions of the armour of a gigantic armadillo-like
animal, and part of the great head of a Mylodon. The bones
of this head are so fresh, that they contain, according to the
analysis by Mr T. Reeks, seven per cent, of animal matter ;
and when placed in a spirit-lamp, they bum \vith a small
flame. The number of the remains embedded in the grand
estuary deposit which foi-ms the Pampas and covers the
granitic rocks of Banda Oriental must be extraordinarily
great. I believe a straight line drawn in any direction
through the Pampas would cut through some skeleton or
bones. Besides those which I found during my short
excursions, I heard of many others, and the origin of such
names as “the stream of the animal,” “ the hill of the giant”
is obvious. At other times I heard of the marvellous property
of certain rivers, which had the power of changing small
bones into large ; or, as some maintained, the bones them-

*I must express my obligation to Mr Keane, at whose house I was
staying on the Berquelo, and to Mr Lumb at Buenos Ayres, for without
their assistance these valuable remains would never have reached England.

BANDA ORIENTAL

155

selves grew. As far as I am aware, not one of these animals
perished, as was formerly supposed, in the marshes or muddy
river-beds of the present land, but their bones have been ex-
posed by the streams intersecting the subaqueous deposit in
which they Mere originally embedded. We may conclude
that the M'hole area of the Pampas is one wide sepulchre of
these extinct gigantic quadrupeds.

By the middle of the day, on the 28th, M^e arrived at
Monte Video, having been two days and a-half on the road.
The countrj’’ for the whole May was of a very uniform
character, some parts being rather more rocky and hilly than
near the plateau. Not far from Monte Video we passed
through the village of Las Pietras, so named from some large
1‘ounded masses of syenite. Its appearance was rather pretty.
In this country a few fig-trees round a group of houses, and a
site elevated a hundred feet above the general level, ought
always to be called picturesque.

During the last six months I have had an opportunity of
seeing a little of the character of the inhabitants of these
provinces. The Gauchos, or countrymen, are very superior to
those who reside in the towns. The Gaucho is invariably
most obliging, polite, and hospitable : I did not meet with
even one instance of rudeness or inhospitality. He is modest,
both respecting himself and country, but at the same time
a spirited, bold fellow. On the other hand, many robberies
are committed, and there is much bloodshed : the habit of
constantly M'earing the knife is the chief cause of the latter.
It is lamentable to hear how many lives are lost in trifling
quarrels. In fighting, each party tries to mark the face of his
adversary by slashing his nose or eyes ; as is often attested by
deep and horrid-looking scars. Robberies are a natural con-
sequence of universal gambling, much drinking, and extreme
indolence. At Mercedes, I asked two men why they did not
M’ork. One gravely said the days M^ere too long ; the other
that he M’as too poor. The number of horses and the pro-
fusion of food are the destruction of all industry. Moreover,
there are so many feast-days ; and again, nothing can succeed
without it be begun when the moon is on the increase ; so
that half the month is lost from these two causes.

Police and justice are quite inefficient, If a man who is

156 BANDA ORIENTAL AND PATAGONIA

poor commits mm’der and is taken, he will be imprisoned,
and perhaps even shot ; but if he is rich and has friends, he
may rely on it no very severe consequence will ensue. It is
curious that the most i-espectable inhabitants of the country
invariably assist a murderer to escape ; they seem to think
that the individual sins against the Government and not
against the people. A traveller has no protection besides
his fire-arms ; and the constant habit of carrying them is the
main check to moi-e frequent i-obberies.

The character of the higher and more educated classes,
who reside in the towns, partakes, but perhaps in a lesser
degree, of the good parts of the Gaucho, but is, I fear,
stained by many vices of which he is free. Sensuality,
mockery of all religion, and the grossest corruption, are far
from uncommon. Nearly every public officer can be bribed.
The head man in the post-office sold forged government
franks. The Governor and Prime Minister openly combined
to plunder the state. Justice, when gold came into play,
was hardly expected by any one. I knew an Englishman,
who went to the Chief- Justice (he told me that, not then
understanding the ways of the place, he trembled as he
entered the room), and said, Sir, I have come to offer you
two hundred (paper) dollars (value about five pounds sterling)
if you will arrest before a certain time a man w ho has cheated
me. I know it is against the law, but my lawyer (naming
him) recommended me to take this step.” The Chief- Justice
smiled acquiescence, thanked him, and the man before night
was safe in prison. With this entire w'ant of principle in
many of the leading men, with the country full of ill-paid,
turbulent officers, the people yet hope that a democratic form
of government can succeed !

On first entering society in these countries, two or three
features strike one as particularly remarkable : the polite
and dignified manners pervading every rank of life, the
excellent taste displayed by the women in their dresses, and
the equality amongst all ranks. At the Rio Colorado some
men who kept the humblest shops used to dine with General
Rosas. A son of a major at Bahia Blanca gained his livelihood
by making paper cigars, and he wished to accompany me, as
guide or servant, to Buenos Ayres, but his father objected on
tlie score of the danger aloixe. Many officers in the army can

BANDA ORIENTAL AND PATAGONIA 167

neither read nor WTite, yet all meet in society as equals. In
Entre Rios, the Sala consisted of only six representatives. One
of them kept a common shop, and evidently was not degraded
by the office. All this is what would be expected in a new
country ; nevertheless the absence of gentlemen by profession
appears to an Englishman something strange.

When speaking of these countries, the manner in which
they have been brought up by their unnatural parent, Spain,
should always be borne in mind. On the whole, perhaps,
more credit is due for what has been done, than blame for
that which may be deficient. It is impossible to doubt but
that the extreme liberalism of these countries must ultimately
lead to good results. The very general toleration of foreign
religions, the regard paid to the means of education, the
freedom of the press, the facilities offered to all foreigners, and
especially, as I am bound to add, to every one professing the
humblest pretensions to science, should be recollected with
gratitude by those who have visited Spanish South America.

December 6th. — The Beagle sailed from the Rio Plata,
never again to enter its muddy stream. Our course was
directed to Port Desire, on the coast of Patagonia. Before
proceeding any further, I will here put together a few
observations made at sea.

Several times Avhen the ship has been some miles off the
mouth of the Plata, and at other times when off the shores of
Northern Patagonia, we have been surrounded by insects.
One evening, when Ave were about ten miles from the Bay of
San Bias, vast numbers of butterflies, in bands or flocks of
countless myriads, extended as far as the eye could range.
Even by the aid of a telescope it was not possible to see the
space free from butterflies. The seamen cried out ''it was
snoAA-ing butterflies,” and such in fact was the appearance.
More species than one Avere present, but the main part be-
longed to a kind A'ei’y similar to, but not identical with, the
common English Colias edusa. Some moths and hymenoptera
accompanied the butterflies ; and a fine beetle {Calosoma') flew
on board. Other instances are known of this beetle having
been caught far out at sea ; and this is the more remarkable,
as the great number of the Carahidae seldom or never take
wing. Tlie day had been fine and calm, and the one previous

158

AERONAUT SPIDERS

to it equally so, with light and variable airs. Hence we
cannot suppose that the insects were blown off the land, but
we must conclude that they voluntarily took flight. The
great bands of the Colias seem at first to afford an instance
like those on record of the migrations of another butterfly,
V anexsa cardui * ; but the presence of other insects makes the
case distinct, and even less intelligible. Before sunset a
strong breeze sprung up from the north, and this must have
caused tens of thousands of the butterflies and other insects
to have perished.

On another occasion, when seventeen miles off Cape
Corrientes, I had a net overboard to catch pelagic animals.
Upon drawing it up, to my surprise, I found a considerable
number of beetles in it, and although in the open sea, they
did not appear much injured by the salt water. I lost some
of the specimens, but those which I preserved belonged to
the genera Colymbeles, Hydroponis, Hydrobim (two species),
Notaphus, Cynucus, Adimonia, and Scaraboeus. At first I thought
that these insects had been blown from the shore ; but upon
reflecting that out of the eight species four were aquatic, and
two others partly so, in their habits, it appeared to me most
probable that they were floated into the sea by a small stream
which drains a lake near Cape Corrientes. On any sup-
position, it is an interesting circumstance to find live insects
swimming in the open ocean seventeen miles from the nearest
point of land. There are several accounts of insects having
been blown off the Patagonian shore. Captain Cook observed
it, as did more lately Captain King in the Adventure. The
cause probably is due to the want of shelter, both of trees and
hills, so that an insect on the wing, with an off-shore breeze,
would be very apt to be blown out to sea. The most remark-
able instance I ha\'e known of an insect being caught far
from the land was that of a large grasshopper (^Acnjdiuni),
which flew on board, when the Beagle was to windward of the
Cape de Verd Islands, and when the nearest point of land,
not directly opposed to the trade-wind, was Cape Blanco, on
the coast of Africa, tlmee hundred and seventy miles distant.!

* Lyell’s Principles of Geology, vol. iii. p. 63.

tThc flies which frequently accompany a ship for some days on its
jiassapje from harbour to harbour, wandering from the vessel, are soon lost,
and all disappear.

AERONAUT SPIDERS

159

On several occasions, when the Beagle has been wthin the
month of the Plata, the rigging has been coated with the
web of the gossamer spider. One day (November 1st, 1832)
I paid particular attention to this subject. The weather had
been fine and clear, and in the morning the air was full of
j)atches of the fiocculent Aveb, as on an autumnal day in
England. The ship was sixty miles distant from the land, in
the direction of a steady though light breeze. Vast numbers
of a small spider, about one-tenth of an inch in length, and of
a dusky red colour, wei'e attached to the webs. There must
have been, I should su})pose, some thousands on the ship.
The little spider, when first coming in contact with the
rigging, was always seated on a single thread, and not on the
fiocculent mass. This latter seems mei’ely to be produced by
the entanglement of the single threads. The spiders were
all of one species, but of both sexes, together with young ones.
These latter were distinguished by their smaller size and more
dusky colour. I will not give the description of this spider,
but merely state that it does not apj)ear to me to be included
in any of Latreille’s genera. The little aeronaut as soon as it
arrived on board was very active, running about, sometimes
letting itself fall, and then re-ascending the same thread ;
sometimes employing itself in making a small and very ir-
regular mesh in the corners between the ropes. It could run
with facility on the surfixce of water’. When disturbed, it lifted
up its front legs iir the attitude of attention. On its first
arrival it appeared very thirsty, and with exserted maxillae
drank eagerly of drops of water ; this same circumstance has
been observed by Strack ; may it not be in consequence of
the little insect having passed through a di’y and rarefied
atmosphere ? Its stock of web seemed inexhaustible. While
watching some that were suspended by a single thread, I
several times observed that the slightest breath of air bore
them away out of sight, in a horizontal line. On another
occasion (25th), under similar circumstances, I repeatedly
observed the same kind of small spider, either when placed
or having crawled on some little eminence, elevate its
abdomen, send forth a thread, and then sail away horizontally,
but with a rapidity which was quite unaccountable. I thought
I could perceive that the spider, before performing the above
preparatory steps, connected its legs together with the most

160

AERONAUT SPIDERS

delicate threads, but I am not sure whether this observation
was correct.

One day at St Fe I had a better opportunity of observing
some similar facts. A spider which was about three-tenths of
an inch in length, and which in its general appearance re-
sembled a Citigrade (therefore quite different from the gos-
samer), while standing on the summit of a post, darted forth
four or five threads fi-om its spinners. These, glittering in the
sunshine, might be compared to diverging rays of light ; they
were not, however, straight, but in undulations like films of
silk blown by the wind. They were more than a yard in length,
and diverged in an ascending direction from the orifices.
The spider then suddenly let go its hold of the post, and was
quickly borne out of sight. The day was hot and apparently
quite calm ; yet under such circumstances, the atmosphere can
never be so tranquil as not to affect a vane so delicate as the
thread of a spider’s web. If during a warm day we look
either at the shadow of any object cast on a bank, or over a
level plain at a distant landmark, the effect of an ascending
current of heated air is almost always evident : such upward
currents, it has been remarked, are also shown by the ascent of
soap-bubbles, which will not rise in an indoors room. Hence
I think there is not much difficulty in understanding the ascent
of the fine lines projected from a spider’s spinners, and after-
wards of the spider itself ; the divergence of the lines has
been attempted to be explained, I believe by Mr Murray, by
their similar electrical condition. The circumstance of spiders
of the same species, but of diffei'ent sexes and ages, being
found on several occasions at the distance of many leagues
from the land, attached in vast numbei's to the lines, renders
it probable that the habit of sailing through the air is as char-
acteristic of this tribe, as that of diving is of the Argyroneta.
We may then reject Latreille’s supposition that the gossamer
owes its origin indifferently to the young of several genera of
spiders ; although, as we have seen, the young of other
spiders do possess the power of performing aerial voyages.*
During our different passages south of the Plata, I often
towed astei’n a net made of bunting, and thus caught many

* Mr Blackwell, in his Researches in Zoology, has many excellent observa-
tions on the habits of spiders.

PHOSPHORESCENT SEA

curious animals. Of Crustacea there were many stran^re and
undescribed genera. One^ which in some respects is allied to
the Notopods (or those crabs which have their posterior legs
placed almost on their backs, for the purpose of adhering to
the under side of rocks), is very remarkable from the structure
of its hind pair of legs. The penultimate joint, instead of ter-
minating in a simple claw, ends in three bristle-like append-
ages of dissimilar lengths — the longest equalling that of the
entire leg. These claws are very thin, and are serrated with
the finest teeth, directed backwards ; their curved extremities
are flattened, and on this part five most minute cups are placed,
which seem to act in the same manner as the suckers on the
arms of the cuttle-fish. As the animal lives in the open sea,
and probably wants a place of rest, I suppose this beautiful
and most anomalous structure is adapted to take hold of float-
ing marine animals.

In deep water, far from the land, the number of living
creatuves is extremely small : south of the latitude 35°, I
never succeeded in catching anything besides some beroe,
and a few species of minute entomostracous Crustacea. In
shoaler water, at the distance of a few miles from the coast,
very many kinds of Crustacea and some other animals are
numerous, but only during the night. Between latitudes
56° and 57° south of Cape Horn, the net was put astern
several times ; it never, however, brought up anything be-
sides a few of two extremely minute species of Entomostraca.
Yet whales and seals, petrels and albatross, are exceedingly
abundant throughout this part of the ocean. It has always
been a mystery to me on what the albatross, which lives far
from the shore, can subsist : I presume that, like the condor, it
is able to fast long ; and that one good feast on the carcass
of a putrid whale lasts for a long time. The central and
intertropical parts of the Atlantic swarm with Pteropoda,
Crustacea, and Radiata, and with their devourers the flying-
[ fish, and again with their devourers the bonitos and albicores ;

I presume that the numerous lower pelagic animals feed on
I the infusoria, which are now known, from the researches of
I Ehrenberg, to abound in the open ocean ; but on what, in
j the clear blue water, do these infusoria subsist }

While sailing a little south of the Plata on one very dark
|| night, the sea presented a wonderful and most beautiful

L

162

PHOSPHORESCENT SEA

spectacle. There was a fresh breeze, and every part of the
surface, whicli during the day is seen as foam, now glowed
with a pale light. The vessel drove before her bows two
billows of liquid phosphorus, and in her wake she was
followed by a milky train. As far as the eye reached, the
crest of every wave was bright, and the sky above the
horizon, from the reflected glare of these livid flames, was
not so utterly obscure as over the vault of the heavens.

As we proceed farther southward the sea is seldom phos-
phorescent; and off Cape Horn I do not recollect more than
once having seen it so, and then it was far from being
brilliant. This circumstance probably has a close connec-
tion with the scarcity of organic beings in that part of the
ocean. After the elaborate paper* by Ehrenberg, on the
phosphorescence of the sea, it is almost superfluous on my
part to make any observations on the subject. I may, how-
ever, add that the same torn and irregular particles of gela-
tinous matter, described by Ehrenberg, seem, in the southern
as well as in the northern hemisphere, to be the common
cause of this phenomenon. The particles were so minute
as easily to pass through fine gauze ; yet many were dis-
tinctly visible by the naked eye. The water when placed
in a tumbler and agitated gave out sparks, but a small por-
tion in a watch-glass scarcely ever was luminous. Ehrenberg
states that these particles all retain a certain degree of
iiTitability. My observations, some of which were made
directly after taking up the water, gave a different result.
I may also mention, that having used the net during one
night, I allowed it to become partially dry, and having
occasion twelve hours afterwards to employ it again, I found
the whole surface sparkled as brightly as when first taken
out of the water. It does not appear probable in this case
that the particles could have remained so long alive. On
one occasion, having ke2it a jelly-fish of the genus Diana’a
till it was dead, the water in which it was placed became
luminous. When the waves scintillate with bright green
sparks, I believe it is generally owing to minute Crustacea.
But there can be no doubt that very many other pelagic
animals, when alive, are phosjjhorescent.

* An abstract is given in No. IV. of the Magazine of Zoology and Botany,

PHOSPHORESCENT SEA

163

On two occasions I have observed the sea luminous at
considerable depths beneath the surface. Near the mouth
of the Plata, some circular and oval patches, from two to
four yards in diameter, and with defined outlines, shone with
a steady but pale light ; while the surrounding water only
gave out a few spai’ks. The appearance resembled the
reflection of the moon, or some luminous body ; for the
edges were sinuous from the undulations of the surface. The
ship, which drew thirteen feet water, passed over without
cbsturbing these patches. Therefore we must suppose that
some animals were congregated together at a greater depth
than the bottom of the vessel.

Near Fernando Noronha the sea gave out light in flashes.
The appearance was very similar to that which might be
expected from a large fish moving rapidly through a luminous
fluid. To this cause the sailors attributed it ; at the time,
however, I entertained some doubts, on account of the
frequency and rapidity of the flashes. I have already re-
marked that the phenomenon is very much more common in
warm than in cold countries ; and I have sometimes imagined
that a disturbed electrical condition of the atmosphere was
most favourable to its production. Certainly I think the sea
is most luminous after a few days of more calm weather than
ordinary, during which time it has swarmed with various
animals. Observing that the water charged with gelatinous
particles is in an impure state, and that the luminous appear-
ance in all common cases is produced by the agitation of the
fluid in contact with the atmosphere, I am inclined to
consider that the phosphorescence is the result of the
decomposition of the organic particles, by which process (one
is tempted almost to call it a kind of respiration) the ocean
becomes purified.

December 23rd. — We arrived at Port Desire, situated in
lat. 47°, on the coast of Patagonia. The creek runs for
about twenty miles inland, with an irregular width. The
Beagle anchored a few miles within the entrance, in front
of the ruins of an old Spanish settlement.

The same evening I went on shore. The first landing in
any new country is very interesting, and especially when, as
in this case, the whole aspect bears the stamp of a marked

164

PORT DESIRE

and individual character. Aj the height of between two and
three hundred feet above some masses of porphyry a wide
plain extends, which is truly characteristic of Patagonia.
The surface is quite level, and is composed of well-rounded
shingle, mixed with a whitish earth. Here and there scattered
tufts of brown wiry grass are supported, and, still more rarely,
some low thorny bushes. The weather is dry and pleasant,
and the fine blue sky is but seldom obscured. When stand-
ing in the middle of one of these desert plains and looking
towards the interior, the view is generally bounded by the
escarpment of another plain, rather higher, but equally level
and desolate ; and in every other direction the horizon is
indistinct from the trembling mirage which seems to rise
from the heated sui’face.

In such a country the fate of the Spanish settlement was
soon decided : the dryness of the climate during the greater
part of the year, and the occasional hostile attacks of the
wandering Indians, compelled the colonists to desert their
half-finished buildings. The style, however, in which they
were commenced shows the strong and liberal hand of Spain
in the old time. The result of all the attempts to colonise
this side of America south of 41° has been miserable. Port
Famine expresses by its name the lingering and extreme
sufferings of several hundred wretched people, of whom one
alone survived to relate their misfortunes. At St Joseph’s
Bay, on the coast of Patagonia, a small settlement was
made ; but during one Sunday the Indians made an attack
and massacred the whole party, excepting two men, who
remained captives during many years. At the Rio Negro I
conversed with one of these men, now in extreme old age.

The zoology of Patagonia is as limited as its Flora.* On
the arid plains a few black beetles (Hderomera) might be
seen slowly crawling about, and occasionally a lizard darted

* I found here a species of cactus, described by Professor Henslow,
under the name of Opuntia Da>-winii (Magazine of Zoology and Botany^
vol. i. p. 466), which was remarkable by the irritability of the stamens,
when I inserted either a piece of stick or the end of my finger in the
flower. The segments of the perianth also closed on the pistil, but more
slowly than the stamens. Plants of this family, generally considered as
tropical, occur in North America (Zsavj and Clarke's Travels, p. 221), in
the same high latitude as here — namely, in both cases, in 47°.

GUANACO, OR WILD LLAMA

165

from side to side. Of birds we have three carrion hawks,
and in the valleys a few finches and insect-feeders. An ibis
(Theristiciis melanops — a species said to be found in Central
Africa) is not uncommon on the most desert parts : in their
stomachs I found grasshoppers, cicadae, small lizards, and
even scorpions.* At one time of the year these birds go
in flocks, at another in pairs ; their cry is very loud and
singular, like the neigliing of the guanaco.

The guanaco, or wild llama, is the characteristic quadruped
of the plains of Patagonia; it is the South American repre-
sentative of the camel of the East. It is an elegant animal
in a state of nature, with a long slender neck and fine legs.
It is very common over the whole of the temperate parts
of the contment, as far south as the islands near Cape Horn.
It generally lives in small herds of from half-a-dozen to
thirty in each ; but on the banks of the St Cruz we saw
one herd which must have contained at least five hundred.

They are generally wild and extremely wary. Mr Stokes
told me that he one day saw through a glass a herd of these
animals which evidently had been frightened, and were run-
ning away at full speed, although their distance was so great
that he could not distinguish them with his naked eye. The
sportsman frequently receives the first notice of their presence
by hearing from a long distance their peculiar shrill neighing
note of alarm. If he then looks attentively, he will probably
see the herd standing in a line on the side of some distant
hill. On approaching nearer, a few more squeals are given,
and off they set at an apparently slow, but really quick,
canter, along some naiTow beaten track to a neighbouring
hill. If, howevei-, by chajice he abruptly meets a single
animal, or several together, they will generally stand motion-
less and intently gaze at him ; then perhaps move on a few
yards, turn round, and look again. What is the cause of this
difference in their shyness ? Do they mistake a man in
the distance for their chief enemy the puma? Or does
curiosity overcome their timidity? That they are curious is
certain ; for if a person lies on the ground and plays strange
antics, such as throwing up his feet in the air, they will almost

* These insects were not uncommon beneath stones. I found one
cannibal scorpion quietly devouring another.

166

GUANACO, OR WILD LLAMA

always approach by degrees to reeonnoitre him. It was an
artifice that was repeatedly practised by our sportsmen with
success, and it had, moreover, the advantage of allowing
several shots to be fired, which were all taken as parts of the
perfonnance. On the mountains of Tierra del Fuego I have
more than once seen a guanaco, on being approached, not
only neigh and squeal, but prance and leap about in the
most ridiculous manner, apparently in defiance as a challenge.
These animals are very easily domesticated, and I have seen
some thus kept in Northern Patagonia near a house, though
not under any restraint. They are in this state very bold, and
readily attack a man by striking him from behind w ith both
knees. It is asserted that the motive for these attacks is
jealousy on account of their females. The wild guanacos,
however, have no idea of defence ; even a single dog will
seeure one of these large animals till the huntsman can come
up. In many of their habits they are like sheep in a flock.
Thus, when they see men approaching in several directions
on horseback, they soon become bewildered, and know not
which way to run. This greatly facilitates the Indian method
of hunting, for they are thus easily driven to a central point,
and are encompassed.

The guanacos readily take to the water : several times at
Port Valdos they were seen swimming from island to island.
Byron, in his voyage, says he saw them drinking salt-
water. Some of our officers likewise saw a herd apparently
drinking the briny fluid from a salina near Cape Blaneo.
I imagine in sevei'al parts of the countiy, if they do not
drink salt-watei’, they drink none at all. In the middle of
the day they frequently roll in the dust, in saucer-shaped
hollows. The males fight together ; two one day passed
quite close to me, squealing and trying to bite each other ;
and several were shot with their hides deeply scored. Herds
sometimes appear to set out on exploring parties ; at Bahia
Blanca, where, within thirty miles of the coast, these animals
are extremely unfrequent, I one day saw the tracks of thirty
or forty, which had come in a direct line to a muddy salt-
water creek. They then must have perceived that they were
approaching the sea, for they had wheeled with the regularity
of cavalry, and had returned back in as straight a line as
they had advanced. The guanacos have one singular habit.

GUANACO, Oil WILD LLAMA

167

which is to me quite inexplicable ; namely, that on successive
days they drop their dung in the same defined heap. I saw
one of these heaps which was eight feet in diameter, and
was composed of a large quantity. This habit, according to
M. A. d’Orbigny, is common to all the species of the genus ;
it is very useful to the Peruvian Indians, who use the dung
for fuel, and are thus saved the trouble of collecting it.

The guanacos appear to have favourite spots for l^dng dovni
to die. On the banks of the St Cruz, in certain circumscribed
spaces, which were generally bushy and all near the river, the
ground was actually white with bones. On one such spot I
counted between ten and twenty heads. I particularly ex-
amined the bones ; they did not appear, as some scattered
ones which I had seen, gnawed or broken, as if dragged
together by beasts of prey. The animals in most cases must
have crawled, before d)ing, beneath and amongst the bushes.
Mr Bynoe informs me that during a former voyage he ob-
served the same circumstance on the banks of the Rio
Gallegos. I do not at all understand the reason of this,
but I may observe that the wounded guanacos at the St Cruz
invariably walked towards the river. At St Jago in the Cape
de Verd Islands, I remember having seen in a ravine a retired
comer covered with bones of the goat ; we at the time ex-
claimed that it was the burial-ground of all the goats in the
island. I mention these trifling circumstances, because in
certain cases they might explain the occurrence of a number
of uninjured bones in a cave, or buried under alluvial accumu-
lations ; and likewise the cause why certain animals are more
commonly embedded than others in sedimentary deposits.

One day the yawl was sent under the command of Mr
Chaffers, with three days’ provisions, to sun'ey the upper part
of the harbour. In the morning we searched for some water-
ing-places mentioned in an old Spanish chart. We found one
creek, at the head of which there was a trickling rill (the first
we had seen) of brackish water. Here the tide compelled us
to wait several hours ; and in the interval I walked some
miles into the interior. The plain, as usual, consisted of
gravel, mingled with soil resembling chalk in appearance, but
very different from it in nature. From the softness of these
materials, it was worn into many gulleys. There was not a
tree, and, excepting the guanaco, which stood on the hill-top

16'8

GUANACO, OR WILD LLAMA

a watchful sentinel over its herd^ scarcely an animal or a bird.
All was stillness and desolation. Yet in passing over these
scenes, without one bright object near, an ill-defined but
strong sense of pleasure is vividly excited. One asked how'
many ages the plain had thus lasted, and how many more it
was doomed thus to continue.

“ None can reply — all seems eternal now.

The wilderness has a mysterious tongue,

Which teaches awful doubt.” *

In the evening we sailed a few' miles farther up, and then
pitched the tents for the night. By the middle of the next
day the yawl was aground, and, from the shoalness of the water,
could not proceed any higher. The water being found partly
fresh, Mr Chaffers took the dingey and went up tw'o or three
miles farther, where she also grounded, but in a fresh-w'ater
river. The water was muddy, and though the stream was
most insignificant in size, it would be difficult to account for
its origin, except from the melting snow on the Cordillera.
At the spot where we bivouacked, we were surrounded by
bold cliffs and steep pinnacles of porphyry. I do not think I
ever saw a spot which appeared more secluded from the rest
of the world than this rocky crevice in the wild plain.

The second day after our return to the anchorage a party
of officers and myself went to ransack an old Indian grave,
which I had found on the summit of a neighbouring hill.
Two immense stones, each probably weighing at least a
couple of tons, had been placed in front of a ledge of rock
about six feet high. At the bottom of the grave, on the hard
rock, there was a layer of earth about a foot deep, which must
have been brought up from the plain below. Above it a
pavement of flat stones was placed, on which others were
piled so as to fill up the space between the ledge and the
two great blocks. To complete the grave, the Indians had
contrived to detach from the ledge a huge fragment, and to
throw it over the pile so as to rest on the two blocks. We
undermined the grave on both sides, but could not find any
relics, or even bones. The latter probably had decayed long
since (in which case the grave must have been of extreme

* Shelley, lines on Mont Blanc.

PORT ST JULIAN

169

antiquity), for I found in another place some smaller heaps,
beneath which a very few crumbling fragments could yet be
distinguished as having belonged to a man. Falconer states,
that wliere an Indian dies he is buried, but that subsequently
his bones are carefully taken up and carried, let the distance
be ever so great, to be deposited near the sea-coast. This
custom, I think, may be accounted for by recollecting, that
before the introduction of horses, these Indians must have led
nearly the same life as the Fuegians now do, and therefore
generally have resided in the neighbourhood of the sea.
The common prejudice of lying where one’s ancestors have
lain, would make the now roaming Indians bring the less
perishable part of their dead to their ancient burial-ground on
the coast.

January QJh 1834. — Before it was dark the Beagle anchored
in the fine spacious harbour of Port St Julian, situated about
one hundred and ten miles to the south of Port Desire. We
remained here eight days. The country is nearly similar to
that of Port Desire, but perhaps rather more sterile. One
day a pai'ty accompanied Captain Fitz Roy on a long walk
round the head of the harbour. We were eleven hours
without tasting any water, and some of the pai'ty were quite
exhausted. From the summit of a hill (since well named
Thirsty Hill) a fine lake was spied, and two of the party pro-
ceeded with concerted signals to show whether it was fresh
water. What was our disappointment to find a snow-white
expanse of salt, crystallised in great cubes 1 We attributed
our extreme thirst to the dryness of the atmosphere ; but
whatever the cause might be, we were exceedingly glad late
in the evening to get back to the boats. Although we could
nowhere find, during our whole visit, a single drop of fresh
water, yet some must exist ; for by an odd chance I found on
the surface of the salt water, near the head of the bay, a
Colymbetes not quite dead, which must have lived in some
not far distant pool. Three other insects (a Cincindella, like
hijbrida, a Cymindis, and a Harpalus, which all live on muddy
flats, occasionally overflowed by the sea), and one other found
dead on the plain, complete the list of the beetles. A good-
sized fly {Tabanus) was extremely numerous, and tormented
us by its painful bite. The common horse-fly, which is so
troublesome in the shady lanes of England, belongs to this

J70

GEOLOGY OF PATAGONIA

same genus. We here have the puzzle that so frequently
occurs in the case of mosquitoes — on the blood of what animals
do these insects commonly feed ? The guanaco is nearly the
only warm-blooded quadruped, and it is found in quite incon-
siderable numbers compared with the multitude of flies.

The geology of Patagonia is interesting. Differently from
Europe, where the tertiary formations appear to have aceumu-
lated in bays, here along hundreds of miles of coast we have
one great deposit, including many tertiary shells, all appar-
ently extinet. The most common shell is a massive gigantic
oyster, sometimes even a foot in diameter. These beds are
covered by others of a peculiar soft white stone, including
much gypsum, and resembling chalk, but really of a pumi-
ceous nature. It is highly remarkable, from being composed,
to at least one-tenth part of its bulk, of infusoria : Professor
Ehrenberg has already ascertained in it thirty oceanic forms.
This bed extends for 500 miles along the coast, and probably
for a considerably greater distance. At Port St Julian its
thickness is more than 800 feet ! These white beds are
everywhere capped by a mass of gi’avel, forming probably one
of the largest beds of shingle in the world : it certainly
extends from near the Rio Colorado to between 600 and 700
nautical miles southward : at Santa Cruz (a river a little south
of St Julian), it reaches to the foot of the Cordillera; half-way
up the river, its thickness is more than 200 feet ; it probably
everywhere extends to this gi'eat chain, whence the well-
rounded pebbles of porphyry have been derived ; we may
consider its average breadth as 200 miles, and its average
thickness as about 50 feet. If this great bed of pebbles,
without including the mud necessarily derived from their
attrition, was piled into a mound, it would form a great
mountain chain ! When we consider that all these pebbles,
countless as the grains of sand in the desert, have been
derived from the slow falling of masses of rock on the old
coast-lines and banks of rivers ; and that these fragments
have been dashed into smaller pieces, and that each of them
has since been slowly rolled, rounded, and far transported,
the mind is stupefied in thinking over the long, absolutely
necessary, lapse of years. Yet all this gravel has been
transported, and probably rounded, subsequently to the

GEOLOGY OE PATAGONIA

171

deposition of the white beds, and long subsequently to the
underlying beds with the tertiary shells.

Eveiything in this southern continent has been effected on
a grand scale : the land, from the Rio Plata to Tierra del
Fuego, a distance of 1200 miles, has been raised in mass (and
in Patagonia to a height of between 300 and 400 feet), within
the period of the now existing sea-shells. The old and
w'eathered shells left on the surface of the upraised plain still
partially retain their colours. The uprising movement has
been interrupted by at least eight long periods of rest, during
which the sea ate deeply back into the land, forming at suc-
cessive levels the long lines of cliffs or escarpments which
separate the different plains as they rise like steps one behind
the other. The elevatory movement, and the eating-back
power of the sea during the periods of rest, have been equable
over long lines of coast ; for I was astonished to find that the
step-like plains stand at nearly corresponding heights at faf
distant points. The lowest plain is 90 feet high ; and the
highest, which I ascended near the coast, is 950 feet ; and of
this only relics are left in the form of flat gravel-capped hills.
The upper plain of Santa Cruz slopes up to a height of 3000
feet at the foot of the Cordillera. I have said that within the
period of existing sea-shells Patagonia has been upraised 300
to 400 feet : I may add that, within the period when icebergs
transported boulders over the upper plain of Santa Cniz, the
elevation has been at least 1500 feet. Nor has Patagonia
been affected only by upward movements : the extinct tertiary
shells from Port St Julian and Santa Cruz cannot have lived,
according to Professor E. Forbes, in a greater depth of water
than from 40 to 250 feet ; but they are now covered with sea-
deposited strata from 800 to 1000 feet in thickness: hence
the bed of the sea, on which these shells once lived, must
have sunk downwards sevei'al hundred feet, to allow of the
accumulation of the superincumbent strata. What a history
of geological changes does the simply-constructed coast of
Patagonia reveal !

At Port St Julian,* in some red mud capping the gravel on

* I have lately heard that Captain Sulivan, R.N., has found numerous
fossil bones, embedded in regular strata, on the banks of the R. Gallegos,
in lat. 52® 4'. Some of the bones are large ; others are small, and appear
to have belonged to an armadillo. This is a most interesting and important
discovery.

172

ZOOLOGICAL CHANGES

the 90-feet plain, I found half the skeleton of the Macrau-
clienia Patachonica, a remarkable quadruped, full as large as a
camel. It belongs to the same division of the Pachydermata
with the rhinoceros, tapir, and palaeotherium ; but in the
structure of the bones of its long neck it shows a clear
relation to the camel, or rather to the guanaco or llama.
From recent sea-shells being found on two of the higher
step-formed plains, which must have been modelled and
upraised before the mud was deposited in which the Mac-
rauchenia was entombed, it is certain that this curious
quadruped lived long after the sea was inhabited by its
present shells. I was at first much surprised how a large
quadruped could so lately have subsisted, in lat. 49° 15',
on these wretched gravel plains with their stunted vegeta-
tion ; but the relationship of the Macrauchenia to the guanaco,
now an inhabitant of the most sterile parts, partly explains
this difficulty.

The relationship, though distant, between the Macrau-
chenia and the guanaco, between the Toxodon and the
capybara, — the closer relationship between the many extinct
Edentata and the living, sloths, ant-eaters, and armadilloes,
now so eminently characteristic of South American zoology, —
and the still closer relationship between the fossil and living
species of Ctenomys and Hydrocha;rus, are most interesting
facts. This relationship is shown wonderfully — as wonder-
fully as between the fossil and extinct marsupial animals of
Australia — by the great collection lately brought to Europe
from the caves of Brazil by MM. Lund and Clausen. In this
collection there are extinct species of all the thirty-two
genera, excepting four, of the terrestrial quadrupeds now
inhabiting the provinces in which the caves occur ; and the
extinct species are much more numerous than those now
living: there are fossil ant-eaters, armadilloes, tapirs, peccaries,
guanacos, opossums, and numerous South American gnawers
and monkeys, and other animals. This wonderful relationship
in the same continent between the dead and the living will,
I do not doubt, hereafter throw more light on the appearance
of organic beings on our earth, and their disappearance from
it, than any other class of facts.

It is impossible to reflect on the changed state of the
American continent without the deepe.st astonishment.

ZOOLOGICAL CHANGES

173

Formerly it must have swannecl with great monsters : now
we find mere pigmies^ compared with the antecedent, allied
races. If Buftbn had known of the gigantic sloth and
armadillo - like animals, and of the lost Pachydertnala, he
might have said with a greater semblance of truth that
the creative force in America had lost its powei-j^ rather
than that it had never possessed great vigour. The greater
number, if not all, of these extinct quadrupeds lived at a
late period, and were the contemporaries of most of the
existing sea-shells. Since they lived, no very great change
in the form of the land can have taken place. What,
then, has exterminated so many species and whole genera.?
The mind at first is irresistibly hurried into the belief of
some great catastrophe ; but thus to destroy animals, both
large and small, in Southern Patagonia, in Brazil, on the
Cordillera of Peru, in North America up to Behring’s
Straits, we must shake the entire framework of the globe.
An examination, moreover, of the geology of La Plata and
Patagonia leads to the belief that all the features of the
land result from slow and gradual changes. It appears
from the character of the fossils in Europe, Asia, Australia,
and in North and South America that those conditions
which favour the life of the larger quadrupeds were lately
co-extensive with the world : what those conditions were,
no one has yet even conjectured. It could hardly have
been a change of temperature, which at about the same
time destroyed the inhabitants of tropical, temperate, and
arctic latitudes on both sides of the globe. In North
America we positively know from Mr Lyell that the large
quadrupeds lived subsequently to that period when boulders
were brought into latitudes at which icebergs now never
arrive : from conclusive but indirect reasons we may feel
sure that in the southern hemisphere the Macrauchenia,
also, lived long subsequently to the ice-transporting boulder-
period. Did man, after his first inroad into South America,
destroy, as has been suggested, the unwieldy Megatherium
and the other Edentata} We must at least look to some
other cause for the destruction of the little tucutuco at
Bahia Blanca, and of the many fossil mice and other small
quadrupeds in Brazil. No one will imagine that a drought,
even far severer than those which cause such losses in the

174.

ZOOLOGICAL CHANGES

provinces of La Plata, could destroy every individual of
every species from Southern Patagonia to Behring’s Straits.
Wliat shall we say of the extinction of the horse ? Did
those plains fail of pasture, which have since been overrun
by thousands and hundreds of thousands of the descendants
of the stock introduced by the Spaniards? Have the sub-
sequently introduced species consumed the food of the
great antecedent races? Can we believe that the capybara
has taken the food of the Toxodon, the guanaco of the
Macrauchenia, the existing small Edentata of their numer-
ous gigantic prototypes ? Certainly, no fact in the long
history of the world is so startling as the wide and re-
peated exterminations of its inhabitants.

Nevertheless, if we consider the subject under another
point of view, it will appear less perplexing. We do not
steadily bear in mind, how profoundly ignorant we are of
the conditions of existence of every animal ; nor do we
always remember that some check is constantly prevent-
ing the too rapid increase of eveiy organised being left in
a state of nature. The supply of food, on an average, re-
mains constant ; yet the tendency in every animal to in-
crease by propagation is geometrical ; and its surprising
effects have nowhere been more astonishingly shown than
in the case of the European animals run wild during the
last few centuries in America. Every animal in a state of
nature regularly breeds ; yet in a species long established,
any great increase in numbers is obviously impossible, and
must be checked by some means. We are, nevertheless,
seldom able with certainty to tell in any given species,
at what period of life, or at what period of the year, or
whether only at long intervals, the check falls ; or, again,
what is the precise nature of the check. Hence prob-
ably it is that we feel so little surprise at one of two
species closely allied in habits being rare and the other
abundant in the same district ; or, again, that one
should be abundant in one district, and another, filling
the same place in the economy of nature, should be abun-
dant in a neighbouring district, differing very little in its
conditions. If asked how this is, one immediately replies
that it is determined by some slight difference in climate,
food, or the number of enemies : yet how rarely, if ever,

ZOOLOGICAL CHANGES

175

we can point out the precise cause and manner of action
of the check ! We are, therefore, driven to the conclusion
that causes generally quite inappreciable by us determine
whether a given species shall be abundant or scanty in
numbers.

In the cases where we can trace the extinction of a
species through man, either wholly or in one limited dis-
trict, we know that it becomes rarer and rarer, and is
then lost : it would be difficult to point out any just dis-
tinction* between a species destroyed by man or by the
increase of its natural enemies. The evidence of rarity
preceding extinction is more striking in the successive
tertiary strata, as remarked by several able observers ; it
has often been found that a shell very common in a tertiary
stratum is now most rare, and has even long been thought
to be extinct. If then, as appears probable, species first
become rare and then extinct — if the too rapid increase of
every species, even the most favoured, is steadily checked,
as we must admit, though how and when it is hard to say
— and if we see, without the smallest surprise, though
unable to assign the precise reason, one species abundant
and another closely-allied species rare in the same district
— why should we feel such great astonishment at the
rarity being carried a step farther to extinction ? An
action going on, on every side of us, and yet barely
appreciable, might surely be carried a little farther, with-
out exciting our observation. Who would feel any great
surprise at hearing that the Megalonyx was formerly rare
compared with the Megatherium, or that one of the fossil
monkeys was few in number compared with one of the
now living monkeys ? and yet, in this comparative rarity,
we should have the plainest evidence of less favourable
I conditions for their existence. To admit that species gener-
ally become rare before they become extinct — to feel no
surprise at the comparative rarity of one species with
I another, and yet to call in some extraordinary agent and
' to marvel greatly when a species ceases to exist, appears

* See the excellent remarks on this subject by Mr Lyell, in his
I Principles of Geology.

176

ZOOLOGICAL CHAxNGES

to me much the same as to admit that sickness in the
individual is the prelude to death — to feel no surprise at
sickness — but when the sick man dies, to wonder, and
to believe that he died through violenee.

CHAPTER IX

SANTA CRUZ, PATAGONIA, AND THE FALKLAND

ISLANDS

SANTA CRUZ EXPEDITION UP THE RIVER INDIANS IMMENSE

STREAMS OF BASALTIC LAVA FRAGMENTS NOT TRANSPORTED

BY THE RIVER EXCAVATION OF THE VALLEY CONDOR,

HABITS OF CORDILLERA ERRATIC BOULDERS OF GREAT

SIZE INDIAN RELICS RETURN TO THE SHIP FALKLAND

ISLANDS WILD HORSES, CATTLE, RABBITS WOLF-LIKE FOX

FIRE MADE OF BONES MANNER OF HUNTING WILD

CATTLE GEOLOGY STREAMS OF STONES SCENES OF

VIOLENCE PENGUIN GEESE EGGS OF DORIS COMPOUND

ANIMALS.

\PRIL 13th, 1834. — The Beagle anchored within
the mouth of the Santa Cruz. This river is
situated about sixty miles south of Port St
Julian. During the last voyage. Captain Stokes
proceeded thirty miles up it, but then, from
the want of provisions, was obliged to return. Excepting
what was discovered at that time, scarcely anything was
known about this large I’iver. Captain Fitz Roy now de-
termined to follow its coui'se as far as time v/ould allow.
On the 18th three whale-boats started, carrying three
weeks’ provisions ; and the party consisted of twenty -five
souls- — a force which would have been sufficient to have
defied a host of Indians. With a strong flood-tide and a
fine day we made a good run, soon drank some of the
fresh water, and were at night nearly above the tidal
influence.

The river here assumed a size and appearance which,
even at the highest point we ultimately reached, was
scarcely diminished It was generally from thi'ee to four

177

M

i78

SANTA CRUZ, PATAGONIA

Inindred yards broad, and in the middle about seventeen
feet deep. The rapidity of the current, which in its whole
course runs at the rate of from four to six knots an hour,
is perhaps its most remarkable feature. The water is of
a fine blue colour, but with a slight milky tinge, and not
so transparent as at first sight would have been expected.
It flows over a bed of pebbles, like those which compose
the beach and the surrounding plains. It runs in a wind-
ing course through a valley, which extends in a direct line
westward. This valley varies from five to ten miles in
breadth ; it is bounded by step-formed terraces, which rise
in most parts, one above the other, to the height of five
hundred feet, and have on the opposite sides a remark-
able correspondence.

April \Qth. — Again.st so strong a current it was, of course,
quite impossible to row or sail ; consequently the three
boats were fastened together head and stern, two hands
left in each, and the rest came on shore to track. As the
general arrangements made by Captain Fitz Roy were very
good for facilitating the work of all, and as all had a share
in it, 1 will desci-ibe the system. The party, including
every one, was divided into two spells, each of which
hauled at the tracking line alternately for an hour and a
half. The officers of each boat lived wuth, ate the same
food, and slept in the same tent with their crew, so that
each boat was quite independent of the others. After sun-
set the first level spot where any bushes were growing,
was chosen for our night’s lodging. Each of the crew
took it in turns to be cook. Immediately the boat was
hauled up, the cook made his fire ; two others pitched the
tent ; the coxswain handed the things out of the boat ;
the rest carried them up to the tents and collected fire-
wood. By this order, in half - an - hour everything was
ready for the night. A watch of two men and an officer
was always kept, whose duty it was to look after the boats,
keep up the fire, and guard against Indians. Each in the
party had his one hour every night.

During this day we tracked but a short distance, for
there were many islets, covei'ed by thorny bushes, and
the channels between them were shallow.

April QOlh. — We passed the islands and set to work. Our

SANTA CRUZ, PATAGONIA

179

regular day’s march, altliough it was hard enough, carried
us on an average only ten miles in a straight line, and
perhaps fifteen or twenty altogether. Beyond the place
where we slept last night, the country is completely terra
incognita, for it was there that Captain Stokes turned back.
We saw in the distance a great smoke, and found the
skeleton of a horse, so we knew that Indians were in the
neighbourhood. On the next morning (21st) tracks of a
party of horse, and marks left by the trailing of the chuzos,
or long spears, were observed on the ground. It was gener-
ally thought that the Indians had reconnoitred us during
the night. Shortly afterwards we came to a spot where,
from the fresh footsteps of men, children, and horses, it
was evident that the party had crossed the river.

April 22vd. — The country remained the same, and was
extremely uninteresting. The complete similarity of the
productions throughout Patagonia is one of its most striking
characters. The level plains of arid shingle support the
same stunted and dwarf plants ; and in the valleys the
same thorn-bearing bushes grow. Everywhere we see the
same birds and insects. Even the very banks of the river,
and of the clear streamlets which entered it, were scarcely
enlivened by a brighter tint of green. The curse of sterility
is on the land, and the water flowing over a bed of pebbles
partakes of the same curse. Hence the number of water-
fowl is very scanty ; for there is nothing to support life
in the stream of this barren river.

Patagonia, poor as she is in some respects, can, however,
boast of a greater stock of small rodents * than perhaps any
other country in the world. Several species of mice are ex-
ternally characterised by large thin ears and a very fine fur.
These little animals swarm amongst the thickets in the valleys,
where they cannot for months together taste a drop of water
! excepting the dew. They all seem to be cannibals ; for no
I sooner was a mouse caught in one of my traps than it was de-
\ voured by others. A small and delicately-shaped fox, which is
I likewise very abundant, probably derives its entire support from

J * The deserts of Syria are characterised, according to Volney (tom. i.

ip. 35i)> by woody bushes, numerous rats, gazelles, and hares. In the land-
scape of Patagonia the guanaco replaces the gazelle, and the agouti the
hare.

180

SANTA CRUZ, PATAGONIA

these small animals. The guanaco is also in its proper district ;
herds of fifty or a hundred were common ; and, as I have
stated, we saw one which must have contained at least five
hundred. The puma, with the condor and other carrion-
hawks in its train, follows and preys upon these animals.
The footsteps of the puma were to be seen almost every-
where on the banks of the river ; and the remains of several
guanacos, with their necks dislocated and bones broken,
showed how they had met their death.

April ZMh. — Like the navigators of old when approaching
an unknown land, we examined and watched for the most
trivial sign of a change. The drifted trunk of a tree, or a
boulder of primitive rock, was hailed with joy, as if we had
seen a forest growing on the flanks of the Cordillera. The
top, however, of a heavy bank of clouds, which remained
almost constantly in one position, was the most j^romising sign,
and eventually turned out a true harbinger. At first the
clouds were mistaken for the mountains themselves, instead of
the masses of vapour condensed by their icy summits.

April 9,6th. — We this day met with a marked change in the
geological structure of the plains. From the first starting I
had carefully examined the gravel in the river, and for the
last two days had noticed the presence of a few small pebbles
of a very cellular basalt. These gradually increased in number
and in size, but none were as large as a man’s head. This
morning, however, pebbles of the same rock, but more com-
pact, suddenly became abundant, and in the course of half-an-
hour we saw, at the distance of five or six miles, the angular
edge of a great basaltic platform. When we arrived at its base
we found the stream bubbling among the fallen blocks. For
the next twenty-eight miles the river-course was encumbered
with these basaltic masses. Above that limit immense frag-
ments of primitive rocks, derived from the surrounding
boulder-formation, were equally numerous. None of the frag-
ments of any considerable size had been washed more than
three or four miles down the river below their parent source :
considering the singular rapidity of the great body of water
in the Santa Cruz, and that no still reaches occur in any part,
this example is a most striking one of the inefficiency of
rivers in transporting even moderately-sized fragments.

The basalt is only lava, which has flowed beneath the sea ;

SANTA CRUZ, PATAGONIA

181

but the eruptions must have been on the grandest scale. At
the point where we first met this formation it was one hun-
dred and twenty feet in thickness ; following up the river
course, the surface imperceptibly rose and the mass became
thicker, so that at forty miles above the first station it was
three hundred and twenty feet thick. What the thickness
may be close to the Cordillera, I have no means of knowing,
but the platform there attains a height of about three
thousand feet above the level of the sea : we must therefore
look to the mountains of that great chain for its source ; and
worthy of such a source are sti-eams that have flowed over the
gently inclined bed of the sea to a distance of one hundred
miles. At the first glance of the basaltic cliffs on the opposite
sides of the valley, it was evident that the strata once were
united. What power, then, has removed along a whole line
of country a solid mass of very hard rock, w'hich had an aver-
age thickness of nearly three hundred feet, and a breadth
varying from rather less than two miles to four miles ? The
river, though it has so little power in transporting even incon-
siderable fragments, yet in the lapse of ages might produce
by its gradual erosion an effect of which it is difficult to judge
the amount. But in this case, independently of the insignifi-
cance of such an agency, good reasons can be assigned for be-
lieving that this valley Avas formerly occupied by an arm of
the sea. It is needless in this work to detail the arguments
leading to this conclusion, derived from the form and the
nature of the step-formed terraces on both sides of the valley,
from the manner in which the bottom of the valley near the
Andes expands into a great estuary-like plain with sand-
hillocks on it, and from the occurrence of a few sea-shells
lying in the bed of the river. If I had space I could prove
t that South America was formerly here cut off by a strait, join-

i ing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, like that of Magellan.

I But it may yet be asked, Hoav has the solid basalt been
1 removed Geologists formerly would have brought into play
! the violent action of some ovenAffielming debacle ; but in this
: case such a supposition would have been quite inadmissible ;

j because the same step-like plains, with existing sea-shells lying
C on their surface, which front the long line of the Patagonian

i coast, sweep up on each side of the valley of Santa Cruz. No
possible action of any flood could thus have modelled the land^

183

THE CONDOR

either within the valley or along the open coast ; and by
the formation of such step-like plains or terraces the valley
itself has been hollowed out. Although we know that there
are tides, which run within the Narrows of the Strait of Ma-
gellan at the rate of eight knots an hour, yet we must confess
that it makes the head almost giddy to reflect on the number
of years, century after century, which the tides, unaided by a
heavy surf, must have required to have corroded so vast an
area and thickness of solid basaltic lava. Nevertheless, we
must believe that the strata, undermined by the waters of this
ancient strait, were bi-oken up into huge fragments, and these
lying scattered on the beach, were reduced first to smaller
blocks, then to pebbles, and lastly to the most impalpable
mud, which the tides drifted far into the Eastern or Western
Ocean.

With the change in the geological structure of the plains
the character of the landscape likewise altered. While
rambling up some of the narrow and rocky defiles, I could
almost have fancied myself transported back again to the
barren valleys of the island of St Jago. Among the basaltic
cliffs I found some plants which I had seen nowhere else,
but others I recognised as being wanderers from Tierra del
Fuego. These porous rocks serve as a reservoir for the scanty
rain-water ; and consequently on the line where the igneous
and sedimentary formations unite, some small springs (most
rare occurrences in Patagonia) burst forth ; and they could
be distinguished at a distance by the circumscribed patches
of bright green herbage.

April — -The bed of the river became rather narrower,

and hence the stream more rapid. It here ran at the rate of
six knots an hour. From this cause, and from the many
great angular fragments, tracking the boats became both
dangerous and laborious.

This day I shot a condor. It measured from tip to tip of
the wings eight and a half feet, and from beak to tail four
feet. This bird is known to have a wide geographical i-ange,
being found on the west coast of South America, from the
Strait of Magellan along the Cordillera as far as eight degrees
north of the equator. The steep cliff near the mouth of the
Rio Negro is its northern limit on the Patagonian coast ; and

BASALTIC GLEN, RIO NEGRO. \^To face p. 172.

THE CONDOR

183

they have there wandered about four hundred miles from the
great central line of their habitation in the Andes. Farther
south, among the bold precipices at the head of Port Desire,
the condor is not uncommon ; yet only a few stragglers
occasionally visit the sea-coast. A line of cliff near the mouth
of the Santa Cruz is frequented by these birds, and about
eighty miles up the river, where the sides of the valley are
formed by steep basaltic precipices, the condor re-appears.
From these facts, it seems that the condors require perpen-
dicular cliffs. In Chile, they haunt, during the greater part of
the year, the lower country near* the shores of the Pacific, and
at night several roost together in one tree ; but in the early
part of summer they retire to the most inaccessible parts of
the inner Cordillera, there to breed in peace.

With respect to their propagation, I was told by the country
people in Chile that the condor makes no sort of nest, but in
the months of November and December lays two large white
eggs on a shelf of bare rock. It is said that the young
condors cannot fly for an entire year ; and long after they are
able, they continue to roost by night and hunt by day with
their parents. The old birds generally live in pairs ; but
among the inland basaltic cliffs of the Santa Cruz, I found a
spot where scores must usually haunt. On coming suddenly
to the brow of the precipice, it was a grand spectacle to see
between twenty and thirty of these great birds start heavily
from their resting-place, and wheel away in majestic circles.
From the quantity of dung on the rocks, they must long have
frequented this cliff for roosting and breeding. Having
gorged themselves with can-ion on the plains below, they
retire to these favourite ledges to digest their food. From
these facts, the condor, like the gallinazo, must to a certain
degree be considered as a gregarious bird. In this part of the
country they live altogether on the guanacos which have died
a natural death, or, as more commonly happens, have been
killed by the pumas. I believe, from what I saw in Patagonia,
that they do not on ordinary occasions extend their daily ex-
cursions to any great distance from their regular sleeping-
places.

The condors may oftentimes be seen at a great height,
soaring over a certain spot in the most graceful circles. On
some occasions I am sure that they do this only for pleasure.

184.

THE CONDOR

but on others, the Chileno countryman tells you that they are
watching a dying animal, or the puma devouring its prey. If
the condors glide down, and then suddenly all rise together,
the Chileno knows that it is the puma which, watching the
carcass, has sprung out to drive away the robbers. Besides
feeding on carrion, the condors frequently attack young
goats and lambs ; and the shepherd-dogs are trained, when-
ever they pass over, to run out and, looking upwards, to bark
violently. The Chilenos destroy and catch numbers. Two
methods are used ; one is to place a carcass on a level piece of
ground within an enclosure of sticks with an opening, and,
when the condors are gorged, to gallop up on horseback to
the entrance, and thus enclose them : for when this bird has
not space to run, it cannot give its body sufficient momentum
to rise from the ground. The second method is to mark the
trees in which, frequently to the number of five or six together,
they roost, and then at night to climb up and noose them.
They are such heavy sleepers, as I have myself witnessed,
that this is not a difficult task. At Valparaiso, I have seen a
living condor sold for sixpence, but the common price is eight
or ten shillings. One which 1 saw brought in had been tied
with rope, and was much injured ; yet the moment the line
was cut by which its bill was secured, although surrounded
by people, it began ravenously to tear a pieee of can-ion.
In a garden at the same place, between twenty and thirty
were kept alive. They were fed only once a-week, but they
ajjpeared in pretty good health.* The Chileno counti-y-
men assert that the condor will live, and retain its vigour,
between five and six weeks without eating : I cannot answer
for the truth of this, but it is a cruel experiment, which very
likely has been tried.

When an animal is killed in the country, it is well known
that the condors, like other carrion-vultures, soon gain intelli-
gence of it, and congregate in an inexplicable manner. In most
cases, it must not be overlooked that the birds have discovered
their prey, and have picked the skeleton clean, before the
flesh is in the least degree tainted. Remembering the
experiments of M. Audubon, on the little smelling powers of

■* I noticed that several hours before any one of the condors died, all the
lice with which it was infested crawled to the outside feathers. I was
assured that this always happened.

THE CONDOR

185

carrion-haM'ks, I tried in the above-mentioned garden the
folloAving experiment : the condors were tied, each by a rope,
in a long row at the bottom of a wall ; and, having folded
up a piece of meat in white paper, I walked backwards and
forwards, carrying it in my hand at the distance of about three
yards from them, but no notice whatever was taken. I then
threw it on the ground, within one yard of an old male bird ;
he looked at it for a moment with attention, but then
regarded it no more. With a stick I pushed it closer and
closer, until at last he touched it with his beak ; the paper was
then instantly torn off with fury ; at the same moment, every
bird in the long row began struggling and flapping its wings.
Under the same circumstances, it would have been quite
impossible to have deceived a dog. The evidence in favour
of and against the acute smelling powers of carrion-vultures is
singularly balanced. Professor Owen has demonstrated that
the olfactory nerves of the turkey-buzzard (Calhartes aura) are
highly developed ; and on the evening when Mr Owen’s
paper was read at the Zoological Society, it was mentioned by
a gentleman that he had seen the carrion-hawks in the West
Indies on two occasions collect on the roof of a house, when a
corpse had become offensive from not having been buried : in
this case, the intelligence could hardly have been acquired
by sight. On the other hand, besides the experiments of
Audubon and that one by myself, Mr Bachman has tried in
the United States many varied plans, showing that neither
the turkey-buzzard (the species dissected by Professor Owen)
nor the gallinazo find their food by smell. He covered
portions of highly offensive offal with a thin canvas cloth, and
strewed pieces of meat on it ; these the carrion-vultures ate up,
and then remained quietly standing, with their beaks within
the eighth of an inch of the putrid mass, without discovering
it. A small rent was made in the canvas, and the offal was
immediately discovered ; the canvas was replaced by a fresh
piece, and meat again put on it, and was again devoured by
the vultures without their discovering the hidden mass on
which they were trampling. These facts are attested by the
signatures of six gentlemen, besides that of Mr Bachman.*

^ Often when lying down to rest on the open plains, on

* Loudon’s Magazine of Nat, Hist., vol. vii.

186

THE CONDOR

looking upwards 1 have seen carrion-hawks sailing through
the air at a great height. Where the country is level I do
not believe a space of the heavens, of more than fifteen
degrees above the horizon, is commonly viewed with any
attention by a person either walking or on horseback. If
such be the case, and the vulture is on the wing at a height
of between three and four thousand feet, before it could
come within the range of vision, its distance in a straight line
from the beholder’s eye would be rather more than two
British miles. Might it not thus readily be overlooked ?
When an animal is killed by the sportsman in a lonely valley,
may he not all the while be watched from above by the
sharp-sighted bird ? And will not the manner of its descent
proclaim throughout the district to the whole family of
carrion-feeders that their prey is at hand ?

When the condors are wheeling in a flock round and round
any spot, their flight is beautiful. Except when rising from
the ground, I do not recollect ever having seen one of these
birds flap its wings. Near Lima, I watched several for nearly
half-an-hour, without once taking off my eyes ; they moved
in large curves, sweeping in circles, descending and ascending
without giving a single flap. As they glided close over my
head, I intently watched from an oblique position the outlines
of the separate and great terminal feathers of each wing ;
and these separate feathers, if there had been the least vibra-
tory movement, would have appeared as if blended together ;
but they were seen distinct against the blue sky. The head
and neck were moved frequently, and appai-ently with force ;
and the extended wings seemed to form the fulcrum on which
the movements of the neck, body, and tail acted. If the
bird wished to descend, the wings for a moment collapsed ;
and when again expanded with an altered inclination, the
momentum gained by the rapid descent seemed to urge the
bird upwards with the even and steady movement of a paper-
kite. In the case of any bird soaring, its motion must be
sufficiently rapid, so that the action of the inclined surface of
its body on the atmosphere may counterbalance its gravity.
The force to keep up the momentum of a body moving in a
horizontal plane in the air (in which there is so little friction)
cannot be great, and this force is all that is wanted. The
movement of the neck and body of the condor, we must

\_To face f. 176.

CONDOR (SARCOKHAMPHUS GRYPHUS).

SANTA CRUZ, PATAGONIA

187

suppose, is sufficient for this. However this may be, if
is truly wonderful and beautiful to see so great a bird, hour
after hour, without any apparent exertion, wheeling and
gliding over mountain and river.

April 29th. — From some high land we hailed with joy the
white summits of the Cordillera, as they were seen occasion-
ally peeping through their dusky envelope of clouds. During
the few succeeding days we continued to get on slowly, for
we found the river course very tortuous, and strewed with
immense fragments of various ancient slaty rocks, and of
granite. The plain bordering the valley had here attained
an elevation of about eleven hundred feet above the river,
and its character was much altered. The well-rounded
pebbles of i^orphyry were mingled with many immense
angular fragments of basalt and of pi-imary rocks. The first
of these erratic boulders which I noticed was sixty-seven
miles distant from the nearest mountain ; another which I
measured was five yards square, and projected five feet above
the gravel. Its edges were so angular, and its size so great,
that I at first mistook it for a rock in situ, and took out my
compass to observe the direction of its cleavage. The plain
here was not quite so level as that nearer the coast, but yet
it betrayed no signs of any great violence. Under these
circumstances it is, I believe, quite impossible to explain the
transportal of these gigantic masses of rock so many miles
from their parent-source, on any theory except by that of
floating icebergs.

During the two last days we met with signs of horses, and
with several small articles which had belonged to the Indians
— such as parts of a mantle and a bunch of ostrich feathers —
but they appeared to have been lying long on the ground.
Between the place where the Indians had so lately crossed
the river and this neighbourhood, though so many miles
apart, the country appears to be quite unfrequented. At first,
considering the abundance of the guanacos, I was surprised
at this ; but it is explained by the stony nature of the plains,
which would soon disable an unshod horse from taking part in
the chase. Nevertheless, in two places in this very central
region, I found small heaps of stones, which I do not think
could have been accidentally thrown together. They were

188

FALKLAND ISLANDS

placed on points projecting over the edge of the highest lava
cliff, and they resembled, but on a small scale, those near
Port Desire.

May Mh. — Captain Fitz Roy determined to take the boats
no higher. The river had a winding course, and was very
rapid ; and the appearance of the country offered no tempta-
tion to proceed any farther. Everywhere we met with the
same productions and the same dreary landscape. We were
now one hundred and forty miles distant from the Atlantic,
and about sixty from the nearest arm of the Pacific. The
valley in this upper part expanded into a wide basin, bounded
on the north and south by the basaltic platforms, and fronted
by the long range of the snow-clad Cordillera. But we
viewed these grand mountains with regret, for we were
obliged to imagine their nature and productions, instead of
standing, as we had hoped, on their summits. Besides the
useless loss of time which an attempt to ascend the river any
higher would have cost us, we had already been for some
days on half-allowance of bread. This, although really
enough for reasonable men, was, after a hard day’s march,
rather scanty food : a light stomach and an easy digestion
are good things to talk about, but very unpleasant in practice.

May 5th. — Before sunrise we commenced our descent. We
shot down the stream with great rapidity, generally at the
rate of ten knots an hour. In this one day we effected what
had cost us five and a-half hard days’ labour in ascending.
On the 8th we reached the Beagle after our twenty-one days’
expedition. Every one, excepting myself, had cause to be
dissatisfied ; but to me the ascent afforded a most interesting
section of the great tertiary formation of Patagonia.

On March \st, 1833, and again on March \Qth, 1834, the
Beagle anchored in Bei’keley Sound, in East Falkland Island.
This archipelago is situated in nearly the same latitude with
the mouth of the Strait of Magellan ; it covers a space of one
hundred and twenty by sixty geographical miles, and is little
more than half the size of Ireland. After the possession of
these miserable islands had been contested by France, Spain,
and England, they were left uninhabited. The Government
of Buenos Ayres then sold them to a private individual, but
likewise used them, as old Spain had done before, for a penal

FALKLAND ISLANDS

189

settlement. England claimed her rights and seized them.
The Englishman who was left in charge of the flag was
consequently murdered. A British officer was next sent,
unsupported by any power ; and when we arrived, we found
him in charge of a population, of which rather more than half
were runaway rebels and murderers.

The theatre is worthy of the scenes acted on it. An
undulating land, with a desolate and wretched aspect, is
everyAvhere covered by a peaty soil and wiry grass, of one
monotonous brown colour. Here and there a peak or ridge
of grey quartz rock breaks through the smooth surface.
Every one has heard of the climate of these regions ; it may
be compared to that which is experienced at the height of
between one and two thousand feet on the mountains of
North Wales ; having, however, less sunshine and less frost,
but more wind and rain.*

May \6th. — I will now describe a short excursion which I
made round a part of this island. In the morning I started
with six horses and two Gauchos : the latter were capital
men for the purpose, and well accustomed to living on their
own resources. The weather was very boisterous and cold,
with heavy hailstorms. We got on, however, pretty well,
but, except the geology, nothing could be less interesting
than our day’s ride. The country is uniformly the same
undulatmg moorland ; the surface being covered by light
brown withered grass and a few very small shrubs, all spring-
ing out of an elastic peaty soil. In the valleys here and there
might be seen a small flock of wild geese, and everywhere the
ground was so soft that the snipe were able to feed. Besides
these two birds there were few others. There is one main
range of hills, nearly two thousand feet in height, and com-
posed of quartz rock, the rugged and barren crests of which
gave us some trouble to cross. On the south side we came
to the best country for wild cattle ; we met, however, no
great number, for they had been lately much harassed.

* From accounts published since our voyage, and more especially from
several interesting letters from Captain Sulivan, R.N., employed on the
survey, it appears that we took an exaggerated view of the badness of the
climate of these islands. But when I reflect on the almost universal
covering of peat, and on the fact of wheat seldom ripening here, I can
hardly believe that the climate in summer is so fine and dry as it has lately
been represented.

190

FALKLAND ISLANDS

In the evening we came across a small herd. One of my
companions, St Jago by name, soon separated a fat cow ; he
threw the bolas, and it struck her legs, but failed in becoming
entangled. Then dropping his hat to mark the spot where
the balls were left, while at full gallop, he uncoiled his lazo,
and after a most severe chase, again came up to the cow, and
caught her i-ound the horns. The other Gaucho had gone
on ahead with the spare horses, so that St Jago had some
difficulty in killing the furious beast. He managed to get
her on a level piece of ground, by taking advanbige of her
as often as she rushed at him ; and when she would not
move, my horse, from having been trained, would canter up,
and with his chest give her a violent push. But when on
level ground it does not appear an easy job for one man to
kill a beast mad with terror. Nor would it be so, if the horse,
when left to itself without its rider, did not soon learn, for
its own safety, to keep the lazo tight ; so that, if the cow or
ox moves forward, the horse moves just as quickly forward ;
otherwise, it stands motionless, leaning on one side. This
horse, however, was a young one, and would not stand still,
but gave in to the cow as she struggled. It was admirable
to see with what dexterity St Jago dodged behind the beast,
till at last he contrived to give the fatal touch to the main
tendon of the hind leg ; after which, without much difficulty,
he drove his knife into the head of the spinal marrow, and
the cow dropped as if struck by lightning. He cut off pieces
of flesh with the skin to it, but without any bones, sufficient
for our expedition. We then rode on to our sleeping-place,
and had for supper “ came con cuei’o,” or meat roasted with
the skin on it. This is as superior to common beef as venison
is to mutton. A large circular piece taken from the back is
roasted on the embers with the hide downwards and in the
form of a saucer, so that none of the gravy is lost. If any
worthy alderman had supped with us that evening, “came
con cuero,” without doubt, would soon have been celebrated
in London.

During the night it rained, and the next day (l7th) was
very stormy, with much hail and snow. We rode across the
island to the neck of land which joins the Rincon del Toro
(the great peninsula to the S.-W. extremity) to the rest of the
island. From the great number of cows which have been

FALKLAND ISLANDS

191

killed, there is a large proportion of bulls. These wander
about single, or two and three together, and are very savage.
I never saw such magnificent beasts ; they equalled in the
size of their huge heads and necks the Grecian marble
sculptures. Captain Sulivan informs me that the hide of an
average-sized bull weighs forty-seven pounds, whereas a hide
of this weight, less thoroughly dried, is considered as a very
heavy one at Monte Video. The young bulls generally run
away for a short distance; but the old ones do not stir a step,
except to rush at man and horse ; and many horses have
been thus killed. An old bull crossed a boggy stream, and
took his stand on the opposite side to us; we in vain tried to
drive him away, and failing, w'ere obliged to make a large
circuit. The Gauchos, in revenge, determined to emasculate
him and render him for the future harmless. It was very
interesting to see how art comjiletely mastered force. One
lazo was thrown over his horns as he rushed at the horse, and
another round his hind-legs : in a minute the monster was
stretched powerless on the ground. After the lazo has once
been drawn tightly round the horns of a furious animal, it
does not at first appear an ea.sy thing to disengage it again
without killing the beast ; nor, I apprehend, would it be so if
the man was by himself. By the aid, however, of a second
person throwing his lazo so as to catch both hind-legs, it is
quickly managed ; for the animal, as long as its hind-legs are
kej)t outstretched, is quite helpless, and the first man can
with his hands loosen his lazo from the horns, and then
quietly mount his horse ; but the moment the second man,
by backing ever so little, relaxes the strain, the lazo slips off
the legs of the struggling beast, which then rises free, shakes
himself, and vainly rushes at his antagonist.

During our whole ride we saw only one troop of wild
horses. These animals, as well as the cattle, were introduced
by the French in 1764, since which time both have greatly
increased. It is a curious fact that the horses have never left
the eastern end of the island, although there is no natural
boundary to prevent them from roaming, and that part of the
1 island is not more tempting than the rest. The Gauchos
whom I asked, though asserting this to be the case, were un-
I able, to account for it, except from the strong attachment
which horses have to any locality to which they are acciis-

192

FALKLAND ISLANDS

tomed. Considering that the island does not apjiear fully
stocked, and that there are no beasts of prey, I was particu-
larly curious to know what has checked their originally rapid
increase. That in a limited island some check would sooner
or later supervene, is inevitable ; but why has the increase of
the horse been checked sooner than that of the cattle }
Captain Sulivan has taken much pains for me in this inquiry.
The Gauchos employed here attribute it chiefly to the
stallions constantly roaming from place to place, and com-
pelling the mares to accompany them, whether or not the
young foals are able to follow. One Gaucho told Captain
Sulivan that he had watched a stallion for a whole hour,
violently kicking and biting a mare till he forced her to leave
her foal to its fate. Captain Sulivan can so far corroborate this
curious account, that he has several times found young foals
dead, whereas he has never found a dead calf. Moreover, the
dead bodies of full-grown horses are more frequently found,
as if moi-e subject to disease or accidents than those of the
cattle. From the softness of the ground their hoofs often grow
irregularly to a great length, and this causes lameness. The
predominant colours are roan and iron-grey. All the horses
bred here, both tame and wild, are rather small-sized, though
generally in good condition ; and they have lost so much
strength, that they are unfit to be used in taking wild cattle
with the lazo : in consequence, it is necessary to go to the
great expense of impoi-ting fresh horses from the Plata. At
some future period the southern hemisphere probably will
have its breed of Falkland ponies, as the northern has its
Shetland breed.

The cattle, instead of having degenerated like the horses,
seem, as before remarked, to have mcreased in size, and they
are much more numerous than the horses. Captain Sulivan
informs me that they vary much less in the general form of
their bodies and in the shape of their horns than English
cattle. In colour they differ much ; and it is a remarkable
circumstance, that in different parts of this one small island,
different colours predominate. Round Mount Usborne, at a
height of from 1000 to 1500 feet above the sea, about half of
some of the herds are mouse or lead-coloured, a tint which is
not common in other parts of the island. Near Port Pleasant
dark brown prevails, whereas south of Choiseul Sound (which

WILD RABBITS

19.3

almost divides the island into two parts) white beasts with
black heads and feet are the most common : in all parts
black and some spotted animals may be observed. Captain
Sulivan remarks that the difference in the prevailing colours
was so obvious that in looking for the herds near Port
Pleasant, they appeared from a long distance like black spots, .
while south of Choiseul Sound they appeared like white spots
on the hillsides. Captain Sulivan thinks that the herds do
not mingle ; and it is a singular fact that the mouse-coloured
cattle, though living on the high land, calve about a month
earlier in the season than the other coloured beasts on the
lower land. It is interesting thus to find the once domesti-
cated cattle breaking into three colours, of which some one
colour would in all probability ultimately prevail over the
others, if the herds were left undisturbed for the next several
centuries.

The rabbit is another animal which has been intro-
duced, and has succeeded very well ; so that they abound
over large parts of the island. Yet, like the horses, they are
confined within certain limits ; for they have not crossed the
central chain of hills, nor would they have extended even so
far as its base if, as the Gauchos informed me, small colonies
had not been carried there. I should not have supposed that
these animals, natives of Northern Africa, could have existed
in a climate so humid as this, and which enjoys so little sun-
shine that even wheat ripens only occasionally. It is asserted
that in Sweden, which anyone would have thought a more
favourable climate, the rabbit cannot live out of doors. The
first few pair, moreover, had here to contend against pre-
existing enemies, in the fox and some large hawks. The
French naturalists have considered the black variety a distinct
species, and called it Lepus Magellanicus,* They imagined
that Magellan, when talking of an animal under the name of
“ Conejos ” in the Strait of Magellan, referred to this species ;

I * Lesson’s Zoology of the Voyage of the “ Coquillef tom. i. p. 168. All the

early voyagers, and especially Bougainville, distinctly state that the wolf-
1 like fox was the only native animal on the island. The distinction of the
I rabbit as a species is taken from peculiarities in the fur, from the shape of
I the head, and from the shortness of the ears. I may here observe that
I the difference between the Irish and English hare rests upon nearly
I similar characters, only more strongly marked.

N

FALKLAND ISLANDS

but fie was alluding to a small cavy, which to this day is
thus called by the Spaniards. The Gauchos laughed at
the idea of the black kind being different from the grey,
and they said that at all events it had not extended its range
any farther than the grey kind ; that the two were never
found separate ; and that they readily bred together, and
produced jhebald offspring. Of the latter I now possess a
specimen, and it is marked about the head differently from
the French specific description. This circumstance shows
how cautious naturalists should be in making species ; for
even Cuvier, on looking at the skull of one of these
rabbits, thought it was probably distinct !

The only quadruped native to the island* is a large wolf-
like fox (Canis antarcticus), which is common to both East and
West Falkland. I have no doubt it is a peculiar species, and
confined to this archipelago ; because many sealers, Gauchos,
and Indians, who have visited these islands, all maintain that
no such animal is found in any part of South America.
Molina, from a similarity in habits, thought this was the same
with his “ culpeu ” ; f but I have seen both, and they are
quite distinct. These wolves are well known from Byron’s
account of their tameness and curiosity, which the sailors, who
ran into the water to avoid them, mistook for fierceness. To
this day their manners remain the same. They have been
observed to enter a tent, and actually pull some meat from
beneath the head of a sleeping seaman. The Gauchos also
have frequently in the evening killed them, by holding out a
piece of meat in one hand, and in the other a knife ready to
stick them. As far as I am aware, there is no other instance
in any part of the world of so small a mass of broken land,
distant from a continent, possessing so large an aboriginal
quadruped peculiar to itself. Their numbers have rapidly
decreased ; they are already banished from that half of the
island which lies to the eastward of the neck of land between
St Salvador Bay and Berkeley Sound. Within a very few

* I have reason, however, to suspect that there is a field-mouse. The
common European rat and mouse have roamed far from the habitations of
the settlers. The common hog has also run wild on one islet ; all are of a
black colour ; the boars are very fierce, and have great tusks.

tThe “culpeu” is the Canis M agellariicus \)xow^X. home by Captain
King from the Strait of Magellan. It is common in Chile.

FALKLAND ISLANDS

195

years after these islands shall have become regularly settled,
in all probability this fox shall be classed with the dodo, as an
animal which has perished from the face of the earth.

At night (l7th) we sle[)t on the neck of land at the head
of Choiseul Sound, which forms the south-west peninsula.
The valley was pretty well sheltered from the cold wind; but
there was very little brushwood for fuel. The Gauchos, how-
ever, soon found what, to my great surprise, made nearly as
hot a fire as coals ; this was the skeleton of a bullock lately
killed, from which the flesh had been picked by the carrion-
hawks. They told me that in winter they often killed a beast,
cleaned the flesh from the bones with their knives, and then
with these same bones roasted the meat for their suppers.

May 18/A. — It rained during nearly the whole day. At
night we managed, however, with our saddle-cloths to keep
ourselves pretty well dry and warm ; but the ground on which
we slept was on each occasion nearly in the state of a bog,
and there was not a dry spot to sit down on after our day’s
ride. I have in another part stated how singular it is that
there should be absolutely no trees on these islands, although
Tierra del Fuego is covered by one large forest. The largest
bush in the island (belonging to the family of Compositce) is
scarcely so tall as our gorse. The best fuel is afforded by a
green little bush about the size of common heath, which has
the useful property of burning while fresh and green. It was
very surprising to see the Gauchos, in the midst of rain and
everything soaking wet, with nothing more than a tinder-box
and piece of rag, immediately make a fire. They sought
beneath the tufts of grass and bushes for a few dry twigs, and
these they rubbed into fibres ; then surrounding them with
coarser twigs, something like a bird’s nest, they put the rag
with its spark of fire in the middle and covered it up. The
nest being then held up to the wind, by degrees it smoked
more and more, and at last burst out in flames. I do not
think any other method would have had a chance of succeed-
ing with such damp materials.

May \^th. — Each morning, from not having ridden for some
time previously, I was very stiff’. I was surprised to hear the
Gauchos, who have from infancy almost lived on horseback,
say that, under similar circumsances, they always suffer. St
Jago told me, that having been confined for three months by

196

FALKLAND ISLANDS

illness, he went out hunting wild cattle, and in consequence,
for the next two days, his thighs were so stiff that he was
obliged to lie in bed. This shows that the Gauchos,
although they do not appear to do so, yet really must exert
much muscular effort in riding. The hunting wild cattle, in a
country so difficult to pass as this is on account of the swampy
ground, must be very hard work. The Gauchos say they
often pass at full speed over ground which woidd be im-
passable at a slower pace ; in the same manner as a man
is able to skate over thin ice. When hunting, the party
endeavours to get as close as possible to the herd without
being discovered. Each man carries four or five pair of the
bolas ; these he throws one after the other at as many cattle,
which, when once entangled, are left for some days, till they
become a little exhausted by hunger and struggling. They
are then let free, and driven towards a small herd of tame
animals, which have been brought to the spot on purpose.
From their previous treatment, being too much terrified to
leave the herd, they are easily driven, if their strength last
out, to the settlement.

The weather continued so very bad that we determined
to make a push, and try to reach the vessel before night.
From the quantity of rain which had fallen, the surface of
the whole country was swampy. I suppose my horse fell
at least a dozen times, and sometimes the whole six horses
were floundering in the mud together. All the little streams
are bordered by soft peat, which makes it very difficult for
the horses to leap them without falling. To complete our
discomforts, we were obliged to cross the head of a creek of
the sea, in which the water was as high as our horses’ backs ;
and the little waves, owing to the violence of the ■wind,
broke over us, and made us very wet and cold. Even the
iron-framed Gauchos professed themselves glad when they
reached the settlement after our little excursion.

The geological structure of these islands is in most respects
simple. The lower coimtry consists of clay-slate and sand-
stone, containing fossils, very closely related to, but not
identical •with, those found in the Silurian formations of
Europe ; the hills are formed of white granular quartz rock.
The strata of the latter are frequently arched wth perfect

FALKLAND ISLANDS

197

symmetry, and the appearance of some of the masses is in
consequence most singular. Pernety* has devoted several
pages to the description of a Hill of Ruins, the successive
strata of which he has justly compared to the seats of an
amphitheatre. The quartz rock must have been quite pasty
when it underwent such remarkable flexures without being
shattered into fragments. As the quartz insensibly passes
into the sandstone, it seems probable that the former owes
its origin to the sandstone having been heated to such a
degree that it became viscid, and upon cooling crystallised.
While in the soft state it must have been pushed up through
the overlying beds.

In many parts of the island the bottoms of the valleys are
covered in an extraordinary manner by myriads of great loose
angular fragments of the quartz rock, forming '^streams of
stones.” These have been mentioned with surprise by every
voyager since the time of Pemety. The blocks are not
waterworn, their angles being only a little blunted; they vary
in size from one or two feet in diameter to ten, or even more
than twenty times as much. They are not thrown together
into irregular piles, but are spread out into level sheets or
great streams. It is not possible to ascertain their thickness,
but the water of small streamlets can be heard trickling
through the stones many feet below the surface. The actual
depth is probably great, because the crevices between the
lower fragments must long ago have been filled up with
sand. The width of these sheets of stones varies from a few
hundred feet to a mile ; but the peaty soil daily encroaches on
the borders, and even forms islets wherever a few fragments
happen to lie close together. In a valley south of Berkeley
Sound, which some of our party called the ‘‘great valley of
fragments,” it was necessary to cross an uninterrupted band
half - a - mile wide, by jumping from one pointed stone to
another. So large were the fragments that, being overtaken
by a shower of rain, I readily found shelter beneath one of them.

Their little inclination is the most remarkable circumstance
in these “streams of stones.” On the hill-sides I have seen
them sloping at an angle of ten degrees with the horizon ;
but in some of the level, broad-bottomed valleys, the inclina-

* Pernety, P'oyage aux Isles Malouiites, p. 526.

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FALKLAND ISLANDS

lion is only just sufficient to be clearly perceived. On so
rugged a surface there was no means of measuring the angle ;
but to give a common illustration^ I may say that the slope
would not have checked the speed of an English mail-coach.
In some places, a continuous stream of these fragments
followed up the course of a valley, and even extended to
the very crest of the hill. On these crests huge masses,
exeeeding in dimensions any small building, seemed to stand
arrested in their headlong course ; there, also, the curved
strata of the archways lay piled on each other, like the ruins
of some vast and ancient cathedral. In endeavouring to
describe these scenes of violence one is tempted to pass from
one simile to another. We may imagine that streams of
white lava had flowed from many parts of the mountains
into the lower country, and that when solidified they had
been rent by some enonmous convulsion into myriads of
fragments. The expression, ‘^streams of stones,” which
immediately occun-ed to every one, conveys the same idea.
These scenes are on the spot rendered more striking by the
contrast of the low, rounded forms of the neighbouring hills.

I was interested by finding on the highest peak of one
range (about seven hundred feet above the sea) a great
arched fi'agment, lying on its convex side, or back down-
wards. Must we believe that it was fairly pitched up in the
air, and thus turned.? or, with more probability, that there
existed formerly a part of the same range more elevated than
the point on which this monument of a gi’eat convulsion of
nature now lies .? As the fragments in the valleys are neither
rounded nor the crevices filled up with sand, we must infer
that the period of violenee was subsequent to the land having
been raised above the waters of the sea. In a transverse
section within these valleys, the bottom is nearly level, or
rises but very little towards either side. Hence the frag-
ments appear to have travelled from the head of the valley;
but in reality it seems more probable that they have been
hurled down from the nearest slopes ; and that since, by a
vibratory movement of overwhelming force,* the fragments

* “Nous n’avons pas moins saisis d’etonnement i la vue de I’innom-
brable quantity de pierres de toutes grandeurs, boulev^rsees les unes sur
les autres, et cependant rangees, conime si elles avoient et6 amoncel^es
ncgligemment pour remplir des ravins. On ne se lassoit pas d’admirer
les effets prodigieux de la nature.” — Pemelyy p. 526.

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199

have been levelled into one continuous sheet. If during the
earthquake* which in 1835 overthrew Concepcion^ in Chile,
it was thought wonderful that small bodies should have been
pitched a few inches from the ground, what must we say
to a movement which has caused fragments, many tons in
weight, to move onwards like so much sand on a vibrating
board, and find their level ? I have seen, in the Cordillei’a
of the Andes, the evident marks where stupendous mountains
have been broken into pieces like so much thin crust, and
the strata thrown on their vertical edges ; but never did any
scene, like these "streams of stones,” so forcibly convey to
my mind the idea of a convulsion, of which in historical
records we might in vain seek for any counterpart ; yet the
progress of knowledge will probably some day give a simple
explanation of this phenomenon, as it already has of the so-
long-thought inexplicable transportal of the erratic boulders
which are strewed over the plains of Europe.

I have little to remark on the zoology of these islands. I
have before described the carrion-vulture or Poh/borus. There
are some other hawks, owls, and a few small land-birds.
The water-fowl are particularly numerous, and they must
formerly, from the accounts of the old navigators, have been
much more so. One day I observed a cormorant playing
with a fish which it had caught. Eight times successively
the bird let its prey go, then dived after it, and although
in deep water, brought it each time to the surface. In the
Zoological Gardens I have seen the otter treat a fish in the
same manner, much as a cat does a mouse ; I do not know
of any other instance where Dame Nature appears so wilfully
cruel. Another day, having placed myself between a pen-
guin {Aptenodytes demersci) and the water, I was much amused
by watching its habits. It was a brave bird ; and till reach-
ing the sea, it regularly fought and drove me backwards.
Nothing less than heavy blows would have stopped him ;
every inch he gained he firmly kept, standing close before me
erect and determined. When thus opposed he continually
rolled his head from side to side, in a very odd manner, as if

* An inhabitant of Mendoza, and hence well capable of judging, assured
me that, during the several years he had resided on these islands, he had
never felt the slightest shock of an earthquake.

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the power of distinct vision lay only in the anterior and basal
part of each eye. This bird is commonly called the jackass
penguin, from its habit, while on shore, of throwing its head
backwards, and making a loud strange noise, very like the
bra3ang of an ass ; but while at sea, and undisturbed, its note
is very deep and solemn, and is often heard in the night-
time. In diving, its little wings are used as fins ; but on the
land, as front legs. When crawling, it may be said on four
legs, through the tussocks or on the side of a grassy cliff, it
moves so veiy quickly that it might easily be mistaken for a
quadruped. When at sea and fishing, it comes to the surface
for the purpose of breathing with such a spring, and dives
again so instantaneously, that I defy any one at first sight to
be sure that it was not a fish leaping for sport.

Two kinds of geese frequent the Falklands. The upland
species (Anas Magellanica) is common, in pairs and in small
flocks, throughout the island. They do not migrate, but
build on the small outlying islets. This is supposed to be
from fear of the foxes : and it is perhaps from the same cause
that these birds, though very tame by day, are shy and wild
in the dusk of the evening. They live entirely on vegetable
matter. The rock-goose, so called from living exclusively on
the sea-beach (Anas a?itarctica), is common both here and on
the west coast of America, as far north as Chile. In the
deep and retired channels of Tierra del Fuego, the snow-
white gander, invariably accompanied by his darker consort,
and standing close by each other on some distant rocky
point, is a common feature in the landscape.

In these islands a great logger-headed duck or goose (Anas
brachypterd), which sometimes weighs twenty-two pounds, is
very abundant. These birds were in former days called, from
their extraordinary manner of paddling and splashing upon
the water, race-horses ; but now they are named, much more
appropriately, steamers. Their wings are too small and weak
to allow of flight, but by their aid, partly swimming and
partly flapping the surface of the water, they move very
quickly. The manner is something like that by which the
common house-duck escapes when pursued by a dog ; but I
am nearly sure that the steamer moves its wings alternately,
instead of both together, as in other birds. These clumsy,

ZOOLOGY

aoi

logger-headed ducks make such a noise and splashing, that
the effect is exceedingly curious.

Thus we find in South America three birds which use their
wings for other purposes besides flight; the penguin as fins,
the steamer as paddles, and the ostrich as sails : and the
apteryx, of New Zealand, as well as its gigantic extinct proto-
type the Dinornis, possess only rudimentary representatives
of wings. The steamer is able to dive only to a very short
distance. It feeds entirely on shell-fish from the kelp and
tidal rocks ; hence the beak and head, for the purpose of
breaking them, are surprisingly heavy and strong : the head
is so strong that I have scarcely been able to fracture it with
my geological hammer; and all our sportsmen soon discovered
how tenacious these birds were of life. When in the evening
pluming themselves in a flock, they make the same odd
mixture of sounds which bull-frogs do within the tropics.

In Tierra del Fuego, as well as at the Falkland Islands, I
made many observations on the lower marine animals,* but
they are of little general interest. I will mention only
one class of facts relating to certain zoophytes in the more
highly - organised division of that class. Several genera
{Flustra, Eschara, Cellaria, Crisia, and others) agree in having
singular movable organs (like those of Fhistra avicularia,
found in the European seas) attached to their cells. The
organ, in the greater number of cases, very closely resembles
the head of a vulture ; but the lower mandible can be opened
much wider than in a real bird’s beak. The head itself

* I was surprised to find, on counting the eggs of a large white Doris
(this sea-slug was three and a-half inches long), how extraordinarily
numerous they were. From two to five eggs (each three-thousandths of
an inch in diameter) were contained in a spherical little case. These
were arranged two deep in transverse rows forming a ribbon. The
ribbon adhered by its edge to the rock in an oval spire. One which
I found measured nearly twenty inches in length and half in breadth.
By counting how many balls were contained in a tenth of an inch in
the row, and how many rows in an equal length of the ribbon, on the
most moderate computation there were six hundred thousand eggs. Yet
this Doris was certainly not very common : although I was often searching
under the stones, I saw only seven individuals. N’o fallacy is jnore
common with naturalists, than that the numbers of an individual species
depend on its powers of propagation.

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ZOOLOGY

possesses considerable powers of movement, by means of a
short neck. In one zoophyte the head itself was fixed, but
the lower jaw free ; in another it was replaced by a triangular
hood, with a beautifully fitted trap-door, which evidently
answered to the lower mandible. In the greater number
of species each cell was provided with one head, but in
others each cell had two.

The young cells at the end of the branches of these
corallines contain quite immature polypi, yet the vulture-
heads attached to them, though small, are in every respect
perfect. When the polypus was removed by a needle from
any of the cells, these organs did not appear in the least
affected. When one of the vulture-like heads was cut off
from a cell, the lower mandible retained its power of opening
and closing. Perhaps the most singular part of their structure
is, that when there were more than two rows of cells on a
branch, the central cells were furnished with these append-
ages, of only one-fourth the size of the outside ones. Their
movements varied according to the species ; but in some I
never saw the least motion ; while others, with the lower
mandible generally wide open, oscillated backwards and
forwards at the rate of about five seconds each turn ; others
moved rapidly and by starts. When touched with a needle,
the beak generally seized the point so firmly, that the whole
branch might be shaken.

These bodies have no relation whatever with the production
of the eggs or gemmules, as they are formed before the young
polypi appear in the cells at the end of the growing branches ;
as they move independently of the polypi, and do not appear
to be in any way connected with them ; and as they differ in
size on the outer and inner rows of cells, I have little doubt
that, in their functions, they are related rather to the horny
axis of the branches than to the polypi in the cells. The
fleshy appendage at the lower extremity of the sea-pen
(desci'ibed at Bahia Blanca) also foratis part of the zoophyte,
as a whole, in the same manner as the roots of a tree form
part of a whole tree, and not of the individual leaf or flower-
buds.

In another elegant little coralline {Crisia ?), each cell w'as
furnished with a long-toothed bristle, which had the power
of moving quickly. Each of these bristles and each of the

ZOOLOGY

203

vulture-like heads generally moved quite independently of
the others, but sometimes all on both sides of a branch,
sometimes only those on one side, moved together coin-
stantaneously ; sometimes each moved in regular order one
after another. In these actions we apparently behold as
perfect a transmission of will in the zoophyte, though com-
posed of thousands of distinct polypi, as in any single animal.
The case, indeed, is not different from that of the sea-pens,
which, when touched, drew themselves into the sand on the
coast of Bahia Blanca. I will state one other instance of
uniform action, though of a very different nature, in a
zoophyte closely allied to Clytia, and therefore very simply
organised. Having kept a large tuft of it in a basin of salt-
water, when it was dark I found that as often as I rubbed any
part of a branch, the whole became strongly phosphorescent
with a green light : I do not think I ever saw any object more
beautifully so. But the remarkable circumstance was, that
the flashes of light always proceeded up the branches, from
the base towards the extremities.

The examination of these compound animals was always
very interesting to me. What can be more remarkable than
to see a plant-like body producing an egg, capable of
swimming about and of choosing a proper place to adhere to,
which then sprouts into branches, each crowded with innumer-
able distinct animals, often of complicated organisations ?
The branches, moreover, as we have just seen, sometimes
possess organs capable of movement and independent of the
polypi. Surprising as this union of separate individuals in a
common stock must always appear, every tree displays the
same fact, for buds must be considered as individual plants.
It is, however, natural to consider a polypus, furnished with
a mouth, intestines, and other organs, as a distinct individual,
whereas the individuality of a leaf-bud is not easily realised ;
so that the union of separate individuals in a common body is
more striking in a coralline than in a tree. Our conception
of a compound animal, where in some respects the in-
dividuality of each is not completed, may be aided by
reflecting on the production of two distinct creatures by
bisecting a single one with a knife, or where Nature herself
performs the task of bisection. We may consider the polypi
in a zoophyte, or the buds in a tree, as cases where the

204

ZOOLOGY

division of the individual has not been completely effected.
Certainly in the case of trees, and judging from analogy in
that of corallines, the individuals propagated by buds seem
more intimately related to each other than eggs or seeds are
to their parents. It seems now pretty well established that
plants propagated by buds all partake of a common duration
of life ; and it is familiar to every one, what singular and
numerous peculiarities are transmitted with certainty, by
buds, layers, and grafts, which by seminal propagation never
or only casually re-appear.

CHAPTER X

TIERRA DEL FUEGO

TIERIIA DEL FUEGO, FIRST ARRIVAL GOOD SUCCESS BAY AN

ACCOUNT OF THE FUEGIANS ON BOARD INTERVIEW WITH

THE SAVAGES SCENERY OF THE FORESTS CAPE HORN

WIGWAM COVE MISERABLE CONDITION OF THE SAVAGES

FAMINES CANNIBALS MATRICIDE RELIGIOUS FEELINGS

GREAT GALE BEAGLE CHANNEL PONSONBY SOUND

BUILD WIGWAMS AND SETTLE THE FUEGIANS BIFURCATION

OF THE BEAGLE CHANNEL GLACIERS RETURN TO THE SHIP

SECOND VISIT IN THE SHIP TO THE SETTLEMENT EQUALITY

OF CONDITION AMONGST THE NATIVES.

nth, 1832. — Having now finished
9 with Patagonia and the Falklands Islands, I will

H E describe our first arrival in Tierra del Fuego. A

S little after noon we doubled Cape St Diego, and

entered the famous Strait of Le Maire. We kept
close to the Fuegian shore, but the outline of the rugged,
inhospitable Statenland was visible amidst the clouds. In
the afternoon we anchored in the Bay of Good Success.
While entering we were saluted in a manner becoming the
inhabitants of this savage land. A group of Fuegians, partly
concealed by the entangled forest, were perched on a wlid
point overhanging the sea ; and as we passed by, they sprang
up and, waving their tattered cloaks, sent forth a loud and
sonorous shout. The savages followed the ship, and just
before dark we saw their fire, and again heard their wild cry.
The harbour consists of a fine piece of water half-surrounded
by low rounded mountains of clay-slate, which are covered to
the water’s edge by one dense gloomy forest. A single
glance at the landscape was sufficient to show me how widely
different it was from anythuig I had ever beheld. At night

205

206

FUEGIANS

it blew a gale of wind, and heavy squalls from the mountains
swept past us. It would have been a bad time out at sea,
and we, as well as others, may call this Good Success Bay.

In the morning the Captain sent a party to communicate
with the Fuegians. When we came within hail, one of the
four natives who were present advanced to receive us, and
began to shout most vehemently, wishing to direct us where
to land. When we were on shore the party looked rather
alarmed, but continued talking and making gestures with
great rapidity. It was without exception the most curious
and interesting spectacle I ever beheld ; I could not have
believed how wide was the difference between savage and
civilised man ; it is greater than between a wild and domesti-
cated animal, inasmuch as in man there is a greater power of
improvement. The chief spokesman was old, and appeared
to be the head of the family ; the three others were powerful
young men, about six feet high. The women and children
had been sent away. These Fuegians are a very different
race from the stunted, misei'able wretches farther westward ;
and they seem closely allied to the famous Patagonians of the
Strait of Magellan. Their only garment consists of a mantle
made of guanaco skin, -with the wool outside ; this they wear
just thrown over their shoulders, leaving their persons as often
exposed as covered. Their skin is of a dirty coppery-red
colour.

The old man had a fillet of white feathers tied round his
head, which partly confined his black, coarse, and entangled
hair. His face was crossed by two broad transverse bars ;
one, painted bright red, reached from ear to ear and included
the upper lip ; the other, white like chalk, extended above
and parallel to the first, so that even his eyelids were thus
coloured. The other two men were ornamented by streaks of
black powder, made of charcoal. The party altogether closely
resembled the devils which come on the stage in plays like
“ Der Freischutz.”

Their very attitudes were abject, and the expression of
their countenances distrustful, surprised, and startled. After
we had presented them with some scarlet cloth, which they
immediately tied round their necks, they became good friends.
This was shown by the old man patting our breasts, and
making a chuckling kind of noise, as people do when feeding

FUEGIANS

207

cliickens. I walked with the old man, and this demonstration
of friendship was repeated several times ; it was concluded by
three hard slaps, which were given me on the breast and
back at the same time. He then bared his bosom for me to
return the compliment, which being done, he seemed highly
pleased. The language of these people, according to our
notions, scarcely deserves to be called articulate. Captain
Cook has compared it to a man clearing his throat, but
certainly no European ever cleared his throat with so many
hoarse, guttural, and clicking sounds.

They are excellent mimics : as often as we coughed or
yawned, or made any odd motion, they immediately imitated
us. Some of our party began to squint and look awiy ; but
one of the young Fuegians (whose face was painted black,
excepting a white band across his eyes) succeeded in making
far more hideous grimaces. They could repeat with perfect
correctness each word in any sentence we addressed them,
and they remembered such words for some time. Yet we
Europeans all know how difficult it is to distinguish apart the
sounds in a foreign language. Which of us, for instance,
could follow an American Indian through a sentence of more
than three words ? All savages appear to possess, to an
uncommon degree, this power of mimiciy. I was told, almost
in the same words, of the same ludicrous habit among the
Caffres ; the Australians, likewise, have long been notorious
for being able to imitate and describe the gait of any man,
so that he may be recognised. How can this faculty be
explained ? Is it a consequence of the more practised habits
of perception and keener senses, common to all men in a
savage state, as compared with those long civilised

When a song was struck up by our party I thought the
Fuegians would have fallen down with astonishment. With
equal surprise they viewed our dancing ; but one of the
young men, when asked, had no objection to a little waltzing.
Little accustomed to Europeans as they appeared to be, yet
they knew and dreaded our firearms ; nothing would tempt
them to take a gun in their hands. They begged for knives,
calling them by the Spanish word “ cuchilla.” They explained
also what they wanted, by acting as if they had a piece of
blubber in their mouth, and then pretending to cut instead of
tear it.

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FUEGIANS

I have not as yet noticed the Fuegians whom we had on
board. During the former voyage of the Adventure and
Beagle in 1826 to 1830, Captain Fitz Roy seized on a party
of natives, as hostages for the loss of a boat, which had been
stolen, to the great jeopardy of a party employed on the
survey; and some of these natives, as well as a child whom
he bought for a pearl-button, he took with him to England,
determining to educate them and instruct them in religion
at his own expense. To settle these natives in their own
country was one chief inducement to Captain Fitz Roy to
undertake our present voyage ; and before the Admiralty had
resolved to send out this expedition. Captain Fitz Roy had
generously chartered a vessel, and would himself have taken
them back. The natives were accompanied by a missionary,
R. Matthews ; of whom and of the natives. Captain Fitz Roy
has published a full and excellent account. Two men, one of
whom died in England of the small-pox, a boy, and a little
girl, were originally taken ; and we had now on board, York
Minster, Jemmy Button (whose name expresses his purchase-
money), and Fuegia Basket. York Minster was a full-grown,
short, thick, powerful man ; his disposition was reserved,
taciturn, morose, and when excited violently passionate ; his
affections were very strong towards a few friends on board ;
his intellect good. Jemmy Button was a universal favourite,
but likewise passionate ; the expression of his face at once
showed his nice disposition. He was merry and often
laughed, and was remarkably sympathetic with any one in
pain ; when the water was rough, I was often a little sea-sick,
and he used to come to me and say in a plaintive voice,
‘‘ Poor, poor fellow ! ” but the notion, after his aquatic life, of
a man being sea-sick, was too ludicrous, and he was gener-
ally obliged to turn on one side to hide a smile or laugh, and
then he would repeat his “ Poor, poor fellow ! ” He was of a
patriotic disposition ; and he liked to praise his own tribe and
country, in which he truly said there were “plenty of trees,”
and he abused all the other tribes ; he stoutly declared that
there was no devil in his land. Jemmy was short, thick, and
fat, but vain of his personal appearance ; he used always to
wear gloves, his hair was neatly cut, and he was distressed
if his well-polished shoes were dirtied. He was fond of
admiring himself in a looking-glass ; and a merry faced little

FUEGIANS

20.0

Indian boy from the Rio Negro whom we had for some months
on board, soon perceived this, and used to mock him ; Jemmy,
wlio was always rather jealous of the attention paid to this
little boy, did not at all like this, and used to say, with
rather a contemptuous twist of his head, ‘^Too much sky-
lark.” It seems yet wonderful to me, when I think over all
his many good qualities, that he should have been of the same
race, and doubtless partaken of the same character, with the
miserable, degraded savages whom we first met here. Lastly,
Fuegia Basket was a nice, modest, reserved young girl, with a
rather pleasing but sometimes sullen expression, and very
quick in learning anything, especially languages. This she
showed in picking up some Portuguese and Spanish, when left
on shore for only a short time at Rio de Janeiro and Monte
Video, and in her knowledge of English. York Minster was
very jealous of any attention paid to her; for it was clear
he determined to marry her as soon as they were settled
on shoi’e.

Although all three could both speak and understand a good
deal of English, it was singularly difficult to obtain much
information from them concerning the habits of their country-
men ; this was partly ow'ing to their apparent difficulty in
understanding the simplest alternative. Every one accus-
tomed to very young children knows how seldom one can
get an answer even to so simple a question as whether a
thing is black or white ; the idea of black or wliite seems
alternately to fill their minds. So it was with these Fuegians,
and hence it was generally impossible to find out, by cross-
questioning, whether one had rightly understood anything
which they had asserted. Their sight was remarkably acute ;
it is well known that sailors, from long practice, can make out
a distant object much better than a landsman ; but both
York and Jemmy were much superior to any sailor on board ;
several times they have declared what some distant object has
been, and though doubted by every one, they have proved
right, when it has been examined through a telescope. They
were quite conscious of this power; and Jemmy, when he had
any little quarrel with the officer on watch, would say, “ Mo.
see ship, me no tell.”

It was interesting to watch the conduct of the savages,
when we landed, towards Jemmy Button ; they immediately

o

^10

TIERRA DEL FUEGO

perceived the difference between him and ourselves, and held
much conversation one with another on the subject. The old
man addressed a long harangue to Jemmy, which it seems
was to invite him to .stay with them. But Jemmy understood
very little of their language, and was, moreover, thoroughly
ashamed of his countrymen. When York Minster afterwards
came on shore, they noticed him in the same way, and told
him he ought to shave ; yet he had not twenty dwarf hairs
on his face, whilst we all wore our untrimmed beards. They
examined the colour of his skin, and compared it with ours.
One of our arms being bared, they expressed the liveliest
surprise and admiration at its whiteness, just in the same way
in which I have seen the ourang-outang do at the Zoological
Gardens. We thought that they mistook two or three of the
officers, who were rather shorter and fairer, though adorned
Avilh large beards, for the ladies of our party. Tlie tallest
amongst the Fuegians Avas evidently much pleased at his
height being noticed. When placed back to back Avith the
tallest of the boat’s crew, he tried his best to edge on higher
ground, and to stand on tip-toe. He opened his mouth to
show his teeth, and turned his face for a side view ; and all
this was done with such alacrity, that I daresay he thought
himself the handsomest man in Tierra del Fuego. After
our first feeling of grave astonishment was over, nothing
could be more ludicrous than the odd mixture of surprise
and imitation which these savages every moment exhibited.

The next day I attempted to penetrate some Avay into the
country. Tierra del Fuego may be described as a moun-
tainous land, partly submerged in the sea, so that deep inlets
and bays occupy the place where valleys should exist. The
mountain sides, except on the exposed Avestern coast, are
covered from the water’s edge upwards by one great forest.
J'he trees reach to an elevation of between 1000 and 1500
feet, and are succeeded by a band of peat, a\ ith minute Alpine
plants ; and this again is succeeded by the line of perpetual
snoAV which, according to Captain King, in the Strait of
Magellan descends to betxA'een .“lOOO and 4000 feet. To
find an acre of level land in any part of the country is most
rare. I recollect only one little flat piece near Port Famine,
and another of rather larger extent near Goeree Roads. In

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211

both j)laces, and everywhere else, the surface is covered by
a thick bed of swampy peat. Even witliin the forest, the
ground is concealed by a mass of slowly putrefying vegetable
matter, which, from being soaked with water, yields to the
foot.

Findmg it nearly hopeless to push my way through the
wood, 1 followed the course of a mountain toiTent. At first,
from the waterfalls and number of dead trees, I could hardly
crawl along ; but the bed of the stream soon became a little
more open, from the floods having swept the sides. I con-
tinued slowly to advance for an hour along the broken anti
rocky banks, and was amply repaid by the grandeur of the
scene. The gloomy depth of the ravine well accorded with
the universal signs of violence. On every side were lying
iiTegular masses of rock and torn-up trees ; other trees,
though still erect, were decayed to the heart and ready to fall.
The entangled mass of the thriving and the fallen reminded
jne of the forests within the tropics — yet there was a differ-
ence ; for in these still solitudes. Death, instead of Life,
seemed the predominant spirit. I followed the watercourse
till I came to a spot where a gi’eat slip had cleared a straight
space down the mountain side. By this road I ascended to
a considerable elevation, and obtained a good view of the sur-
rounding M’oods. The trees all belong to one kind, the Fagiis
beluloides ; for the number of the other specie of Fagus, and
of the Winter’s Bark, is quite inconsiderable. This beech
keeps its leaves throughout the year; but its foliage is of a
peculiar broAvmish-gi-een colour, with a tinge of yellow. As
the Avhole landscape is thus coloured, it has a sombre, dull
appearance ; nor is it often enlivened by the rays of the sun.

December QOlh. — One side of the harbour is fonned by a hill
about 1 500 feet high, which Captain Fitz Roy has called after
Sir J. Banks, in commemoration of his disastrous excursion,
which proved fatal to two men of his party, and nearly so to
Dr Solander. The snow-storm, w-hich was the cause of their
misfortune, happened in the middle of Januai-y, corresponding
to our July, and in the latitude of Durham ! 1 was anxious to

reach the summit of this mountain to collect Alpine plants ; for
flowers of any kind in the lower parts are few in number. We
followed the same watercourse as on the previous day, till it
dw’iudled away, and we were then compelled to crawl blindly

212

CAPE HORN

among the ti’ees. These, from the effects of the elevation
and of the impetuous wnds, were low, thick, and crooked.
At length we reached that which from a distance appeared
like a carpet of fine green turf, but which, to our vexation,
turned out to be a compact mass of little beech-trees about
four or five feet high. They were as thick together as box in
the border of a garden, and we were obliged to struggle over
the flat but treacherous surface. After a little more trouble
we gained the peat, and then the bare slate rock.

A ridge connected this hill with another, distant some miles,
and more lofty, so that patches of snow were lying on it. As
the day was not far advanced, I determined to walk there and
collect plants along the road. It would have been very hard
work had it not been for a well-beaten and straight path made
by the guanacos ; for these animals, like sheep, always follow
the same line. When we reached the hill we found it the
highest in the immediate neighbourhood, and the waters
flowed to the sea in opposite directions. We obtained a wide
view over the surrounding country : to the north a swampy
moorland extended, but to the south we had JT scene of
savage magnificence, well becoming Tierra del Fuego. There
was a degree of mysterious grandeur in mountain behind
mountain, with the deep intervening valleys, all covered by
one thick, dusky mass of forest. The atmosphere, likewise,
in this climate, where gale succeeds gale, with rain, hail, and
sleet, seems blacker than anywhere else. In the Strait of
Magellan, looking due southward from Port Famine, the
distant channels between the mountains appeared from their
gloominess to lead beyond the confines of this world.

December 21 if. — The got under weigh ; and on the

succeeding day, favoured to an uncommon degree by a fine
easterly breeze, we closed in with the Barnevelts, and running
past Cape Deceit with its stony peaks, about three o’clock
doubled the weather-beaten Cape Honi. The evening was
calm and bright, and we enjoyed a fine view of the surround-
ing isles. Cape Horn, however, demanded his tribute, and
before night sent us a gale of wind directly in our teeth. We
stood out to sea, and on the second day again made the land,
when we saw on our weather-bow this notorious promontory
in its proper form — veiled in a mist, and its dim outline
surrounded by a storm of wind and water. Great black

CAPE HORX.

i7b Jacc p. 201.

CAI'E JIOKN (A.NOlUEK \ IEVV),

TIERllA DEL FUEGO

213

clouds were rolling across the heavens, and squalls of rain,
with hail, swept by us with such extreme violence that the
Captain determined to run into Wigwam Cove. This is a
snug little harbour, not far from Cape Horn ; and here, at
Christmas Eve, we anchored in smooth water. The only thing
which reminded us of the gale outside, was every now and
then a puff from the mountains, which made the ship surge at
her anchors.

December 25th. — Close by the cove, a painted hill, called
Rater’s Peak, rises to the height of 1700 feet. The surround-
ing islands all consist of conical masses of greenstone,
associated sometimes with less regular hills of baked and
altered clay-slate. This part of Tierra del Fuego may be con-
sidered as the extremity of the submerged chain of mountains
already alluded to. The cove takes its name of “ Wigwam ”
from some of the Fuegian habitations ; but every bay in the
neighbourhood might be so called with equal propriety. The
inhabitants, living chiefly upon shell-fish, are obliged con-
stantly to change their place of residence ; but they return at
intervals to the same spots, as is evident fi'om the piles of old
shells, which must often amount to many tons in weight.
These heaps can be distinguished at a long distance by the
bright green colour of certain plants which invariably grow on
them. Among these may be enumerated the wild celery and
scurvy grass, two very serviceable plants, the use of which has
not been discovered by the natives.

The Fuegian wigwam resembles, in size and dimensions, a
haycock. It merely consists of a few broken branches stuck
in the ground, and very imperfectly thatched on one side with
a few tufts of grass and rushes. The whole cannot be the
work of an hour, and it is only used for a few days. At
Goeree Roads I saw a place where one of these naked men
had slept, which absolutely offered no more cover than the
form of a hare. The man was evidently living by himself,
and York Minster said he was “ very bad man,” and that prob-
ably he had stolen something. On the west coast, however,
the wigwams are rather better, for they are covered with seal-
skins. We were detained here several days by the bad
weather. The climate is certainly wretched : the summer
solstice was now passed, yet every day snow fell on the hills,
and in the valleys there was rain, accompanied by sleet. The

214.

TIERRA DEL FUEGO

Ihennoineter generally stood about 45°, but in the night fell
to 38° or 40°. From the damp and boisterous state of the
atmosphere, not cheered by a gleam of sunshine, one fancied
the climate even worse than it really was.

While going one day on shore near Wollaston Island, we
pulled alongside a canoe with six Fuegians. These were the
most abject and miserable creatures I anywhere beheld. On
the east coast the natives, as we have seen, have guanaco
cloaks, and on the west they possess seal-skins. Amongst
these central tribes the men generally have an otter-skin, or
some small scrap about as large as a pocket-handkerchief,
which is barely sufficient to cover their backs as low down as
their loins. It is laced across the breast by strings, and ac-
cording as the wind blows, it is shifted from side to side.
But these Fuegians in the canoe were quite naked, and even
one full-grown woman was absolutely so. It Avas raining
heavily, and the fresh water', together with the spray, trickled
down her body. In another harbour not far distant, a woman,
who was suckling a recently-born child, came one day aloirg-
side the vessel, and remained there out of mere curiosity,
whilst the sleet fell and thawed on her naked bosom, and on
the skin of her naked baby ! These poor wretches were
stunted in their growth, their hideous faces bedaubed with
white paint, their skins filthy and greasy, their hair entangled,
their voices discordant, and their gestures violent. Viewing
such men, one can hardly make oneself believe that they are
fellow-creatures, and inhabitants of the same world. It is a
common subject of conjecture what pleasure in life some of
the lower animals can enjoy ; how much more reasonably the
same question may be asked with respect to these barbarians!
At night five or six human beings, naked and scarcely pro-
tected from the wind and rain of this tempestuous climate,
sleep on the wet ground, coiled up like animals. Whenever
it is low water, winter or summer, night or day, they must
rise to pick shell-fish from the rocks ; and the women either
dive to collect sea-eggs, or sit patiently in their canoes, and
with a baited hair-line without any hook jerk out little fish.
If a seal is killed, or the floating carcass of a putrid Avhale
discovered, it is a feast ; and such miserable food is assisted
by a few tasteless berries and fimgi.

They often sulfer from famine : I heard Mr Low, a sealing-

TIERRA DEL FUECO

215

master intimately acquainted with the natives of this country,
give a curious account of the state of a party of one hundred
and fifty natives on the west coast, who were very thin and
in great distress. A succession of gales prevented the women
from getting shell-fish on the rocks, and they could not go
out in their canoes to catch seal. A small party of these men
one morning set out, iind the other Indians explained to him,
that they w'ere going a four days’ journey for food ; on their
return Low went to meet them, and he found them exces-
sively tired, each man carrying a great square piece of putritl
whales’ blubber with a hole in the middle, through which
they put their heads, like the Gauchos do through their
ponchos or cloaks. As soon as the blubber was brought into
a wigwam, an old man cut off thin slices, and muttering over
them, broiled them for a minute, and distributed them to the
famished party, who during this time preserved a profound
silence. Mr Low believes that whenever a whale is cast on
shore, the natives bury large pieces of it in the sand as a
resource in time of famine ; and a native boy, whom he had
on board, once found a stock thus buried. The different
tribes when at war are cannibals. From the concuiTent, but
quite independent evidence of the boy taken by Mr Low, and
of Jemmy Button, it is certainly true, that when pressed in
winter by hunger, they kill and devour their old women
before they kill their dogs ; the boy, being asked by Mr Low
why they did this, answered, “ Doggies catch otters, old
women no.” This boy described the mamier in which they
are killed by being held over smoke and thus choked ; he
imitated their screams as a joke, and described the parts of
their bodies which are considered best to eat. Horrid as
such a death by the hands of their friends and relatives must
be, the fears of the old women, when hunger begins to press,
are more painful to think of ; w'e were told that they then
often run away into the mountains, but that they are pursued
by the men, and brought back to the slaughterhouse at their
o^v^l firesides !

Captain Fitz Roy could never ascertain that the Fuegians
have any distinct belief in a future life. They sometimes
bmy their dead in caves, and sometimes in the mountain
forests ; we do not know what ceremonies they perform.
Jemmy Button would not eat land-birds, because eat dead

216

FUEGIANS

men”; they are unwilling even to mention their dead friends.
We have no reason to believe that they perform any sort of
religious worship ; though perhaps the muttering of the old
man before he distributed the putrid blubber to his famished
party, may be of this nature. Each family or tribe has a
wizard or conjuring doctor, whose office we could never
clearly ascertain. Jemmy believed in dreams, though not, as
I have said, in the devil : I do not think that our Fuegians
were much more superstitious than some of the sailors; for an
old quartermaster firmly believed that the successive heavy
gales which we encountered off Cape Horn were caused by
our having the Fuegians on board. The nearest approach
to a religious feeling which I heard of was shown by York
Minster, who, when Mr Bynoe shot some very young duck-
lings as specimens, declared in the most solemn manner, “ O
Mr Bynoe, much rain, snow, blow much.” This was evidently
a retributive punishment for wasting human food. In a wild
and excited manner he also related that his brother, one day
whilst returning to pick up some dead birds which he had
left on the coast, observed some feathers blown by the wind.
His brother said (York imitating his manner), “ What that ?”
and crawling onwards, he peeped over the cliff, and saw “wild
man ” picking his birds ; he crawled a little nearer, and then
hurled down a great stone and killed him. York declared for
a long time afterwards storms raged, and much rain and snow
fell. As far as we could make out, he seemed to consider the
elements themselves as the avenging agents : it is evident in
this case, how naturally, in a race a little more advanced in
culture, the elements would become personified. What the
“ bad wild men ” were, has always appeared to me most
mysterious ; from what York said, when we found the place
like the form of a hare, where a single man had slept the
night before, I should have thought that they were thieves
who had been driven from their tribes, but other obscure
speeches made me doubt this ; I have sometimes imagined
that the most probable explanation was that they were
insane.

The different tribes have no government or chief ; yet each
is surrounded by other hostile tribes, speaking different
dialects, ;uid separated from each other only by a deserted
border or neutral territory : the cause of their warfiire appears

FUEGIANS

217

to be the means of subsistence. Their country is a broken
mass of wild rocks, lofty hills, and useless forests ; and these
are viewed through mists and endless storms. The habitable
land is reduced to the stones on the beach ; in search of food
they are compelled unceasingly to wander from spot to spot,
and so steep is the coast that they can only move about in
their wretched canoes. They cannot know the feeling of
having a home, and still less that of domestic affection ; for
the husband is to the wife a brutal master to a laborious
slave. Was a more horrid deed ever perpetrated than that
witnessed on the west coast by Byron, who saw a wretched
mother pick up her bleeding dying infant boy, whom her
husband had mercilessly dashed on the stones for dropping a
basket of sen-eggs? How little can the higher powers of the
mind be brought into play : w’hat is there for imagination to
picture, for reason to compare, for judgment to decide upon ?
To knock a limpet from the rock does not require even
cunning, that lowest power of the mind. Their skill in some
respects may be compared to the instinct of animals ; for it is
not improved by experience : the canoe, their most ingenious
work, poor as it is, has remained the same, as we know from
Drake, for the last two hundred and fifty years.

Whilst beholding these savages, one asks, whence have they
come ? What could have tempted, or what change compelled
a tribe of men to leave the fine regions of the north, to travel
down the Cordillera or backbone of America, to invent and
build canoes, which are not used by the tribes of Chile, Peru,
and Brazil, and then to enter on one of the most inhospitable
countries within the limits of the globe ? Although such re-
flections must at first seize on the mind, yet Ave may feel sure
that they are partly erroneous. There is no reason to believe
that the Fuegians decrease in number ; therefore we must
suppose that they enjoy a sufficient share of happiness, of
Avhatever kind it may be, to render life worth having.
Nature, by making habit omnipotent, and its effects hei'edi-
tary, has fitted the Fuegian to the climate and the produc-
tions of his miserable country.

After having been detained six days in Wigwam Cove by
very bad weather, we put to sea on the 30th of December.
Captain Fitz Roy wished to get westwai'd to land York and
Fuegia in their OAvn country. When at sea we had a constant

218

TIRRRA DEL FUEGO

succession of gales^ and the current was against us: we drifted
to 57° 23' south. On the 11th of January 1833^ by caiTying
a press of sail^ we fetched within a few miles of the great
rugged mountain of York Minster (so called by Cajitain Cook,
and the oi’igin of the name of the elder Fuegian), when a
violent squall compelled us to shorten sail and stand out to
sea. The surf was breaking fearfully on the coast, and the
spray was carried over a cliff estimated at two hundred feet in
height. On the 12th the gale was very heavy, and we did
not know exactly where we were : it Avas a most unpleasant
sound to hear constantly repeated, “ Keep a good look-out to
leeward.” On the 13th the stoi'm raged with its full fury;
our horizon was narrowly limited by the sheets of spray borne
by the wind. The sea looked ominous, like a dreary waving
plain with patches of drifted snow ; whilst the ship laboured
heavily, the albatross glided with its expanded wings right up
the wind. At noon a great sea broke over us, and filled one
of the whale-boats, which was obliged to be instantly cut
away. The poor Beagle trembled at the shock, and for a few
minutes would not obey her helm ; but soon, like a good ship
that she was, she righted and came up to the wind again.
Had another sea followed the first our fate would have been
decided soon, and for ever. We had now been twenty-four
days trying in vain to get westward ; the men were worn out
with fatigue, and they had not had for many nights or days a
dry thing to put on. Captain Fitz Roy gave up the attempt
to get westward by the outside coast. In the evening we ran
in behind False Cape Horn, and dropped our anchor in forty-
seven fathoms, fire flashing from the windlass as the chain
rushed round it. How delightful was that still night, after
having been so long involved in the din of the Avarring
elements.

Januarij \5lli, 1833. — The Beagle anchored in Goeree Roads.
Captain Fitz Roy having resolved to settle the Fuegians ac-
cording to their wishes, in Ponsonby Sound, four boats Avere
equipped to carry them there through the Beagle Channel.
This channel, which was discovered by Captain Fitz Roy
during the last voyage, is a most remarkable feature in the
geography of this, or indeed of any other country ; it may be
compared to the valley of Loch Ness in Scotland, Avith its
chain of lakes and friths. It is about one hundred and

TIERIL\ DEL FUEGO

21!)

twenty miles lon^, with an average breadth, not subject to
any very great variation, of about two miles ; and is tlirough-
out the greater part so perfeetly straight, that the view,
bounded on each side by a line of mountains, gradually
becomes indistinct in the long distance. It crosses the
southern part of Tierra del Fuego in an east and west line,
and in the middle is joined at right angles on the south
side by an irregular channel, which has been called Ponsonby
Sound. This is the residence of Jemmy Button’s tribe and
family.

January — Three whale boats and the yawl, with a

party of twenty-eight, started under the command of Captain
Fitz Roy. In the afternoon we entered the eastern mouth
of the channel, and shortly afterwards found a snug little
cove concealed by some surrounding islets. Here we pitched
our tents and lighted our fires. Nothing could look more
comfortable than this scene. The glassy water of the little
harbour, with the branches of the trees hanging over the
rocky beach, the boats at anchor, the tents supported by the
crossed oars, and the smoke curling up the wooded valley,
formed a picture of quiet retirement. The next day (20th)
we smoothly glided onwards in our little fleet, and came to a
more inhabited district. Few if any of these natives could
ever have seen a white man ; certainly nothing could exceed
their astonishment at the apparition of the four boats. Fires
were lighted on eveiy point (hence the name of Tierra del
Fuego, or the land of fire), both to attract our attention and
to spread far and wide the news. Some of the men ran for
miles along the shore. I shall never forget how wild and
savage one group appeared : suddenly four or five men came
I to the edge of an overhanging cliff ; they were absolutely
naked, and their long hair streamed about their faces : they
i held rugged staffs in their hands, and, springing from the
ground, they waved their arms round their heads, and sent
forth the most hideous yells.

At dinner-time we landed among a party of Fuegians. At
f first they were not inclined to be friendly ; for until the
i Captain pulled in ahead of the other boats, they kept their
i slings in their hands. We soon, however, delighted them by
f trifling presents, such as tying red tape round their heads.
[ They liked our biscuit ; but one of the savages touched with

220

TIERRA DEL FUEGO

his finger some of the meat preserved In tin cases which I was
eating, and feeling it soft and cold, showed as much disgust
at it as I should have done at putrid blubber. Jemmy was
thoroughly ashamed of his countrymen, and declared his own
tribe were quite different, in which he was wofully mistaken.
It was as easy to please as it was difficult to satisfy these
savages. Young and old, men and children, never ceased
repeating the word “yammerschooner,” which means “give
me.” After pointing to almost every object, one after the
other, even to the buttons on our coats, and saying their
favourite word in as many intonations as possible, they would
then use it in a neuter sense, and vacantly repeat “ yammer-
schooner.” After yammerschoonering for any article very
eagerly, they would by a simple artifice point to their young
women or little children, as much as to say, “ If you will not
give it me, surely you will to such as these.”

At night we endeavoured in vain to find an uninhabited
cove ; and at last were obliged to bivouac not far from a party
of natives. They were very inoffensive as long as they were
few in numbers, but in the morning (21st), being joined by
others, they showed symptoms of hostility, and we thought
that we should have come to a skirmish. An European
labours under great disadvantages when treating with savages
like these, who have not the least idea of the power of fire-
arms. In the very act of levelling his musket he appears to
the savage far inferior to a man armed with a bow and arrow,
a spear, or even a sling. Nor is it easy to teach them our
superiority except by striking a fatal blow. Like wild beasts,
they do not appear to compare numbers ; for each individual,
if attacked, instead of retiring, will endeavour to dash your
brains out with a stone, as certainly as a tiger under similar
circumstances would tear you. Captain Fitz Roy on one
occasion being very anxious, from good reasons, to frighten
away a small party, first flourished a cutlass near them, at
which they only laughed ; he then twice fired his pistol close
to a native. The man both times looked astounded, and
carefully but quickly rubbed his head ; he then stared awhile,
and gabbled to his companions, but he never seemed to think
of running away. We can hardly put ourselves in the position
of these savages, and understand their actions. In the case
of this Fuegian, the possibility of such a sound as the report

TIERRA DEL FUEGO

221

of a gun close to his ear could never have entered his mind.
He perhaps literally did not for a second know whether it
was a sound or a blow, and therefore very naturally rubbed
his head. In a similar manner, when a savage sees a mark
struck by a bullet, it may be some time before he is able at
all to understand how it is effected ; for the fact of a body
being invisible from its velocity would perhaps be to him an
idea totally inconceivable. Moreover, the extreme force of a
bullet that penetrates a hard substance without tearing it,
may convince the savage that it has no force at all. Certainly
I believe that many savages of the lowest grade, such as these
of Tierra del Fuego, have seen objects struck, and even small
animals killed by the musket, without being in the least
aware how deadly an instrument it is.

January 22nd. — After having passed an unmolested night,
in what would appear to be neutral territory between
Jemmy’s tribe and the people whom we saw yesterday, we
sailed pleasantly along. I do not know anything which shows
more clearly the hostile state of the different tribes than these
wide border or neutral tracts. Although Jemmy Button
well knew the force of our party, he was, at first, unwilling to
land amidst the hostile tribe nearest to his own. He often
told us how the savage Oens men, “ when the leaf red,”
crossed the mountains from the eastern coast of Tierra del
Fuego, and made inroads on the natives of this part of the
country. It was most curious to watch him when thus talking,
and see his eyes gleaming, and his whole face assume a new
and wild exjjression. As we proceeded along the Beagle
Channel, the scenery assumed a peculiar and very magnificent
character; but the effect was much lessened from the lowness
of the point of view in a boat, and from looking along the
valley, and thus losing all the beauty of a succession of
ridges. The mountains were here about three thousand feet
high, and terminated in sharp and jagged points. They rose
in one unbroken sweep from the water’s edge, and were
covered to the height of fourteen or fifteen hundred feet by
the dusky-coloured forest. It was most curious to observe,
as far as the eye could range, how level and truly horizontal
the line on the mountain side was at which trees ceased to
grow ; it precisely resembled the high-water mark of drift-
weed on a sea-beach.

222

TIERUA DEL FUEGO

At night we slept close to the junction of Ponsonby Sound
with the Beagle Channel. A small family of Fuegians, who
were living in the cove, were quiet and inoffensive, and soon
joined our party round a blazing fire. We were well clothed,
and though sitting close to the fire were far from too warm ;
yet these naked savages, though farther off, were observed,
to our great surprise, to be streaming with perspiration at
undergoing such a roasting. They seemed, however, very
well pleased, and all joined in the chorus of the seamen’s
songs ; but the manner in which they were invariably a little
behindhand was quite ludicrous.

During the night the news had spread, and early in the
morning (23rd) a fresh party arrived, belonging to the
Tekenika, or Jemmy’s tribe. Several of them had run so fast
that their noses were bleeding, and their mouths frothed
from the rapidity with which they talked ; and with their
naked bodies all bedaubed with black, white,* and red, they
looked like so many demoniacs who had been fighting. We
then proceeded (accompanied by twelve canoes, each holding
four or five people) down Ponsonby Sound to the spot where
poor Jemmy expected to find his mother and relatives. He
had already heard that his father was dead ; but as he had
had a dream in his head ” to that effect, he did not seem to
care much about it, and repeatedly comforted himself with
the very natural reflection — “ Me no help it.” He was not
able to learn any particulars regarding his father’s death, as
his relations would not speak about it.

Jemmy was now in a district well known to him, and
guided the boats to a quiet pretty cove named Woollya,
surrounded by islets, every one of w'hich and every point had
its proper native name. We found here a family of Jemmy’s

* This substance, when dry, is tolerably compact, and of little specific
gravity : Professor Ehrenberg has examined it ; he states {Konig Akad. dtr
Wissen; Berlin, Feb. 1845) that it is composed of infusoria, including
fourteen polygastrica, and four phytolitharia. He says that they are all
inhabitants of fresh-water ; this is a beautiful example of the results obtain-
able through Professor Ehrenberg’s miscroscopic researches ; for Jemmy
Button told me that it is always collected at the bottoms of mountain-
brooks. It is, moreover, a striking fact in the geographical distribution of
the infusoria, which are well known to have very wide ranges, that all the
species in this substance, although brought from the extreme southern point
of Tierra del Fuego, arc old, known forms.

SETTLEMENT AT WOOLLYA

223

tribe, but not his relations ; we made friends with them, and
in the evening they sent a canoe to inform Jemmy’s mother
and brothers. Tlie cove was bordered by some acres of good
sloping land, not covered (as elsewhere) either by peat or by
forest-trees. Captain Fitz Roy originally intended, as before
stated, to have taken York Minster and Fuegia to their own
tribe on the west coast ; but as they expressed a wish to
remain here, and as the spot was singularly favourable.
Captain Fitz Roy determined to settle here the whole party,
including Matthews, the missionary. Five days were spent
in building for them three large wigwams, in landing their
goods, in digging two gardens, and sowing seeds.

The next morning after our arrival (the 24th) the Fuegians
began to pour in, and Jemmy’s mother and brothers arrived.
Jemmy recognised the stentorian voice of one of his brothers
at a prodigious distance. The meeting was less interesting
than that betAveen a horse, turned out into a field, when he
joins an old companion. I'here was no demonstration of
affection ; they simply stai-ed for a short time at each other ;
and the mother immediately went to look after her canoe.
We heard, however, through York, that the mother had been
inconsolable for the loss of Jemmy, and had searched every-
where for him, thinking that he might have been left after
having been taken in the boat. The women took much
notice of, and were very kind to, Fuegio. We had already
perceived that Jemmy had almost forgotten his own language.
I should think there was scarcely another human being with
so small a stock of language, for his English was very imperfect.
It Avas laughable, but almost pitiable, to hear him speak to
his Avild brother in English, and then ask him in Spanish
(“no sabe ? ”) Avhether he did not understand him.

Everything went on peaceably during the three next days,
whilst the gardens Avere digging and wigwams building. We
estimated the number of natives at about one hundred and
twenty. 'The Avomen AAwked hard, Avhilst the men lounged
about all day long, watching us. They asked for everything
they saw and stole what they could. 'They Avere delighted at
our dancing and singing, and were particularly interested at
seeing us wash in a neighbouring brook ; they did not pay
much attention to anything else, not even to our boats. Of
all the things wliich 'i'ork saw, during his absence from his

224

SETTLEMENT AT WOOLLYA

country^ nothing seems moi’e to have astonished him than an
ostrich near Maldonado : breathless with astonishment he
came running to Mr Bynoe, with whom he was out walking —
" O Mr Bynoe, oh ! bird all same horse ! ” Much as our white
skins surprised the natives^ by Mr Low’s account, a negro-cook
to a sealing vessel did so more effectually ; and the poor
fellow was so mobbed and shouted at that he would never go
on shore again. Everything went on so quietly, that some of
the officers and myself took long walks in the surrounding
hills and woods. Suddenly, however, on the 27th, every
woman and child disappeared. We were all uneasy at this,
as neither York nor Jemmy could make out the cause. It
was thought by some that they had been frightened by our
cleaning and firing of our muskets on the previous evening ;
by others, that it was owing to offence taken by an old savage,
who, when told to keep farther off, had coolly spit in the
sentry’s face, and had then, by gestures acted over a sleeping
Fuegian, plainly showed, as it was said, that he should like
to cut up and eat our man. Captain Fitz Roy, to avoid the
chance of an encoimter, which would have been fatal to so
many of the Fuegians, thought it advisable for us to sleep at
a cove a few miles distant. Matthews, Avith his usual quiet
fortitude (remarkable in a man apparently possessing little
energy of character), determined to stay with the Fuegians,
who evinced no alarm for themselves ; and so Ave left them to
pass their first aAvful night.

On our return in the morning (28th) we Avere delighted to
find all quiet, and the men employed in their canoes spearing
fish.

Captain Fitz Roy determined to send the yawl and one
whale boat back to the ship ; and to proceed Avith the tAvo
other boats, one under his OAvn command (in Avhich he most
kindly allowed me to accompany him), and one under Mr
Hammond, to survey the westeim parts of the Beagle Channel,
and afterwards to return and visit the settlement. The day,
to our astonishment, was overpoweringly hot, so that our skins
were scorched ; with this beautiful Aveather, the view in the
middle of the Beagle Channel Avas very remarkable. Looking
towards either hand, no object intercepted the vanishing
points of this long canal betAveen the mountauis. The
circumstance of its being an arm of the sea A\’as rendered A crj'

TIERRA DEL FUEGO

225

evident by several huge whales* spouting in diffei'ent direc-
tions. On one occasion I saw two of these monsters, probably
male and female, slowly swimming one after the other, within
less than a stone’s-throw of the shore, over which the beech-
tree extended its branches.

We sailed on till it was dark and then pitched our tents in
a quiet creek. The greatest luxury was to find for our beds a
beach of pebbles, for they were dry and yielding to the body.
Peaty soil is damp ; rock is uneven and hard ; sand gets into
one’s meat when cooked and eaten boat-fashion ; but when
Ijing in our blanket-bags, on a good bed of smooth pebbles,
we passed most comfortable nights.

It was my watch till one o’clock. There is something
very solemn in these scenes. At no time does the conscious-
ness in what a remote corner of the world you are then
standing come so strongly before the mind. Everything
tends to this effect ; the stillness of the night is interrupted
only by the heavy breathing of the seamen beneath the
tents, and sometimes by the cry of a night-bird. The
occasional barking of a dog, heard in the distance, reminds
one that it is the land of the savage.

January 2^lh. — Early in the morning we arrived at the
point where the Beagle Channel divides into two arms ; and
we entered the northern one. The scenery here becomes
even grander than before. The lofty mountains on the
north side compose the granitic axis, or backbone of the
country, and boldly rise to a height of between three and
four thousand feet, with one peak above six thousand feet.
They are covered by a wide mantle of perpetual snow, and
numerous cascades pour their waters, through the woods,
into the narrow channel below. In many parts, magnificent
glaciers extend from the mountain side to the water’s edge.
It is scarcely possible to imagine anything more beautiful
than the beryl-like blue of these glaciers, and especially as
contrasted with the dead white of the upper expanse of
snow. The fragments which had fallen from the glacier
into the water were floating away, and the channel with

* One day, off the east coast of Tierra del Fuego, we saw a grand sight
in several spermaceti whales jumping upright quite out of the water, with
the exception of their tail-fins. As they fell down sideways, they splashed
the water high up, and the sound reverberated like a distant broadside.

P

226

TIERRA DEL FUEGO

its icebergs presented, for the space of a mile, a miniature
likeness of the Polar Sea. The boats being hauled on shore
at our dinner-hour, we were admiring from the distance of
half-a-mile a perpendicular cliff of ice, and were wishing
that some more fragments would fall. At last, down came
a mass with a roaring noise, and immediately we saw the
smooth outline of a wave travelling towards us. The men
ran down as quickly as they could to the boats ; for the
chance of their being dashed to pieces was evident. One
of the seamen just caught hold of the bows as the curling
breaker reached it ; he was knocked over and over, but not
hurt ; and the boats, though thrice lifted on high and let
fall again, received no damage. This was most fortunate
for us, for we were a hundred miles distant from the ship,
and we should have been left without provisions or firearms.
I had previously observed that some large fragments of rock
on the beach had been lately displaced ; but until seeing
this wave, I did not understand the cause. One side of
the creek was formed by a spur of mica-slate ; the head
by a cliff of ice about forty feet high ; and the other side
by a promontory fifty feet high, built up of huge rounded
fragments of granite and mica-slate, out of which old
trees were growing. This promontory was evidently a
moraine, heaped up at a period when the glacier had
greater dimensions.

Wlien we reached the western mouth of this northern
branch of the Beagle Channel, we sailed amongst many
unknown desolate islands, and the weather was ■WTetchedly
bad. We met with no natives. The coast was almost
everywhere so steep that we had several times to pull many
miles before we could find space enough to pitch our two
tents ; one night we slept on large round boulders, wdth
putrefying seaweed between them ; and when the tide rose,
we had to get up and move our blanket-bags. The farthest
point westward which we reached was Stewart Island, a
distance of about one hundred and fifty miles from our
ship. We returned into the Beagle Channel by the southern
.arm, and thence proceeded, with no adventure, back to
Ponsonby Sound.

February Qth. — We arrived at Woollya. Matthews gave so
bad an accoimt of the conduct of the Fuegians that Captain

TIERRA DEL FUEGO

227

Fitz Roy determined to take him back to the Beagle ; and
ultimately he M'as left at New Zealand, where his brother
was a missionary. From the time of our leaving, a regular
system of plunder commenced ; fresh parties of the natives
kept arriving; York and Jemmy lost many things, and
Matthews almost everything which had not been concealed
underground. Every article seemed to have been torn up
and divided by the natives. Matthews described the watch
he was obliged always to keep as most harassing ; night
and day he was surrounded by the natives, who tried to
tire him out by making an incessant noise close to his head.
One day an old man, whom Matthews asked to leave his
wigwam, immediately returned with a large stone in his hand;
another day a whole party came armed with stones and
stakes, and some of the younger men and Jemmy’s brother
w'ere crying ; Matthews met them with presents. Another
party showed by signs that they wished to strip him naked,
and pluck all the hairs out of his face and body. I think we
arrived just in time to save his life. Jemmy’s relatives had
been so vain and foolish, that they had shown to strangers
their plunder, and their manner of obtaining it. It was
quite melancholy leaving the three Fuegians with their
savage countrymen ; but it was a great comfort that they had
no personal fears. York, being a pow'erful, resolute man,
was pretty sure to get on well, together with his wife Fuegia.
Poor Jemmy looked rather disconsolate, and w'ould then, I
have little doubt, have been glad to have returned with us.
His own brother had stolen many things from him ; and
as he remarked, “What fashion call that?” he abused his
countrj'men, “all bad men, no sabe (know) nothing,” and,
though I never heard him swear before, “damned fools.”
Our three Fuegians, though they had been only three years
with civilised men, would, I am sure, have been glad to
have retained their new habits ; but this was obviously
impossible. I fear it is more than doubtful whether their
visit will have been of any use to them.

In the evening, with Matthew's on board, we made sail back
to the ship, not by the Beagle Channel, but by the southern
coast. The boats were heavily laden and the sea rough,
and we had a dangerous passage. By the evening of the
7th we were on board the Beagle after an absence of twenty

228

FUEGIANS

days, during which time we had gone three hundred miles
in the open boats. On the 11th, Captain Fitz Roy paid
a visit by himself to the Fuegians, and found them going
on well ; and that they had lost very few more things.

On the last day of February in the succeeding year (1834)
the Beagle anchored in a beautiful little cove at the eastern
entrance of the Beagle Channel. Captain Fitz Roy deter-
mined on the bold and, as it proved, successful attempt to
beat against the westerly winds by the same route which
we had followed in the boats to the settlement at Woollya.
We did not see many natives until we were near Ponsonby
Sound, where we were followed by ten or twelve canoes.
The natives did not at all understand the reason of our
tacking, and, instead of meeting us at each tack, vainly
strove to follow us in our zig-zag course. I was amused
at finding what a difference the circumstance of being quite
superior in force made, in the interest of beholding these
savages. While in the boats 1 got to hate the very sound
of their voices, so much trouble did they give us. The
first and last word was ‘^^yammerschooner.” When, entering
some quiet little cove, we have looked round and thought
to pass a quiet night, the odious word “ yammerschooner ”
has shrilly sounded from some gloomy nook, and then the
little signal-smoke has curled up to spread the news far and
wide. On leaving some place we have said to each other,
'‘Thank heaven, we have at last fairly left these wretches!”
when one more faint halloo from an all-powerful voice, heard
at a prodigious distance, would reach our ears, and clearly
could we distinguish “yammerschooner.” But now, the
more Fuegians the merrier; and very merry work it was.
Both parties laughing, wondering, gaping at each other ;
we pitying them for giving us good fish and crabs for rags,
etc. ; they grasping at the chance of finding people so foolish
as to exchange such splendid ornaments for a good supper.
It was most amusing to see the undisguised smile of satis-
faction with which one young woman, with her face painted
black, tied several bits of scarlet cloth round her head with
rushes. Her husband, who enjoyed the very universal
privilege in this country of possessing two wives, evidently
became jealous of all the attention paid to his young wife,

FUEGIANS

229

and, after a consultation with his naked beauties, was
paddled away by them.

Some of the Fuegians plainly showed that they had a
fair notion of barter. I gave one man a large nail (a most
valuable present) without making any signs for a return ;
but he immediately picked out two fish, and handed them
up on the point of his spear. If any present was designed
for one canoe, and it fell near another, it was invariably
given to the right owner. The Fuegian boy, whom Mr
Low had on board, shorwed, by going into the most violent
passion, that he quite understood the reproach of being
called a liar, which in truth he was. We were this time,
as on all former occasions, much sui-prised at the little
notice, or rather none whatever, which was taken of many
things, the use of which must have been evident to the
natives. Simple circumstances — such as the beauty of scarlet
cloth or blue beads, the absence of women, our care in wash-
ing ourselves — excited their admiration far more than any
grand or complicated object, such as our ship. Bougainville
has well remarked concerning these people, that they treat
the “chef-d’ceuvres de I’industrie humaine, comme ils traitent
les loix de la nature et ses phenom^nes.”

On the 5tli of March we anchored in the cove at Woollya,
but we saw not a soul there. We were alarmed at this,
for the natives in Ponsonby Sound showed by gestures that
there had been fighting ; and we afterwards heard that the
dreaded Oens men had made a descent. Soon a canoe, with
a little flag flying, was seen approaching, with one of the
men in it washing the paint off his face. This man was
poor Jemmy, — now a thin haggard savage, with long dis-
ordered hair, and naked, except a bit of a blanket round
his waist. We did not recognise him till he was close to
us ; for he was ashamed of himself, and turned his back to
the ship. We had left him plump, fat, clean, and well
dressed ; — I never saw so complete and grievous a change.
As soon, however, as he was clothed, and the first fliuTy
was over, things wore a good appearance. He dined with
Captain Fitz Roy, and ate his dinner as tidily as formerly
He told us he had “too much” (meaning enough) to eat,
that he was not cold, that his relations were very good
people, and that he did not wish to go back to England ;

230

FUEGIANS

in the evening we found out the cause of this great change
in Jemmy’s feelings, in the arrival of his young and nice-
looking wife. With his usual good feeling, he brought two
beautiful otter-skins for two of his best friends, and some
spear-heads and an’ows made with his own hands for the
Captain. He said he had built a canoe for himself, and he
boasted that he could talk a little of his own language !
But it is a most singular fact, that he appears to have
taught all his tribe some English : an old man spontaneously
announced “Jemmy Button’s wife.” Jemmy had lost all his
property. He told us that York Minster had built a large
canoe, and with his wife Fuegia,* had several months since
gone to his own country, and had taken farewell by an act
of consummate villainy; he persuaded Jemmy and his mother
to come with him, and then on the way deserted them by
night, stealing every article of their property.

Jemmy went to sleep on the shore, and in the morning
returned, and remained on board till the ship got under
weigh, which frightened his wife, who continued crying
violently till he got into his canoe. He returned loaded
with valuable property. Every soul on board was heartily
sorry to shake hands with him for the last time. I do not
now doubt that he will be as happy as, jDerhaps happier
than, if he had never left his own country. Every one
must sincerely hope that Captain Fitz Roy’s noble hope
may be fulfilled, of being rewarded for the many generous
sacrifices which he made for these Fuegians, by some ship-
wrecked sailor being protected by the descendants of Jemmy
Button and his tribe ! When Jemmy reached the shore he
lighted a signal fire, and the smoke curled up, bidding us
a last and long farewell, as the ship stood on her course
into the open sea.

The perfect equality among the individuals composing the
Fuegian tribes must for a long time retard their civilisation.
As we see those animals whose instinct compels them to live in

‘Captain Sulivan, who, since his voyage in the Beagle, has been em-
ployed on the survey of the Falkland Islands, heard from a sealer in
{1842?), that when in the western part of the Strait of Magellan, he was
astonished by a native woman coming on board, who could talk some
English. Without doubt this was Fuegia Basket. She lived (I fear the
term probably bears a double interpretation) some days on board.

FUEGIANS

231

society and obey a cliief are most capable of imi)rovement, so
is it with the races of mankind. Whether we look at it as a
cause or a consequence, the more civilised always have the
most artificial governments. For instance, the inhabitants
of Otaheite, who, when first discovered, were governed by
hereditary kings, had aiTived at a far higher grade than
another branch of the same people, the New Zealanders, —
who, although benefited by being compelled to turn their
attention to agriculture, were republicans in the most
absolute sense. In Tien’a del Fuego, until some chief shall
arise with power sufficient to secure any acquired advantage,
such as the domesticated animals, it seems scarcely possible
that the jDolitical state of the country can be improved. At
present, even a piece of cloth given to one is torn into shreds
and distributed : and no one individual becomes richer than
another. On the other hand, it is difficult to understand how
a chief can arise till there is property of some sort by which
he might manifest his superiority and increase his power.

I believe, in this extreme part of South America, man exists
in a low^er state of improvement than in any other part of the
world. The South Sea Islanders of the two races inhabiting
the Pacific are comparatively civilised. The Esquimaux, in his
subterranean hut, enjoys some of the comforts of life, and in
his canoe, when fully equipped, manifests much skill. Some
of the tribes of Southern Africa, prowding about in search of
roots, and living concealed on the wild and arid plains, are
sufficiently wretched. The Australian, in the simplicity of
the arts of life, comes nearest the Fuegian ; he can, however,
boast of his boomerang, his spear and throwing-stick, his
method of climbing trees, of tracking animals, and of hunting.
Although the Australian may be superior in acquirements, it
by no means follows that he is likewise superior in mental
capacity ; indeed, from what I saw of the Fuegians when on
board, and from what I have read of the Australians, I should
think the case was exactly the reverse.

CHAPTER XI

STRAIT OF MAGELLAN— CLIMATE OF THE
SOUTHERN COASTS

STRAIT OF MAGELLAN PORT FAMINE ASCENT OF MOUNT TARN

FORESTS EDIBLE FUNGUS ZOOLOGY GREAT SEAWEED

LEAVE TIERRA DEL FUEGO CLIMATE FRUIT TREES AND

PRODUCTIONS OF THE SOUTHERN COASTS HEIGHT OF SNOW-
LINE ON THE CORDILLERA DESCENT OF GLACIERS TO THE

SEA ICEBERGS FORMED TRANSPORTAL OF BOULDERS — ■

CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS OF THE ANTARCTIC ISLANDS

PRESERVATION OP FROZEN CARCASSES RECAPITULATION.

the end of May 1834 we entered for the second
time the eastern mouth of the Strait of Magellan.
The country on both sides of this part of the
Strait consists of nearly level plains, like those of
Patagonia. Cape Negro, a little within the second
Narrows, may be considered as the point where the land
begins to assume the marked features of Tierra del Fuego.
On the east coast, south of the Strait, broken park-like
scenery in a like manner connects these two countries, which
are opposed to each other in almost every feature. It is truly
surprising to find in a space of twenty miles such a change in
the landscape. If we take a rather greater distance, as be-
tween Port Famine and Gregory Bay — that is, about sixty
miles — the difference is still more wonderful. At the former
place we have rounded mountains concealed by impervious
forests, which are drenched with the rain, brought by an end-
less succession of gales ; while at Cape Gregory there is a
clear and bright blue sky over the dry and sterile plains. The
atmospheric currents,* although rapid, turbulent, and uncon-

* The south-westerly breezes are generally very dry. January 29th,
being at anchor under Cape Gregory: a very hard gale from W. by S.,
232

STRAIT OF MAGELLAN

233

fined by any apparent limits, yet seem to follow, like a river
in its bed, a regularly determined course.

During our previous visit (in January) we had an interview
at Cape Gregory with the famous so-called gigantic Pata-
gonians, who gave us a cordial reception. Their height
appears greater than it really is fi-om their large guanaco
mantles, their long flowing hair, and general figure ; on an
average their height is about six feet, with some men taller
and only a few shorter ; and the women are also tall ; alto-
gether they are certainly the tallest race which we anywhere
saw. In features they strikingly resemble the more northern
Indians whom I saw with Rosas, but they have a wilder and
more formidable appearance ; their faces were much painted
with red and black, and one man was ringed and dotted with
white like a Fuegian. Captain Fitz Roy offered to take any
three of them on board, and all seemed determined to be of
the three. It was long before we could clear the boat ; at
last we got on board with our three giants, who dined with
the Captain, and behaved quite like gentlemen, helping them-
selves with knives, forks, and spoons ; nothing was so much
relished as sugar. This tribe has had so much communication
with sealers and whalers that most of the men can speak
a little English and Spanish ; and they are half-civilised,
and proportionally demoralised.

The next morning a large party went on shore to barter for
skins and ostrich-feathers ; firearms being refused, tobacco
was in greatest request, far more so than axes or tools. The
whole population of the toldos, men, women, and children,
were arranged on a bank. It was an amusing scene, and it
was impossible not to like the so-called giants, they were
so thoroughly good-humoured and unsuspecting ; they asked us
to come again. They seem to like to have Europeans to live
wth them ; and old Maria, an important woman in the tribe,
once begged Mr Low to leave any one of his sailors with them.
They .spend the greater pail of the year here ; but in summer
they hunt along the foot of the Cordillera; sometimes they

clear sky with few cumuli ; temperature 57°, clew'-point 36° — difference 21°.
On January 15th, at Port St Julian : in the morning light winds with much
rain, followed by a very heavy squall with rain, — settled into heavy gale
with large cumuli, — cleared up, blowing very strong from S.S.W.;
temperature 60°, dew-point 42° — difference i8°.

234

PORT FAMINE

travel as far as tlie Rio Negro, seven hundred and fifty miles
to the north. They are well stocked with horses, each man
having, according to Mr Low, six or seven, and all the women,
and even children, their one own horse. In the time of Sar-
miento (1580), these Indians had bows and arrows, now long
since disused ; they then also possessed some horses. This is
a very curious fact, showing the extraordinarily rapid multipli-
cation of horses in South America. The horse was first landed
at Buenos Ayres in 1537, and the colony being then for a
time deserted, the horse ran wild*: in 1580, only forty-three
years afterwards, we hear of them at the Strait of Magellan I
Mr Low informs me that a neighbouring tribe of foot-lndians
is now changing into horse-Indians ; the tribe at Gregory Bay
giving them their worn-out horses, and sending in winter a
few of their best skilled men to hunt for them.

June Isl. — We anchored in the fine bay of Port Famine.
It was now the beginning of winter, and I never saw a more
cheerless prospect ; the dusky woods, piebald with snow, could
be only seen indistinctly through a drizzling hazy atmosphere.
We were, however, lucky in getting two fine days. On one
of these. Mount Sarmiento, a distant mountain 6800 feet high,
presented a very noble spectacle. I was frequently surprised,
in the scenery of Tierra del Fuego, at the little apparent
elevation of mountains really lofty. I suspect it is owing to a
cause which would not at first be imagined — namely, that the
whole mass, from the summit to the water’s edge, is generally
in full view. I remember having seen a mountain, first from
the Beagle Channel, where the whole sweep from the summit
to the base was full in view, and then from Ponsonby Sound,
across several successive ridges ; and it was curious to observe
in the latter case, as each fresh ridge afforded fresh means of
judging of the distanc'e, how the mountain rose in height.

Before reaching Port Famine, two men were seen running
along the shore and hailing the ship. A boat was sent for
them. They turned out to be two sailors who had run away
from a sealing-vessel, and had joined the Patagonians. These
Indians had treated them with their usual disinterested hos-
pitality. They had parted company through accident, and
were then proceeding to Port Famine, in hopes of finding

* Rengger, Natxir. der Saeugelhiere von Paraguay. S. 334.

PORT FAMINE

235

some ship. I daresay tliey were worthless vagabonds, but 1
never saw more miserable-looking ones. They had been
living for some days on mussel-shells and berries, and their
tattered clothes had been burnt by sleeping so near their
fires. They had been exposed night and day, without any
shelter, to the late incessant gales, with rain, sleet, and snow,
and yet they were in good health.

During our stay at Port Famine the Fuegians twice came
and plagued us. As there were many instruments, clothes,
and men on shore, it was thought necessary to frighten them
away. The first time a few great guns were fired, when they
were far distant. It was most ludicrous to watch through a
glass the Indians, as often as the shot struck the water, take
up stones and, as a bold defiance, tlirow them towards the
ship though about a mile and a-half distant ! A boat was
then sent with orders to fire a few musket-shots wide of them.
Tlie Fuegians hid themselves behind the trees, and for every
discharge of the muskets they fired their arrows ; all, however,
fell short of the boat, and the officer, as he pointed at them,
laughed. This made the Fuegians frantic with passion, and
they shook their mantles in vain rage. At last, seeing the balls
cut and strike the trees, they ran away, and we were left in
peace and quietness. During the former voyage the Fuegians
were here very ti'oublesome, and to frighten them a rocket was
fired at night over their wigwams ; it answered effectually,
and one of the officers told me that the clamour first raised,
and the barking of the dogs, was quite ludicrous in contrast
with the profound silence which in a minute or two afterwards
prevailed. The next morning not a single Fuegian was in
tlie neighbourhood.

When the Beagle was here in the month of February, I
started one morning at four o’clock to ascend Mount Tarn,
which is 2600 feet high, and is the most elevated point in this
immediate district. We went in a boat to the foot of the
mountain (but unluckily not to the best part), and then began
our ascent. The forest commences at the line of high-water
mark, and during the first two hours I gave over all hopes of
reaching the summit. So thick was the wood, that it was
necessary to have constant recourse to the compass ; for every
landmark, though in a mountainous country, was completely
shut out. In the deep ravines the death-like scene of

236

TIERRA DEL FUEGO

desolation exceeded all description ; outside it was blowing a
gale, but in these hollows not even a breath of wind stirred
the leaves of the tallest trees. So gloomy, cold, and wet was
every part, that not even the fungi, mosses, or ferns could
flourish. In the valleys it was sccircely possible to crawl
along, they were so completely barricaded by great moulder-
ing trunks, which had fallen down in every direction. When
passing ovei these natural bridges, one’s course was often
arrested by sinking knee-deep into the rotten wood ; at other
times, when attempting to lean against a firm tree, one was
startled by finding a mass of decayed matter ready to fall at
the slightest touch. We at last found ourselves among the
stunted trees, and then soon reached the bare ridge, which
conducted us to the summit. Here was a view characteristic
of Tierra del Fuego ; irregular chains of hills, mottled with
patches of snow, deep yellowish-green valleys, and arms of the
sea intersecting the land m many directions. The strong
wind was piercingly cold, and the atmosphere rather hazy, so
that we did not stay long on the top of the mountain. Our
descent was not quite so laborious as our ascent ; for the
weight of the body forced a passage, and all the slips and falls
were in the right direction.

I have already mentioned the sombre and dull character of
the evergreen forests,* in which two or three species of trees
grow, to the exclusion of all others. Above the forest land
there are many dwarf Alpine plants, which all spring from the
mass of peat, and help to compose it ; these plants are very
remarkable from their close alliance with the species growing
on the mountains of Europe, though so many thousand miles
distant. The central part of Tien-a del Fuego, where the
clay-slate formation occurs, is most favourable to the growth
of trees ; on the outer coast the poorer granitic soil, and a
situation more exposed to the violent winds, do not alloAv of

* Captain Fitz Roy informs me that in April (our October) the leaves of
those trees which grow near the base of the mountains change colour, but
not those on the more elevated parts. I remember having read some obser-
vations showing that in England the leaves fall earlier in a warm and fine
autumn than in a late and cold one. The change in the colour being here
retarded in the more elevated, and therefore colder situations, must be owing
to the same general law of vegetation. The trees of Tierra del Fuego
during no part of the year entirely shed their leaves.

TIERRA DEL FUEGO

237

their attaining any great size. Near Port Famine I have seen
more large trees than anywhere else : I measured a Winter’s
Bark which was four feet six inches in girth^ and several of
the beech were as much as thirteen feet. Captain King also
mentions a beech which was seven feet in diameter seventeen
feet above the roots.

There is one vegetable production deserving notice from
its importance as an article of food to the Fuegians. It
is a globular, bright-yellow fungus, which grows in vast
numbers on the beech-trees. When young it is elastic
and turgid, with a smooth surface ; but when mature it
shrinks, becomes tougher, and has its entire surface deeply
pitted or honeycombed. This fungus belongs to a new
and curious genus * ; I found a second species on another
species of beech in Chile ; and Dr Hooker informs me
that just lately a third species has been discovered on a
third species of beech in Van Diemen’s Land. How singular
is this relationship between parasitical fungi and the trees
on which they grow in distant parts of the world 1 In
Tierra del Fuego the fungus in its tough and mature state
is collected in large quantities by the women and children,
and is eaten uncooked. It has a mucilaginous, slightly
sweet taste, with a faint smell like that of a mushroom.
With the exception of a few berries, chiefly of a dwarf
arbutus, the natives eat no vegetable food beside this fungus.
In New Zealand, before the introduction of the potato, the
roots of the fern were largely consumed ; at the present
time, I believe, Tierra del Fuego is the only country in
the world where a cryptogamic plant affords a staple article
of food.

The zoology of Tierra del Fuego, as might have been
expected from the nature of its climate and vegetation, is
very poor. Of mammalia, besides whales and seals, there
is one bat, a kind of mouse (Reithrodoii chinchilloides), two
true mice, a ctenomys allied to or identical with the tucu-
tuco, two foxes {Canis MageUanicus and C. Azarcd), a sea-
otter, the guanaco, and a deer. Most of these animals

* Described from my specimens, and notes by the Rev. J. M. Berkeley*
in the Linnean Transactions (vol. xix. p. 37), under the name of Cyttaria
Darwinii'. the Chilian species is the C. Berteroii. This genus is allied
to Bulgaria.

238

ZOOLOGY

inhabit only the drier eastern parts of the country ; and the
deer has never been seen south of the Strait of Magellan.
Observing the general correspondence of the cliffs of soft
sandstone, mud, and shingle on the opposite sides of the
Strait, and on some intervening islands, one is strongly
tempted to believe that the land was once joined, and
thus allowed animals so delicate and helpless as the tucu-
tuco and Reithrodon to pass over. The correspondence of
the cliffs is far from proving any junction ; because such
cliffs generally are formed by the intersection of sloping
deposits, which, before the elevation of the land, had been
accumulated near the then existing shores. It is, however,
a remarkable coincidence, that in the two large islands cut
off by the Beagle Channel from the rest of Tierra del Fuego,
one has cliffs composed of matter that may be called
stratified alluvium, which front similar ones on the opposite
side of the channel, — while the other is exclusively bordered
by old crystalline rocks : in the former, called Naverin
Island, both foxes and guanacos occur ; but in the latter,
Hoste Island, although similar in every respect, and only
separated by a channel a little more than half-a-mile wide,
I have the word of Jemmy Button for saying that neither
of these animals are found.

llie gloomy woods are inhabited by few birds ; occasion-
ally the plaintive note of a white -tufted tyrant -flycatcher
{Myiohiiis albiceps) may be heard, concealed near the summit
of the most lofty trees ; and more rarely the loud, strange
cry of a black woodpecker, with a fine scarlet crest on its
head. A little dusky-coloured wren (Scptalopus Magellanicus)
hops in a skulking manner among the entangled mass of the
fallen and decaying trunks. But the creeper {Oxyurus
tupinieri) is the commonest bird in the country. Through-
out the beech forests, high up and low down, in the most
gloomy, wet, and impenetrable ravines, it may be met with.
This little bird no doubt appears more numerous than it
really is, from its habit of following with seeming curiosity
any person who enters these silent woods ; continually
uttering a harsh twitter, it flutters from tree to tree,
within a few feet of the intruder’s face. It is far from
wishing for the modest concealment of the true creeper
(jCerlhia J'amiliaris) nor does it, like that bird, run up the

ZOOLOGY

239

trunks of trees, but industriously, after the manner of a
villow-wren, hops about, and searches for insects on every
twig and branch. In the more open parts, three or four
species of finches, a thrusli, a starling (or Icterus), two
Opetiorhytichi, and several hawks and owls occur.

The absence of any species whatever in the whole class
of Reptiles is a marked feature in the zoology of this
country, as well as in that of the Falkland Islands. I do
not ground this sbvtement merely on my own observation,
but I heard it from the Spanish inhabitants of the latter
place, and from Jemmy Button with regard to Tierra del
Fuego. On the banks of the Santa Cruz, in 50° south, I
saw a frog ; and it is not improbable that these animals,
as well as lizards, may be found as far south as the Strait
of Magellan, where the country retains the character of
Patagonia ; but within the damp and cold limit of Tierra
del Fuego not one occurs. That the climate would not
have suited some of the orders, such as lizards, might ha\'e
been foreseen ; but with respect to frogs this was not so
obvious.

Beetles occur in very small numbers : it was long before
I could believe that a country as large as Scotland,
covered with vegetable productions and with a variety of
stations, could be so unproductive. The few which I found
were Alpine species (^Harpalidce and Helcromidae) living
under stones. The vegetable - feeding Chrijsomelidce, so
eminently characteristic of the Tropics, are here almost
entirely absent * ; I saw very few flies, butterflies, or bees,
and no crickets or Orthoptera. In the pools of W'^ater I
found but few aquatic beetles, and not any fresh - water
shells : Succinea at first appears an exception ; but here it
must be called a terrestrial shell, for it lives on the damp

* I believe I must except one Alpine Haltica, and a single specimen
of a Alelasoma. Mr Waterhouse informs me that of the Harpalida: there
are eight or nine species — the forms of the greater number being very
peculiar ; of Heteromera four or five species ; of Rhyncophora six or
seven ; and of the following families one species in each : Staphylinida,
Elateridcr, Cebriottich?, Alelolonthidcr. The species in the other orders
are even fewer. In all the orders, the scarcity of the individuals is even
more remarkable than that of the species. Most of the Coleoptera have
been carefully described by Mr Waterhouse in the Annals of Natural
History^

240

GREAT SEAWEED

herbage far from water. Land-shells could be procured onlj
in the same Alpine situations with the beetles. I have
already contrasted the climate as well as the general appear-
ance of Tierra del Fuego with that of Patagonia ; and the
difference is strongly exemplified in the entomology. I do
not believe they have one species in common ; certainly
the general character of the insects is widely different.

If we turn from the land to the sea, we shall find the
latter as abundantly stocked with living creatures as the
former is poorly so. In all parts of the world a rocky
and partially protected shore perhaps su^jports, in a given
space, a greater number of individual animals than any
other station. There is one marine production, which from
its importance is worthy of a particular history. It is the
kelp, or Macroci/stis pyrifera. This plant grows on every
rock from low-water mark to a great depth, both on the
outer coast and within the channels.* I believe, during
the voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, not one rock
near the surface was discovered which was not buoyed by
this floating weed. The good service it thus affords to
vessels navigating near this stormy land is evident ; and
it certainly has saved many a one from being "wrecked. I
know few things more surprising than to see this plant
growing and flourishing amidst those great breakers of the
western ocean, which no mass of rock, let it be ever so
hard, can long resist. The stem is round, slimy, and
smooth, and seldom has a diameter of so much as an inch.
A few taken together are sufficiently strong to support the
weight of the large loose stones, to which in the inland
channels they grow attached ; and yet some of these stones
were so heavy that when drawn to the surface, they could
scarcely be lifted into a boat by one person. Captain
Cook, in his second voyage, says that this plant at
Kerguelen Land rises from a greater depth than twenty-

* Its geograpical range is remarkably wide ; it is found from the extreme
southern islets near Cape Horn, as far north on the eastern coast (accord-
ing to information given me by Mr Stokes) as lat. 43°, — but on the
western coast, as Dr Hooker tells me, it extends to the Rio San Francisco
in California, and perhaps even to Kamtschatka. We thus have an
immense range in latitude ; and as Cook, who must have been well
acquainted with the species, found it at Kerguelen Land, no less than
140“ in longitude.

GREAT SEAWEED

241

four fathoms : and as it does not grow in a perpendicular
direction, but makes a very acute angle with the bottom,
and much of it afterwards spreads many fathoms on the
surface of the sea, I am well warranted to say that some
of it grows to the length of sixty fathoms and upwards.”
I do not suppose the stem of any other plant attains so
great a length as three hundred and sixty feet, as stated
by Captain Cook. Captain Fitz Roy, moreover, found it
growing* up from the greater depth of forty-five fathoms.
The beds of this seaweed, even when of not great breadth,
make excellent natural floating breakwaters. It is quite
curious to see, in an exposed harbour, how soon the waves
from the open sea, as they travel through the straggling
stems, sink in height, and pass into smooth water.

The number of living creatures of all Orders, whose exist-
ence intimately depends on the kelp, is wonderful. A
great volume might be written describing the inhabitants
of one of these beds of seaweed. Almost all the leaves,
excepting those that float on the surface, are so thickly
encrusted with corallines as to be of a white colour. We
find exquisitely delicate structures, some inhabited by
simple hydra-like polypi, others by more organised kinds,
and beautiful compound Ascidice, On the leaves, also,
various patelliform shells, Trochi, uncovered molluscs, and
some bivalves are attached. Innumerable Crustacea frequent
every part of the plant. On shaking the great entangled
roots a pile of small fish, shells, cuttle-fish, crabs of all
orders, sea -eggs, star -fish, beautiful Holuthurice, Planarice,
and crawling nereidous animals of a multitude of forms,
all fall out together. Often as I recurred to a branch of
the kelp, I never failed to discover animals of new and
curious structures. In Chiloe, where the kelp does not
thrive very well, the numerous shells, corallines, and
Crustacea are absent ; but there yet remain a few of the
Flustracece, and some compound AscidicB; the latter, how-

* Voyages of the “Adventure" and “Beagle," vol. i. p. 363. — It appears
that seaweed grows extremely quick. Mr Stephenson found (Wilson’s
Voyage round Scotland, vol. ii. p. 228) that a rock uncovered only
at spring-tides, which had been chiselled smooth in November, on the
following May — that is, within six months afterwards — was thickly covered
with fucus digitatus two feet, and F. esculentus six feet in length.

Q

242

GREAT SEAWEED

ever, are of different species from those in Tierra del Fuego.
We here see the fucus possessing a wider range than the
animals which use it as an abode. I can only compare
these great aquatic forests of the southern hemisphere with
the terrestrial ones in the inter-tropical regions. Yet, if
in any country a forest was destroyed, I do not believe
nearly so many species of animals would perish as would
here from the destruction of the kelp. Amidst the leaves
of this plant numerous species of fish live, which nowhere
else could find food or shelter ; Avith their destruction the
many cormorants and other fishing birds, the otters, seals,
and porpoises would soon perish also ; and lastly, the Fuegian
savage, the miserable lord of this miserable land, would
redouble his cannibal feast, decrease in numbers, and per-
haps cease to exist.

June 8lh. — We weighed anchor early in the morning and
left Port Famine. Captain Fitz Roy determined to leave
the Strait of Magellan by the Magdalen Channel, which
had not long been discovered. Our course lay due south,
down that gloomy passage which I have before alluded to,
as appearing to lead to another and worse world. The
wind was fair, but the atmosphere was veiy thick ; so
that we missed much curious sceneiy. The dark ragged
clouds were rapidly driven over the mountains, from their
summits nearly down to their bases. The glimpses which
we caught through the dusky mass were highly interesting;
jagged points, cones of snow, blue glaciers, strong outlines,
marked on a lurid sky, were seen at different distances
and heights. In the midst of such scenery we anchored
at Cape Turn, close to Mount Sarmiento, which was then
hidden in the clouds. At the base of the lofty and almost
perpendicular sides of our little cove there was one deserted
wigwam, and it alone reminded us that man sometimes
wandered into these desolate regions. But it would be
difficult to imagine a scene where he seemed to have fewer
claims or less authority. The inanimate works of nature —
rock, ice, snow, wind, and water — all warring with each
other, yet combined against man — here reigned in absolute
sovereignty.

June 9th. — In the morning we were delighted by seeing the
veil of mist gradually rise from Sarmiento, and display it to

CLIMATE OF THE SOUTHERN COASTS 243

our view. This mountain, which is one of the highest in
Tierra del Fuego, has an altitude of 6800 feet. Its base, for
about an eighth of its total height, is clothed by dusky woods,
and above this a field of snow extends to the summit. These
vast piles of snow, which never melt, and seem destined to
last as long as the world holds together, present a noble
and even sublime spectacle. The outline of the mountain
was admirably clear and defined. Owing to the abundance
of light reflected from the white and glittering surface, no
shadows were cast on any part ; and those lines which in-
tersected the sky could alone be distinguished ; hence the
mass stood out in the boldest relief. Several glaciers de-
scended in a winding course from the upper great expanse of
snow to the sea-coast : they may be likened to great frozen
Niagaras ; and perhaps these cataracts of blue ice are fully as
beautiful as the moving ones of water. By night we reached
the western part of the channel ; but the water was so deep
that no anchorage could be found. We were in consequence
obliged to stand off and on in this narrow arm of the sea
during a pitch-dark night of fourteen hours long.

June \0th. — In the morning we made the best of our way
into the open Pacific. The western coast generally consists
of low, rounded, quite barren hills of granite and greenstone.
Sir J. Narborough called one part South Desolation, because
it is “so desolate a land to behold ” ; and well indeed might
he say so. Outside the main islands, there are numberless
scattered rocks on which the long swell of the open ocean
incessantly rages. We passed out between the East and West
Furies ; and a little farther northward there are so many
breakers that the sea is called the Milky Way. One sight of
such a coast is enough to make a landsman dream for a week
about shipwrecks, peril, and death ; and with this sight we
bade farewell for ever to Tierra del Fuega

The following discussion on the climate of the southern
parts of the continent with relation to its productions, on the
snow-line, on the extraordinarily low descent of the glaciers,
and on the zone of perpetual congelation in the antarctic
islands, may be passed over by any one not interested in tliese
curious subjects, or the final recapitulation alone may be read.
I shall, however, here give only an abstract, and must refer

244 CLIMATE OF THE SOUTHERN COASTS

for details to the thirteenth chapter and the Appendix of the
former edition of this work.

On the Climate and Productions of Tierra del Fuego and of the
South-west Coast. — The following table gives the mean tem-
perature of Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, and, for
comparison, that of Dublin : —

Latitude.

Tierra del Fuego, . 53° 38' S.
Falkland Islands, . 51 30 S.
Dublin, . . . 53 21 N.

Summer

Temp.

Winter

Temp.

Mean of
Summer
and Winter.

50“

0

b

00

41". 54

51

—

—

59-54

39 -2

49 -37

Hence we see that the central part of Tierra del Fuego is
colder in winter, and no less than less hot in summer, than
Dublin. According to Von Buch, the mean temperature of
July (not the hottest month in the year) at Saltenfiord in
Norway is as high as 57°‘8, and this place is actually 13“
nearer the pole than Port Famine !* Inhospitable as this
climate appears to our feelings, evergreen trees flourish
luxuriantly under it. Humming-birds may be seen sucking
the flowers, and parrots feeding on the seeds of the Winter’s
Bark, in lat. 55“ S. I have already remarked to what a degree
the sea swarms with living creatures ; and the shells (such as
the Patellae, Fissurellce, Chitons, and Barnacles^, according to
Mr G. B, Sowerby, are of a much larger size, and of a more
vigorous growth, than the analogous species in the northern
hemisphere. A large Voluta is abundant in southern Tierra
del Fuego and the Falkland Islands. At Bahia Blanca, in lat.
39“ S., the most abundant shells were three species of Oliva
(one of large size), one or two Volutas, and a Terebra. Now
these are amongst the best characterised tropical fonns. It
is doubtful whether even one small species of Oliva exists on
the southern shores of Europe, and there are no species of
the two other genera. If a geologist were to find in lat. 39“
on the coast of Portugal, a bed containing numerous shells

* With respect to Tierra del Fuego, the results are deduced from the
observations by Captain King (Geographical Journal, 1830), and those
taken on board the Beagle. For the Falkland Islands, I am indebted to
Captain Sulivan for the mean of the mean temperature (reduced from
careful observation at midnight, 8 A.M., noon, and 8 P.M.) of the three hottest
months — viz., December, January, and February. The temperature of
Dublin is taken from Barton.

CLIMATE OF THE SOUTHERN COASTS 24-5

belonging to three species of Oliva, to a Volida, and Terebra,
he would probably assert that the climate at the period of
their existence must have been tropical ; but judging from
South America, such an inference might be en-oneous.

The equable, humid, and windy climate of Tierra del
Fuego extends, with only a small increase of heat, for many
degrees along the w'cst coast of the continent. The forests,
for 600 miles northward of Cape Horn, have a very similar
aspect. As a proof of the equable climate, even for 300 or
400 miles still farther northward, I may mention that in
Chiloe (corresponding in latitude with the northern parts of
Spain) the peach seldom produces fruit, whilst strawberries
and apples thrive to perfection. Even the crops of barley and
wheat* are often brought into the houses to be dried and
ripened. At Valdivia (in the same latitude of 40° with Madrid)
grapes and figs ripen, but are not common ; olives seldom
ripen even partially, and oranges not at all. These fruits, in
corresponding latitudes in Europe, are well known to succeed
to perfection ; and even in this continent, at the Rio N egro,
under nearly the same parallel with Valdivia, sweet potatoes
{convolvulus) are cultivated ; and grapes, figs, olives, oranges,
water and musk melons produce abundant fruit. Although
the humid and equable climate of Chiloe, and of the coast
northward and southward of it, is so unfavourable to our fruits,
yet the native forests, from lat. 45° to 38°, almost rival in
luxuriance those of the glowing intertropical regions. Stately
trees of many kinds, with smooth and highly-coloured barks,
are loaded by j^arasitical monocotyledonous plants ; large and
elegant ferns are numerous, and arborescent grasses entwine
the trees into one entangled mass to the height of thirty or
forty feet above the ground. Palm-trees grow in lat. 37° ; an
arborescent grass, very like a bamboo, in 40° ; and another
closely allied kind, of great length, but not erect, flourishes
even as far south as 45° S.

" An equable climate, evidently due to the large area of sea
compared with the land, seems to extend over the greater
part of the southern hemisphere ; and, as a consequence, the
vegetation partakes of a semi-tropical character. Tree-ferns
thrive luxuriantly in Van Diemen’s Land (lat. 45°), and I

* Agiieros, Dcscrip. Hist, de la Prov. dt Chilo^, I79i> P- 94*

246

HEIGHT OF SNOW-LINE

measured one trunk no less than six feet in circumference.
An arborescent fern was found by Foster in New Zealand in
46°, where orchideous plants are parasitical on the trees. In
the Auckland Islands, ferns, according to Dr Dieffenbach,*
have trunks so thick and high that they may be almost called
tree-ferns ; and in these islands, and even as far south as
lat. 55° in the Macquarrie Islands, parrots abound.

On the Heighl of the Snow-lme, and on the Descent of the
Glaciers in South America. — For the detailed authorities for the
following table, I must refer to the former edition : —

Latitude.

Equatorial region ; mean result
Bolivia, lat. i6° to i8° S.
Central Chile, lat. 33° S.
Chiloe, lat. 41° to 43° S. .

Tierra del Fuego, 54° S. .

Height in Feet
of Snow-line.

15.748

17,000

14.500 to 15,000
6,000

3.500 to 4,000

Observer.

Humboldt.

Pentland.

Gillies and the Author.
Officers of the Beagle
and the Author.
King.

As the height of the plane of perpetual snow seems chiefly
to be determined by the extreme heat of the summer, rather
than by the mean temperature of the year, we ought not to
be surprised at its descent in the Strait of Magellan, where
the summer is so cool, to only 3500 or 4000 feet above the
level of the sea ; although in Norway we must travel to
between lat. 67° and 70° N. — that is, about 14° nearer the
pole — to meet with perpetual snow at this low level. The
difference in height — namely, about 9000 feet — between the
snow-line on the Cordillera behind Chiloe (with its highest
points ranging from only 5600 to 7500 feet) and in central
Chilef (a distance of only 9° of latitude), is truly wonderful.
The land from the southward of Chiloe to near Concepcion
(lat. 37°) is hidden by one dense forest dripping with moisture.
The sky is cloudy, and we have seen how badly the fraits
of southern Europe succeed. In central Chile, on the other
hand, a little northward of Concepcion, the sky is generally

* See the German translation of this Journal ; and for the other facts
Mr Brown’s Appendix to Flinder’s Voyage.

t On the Cordillera of Central Chile, I believe the snow-line varies
exceedingly in height in different summers. I was assured that during one
very dry and long summer all the snow disappeared from Aconcagua,
although it attains the prodigious height of 23,000 feet. It is probable that
much of the snow at these great heights is evaporated, rather than thawed.

HEIGHT OF SNOW-LINE

247

clear, rain does not fall for the seven summer months, and
southern European fruits succeed admirably; and even the
sugar-cane has been cultivated.* No doubt the plane of
perpetual snow undergoes the above remarkable flexure of
9000 feet, unparalleled in other parts of the world, not far
from the latitude of Concepcion, where the land ceases to be
covered with forest-trees ; for trees in South America indicate
a rainy climate, and rain a clouded sky and little heat in
summer.

The descent of glaciers to the sea must, I conceive, mainly
depend (subject, of course, to a proper supply of snow in the
upper region) on the lowness of the line of perpetual snow on
steep mountains near the coast. As the snow-line is so low
in TieiTa del Fuego, we might have expected that many of
the glaciers would have reached the sea. Nevertheless I was
astonished when I first saw a range, only from 3000 to 4000
feet in height, in the latitude of Cumberland, with every
valley filled -with streams of ice descending to the sea-coast.
Almost every arm of the sea which penetrates to the interior
higher chain, not only in Tierra del Fuego, but on the coast
for 650 miles northwards, is terminated by “ tremendous and
astonishing glaciers,” as described by one of the officers on
the survey. Great masses of ice frequently fall from these
icy cliffs, and the crash reverberates like the broadside of a
man-of-war through the lonely channels. These falls, as
noticed in the last chapter, produced great waves which
break on the adjoining coasts. It is known that earthquakes
frequently cause masses of earth to fall from sea-cliffs : how
terrific, then, would be the effect of a severe shock (and such
occur here)t on a body like a glacier, already in motion, and
traversed by fissures ! I can readily believe that the water
would be fairly beaten back out of the deepest channel, and
then, returning with an overwhelming force, would whirl
about huge masses of rock like so much chaflp. In Eyre’s
Sound, in the latitude of Paris, there are immense glaciers.

* Miers’ C/it7e, vol. i. p. 415. It is said that the sugar-cane grew at
Ingenio, lat. 32° to 33“, but not in sufficient quantity to make the manu-
facture profitable. In the valley of Quillota, south of Ingenio, I saw some
large date palm-trees.

t Bulkeley’s and Cummin’s Faithful Narrative ef the Loss of the
“ IVager.” The earthquake happened August 25th, 1741.

248

HEIGHT OF SNOW-LINE

and yet the loftiest neighbouring mountain is only 6200 feet
high. In this Sound, about fifty icebergs were seen at one
time floating outwards, and one of them must have been at
least 168 feet in total height. Some of the icebergs were
loaded with blocks of no inconsiderable size, of granite and
other rocks, different from the clay-slate of the surrounding
mountains. The glacier farthest from the pole, surveyed
during the voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, is in lat. 46°
50', in the Gulf of Penas. It is fifteen miles long, and in one
jiart seven broad, and descends to the sea-coast. But even a
few miles northward of this glacier, in the Laguna de San
Rafael, some Spanish missionaries* encountered “ many ice-
bergs, some great, some small, and others middle-sized,” in a
narrow ai’m of the sea, on the 22nd of the month correspond-
ing with our June, and in a latitude corresponding with that
of the Lake of Geneva !

In Eui'ope, the most southern glacier which comes down to
the sea is met with, according to Von Buch, on the coast of
Norway, in lat. 67°. Now this is more than 20° of latitude,
or 1230 miles, nearer the pole than the Laguna de San
Rafael. The position of the glaciers at this place and in the
Gulf of Penas, may be put even in a more striking point
of view, for they descend to the sea-coast, within 7|° of
latitude, or 450 miles of a harbour, where three species of
Oliva, a Voluta, and a Terehra are the commonest shells,
within less than 9° from where palms grow, within 4|^° of a
region where the jaguar and puma range over the plains, less
than 2^° from arborescent grasses, and (looking to the west-
ward in the same hemisphere) less than 2° from orchideous
parasites, and within a single degree of tree ferns !

These facts are of high geological interest with respect to
the climate of the northern hemisphere, at the period when
boulders were transported. I will not here detail how
simply the theoi-y of icebergs being charged with fragments
of rock explains the origin and position of the gigantic
boulders of eastern Tierra del Fuego, on the high plain
of Santa Cruz, and on the island of Chiloe. In Tierra
del Fuego, the greater number of boulders lie on the
lines of old sea-channels, now converted into dry valleys by

* Agiieros, Desc. Hist, de Chiloi, p. 227.

THE ANTARCTIC Ihi^ANDS

249

the elevation of the land. They are associated with a great
unstratified formation of mud and sand, containing rounded
and angular fragments of all sizes, which has originated* in
the repeated ploughing up of the sea-bottom by the stranding
of icebergs, and by the matter transported on them. Few
geologists now doubt that those erratic boulders which lie
near lofty mountains have been pushed forward by the
glaciers themselves, and that those distant from mountains,
and embedded in subaqueous deposits, have been conveyed
thither either on icebergs, or frozen in coast-ice. The con-
nection between the transportal of boulders and the presence
of ice in some form is strikingly shown by their geographical
distribution over the earth. In South America they are not
found farther than 48° of latitude, measured from the south-
ern pole ; in North America it appears that the limit of their
transportal extends to 53|° from the northern pole ; but in
Europe to not more than 40° of latitude, measured from the
same point. On the other hand, in the intertropical parts of
America, Asia, and Africa, they have never been observed ;
nor at the Cape of Good Hope, nor in Australia.!

On the Climate and Productions of the Antarctic Islands. —
Considering the rankness of the vegetation in Tierra del
Fuego, and on the coast northward of it, the condition of the
islands south and south-west of America is truly surprising.
Sandwich Land, in the latitude of the north part of Scot-
land, was found by Cook, during the hottest month of the
year, “ covered many fathoms thick with everlasting snow ” ;
and there seems to be scarcely any vegetation. Georgia, an
island ninety-six miles long and ten broad, in the latitude of
Yorkshire, “ in the very height of summer is in a manner
wholly covered with frozen snow.” It can boast only of moss,
some tufts of grass, and wild burnet : it has only one land-
bird (Antlnis correnderaf, yet Iceland, which is 10° nearer the
pole, has, according to Mackenzie, fifteen land-birds. The
South Shetland Islands, in the same latitude as the southern
half of Norway, possess only some lichens, moss, and a little

* Geological Transactions, vol. vi. p. 415.

fl have given details (the first, I believe, published) on this subject in
the first edition, and in the Appendix to it. I have there shown that the
apparent exceptions to the absence of erratic boulders in certain hot
countries are due to erroneous observations: several statements there
given I have since found confirmed by various authors.

250

THE ANTARCTIC ISLANDS

grass ; and Lieutenant Kendall* found the bay in which he
was at anchor beginning to freeze at a period corresponding
with'our 8th of September. The soil here consists of ice and
volcanic 'ashes interstratified ; and at a little depth beneath
the I" sui-face it must remain perpetually congealed^ for
Lieutenant Kendall found the body of a foreign sailor which
had long been buried, with the flesh and all the features
jjerfectly preserved. It is a singular fact, that on the two
great continents in the northern hemisphere (but not in the
broken land of Europe between them), we have the zone of
perpetually frozen under-soil in a low latitude — namely, in 06°
in North America at the depth of three feet,t and in 62° in
Siberia at the depth of twelve to fifteen feet — as the result
of a directly opposite condition of things to those of the
southern hemisphere. On the northern continents the
winter is rendered excessively cold by the radiation from a
large area of land into a clear sky, nor is it moderated by the
warmth-bringing currents of the sea ; the short summer, on the
other hand, is hot. In the Southern Ocean the winter is not
so excessively cold, but the summer is far less hot, for the
clouded sky seldom allows the sun to wai-m the ocean, itself a
bad absorbent of heat ; and hence the mean temperature of
the year, which regulates the zone of perpetually congealed
under-soil, is low. It is evident that a rank vegetation, which
does not so much require heat as it does protection from
intense cold, would approach much nearer to this zone of
perpetual congelation under the equable climate of the
southern hemisphere than under the extreme cbmate of the
northern continents.

The case of the sailor’s body perfectly preserved in the icy
soil of the South Shetland Islands (lat. 62° to 63° S.) in a
rather lower latitude than that (lat. 64° N.) under which
Pallas found the frozen rhinoceros in Siberia, is very interest-
ing. Although it is a fallacy, as I have endeavoured to show
in a former chapter, to suppose that the larger quadrupeds
require a luxuriant vegetation for their support, nevertheless
it is important to find in the South Shetland Islands a frozen
under-soil within 360 miles of the forest-clad islands near

* Geographical Journal^ 1830, pp. 65, 66.

+ Richardson’s Append, to Back’s Exped., and Humboldt’s Frag/n.
Asiat., tom. ii. p. 386.

THE ANTARCTIC ISLANDS

251

Gipe Honi, where, as far as the hulk of vegetation is con-
cerned, any number of great quadrupeds might be supported.
The perfect preservation of the carcasses of the Siberian
elephants and rhinocei’oses is certainly one of the most
wonderful facts in geology ; but independently of the
imagined difficulty of supplying them with food from the
adjoining countries, the whole case is not, I think, so per-
plexing as it has generally been considered. The plains of
Siberia, like those of the Pampas, appear to have been formed
under the sea, into which rivers brought down the bodies of
many animals ; of the greater number of these only the
skeletons have been preserved, but of others the perfect
carcass. Now it is known that in the shallow sea on the
arctic coast of America the bottom freezes,* and does not thaw
in spring so soon as the surface of the land ; moreover, at
greater depths, where the bottom of the sea does not freeze,
the mud a few feet beneath the top layer might remain
even in summer below 32°, as is the case on the land with
the soil at the depth of a few feet. At still greater depths
the temperature of the mud and water would probably not be
low enough to preserve the flesh ; and hence carcasses drifted
beyond the shallow parts near an arctic coast would have
only their skeletons preserved : now in the extreme northern
parts of Siberia bones are infinitely numerous, so that even
islets are said to be almost composed of them f ; and those
islets lie no less than ten degrees of latitude north of the
place where Pallas found the frozen rhinoceros. On the other
hand, a carcass washed by a flood into a shallow part of the
Arctic Sea would be preserved for an indefinite period if it
were soon afterwards covered with mud sufficiently thick to
])revent the heat of the summer-water penetrating to it ; and
if, when the sea-bottom was upraised into land, the covering
was sufficiently thick to prevent the heat of the summer air
and sun thawing and conoipting it.

Recapitulation. — I will recapitulate the principal facts with
regard to the climate, ice-action, and organic productions of
the southern hemisphere, transposing the places in imagina-
tion to Europe, with which we are so much better acquainted.

* Messrs Deaseand Simpson, in Geographical Journal, vol. viii, pp. 218,
220.

t Cuvier {Osseniens Fossiles, tom. i. p. 151), from Billing’s Voyage,

252

THE ANTARCTIC ISLANDS

Then, near Lisbon, the commonest sea-shells — namely, three
species of Oliva, a Volula, and Terebra, would have a tropical
character. In the southern provinces of France, magnificent
forests, entwined by arborescent grasses and with the trees
loaded with parasitical plants, would hide the face of the
land. The puma and the jaguar would hunt the Pyrenees.
In the latitude of Mont Blanc, but on an island as far west-
ward as central North America, tree-ferns and parasitical
Orchidece would thrive amidst the thick woods. Even as far
north as central Denmark, humming-birds would be seen
fluttering about delicate flowers and parrots feeding amidst
the evergreen woods ; and in the sea there, we should have
a Vohda, and all the shells of large size and vigorous growth.
Nevertheless, on some islands only 360 miles northward of
our new Cape Horn in Denmark, a carcass buried in the soil
(or if washed into a shallow sea, and covered up with mud)
would be preserved perpetually frozen. If some bold navi-
gator attempted to penetrate northward of these islands, he
would run a thousand dangers amidst gigantic icebergs, on
some of which he would see gi'eat blocks of rock borne far
away from their original site. Another island of large size in
the latitude of southern Scotland, but twice as far to the
west, would be “ almost wholly covered with everlasting
snow,” and would have each bay terminated by ice-cliffs,
whence great masses would be yearly detached : this island
would boast only of a little moss, grass, and bumet, and a tit-
lark would be its only land inhabitant. From our new' Cape
Horn in Denmark, a chain of mountains, scarcely half the
height of the Alps, would i*un in a straight line due south-
ward ; and on its western flank every deep creek of the sea,
or fiord, would end in ^“^bold and astonishing glaciers.” These
lonely channels w'ould frequently reverberate w'ith the falls of
ice, and so often would great waves rush along their coasts ;
numerous icebergs, some as tall as cathedrals, and occasion-
ally loaded with no inconsiderable blocks of rock,” would
be stranded on the outlying islets ; at intervals violent earth-
quakes would shoot prodigious masses of ice into the waters
below. Lastly, some missionaries, attempting to penetrate a
long arm of the sea, would behold the not lofty surrounding
mountains, sending down their many grand icy streams to the
sea-coast, and their progress in the boats w'ould be checked

THE ANTARCTIC ISLANDS

253

by the innumerable floating icebergs, some small and some
great ; and this would have occuired on our twenty-second of
June, and where the lake of Geneva is now spread out I *

’

* In the former edition and Appendix, I have given some facts on the
transporlal of erratic boulders and icebergs in the Antarctic Ocean. This
subject has lately been treated excellently by Mr Hayes, in the Boston
Journal (vol. iv. p. 426). The author does not appear aware of a case
published by me {Geographical Journal, vol. ix. p. 528), of a gigantic boulder
embedded in an iceberg in the Antarctic Ocean, almost certainly one
hundred miles distant from any land, and perhaps much more distant.
In the Appendix I have discussed at length the probability (at that time
hardly thought of) of icebergs, when stranded, grooving and polishing
rocks, like glaciers. This is now a very commonly received opinion, and
I cannot still avoid the suspicion that it is applicable even to such cases as
that of the Jura. Dr Richardson has assured me that the icebergs off
North America push before them pebbles and sand, and leave the sub-
marine rocky flats quite bare ; it is hardly possible to doubt that such
ledges must be polished and scored in the direction of the set of the pre-
vailing currents. Since writing that Appendix, I have seen in North
Wales {London Phil. Mag., vol. xxi. p. 180) the adjoining action of
glaciers and of floating icebergs.

CHAPTER XII

CENTRAL CHILE

VALPARAISO EXCURSION TO THE FOOT OF THE ANDES

STRUCTURE OF THE LAND ASCEND THE BELL OF QUILLOTA

SHATTERED MASSES OF GREENSTONE IMMENSE VALLEYS

MINES STATE OF MINERS SANTIAGO HOT BATHS OF

CAUQUENES GOLD-MINES GRINDING-MILLS PERFORATED

STONES HABITS OF THE PUMA EL TURCO AND TAPACOLO

HUMMING-BIRDS.

ULY 23rd. — The Beagle anchored late at night in
the bay of Valparaiso, the chief seaport of Chile.
When morning came, everything appeared
delightful. After Tierra del Fuego, the climate
felt quite delicious — the atmosphere so dry,
and the heavens so clear and blue, with the sun shining
brightly, that all nature seemed sparkling with life. The
view from the anchorage is very pretty. The town is built at
the very foot of a range of hills, about l600 feet high, and
rather steep. From its position, it consists of one long,
straggling street, which runs parallel to the beach, and
wherever a ravine comes down, the houses are piled up on each
side of it. The rounded hills, being only partially protected
by a very scanty vegetation, are worn into numberless little
gullies, which expose a singularly bright red soil. From this
cause, and from the low white-washed houses with tile roofs,
the view reminded me of St Cruz in Teneriffe. In a north-
easterly direction there are some fine glimpses of the Andes ;
but these mountains appear much grander when viewed from
the neighbouring hills, the great distance at which they are
situated can then more readily be perceived. The volcano
of Aconcagua is particularly magnificent. This huge and
irregularly conical mass has an elevation greater than that of
Chimborazo ; for, from measurements made by the officers in
254

CENTRAL CHILE

255

the Beagle, its height is no less than 23,000 feet. The
Cordillera, liowever, viewed from this point, owe the greater
part of their beauty to the atmosphere through which they
are seen. When the sun was setting in the Pacific, it was
admirable to watch how clearly their rugged outlines could
be distinguished, yet how varied and how delicate were the
shades of their colour.

I had the good fortune to find living here Mr Richard
Corfield, an old schoolfellow and friend, to whose hospitality
and kindness I was greatly indebted, in having afforded me
a most pleasant residence during the Beagle’s stay in Chile.
The immediate neighbourhood of Valparaiso is not very
productive to the naturalist. During the long summer the
wind blows steadily from the southward, and a little off
shore, so that rain never falls ; during the three winter
months, however, it is sufficiently abundant. The vegeta-
tion in consequence is very scanty ; except in some deep
valleys there are no trees, and only a little grass and a
few low bushes are scattered over the less steep parts of
the hills. When we reflect that, at the distance of 350
miles to the south, this side of the Andes is completely
hidden by one impenetrable forest, the contrast is very
remarkable. I took several long w'alks while collecting
objects of natural history. Tlie country is pleasant for
exercise. There are many very beautiful flowers ; and, as
in most other dry climates, the plants and shrubs possess
strong and peculiar odours — even one’s clothes, by brushing
through them, became scented. I did not cease from
wonder at finding each succeeding day as fine as the fore-
going. What a difference does climate make in the enjoy-
ment of life ! How opposite are the sensations when viewing
black mountains half enveloped in clouds, and seeing another
range through the light blue haze of a fine day! The one for
a time may be very sublime; the other is all gaiety and happy
life.

August 14//j. — I set out on a riding excursion for the
jiurpose of geologising the basal parts of the Andes, which
alone at this time of the year are not shut up by the
Avdnter snow. Our first day’s ride was northward along
the sea-coast. After dark we reached the Hacienda of
Quintero, the estate which formerly belonged to LorU

256

CENTRAL CHILE

Cochrane. My object in coming here was to see the great
beds of shells, which stand some yards above the level of
the sea, and are burnt for lime. The proofs of the eleva-
tion of this whole line of coast are unequivocal ; at the
height of a few hundred feet old-looking shells are numerous,
and I found some at 1300 feet. These shells either lie
loose on the surface, or are embedded in a reddish-black
vegetable mould. I was much surprised to find under the
microscope that this vegetable mould is really marine mud,
full of minute particles of organic bodies.

August \5th. — We returned towards the valley of Quillota.
The country was exceedingly pleasant ; just such as poets
would call pastoral ; green open lawns, separated by small
valleys with rivulets, and the cottages, we may suppose of the
shepherds, scattered on the hillsides. We were obliged to
cross the ridge of the Chilicauquen. At its base there were
many fine evergreen forest-trees, but these flourished only
in the ravines, where there was running water. Any person
who had seen only the country near Valparaiso would never
have imagined that there had been such picturesque spots in
Chile. As soon as we reached the brow of the Sierra, the
valley of Quillota was immediately under our feet. The
prospect was one of remarkable artificial luxuriance. The
valley is very broad and quite flat, and is thus easily irrigated
in all parts. The little square gardens are crowded with orange
and olive trees, and every soi*t of vegetable. On each side
huge bare mountains rise, and this from the contrast renders
the patchwork valley the more pleasing. Whoever called
“Valparaiso” the “Valley of Paradise” must have been
thinking of Quillota. We crossed over to the Hacienda de
San Isidro, situated at the very foot of the Bell Mountain.

Chile, as may be seen in the maps, is a narrow strip of land
between the Cordillera and the Pacific ; and this strip is itself
traversed by several mountain-lines, which in this part run
parallel to the great range. Between these outer lines and
the main Cordillera a succession of level basins, generally
opening into each other by narrow passages, extend far to the
southward : in these, the principal towns are situated, as San
Felipe, Santiago, San Fernando These basins or plains,
together with the transverse flat valleys (like that of Quillota)
which connect them wth the coast, I have no doubt are the

BELL OF QUILLOTA

257

bottoms of ancient inlets and deep bays, such as at the
jiresent day intersect every part of Tierra del Fuego and the
western coast. Chile must formerly have resembled the
latter country in the configuration of its land and water. The
resemblance was occasionally shown strikingly when a level
fog-bank covered, as with a mantle, all the lower parts of the
country : the white vapour curling into the ravines, beautifully
represented little coves and bays ; and here and there a
solitary hillock peeping up, showed that it had formerly stood
there as an islet. The contrast of these flat valleys and
basins with the irregular mountains gave the scenery a
character which to me was new and very interesting.

From the natural slope to seaward of these plains, they are
very easily irrigated, and in consequence singularly fertile.
Without this process the land would produce scarcely any-
thing, for during the whole summer the sky is cloudless.
The mountains and hills are dotted over with bushes and low
trees, and excepting these the vegetation is very scanty.
Each landowner in the valley possesses a certain portion of
hill-country, where his half-wild cattle, in considerable
numbers, manage to find sufficient pasture. Once every
year there is a grand rodeo” when all the cattle are
driven down, counted, and marked, and a certain number
separated to be fattened in the irrigated fields. Wheat is
extensively cultivated, and a good deal of Indian corn : a
kind of bean is, however, the staple article of food for the
common labourers. The o-rchards produce an overflowing
abundance of peaches, figs, and grapes. With all these
advantages, the inhabitants of the country ought to be much
more prosperous than they are.

July I6th. — The major-domo of the Hacienda was good
enough to give me a guide and fresh horses ; and in the
morning we set out to ascend the Campana, or Bell Mountain,
which is 6400 feet high. The paths were very bad, but both
the geology and scenery amply repaid the trouble. We
reached, by the evening, a spring called the Agua del
Guanaco, which is situated at a great height. This must be
an old name, for it is very many years since a guanaco
drank its waters. During the ascent I noticed that nothing
but bushes grew on the northern slope, whilst on the southern
slope there was a bamboo about fifteen feet high. In a few

R

258

BELL OF QUILLOTA

places there were palms, and I was surprised to see one at an
elevation of at least 4500 feet. These palms are, for their
family, ugly trees. Their stem is very large, and of a curious
form, being thicker in the middle than at the base or top.
They are excessively numerous in some parts of Chile, and
valuable on account of a sort of treacle made from the sap.
On one estate near Petorca they tried to count them, but
failed, after having numbered several hundred thousand.
Every year in the early spring, in August, veiy many are cut
down, and when the trunk is lying on the ground the crown
of leaves is lopped off. The sap then immediately begins to
flow from the upper end, and continues so doing for some
months ; it is, however, necessary that a thin slice should be
shaved off from that end every morning, so as to expose a
fresh surface. A good tree will give ninety gallons, and all
this must have been contained in the vessels of the apparently
diy trunk. It is said that the sap flows much more quickly
on those days when the sun is powerful ; and likewise, that it
is absolutely necessary to take care, in cutting down the tree,
that it should fall with its head upwards on the side of the
hill ; for if it falls down the slope, scarcely any sap will flow ;
although in that case one would have thought that the action
would have been aided, instead of checked, by the force of
gravity. The sap is concentrated by boiling, and is then
called treacle, which it veiy much resembles in taste.

We unsaddled our horses near the spring, and jjrepared to
pass the night. The evening was fine, and the atmosphere
so clear that the masts of the vessels at anchor in the Bay of
Valparaiso, although no less than twenty-six geographical
miles distant, could be distinguished clearly as little black
streaks. A ship doubling the point under sail appeared as
a bright white speck. Anson expresses much surprise, in his
voyage, at the distance at which his vessels were discovered
from the coast ; but he did not sufficiently allow for the
height of the land, and the great transparency of the
air.

The setting of the sun was glorious ; the valleys being
black, whilst the snowy peaks of the Andes yet retained a
ruby tint. When it was dark, we made a fire beneath a little
arbour of bamboos, fried our charqui (or dried slips of beef),
took our mat4, and were quite comfortable. There is an

BELL OF QUILLOTA

259

inexpressible chamni in thus liviiifr in the open air. The
evening was calm and still ; the shrill noise of the mountain
bizcacha and the faint cry of a goat-sucker were occasionally
to be heard. Besides these, few birds, or even insects,
frequent these dry, parched mountains.

Aiigfist 17 ih. — In the morning w’e climbed up the rough
mass of greenstone Avhich croAvns the summit. This rock,
as frequently happens, was much shattered and broken into
huge angular fragments. I observed, however, one remark-
able circumstance — namely, that many of the surfaces jire-
sented every degree of freshness — some appearing as if
broken the day before, whilst on others lichens had either
just become, or had long grown, attached. I so fully
believed that this Avas owing to the frequeilt earthquakes
that I felt inclined to hurry from below each loose pile.
As one might very easily be deceived in a fact of this kind,
I doubted its accuracy, until ascending Mount Wellington,
in Van Diemen’s Land, where earthquakes do not occur;
and there I saAV the summit of the mountain .similarly com-
posed and similarly shattered, but all the blocks appeared
as if they had been hurled into their present position thou-
sands of years ago.

We spent the day on the summit, and I never enjoyed
one more thoroughly. Chile, bounded by the Andes and
the Pacific, was seen as in a map. The pleasure from the
scenery, in itself beautiful, was heightened by the many
reflections which arose from the mei’e view' of the Campana
range, with its lesser parallel ones, aiid of the broad valley
of Quillota directly intersecting them. Who can aA'oid won-
dering at the force which has upheaved these mountains,
and even more so at the countless ages w’hich it must have
required to have broken through, removed, and levelled
wdiole masses of them ? It is well, in this case, to call to
mind the vast shingle and sedimentary beds of Patagonia,
w'hich, if heaped on the Cordillera, w'ould increase its height
by so many thousand feet. M’hen in that countiy, I won-
dered hoAv any mountain - chain could have supplied such
masses and not have been utterly obliterated. We must
not now reverse the wonder, and doubt whether all-powerful
time can grind down mountains — even the gigantic Cordillera
— into gravel and mud.

260

CENTRAL CHILE

The appearance of the Andes was different from that
which I had expected. The lower line of the snow was
of course horizontal, and to this line the even summits of
the range seemed quite parallel. Only at long intervals, a
group of points or a single cone showed where a volcano
had existed, or does now exist. Hence the range resembled
a great solid wall, surmounted here and there by a tower,
and making a most perfect barrier to the country.

Almost every part of the hill had been drilled by attempts
to open gold-mines ; the rage for mining has left scarcely
a spot in Chile unexamined. I spent the evening as before,
talking round the fire with my two companions. The Guasos
of Chile, who coiTespond to the Gauchos of the Pampas, are,
however, a veiy different set of beings. Chile is the more
civilised of the two countries, and the inhabitants, in conse-
quence, have lost much individual character. Gradations in
rank are much more strongly marked ; the Guaso does not
by any means consider every man his equal ; and I was
quite surprised to find that my companions did not like to
eat at the same time with myself. This feeling of inequality
is a necessaiy consequence of the existence of an aristocracy
of wealth. It is said that some few of the greater land-
owners possess from five to ten thousand pounds sterling
per annum ; an inequality of riches which I believe is not
met with in any of the cattle-breeding countries eastward
of the Andes. A traveller does not here meet that un-
bounded hospitality which refuses all payment, but yet is
so kindly offered that no scniples can be raised in accepting
it. Almost every house in Chile will receive you for the
night, but a trifle is expected to be given in the morning :
even a rich man will accejjt two or three shillings. The
Gaucho, although he may be a cut-throat, is a gentleman ;
the Guaso is in few respects better, but at the same time
a vulgar, ordinary fellow. The two men, although employed
much in the same manner, ai'e different in their habits and
attire ; and the peculiarities of each are universal in their
respective countries. The Gaucho seems part of his horse,
and scorns to exert himself excejiting when on its back ;
the Guaso may be hired to work as a labourer in the fields.
The former lives entirely on animal food ; the latter almost
wholly on vegetable. We do not here see the white boots.

CENTRAL CHILE

261

the broad drawers, and scarlet chilipa ; the picturesque cos-
tume of the Pampas. Here, common trousers are protected
by black and green worsted leggings. The poncho, however,
is common to both. The chief pride of the Guaso lies in
his spurs, which are absurdly large. I measured one which
was six inches in the diameter of the rowel, aud the rowel
itself contained upwards of thirty points. The stirnips are
on the same scale, each consisting of a square, carved block
of wood, hollowed out, yet weighing three or four pounds.
The Guaso is perhaps more expert with the lazo than the
Gaucho ; but, from the nature of the country, he does not
know the use of the bolas.

August \%th. — We descended the mountain, and passed
some beautiful little spots, Avith rivulets and fine trees.
Having slept at the same hacienda as before, we rode during
the two succeeding days up the valley, and passed through
Quillota, which is more like a collection of nursery-gardens
than a town. The orchards were beautiful, presenting one
mass of peach-blossoms. I saw also, in one or two places,
the date-palm ; it is a most stately tree ; and I should think
a group of them in their native Asiatic or African deserts
must be superb. We passed likewise San Felipe, a pretty
straggling town like Quillota. The valley in this pai-t ex-
pands into one of those great bays or plains, reaching to
the foot of the Cordillera, which have been mentioned as
fonning so curious a part of the scenery of Chile. In the
evening we reached the mines of Jajuel, situated in a ravine
at the flank of the great chain. I stayed here five days.
My host, the superintendent of the mine, was a shrewd but
rather ignorant Cornish miner. He had married a Spanish
woman, and did not mean to return home ; but his admiration
for the mines of Cornwall remained unbounded. Amongst
many other questions, he asked me, “Now that George
Rex is dead, how many more of the family of Rexes are
yet alive This Rex certainly must be a relation of the
great author Finis, who wrote all books !

These mines are of copper, and the ore is all shipped to
Swansea to be smelted. Hence the mines have an aspect
singularly quiet, as compared to those in England: here no
smoke, furnaces, or great steam-engines disturb the solitude
of the surrounding mountains.

262

CENTRAL CHILE

The Chilian Government, or, rather, the old Spanisli Law,
encourages by every method the searching for mines. The
discoverer may work a mine on any groun<l by paying five
shillings ; and before paying this he may try, even in the
garden of another man, for twenty days.

It is now well known that the Chilian method of mining is
the cheapest. My host says that the two principal improve-
ments introduced by foreigners have been, first, reducing
by previous roasting the copper pyrites — which, being the
common ore in Cornwall, the English miners were astounded
on their arrival to find thrown away as useless ; secondly,
stamping and washing the scoriae from the old furnaces —
by which process particles of metal are recovered in abun-
dance. 1 have actually seen mules carrying to the coast for
transportation to England, a cargo of such cinders. But the
first case is much the most curious. The Chilian miners were
so convinced that copper pyrites contained not a particle
of cojiper that they laughed at the Englishmen for their
ignorance, who laughed in turn, and bought their richest
veins for a few dollars. It is very odd that, in a country
where mining has been extensively carried on for many years,
so simple a process as gently roasting the ore to expel the
sulphur previous to smelting it, had never been discovered.
A few improvements have likewise been introduced in some
of the simple machineiy ; but even to the present day, water
is removed from some mines by men carrying it up the shaft
in leathern bags!

The labouring men work veiy hard. They have bttle time
allowed for their meals, and during summer and winter they
begin when it is light, and leave off at dark. They are paid
one pound sterling a month, and their food is given them :
this for breakfast consists of sixteen figs and two small loaves
of bread; for dinner, boiled beans; for supper, bi-oken roasted
wheat grain. They scarcely ever taste meat, as, with the
twelve pounds per annum, they have to clothe themselves
and support their families. The miners who work in the mine
itself have twenty-five shillings per month, and are allowed
a little charqui. But these men come down from their bleak
habitations only once in every fortnight or three weeks.

During my stay here I thoroughly enjoyed scrambling
about these huge mountains. The geology, as might have

CHILENOS. S_To face p. 24S,

CHILIAN MINER.

CENTRAL CHILE

263

been expected, was very interesting. The shattered and
baked rocks, traversed by innumerable dykes of greenstone,
showed what commotions had formerly taken place. The
scenery was much the same as that near the Bell of Quillota
— dry ban-en mountains, dotted at intervals by bushes with
a scanty foliage. The cactuses, or rather opuntias, were here
very numerous. I measured one of a sphei’ical figure, which,
including the spines, was six feet and four inches in circum -
ference. The height of the common cylindrical, branching
kind is from twelve to fifteen feet, and the girth (with
spines) of the branches between three and four feet.

A heavy fall of snow on the mountains prevented me,
during the last two days, from making some interesting
excursions. I attempted to reach a lake which the in-
habitants, from some unaccountable reason, believe to be
an arm of the sea. During a very dry season, it was pro-
posed to attempt cutting a channel from it for the sake
of the water, but the padre, after a consultation, declared
it was too dangerous, as all Chile would be inundated, if,
as generally supposed, the lake was connected with the
Pacific. We ascended to a great height, but becoming
involved in the snow-drifts, failed in reaching this wonderful
lake, and had some difficulty in returning. I thought we
should have lost our horses ; for there was no means of
guessing how deep the drifts were, and the animals, when
led, could only move by jumping. The black sky showed
that a fresh snowstorm was gathering, and we therefore
were not a little glad when we escaped. By the time we
reached the base the storm commenced, and it was lucky
for us that this did not happen three hours earlier in the day.

Allgust 2&lh. — We left Jajuel and again crossed the basin
of San Felipe. The day was truly Chilian ; glaringly bright,
and the atmosphere quite clear. The thick and uniform
covering of newly-fallen snow rendered the view of the
volcano of Aconcagua and the main chain quite glorious.
We were now on the road to Santiago, the capital of Chile.
We crossed the Cerro del Talguen, and slept at a little
rancho. The host, talking about the state of Chile as
compared to other countries, was very humble: '‘Some
see ■with two eyes and some with one, but for my part I
do not think that Chile sees ■with any.”

264

SANTIAGO

August 9.1th. — After crossing many low hills we descended
into the small land-locked plain of Guitron. In the basins,
such as this one, which are elevated from one thousand to
two thousand feet above the sea, two species of acacia, which
are stunted in their forms, and stand wide apart from each
other, grow in large numbers. These trees are never found
near the sea-coast ; and this gives another characteristic
feature to the scenery of these basins. We crossed a low
ridge which separates Guitron from the great plain on which
Santiago stands. The view was here pre-eminently striking :
the dead level surface, covered in parts by woods of acacia,
and with the city in the distance, abutting horizontally
against the base of the Andes, whose snowy peaks were
bright with the evening sun. At the first glance of this
view, it w'as quite evident that the plain represented the
extent of a fonner inland sea. As soon as we gained the
level road we pushed our horses into a gallop, and reached
the city before it was dark.

I stayed a week in Santiago, and enjoyed myself very
much. In the morning I rode to various places on the
plain, and in the evening dined with several of the English
merchants, whose hospitality at this place is well known.
A never-failing source of pleasure was to ascend the little
hillock of rock (St Lucia) which projects in the middle
nf the city. The scenery certainly is most striking, and,
as I have said, veiy peculiar. I am informed that this
same character is common to the cities on the great Mexican
platform. Of the town I have nothing to say in detail ; it
is not so fine or so large as Buenos Ayres, but is built after
the same model. I arrived here by a circuit to the north ;
so I resolved to return to Valparaiso by a rather longer
excui'sion to the south of the direct road.

September 5lh. — By the middle of the day we arriv^ed at
one of the suspension bridges made of hide, which crosses
the Maypu, a large turbulent river a few leagues southward
of Santiago. These bridges are very poor affairs. The road,
following the curvature of the suspending ropes, is made of
bundles of sticks placed close together. It was full of holes,
and oscillated rather fearfully, even with the weight of a
man leading his horse. In the evening we reached a com-
fortable farmhouse, where there were several very pretty

SANTIAGO

26’5

senoritas. They were much horrified at my having entered
one of their churches out of mere curiosity. They asked
me, “ Why do you not become a Christian — for our religion
is certain ? ” I assured them I was a sort of Christian ;
but tliey would not hear of it — appealing to my own words,

Do not your padres, your very bishops, many ? ” The
absurdity of a bisho}) having a wife particularly struck them ;
they scarcely knew whether to be most amused or hoiTor-
struck at such an enormity.

September 6th. — We proceeded due south, and slept at
Rancagua. The road passed over the level but narrow
plain, bounded on one side by lofty hills, and on the other
by the Cordillera. The next day we turned up the valley
of the Rio Cachapual, in which the hot baths of Cauquenes,
long celebrated for their medicinal properties, are situated.
The suspension bridges, in the less-frequented parts, are
generally taken down during the winter when the rivers
are low. Such was the case in this valley, and we were
therefore obliged to cross the stream on horseback. This
is rather disagreeable, for the foaming water, though not
deep, rushes so quickly over the bed of large rounded
stones, that one’s head becomes quite confused, and it is
difficult even to perceive whether the horse is moving
onward or standing still. In summer, when the snow melts,
the torrents are quite impassable ; their strength and fury
is then extremely great, as might be plainly seen by the
marks which they had left. We reached the baths in the
evening, and stayed there five days, being confined the two
last by heavy rain. The buildings consist of a square of
miserable little hovels, each with a single table and bench.
They are situated in a narrow deep valley just without the
central Cordillera. It is a quiet, solitary spot, with a good
deal of wild beauty.

The mineral springs of Cauquenes burst forth on a line of
a dislocation, crossing a mass of stratified rock, the whole of
which betrays the action of heat. A considerable quantity
of gas is continually escaping from the same orifices with
the water. Though the springs are only a few yards apart,
they have very different temperatures ; and this appears to
be the result of an unequal mixture of cold water : for
those with the lowest temperature have scarcely any mineral

SANTIAGO

266

taste. After the great earthquake of 1822 the springs ceased,
and the water did not return for nearly a year. They were
also much affected by the earthquake of 1 8.35 ; the tempera-
ture being suddenly changed from 118° to 92°.* It seems
probable that mineral waters rising deep from the bowels
of the earth Avould always be more deranged by subter-
ranean disturbances than those nearer the surface. The
man who had charge of the baths assured me that in summer
the water is hotter and more plentiful than in winter. The
fonner circumstance I should have expected, from the less
mixture, during the dry season, of cold water ; but the latter
statement appears very strange and contradictory. The peri-
odical increase during the summer, when rain never falls,
can, I think, only be accounted for by the melting of the
snow ; yet the mountains which are covered by snow during
that season are three or four leagues distant from the springs.
I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of my informer, who,
having lived on the spot for several years, ought to be well
acquainted with the circumstance — which, if true, certainly
is very curious ; for we must sujipose that the snow-water,
being conducted through porous strata to the regions of heat,
is again thrown up to the surface by the line of dislocated
and injected rocks at Cauquenes ; and the regularity of the
phenomenon would seem to indicate that in this district
heated rock occurred at a depth not very great.

One day I rode up the valley to the farthest inhabited
spot. Shortly above that point the Cachapual divided into
two deep tremendous ravines, which penetrate directly into
the great range. I scrambled up a peaked mountain, probably
more than six thousand feet high. Here, as indeed every-
where else, scenes of the highest interest presented them-
selves. It was by one of these ravines that Pincheira entered
Chile, and ravaged the neighbouring country. This is the
same man whose attack on an estancia at the Rio Negro I
have described. He was a renegade, half-caste Spaniard,
who collected a great body of Indians together and established
himself by a stream in the Pampas, which place none of the
forces sent after him could ever discover. From this point
he used to sally forth, and crossing the Cordillera by passes

■* Caldcleugh, in Philosoph. Transact, for 1836.

GOLD MINES

air

hitherto unatteniptecl, he ravaged the farmhouses and drove
the cattle to his secret rendezvous. Pincheira was a capital
hoi'seman, and he made all around him equally good, for he
invariably shot any one who hesitated to follow him. It was
against this man, and other wandering Indian tribes, that
Rosas waged the war of extermination.

Seplevibcr \Slh. — We left the baths of Cauquenes, and,
rejoining the main road, slept at the Rio Clai'o. From this
place we rode to the town of San Fernando. Before amv-
ing there, the last land-locked basin had expanded into a
great plain, which extended so for to the south that the
snowy summits of the more distant Andes were seen as if
above the horizon of the sea. San Fernando is forty leagues
from Santiago; and it was my farthest point southward; for
we here turned at right angles towards the coast. We slept
at the gold mines of Yaquil, which are worked by Mr Nixon,
an American gentleman, to whose kindness I was much
indebted during the four days I stayed at his house. The
next morning we rode to the mines, which are situated at
the distance of some leagues, near the summit of a lofty
hill. On the way we had a glimpse of the lake Tagua-
tagua, celebrated for its floating islands, which have been
described by M. Gay.* They are composed of the stalks
of various dead plants intertwined together, and on the
surface of w^hich other living ones take root. Their fonn
is generally circular, and their thickness from four to six
feet, of which the greater part is immersed in the water.
As the wind blows, they pass from one side of the lake
to the other, and often cai’ry cattle and horses as passengers.

When we amved at the mine, I was struck by the pale
appearance of many of the men, and inquired from Mr
Nixon respecting their condition. The mine is 450 feet
deep, and each man brings up about 200 pounds weight
of stone. With this load they have to climb up the
alternate notches cut in the trunks of trees, placed in a
zigzag line up the shaft. Even beardless young men,
eighteen and twenty years old, with little muscular de-
velopment of their bodies (they are quite naked excepting

* Atinales des Sciences Naturel/es, March 1833. M. Gay, a zealous and
able naturalist, was then occupied in studying every branch of natural
history throughout the kingdom of Chile.

268

GOLD MINES

drawers), ascend with tliis great load from nearly the same
depth. A strong man, who is not accustomed to this
labour, perspires most profusely with merely carrying up
his own body. With this very severe labour, they live
entirely on boiled beans and bread. They would prefer
having bread alone ; but their masters, finding that they
cannot work so hard upon this, treat them like horses,
and make them eat the beans. Their pay is here rather
more than at the mines of Jajuel, being from twenty-
four to twenty-eight shillings per month. They leave
the mine only once in three weeks ; when they stay with
their families for two days. One of the rules in this mine
sounds very harsh, but answers pretty well for the master.
The only method for stealing gold is to secrete pieces of
the ore, and take them out as occasion may offer. When-
ever the major-domo finds a lump thus hidden, its full
value is stopped out of the wages of all the men ; who
thus, without they all combine, are obliged to keep watch
over each other.

When the ore is brought to the mill, it is ground into
an impalpable powder ; the process of washing removes all the
lighter particles, and amalgamation finally secures the gold
dust. The washing, when described, sounds a veiy simple
process ; but it is beautiful to see how the exact adaptation
of the current of water to the specific gravity of the gold,
so easily separates the powdered matrix from the metal.
The mud which passes from the mills is collected into
pools, where it subsides, and every now and then is cleared
out, and thrown into a common heap. A great deal of
chemical action then commences, salts of various kinds
effloresce on the surface, and the mass becomes hard.
After having been left for a year or two, and then re-washed,
it yields gold ; and this process may be repeated even six
or seven times ; but the gold each time becomes less in
quantity, and the intervals required (as the inhabitants
say, to generate the metal) are longer. There can be no
doubt that the chemical action already mentioned each
time liberates fresh gold from some combination. The
discovery of a method to effect this before the first grinding
would without doubt raise the value of gold-ores many fold.
It is curious to find how the minute particles of gold, being

CENTRAL CHILE

269

scattered about and not corrodinpf, at last accumulate in some
quantity. A short time since a few miners, being out of work,
obtained permission to scrape the ground round the house
and mill ; they washed the earth thus got together, and so
procured thirty dollars’ worth of gold. This is an exact
counterpart of Avhat takes place in nature. Mountains suffer
degradation and wear away, and with them the metallic veins
which they contain. The hardest rock is worn into im-
palpable mud, the ordinary metals oxidate, and both are
removed ; but gold, platina, and a few others are nearly
indestructible, and from their weight, sinking to the bottom,
are left behind. After whole mountains have passed through
this grinding-mill, and have been washed by the hand of
natiu*e, the residue becomes metalliferous, and man finds it
worth his while to complete the task of separation.

Bad as the above treatment of the miners appears, it is
gladly accepted of by them ; for the condition of the labour-
ing agriculturists is much worse. Their wages are lower, and
they live almost exclusively on beans. This poverty must be
chiefly owing to the feudal-like system on which the land is
tilled : the landowner gives a small plot of ground to the
labourer, for building on and cultivating, and in return has
his services (or those of a proxy) for every day of his life,
without any wages. Until a father has a grown-up son,
who can by his labour pay the rent, there is no one, except
on occasional days, to take care of his own patch of ground.
Hence extreme poverty is very common among the labouring
classes in this country.

There are some old Indian ruins in this neighbourhood,
and I w'as shown one of the perforated stones which Molina
mentions as being found in many places in considerable
numbers. They are of a circular flattened form, from five to
six inches in diameter, with a hole passing quite through the
centre. It has generally been supposed that they were used
as heads to clubs, although their form does not appear at all
well adapted for that purpose. Burchell* states that some of
the tribes in Southern Africa dig up roots by the aid of a
stick pointed at one end, the force and weight of which is
increased by a round stone with a hole in it. into which the

Burcbell’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 45.

270

CENTRAL CHILE

other end is firmly wedged. It appears probable that the
Indians of Chile formerly used some such rude agricultural
instrument.

One day, a German collector in natural history, of the
name of Renous, called, and nearly at the same time an old
Spanish lawyer. I was much amused at being told the con-
versation which took place between them. Renous speaks
Spanish so well that the old lawyer mistook him for a
Chilian. Renous, alluding to me, asked him what he thought
of the King of England sending out a collector to their
country to pick up lizards and beetles, and to break stones ?
The old gentleman thought seriously for some time and then
said, It is not well, — kaj/ uii gato encerrado acjui (there is a
cat shut up hei*e). No man is so rich as to send out people
to pick up such rubbish. I do not like it : if one of us were
to go and do such things in England, do not you think the
King of England would very soon send us out of his country ? ”
And this old gentleman, from his profession, belongs to the
better informed and moi’e intelligent classes ! Renous himself,
two or three years before, left in a house at San Fernando
some caterpillars, under chai’ge of a girl to feed, that they
might turn into buttei*flies. This was rumoured through the
town, and at last the Padres and Governor consulted together,
and agreed it must be some heresy. Accordingly, when
Renous returned, he was arrested.

September \^th. — We left Yaquil, and followed the flat
valley, formed like that of Quillota, in which the Rio Tin-
deridica flows. Even at these few miles south of Santiago
the climate is much damper ; in consequence, there were fine
tracts of pasturage, which were not irrigated. (20lh) — We
followed this valley till it expanded into a great plain, which
reaches from the sea to the mountains west of Rancagua. We
shortly lost all trees and even bushes ; so that the inhabitants
are nearly as badly off for firewood as those in the Pampas.
Never having heard of these plains, I Avas much surprised at
meeting with such scenery in Chile. The plains belong to
more than one sei'ies of different elevations, and they are
ti'aversed by broad flat-bottomed valleys ; both of Avhich
circumstances, as in Patagonia, bespeak the action of the sea
on gently rising land. In the steep cliffs bordering these
valleys there are some large caves, which no doubt w'ere

HABITS OF THE PUMA

271

originally formed by the waves ; one of these is celebrated
under the name of Cueva del Obispo, having formerly been
consecrated. During the day I felt very unwell, and from
that time to the end of October did not recover.

September 22nd. — We continued to pass over green plains
without a tree. The next day we amved at a house near
Navedad, on the sea-coast, where a rich Haciendero gave us
lodgings. I stayed here the two ensuing days, and, though
very unwell, managed to collect from the tertiary formation
some marine shells.

September 2Uh. — Our course was now directed towards
Valparaiso, which with great difficulty I reached on the 27th,
and was there confined to my bed till the end of October.
During this time I was an inmate in Mr Corfield’s house,
whose kindness to me I do not know how to express.

I will here add a few observations on some of the animals
and birds of Chile. The puma, or South American lion, is
not uncommon. This animal has a wide geographical range ;
being found from the equatorial forests, throughout the deserts
of Patagonia, as far south as the damp and cold latitudes (53°
to 54°) of Tierra del Fuego. I have seen its footsteps in the
Cordillera of Central Chile, at an elevation of at least 10,000
feet. In La Plata the puma preys chiefly on deer, ostriches,
bizcacha, and other small quadrupeds ; it there seldom attacks
ca'tle or horses, and most rarely man. In Chile, however, it
destroys many young horses and cattle, owing probably to the
scarcity of other quadrupeds ; I heal'd, likewise, of two men
and a woman who had been thus killed. It is asserted that
the puma always kills its prey by springing on the shoulders,
and then drawing back the head with one of its paws, until
the vertebrae break ; I have seen in Patagonia the skeletons
of guanacos, with their necks thus dislocated.

The puma, after eating its fill, covers the carcass with many
large bushes, and lies down to watch it. This habit is often
the cause of its being discovered ; for the condors wheeling
in the air, every now and then descend to partake of the
feast, and being angrily driven away, rise altogether on the
wing. The Chileno Guaso then knows there is a lion watch-
ing his prey — the word is given — and men and dogs hurry to
the chase. Sir F. Head says that a Gaucho in the Pampas,

272

HABITS OF THE PUMA

upon merely seeing some condors wheeling in the air, cried,
“ A lion ! ” I could never myself meet with any one who
pretended to such powers of discrimination. It is asserted
that if a puma has once been betrayed by thus watching the
carcass, and has then been hunted, it never resumes this
habit ; but that, having gorged itself, it wanders far away.
The puma is easily killed. In an open country, it is first
entangled with the bolas, then lassoed, and dragged along
the ground till rendered insensible. At Tandeel (south of the
Plata) I was told that within three months one hundred were
thus destroyed. In Chile they are generally driven up bushes
or trees, and are then either shot, or baited to death by dogs.
The dogs employed in this chase belong to a particular breed,
called Leoneros ; they are weak, slight animals, like long-
legged terriers, but are born with a pai'ticular instinct for this
sport. The puma is described as being very crafty ; when
pursued, it often returns on its former ti’ack, and then
suddenly making a spring on one side, waits there till the
dogs have passed by. It is a very silent animal, uttering no
cry even when wounded, and only rarely during the breeding
season.

Of birds, two species of the genus Pteroptochos (mcgapodius
and albicollis of Kittlitz) are perhaps the most conspicuous.
The former, called by the Chilenos “ el Turco,” is as large as
a field-fare, to which bird it has some alliance ; but its legs
are much longer, tail shorter, and beak stronger ; its colour is
a reddish-brown. The Turco is not uncommon. It lives on the
ground, sheltered among the thickets which are scattered
over the dry and sterile hills. With its tail erect, and stilt-
like legs, it may be seen evei-y now and then popping from
one bush to another with uncommon quickness. It really
requires little imagination to believe that the bird is ashamed
of itself, and is aware of its most ridiculous figure. On first
seeing it, one is tempted to exclaim, “ A vilely-stuffed speci-
men has escaped from some museum, and has come to life
again ! ” It cannot be made to take flight without the
greatest trouble, nor does it run, but only hops. The various
loud cries which it utters when concealed amongst the bushes
are as strange as its appearance. I dissected several speci-
mens ; a gizzard, which was very muscular, contained beetles,
^egetable fibres, and pebbles. From this character, from the

HUMMING-BIRDS

273

length of its legs, scratching feet, membranous covering to
the nostrils, short and arched wings, this bird seems in a
certain degree to connect the thrushes with the gallinaceous
order.

The second species (or P. albicollis) is allied to tlie first in
its general form. It is called Tapacolo, or “ cover your
posterior” ; and well does the shameless little bird deserve its
name ; for it carries its tail more than erect — that is, inclined
backward towards its head. It is very common, and fre-
quents the bottoms of hedge-rows and the bushes scattered
over the baiTen hills, where scarcely another bird can exist.
In its general manner of feeding, of quickly hopping out of
the thickets and back again, in its desire of concealment,
unwillingness to take flight, and nidification, it bears a close
resemblance to the Turco ; but its appearance is not quite so
ridiculous. The Tapacolo is very crafty ; when frightened by
any person it will remain motionless at the bottom of a bush,
and will then, after a little while, try with much address to
crawl away on the opposite side. It is also an active bird
and continually making a noise ; these noises are various and
strangely odd ; some are like the cooing of doves, others like
the bubbling of water, and many defy all similes. The
countiy people say it changes its cry five times in the year —
according to some change of season, I suppose.*

Two species of humming-birds are common ; Trochilus forfi-
catus is found over a space of 2500 miles on the west coast,
from the hot dry country of Lima to the forests of Tierra del
Fuego — where it may be seen flitting about in snowstorms.
In the wooded island of Chiloe, which has an extremely
humid climate, this little bird, skipping from side to side
amidst the dripping foliage, is perhaps more abundant than
I almost any other kind. I opened the stomachs of several

I specimens, shot in different parts of the continent, and in all

I remains of insects w^ere as numerous as in the stomach of a
t creeper. When this species migrates in the summer south-

k ■ ■ - II ■

* It is a remarkable fact that Molina, though describing in detail all the
t birds and animals of Chile, never once mentions this genus, the species of
I which are so common, and so remarkable in their habits. Was he at a loss
I how to classify them, and did he consequently think that silence was the

}more prudent course ? It is one more instance of the frequency of omissions
by authors on those very subjects where it might have been least expected.

274

HUMMING-BIRDS

ward, it is replaced by the arrival of another species coming
from the north. This second kind (^Trochilus gigas) is a very
large bird for the delicate family to which it belongs ; when
on the wing its appearance is singular. Like others of the
genus, it moves from place to place with a rapidity which may
be compared to that of Syrphus amongst flies and Sphinx
among moths ; but whilst hovering over a flower it flaps its
wings with a very slow and powerful movement totally differ-
ent from that vibratory one common to most of the species,
which produces the humming noise. I never saw any other
bird where the force of its wings appeared (as in a butterfly)
so powerful in proportion to the weight of its body. When
hovering by a flower, its tail is constantly expanded and shut
like a fan, the body being kept in a nearly vertical position.
This action appears to steady and support the bird between
the slow movements of its wings. Although flying from flower
to flower in search of food, its stomach generally contained
abundant remains of insects, which I suspect are much more
the object of its search than honey. The note of this species,
like that of nearly the whole family, is extremely shrill.

CHAPTER XIII

CniLOE AND CHONOS ISLANDS

CIIILOE GENERAL ASPECT BOAT EXCURSION NATIVE INDIANS —

CASTRO TAME FOX ASCEND SAN PEDRO CHONOS ARCHI-
PELAGO PENINSULA OF TRES MONTE GRANITIC RANGE

BOAT-WRECKED SAILORS LOw’s HARBOUR WILD POTATO

FORMATION OF PEAT MYOPOTAMUS, OTTER, AND MICE

CHEUCAU AND BARKING-BIRD OPETIORHYNCHUS SINGULAR

CHARACTER OF ORNITHOLOGY PETRELS.

OVEMBER \Oth. — The Beagle sailed from Valpa-
raiso to the south, for the purpose of surveying
the southern part of Chile, the island of Chiloe,
and the broken land called the Chonos archi-
pelago, as far south as the Peninsula of Tres
Montes. On the 21st we anchored in the bay of San Carlos,
the capital of Chiloe.

This island is about ninety miles long, with a breadth of
rather less than thirty. The land is hilly, but not moun-
tainous, and is covered by one great forest, except where a
few green patches have been cleared round the thatched
cottages. From a distance the view somewhat resembles
that of Tierra del Fuego ; but the woods, when seen nearer,
are incomparably more beautiful. Many kinds of fine ever-
green trees, and plants with a tropical character, here take
the place of the gloomy beech of the southern shores. In
winter the climate is detestable, and in summer it is only
a little better. I should think there are few parts of the
w'orld, within the temperate regions, where so much rain
falls. The winds are very boisterous, and the sky almost
always clouded : to have a week of fine weather is some-
thing wonderful. It is even difficult to get a single glimpse
of the Cordillera : during our first visit, once only the volcano
of Osorno stood out in bold relief, and that was before sunrise ;

275

276

CHILOE

it was curious to watcli, as the sun rose, the outline gradually
fading away in the glare of the eastern sky.

The inhabitants, from their complexion and low stature,
appear to have three-fourths of Indian blood in their veins.
They are a humble, quiet, industrious set of men. Although
the fertile soil, resulting from the decomposition of the
volcanic rocks, supports a rank vegetation, yet the climate is
not favourable to any production which requires much sun-
shine to ripen it. There is very little pasture for the larger
quadrupeds ; and in consequence the staple articles of food
are pigs, potatoes, and fish. The people all dress in strong
woollen garments, which each family makes for itself, and
dyes with indigo of a dark blue colour. The arts, however,
are in the rudest state ; as may be seen in their strange
fashion of ploughing, their method of spinning, grinding corn,
and in the construction of their boats. The forests are so
impenetrable that the land is nowhere cultivated except near
the coast and on the adjoining islets. Even where paths
exist, they are scarcely passable from the soft and swampy
state of the soil. The inhabitants, like those of Tierra del
Fuego, move about chiefly on the beach or in boats. Although
with plenty to eat, the people are very poor ; there is no
demand for labour, and consequently the lower orders cannot
scrape together money sufficient to purchase even the smallest
luxuries. There is also a great deficiency of a circulating
medium. I have seen a man bringing on his back a bag
of charcoal, with which to buy some trifle, and another
carrying a plank to exchange for a bottle of wine. Hence
every tradesman must also be a merchant, and again sell the
goods which he takes in exchange.

November 24iA. — The yawl and whale-boat were sent, under
the command of Mr (now Captain) Sulivan, to survey the
eastern or inland coast of Chiloe, and with orders to meet
the Beagle at the southern extremity of the island, to which
point she would i^roceed by the outside, so as thus to circum-
navigate the whole. I accompanied this expedition, but
instead of going in the boats the first day, 1 hired horses
to take me to Chacao, at the northern extremity of the island.
The road followed the coast, every now and then crossing
promontories covered by fine forests. In these shaded paths
it is absolutely necessary that the whole road should be made

CHILOE

277

of logs of wood, which are squared and placed by the side of
each other. From the rays of the sun never penetrating the
evergreen foliage, the ground is so damp and soft, that except
by this means, neither man nor horse would be able to pass
along. I arrived at the village of Chacao shortly after the
tents belonging to the boats were pitched for the night.

The land in this neighbourhood has been extensively
cleared, and there were many quiet and most picturesque
nooks in the forest. Chacao was formerly the principal port
in the island ; but many vessels having been lost owing to
the dangerous cun-ents and rocks in the straits, the Spanish
Government burnt the church, and thus arbitrarily compelled
the greater number of inhabitants to migrate to San Carlos.
We had not long bivouacked, before the barefooted son of
the governor came down to reconnoitre us. Seeing the
English flag hoisted at the yawl’s mast-head, he asked, with
the utmost indifference, whether it was always to fly at
Chacao. In several places the inhabitants were much aston-
ished at the appearance of men-of-war’s boats, and hoped
and believed it was the forerunner of a Spanish fleet coming
to recover the island from the patriot government of Chile.
All the men in power, however, had been informed of our
intended visit, and wei'e exceedingly civil. Wliile we were
eating our supper the governor paid us a visit. He had been
a lieutenant-colonel in the Spanish service, but now was
miserably poor. He gave us two sheep, and accepted in
return two cotton handkerchiefs, some brass trinkets, and a
little tobacco,

November 2,5th. — Torrents of rain : we managed, however,
to run down the coast as far as Huapilenou. The whole of
this eastern side of Chiloe has one aspect ; it is a plain,
broken by valleys and divided into little islands, and the
whole thickly covered with one impervious blackish-green
forest. On the margins there are some cleared spaces, sur-
rounding the high-roofed cottages.

November 26th. — The day rose splendidly clear. The
volcano of Osomo was spouting out volumes of smoke.
This most beautiful mountain, formed like a perfect cone,
and white with snow, stands out in front of the Cordillera.
Another great volcano, with a saddle-shaped summit, also
emitted from its immense crater little jets of steam. Sub*

278

CHILOE

sequently we saw the lofty-peaked Corcovado. — well deserv-
ing the name of “ el famoso Corcovado.” Thus we beheld,
from one point of view, three great active volcanoes, each
about seven thousand feet high. In addition to this, far to
the south there were other lofty cones covered with snow,
which, although not known to be active, must be in their
origin volcanic. The line of the Andes is not, in this
neighbourhood, nearly so elevated as in Chile ; neither does
it appear to form so perfect a barrier between the regions of
the earth. This great range, although running in a straight
north and south line, owing to an optical deception always
appeared more or less curved ; for the lines drawn from each
peak to the beholder’s eye necessarily converged like the
radii of a semicircle, and as it was not possible (owing to the
clearness of the atmosphere and the absence of all inter-
mediate objects) to judge how far distant the farthest peaks
were off, they appeared to stand in a flattish semicircle.

Landing at midday, we saw a family of pure Indian
extraction. The father was singularly like York Minster ;
and some of the younger boys, with their ruddy complexions,
might have been mistaken for Pampas Indians. Evei-ything
I have seen convinces me of the close connection of the
different American tribes, who nevertheless speak distinct
languages. This party could muster but little Spanish, and
talked to each other in their o^vn tongue. It is a pleasant
thing to see the aborigines advanced to the same degree
of civilisation, however low that may be, which their white
conquerors have attained. More to the south we saw
many pure Indians : indeed, all the inhabitants of some
of the islets retain their Indian surnames. In the census
of 1832, there were in Chiloe and its dependencies forty-
two thousand souls : the greater number of these appear to
be of mixed blood. Eleven thousand retain their Indian
surnames, but it is probable that not nearly all of these
are of a pure breed. Their manner of life is the same
with that of the other poor inhabitants, and they are all
Chi-istians ; but it is said that they 3’et retain some strange
superstitious ceremonies, and that they pretend to hold
communication with the devil in certain caves. Formerly,
every one convicted of this offence was sent to the Inquisi-
tion at Lima. Many of the inhabitants who are not included

CHILOE

279

in the eleven thousand with Indian surnames^ cannot be
distinguished by their appearance from Indians. Gomez,
tlie governor of Lemuy, is descended from noblemen of
Spain on both sides; but by constant inter-marriages with
the natives the present man is an Indian. On the other
hand, the governor of Quinchao boasts much of his purely-
kept Spanish blood.

We reached at night a beautiful little cove, north of the
island of Caucahue. The people here complained of want of
land. This is partly owing to their own negligence in not
clearing the woods, and partly to restrictions by the govern-
ment, which makes it necessary, before buying ever so small
a piece, to pay two shillings to the surveyor for measuring
each quadra (150 yards square), together with whatever price
he fixes for the value of the land. After his valuation, the
land must be put up three times to auction, and if no one
bids more, the pui’chaser can have it at that rate. All these
exactions must be a serious check to clearing the ground,
where the inhabitants are so extremely poor. In most
countries, forests are removed without much difficulty by
the aid of fire ; but in Chiloe, from the damp nature of
the climate, and the sort of trees, it is necessary first to cut
them down. This is a heavy draw'back to the prosperity
of Chiloe. In the time of the Spaniards the Indians could
not hold land ; and a family, after having cleared a piece of
ground, might be driven away, and the property seized by
the government. The Chilian authorities are now per-
forming an act of justice by making retribution to these poor
Indians, giving to each man, according to his grade of life, a
certain portion of land. The value of uncleared ground is
veiy little. The Government gave Mr Douglas (the present
surveyor, who informed me of these circumstances) eight and
a-half square miles of forest near San Carlos, in lieu of a
debt; and this he sold for 350 dollars, or about £70 sterling.

The two succeeding days were fine, and at night we
reached the island of Quinchao. This neighbourhood is the
most cultivated part of the archipelago ; for a broad strip
of land on the coast of the main island, as well as on many
of the smaller adjoining ones, is almost com2)letely cleared.
Some of the farmhouses seemed very comfortable. I was
curious to ascertain how rich any of these j)eo2)le might be,

280

CHILOE

but Mr Douglas says that no one can be considered as
possessing a regular income. One of the richest landowners
might possibly accumulate^ in a long industrious life, as much
as .£1000 sterling; but should this happen, it would all be
stowed away in some secret comer, for it is the custom of
almost every family to have a jar or treasure-chest buried in
the ground.

November 30lh. — Early on Sunday morning we reached
Castro, the ancient capital of Chiloe, but now a most forlorn
and deserted place. The usual quadrangular arrangement of
Spanish towns could be traced, but the streets and plaza were
coated with fine green turf, on which sheep were browsing.
The church, which stands in the middle, is entirely built
of plank, and has a picturesque and venerable appearance.
The poverty of the place may be conceived from the fact,
that although containing some hundreds of inhabitants, one
of our party was unable anywhere to purchase either a pound
of sugar or an ordinary knife. No individual possessed either
a watch or a clock ; and an old man, who was supposed to
have a good idea of time, was employed to strike the
church bell by guess. The arrival of our boats was a rare
event in this quiet retired corner of the world : and nearly
all the inhabitants came down to the beach to see us pitch
our tents. They were very civil, and offered us a house ;
and one man even sent us a cask of cider as a present.
In the afternoon we paid our respects to the governor — a
quiet old man, who, in his appearance and manner of life,
was scarcely superior to an English cottager. At night
heavy rain set in, which was hardly sufficient to drive away
from our tents the large circle of lookers-on. An Indian
family, who had come in a canoe from Caylen, bivouacked
near us. They had no shelter during the rain. In the
morning I asked a young Indian, who was wet to the
skin, how he had passed the night. He seemed perfectly
content, and answered, ‘^Muy bien, Senor.”

December \st. — We steered for the island of Lemuy. I
was anxious to examine a reported coal mine, which turned
out to be lignite of little value, in the sandstone (probably
of an ancient tertiary epoch) of which these islands are com-
posed. When we reached Lemuy we had much difficulty in
finding any place to pitch our tents, for it was spring-tide.

POVERTY OF THE INDIANS

281

and the land was wooded down to the water’s edge. In
a sliort time we were surrounded by a large group of the
nearly pure Indian inhabitants. They were much surprised
at our arrival, and said one to the other, “ This is the reason
we have seen so many parrots lately ; the cheucau ” (an odd
red-breasted little bird, which inhabits the thick forest, and
utters very peculiar noises) has not cried ' beware ' for
nothing.” They were soon anxious for barter. Money was
scarcely worth anything, but their eagerness for tobacco
was something quite extraordinary. After tobacco, indigo
came next in value : then capsicum, old clothes, and gun-
powder. The latter article was required for a very innocent
purpose : each parish has a public musket, and the gun-
poM'der was wanted for making a noise on their saint or
feast days.

The people here live chiefly on shell-fish and potatoes.
At certain seasons they catch also, in "con'ales,” or hedges
under water, many fish which are left on the mud-banks
as the tide falls. They occasionally possess fowls, sheep,
goats, pigs, horses, and cattle ; the order in which they
are here mentioned expressing their respective numbers.
I never saw anything more obliging and humble than the
manners of these people. They generally began with stating
that they were poor natives of the place, and not Spaniards,
and that they were in sad want of tobacco and other
comforts. At Caylen, the most southern island, the sailors
bought with a stick of tobacco of the value of three-half-
pence, two fowls, one of which, the Indians stated, had
skin between its toes, and turned out to be a fine duck ;
and Math some cotton handkerchiefs, worth three shillings,
three sheep and a large bunch of onions were procured.
The yawl at this place was anchored some way from the
shore, and we had fears for her safety from robbers during
the night. Our pilot, Mr Douglas, accordingly told the
constable of the district that we always placed sentinels
■with loaded arms, and not understanding Spanish, if we
saw any person in the dark, we should assuredly shoot
him. The constable, with much humility, agreed to the
perfect propriety of this arrangement, and promised us that
no one should stir out of his house during that night.

During the four succeeding days we continued sailing

282

CHILOE

southward. The general features of the country remained
the same, but it was much less thickly inhabited. On the
large island of Tanqui there was scarcely one cleared spot,
the trees on every side extending their branches over the
sea-beach. I one day noticed, growing on the sandstone
cliffs, some very fine plants of the panke {Gunnera scabrd),
which somewhat resembles the rhubarb on a gigantic scale.
The inhabitants eat the stalks, which are subacid, and tan
leather with the roots, and prepare a black dye from them.
The leaf is nearly circular, but deeply indented on its
margin. I measured one which was nearly eight feet in
diameter, and therefore no less than twenty-four in circum-
ference! The stalk is rather more than a yard high, and
each plant sends out four or five of these enormous leaves,
presenting together a very noble appearance.

December Qth. — We reached Caylen, called ^^el fin del
Cristiandad.” In the morning we stopped for a few minutes
at a house on the northern end of Laylec, which was the
exti-eme point of South American Christendom, and a
miserable hovel it was. The latitude is 43° 10', which is
two degrees farther south than the Rio Negro on the Atlantic
coast. These extreme Christians w'ere very poor, and under
the plea of their situation, begged for some tobacco. As a
proof of the poverty of these Indians, I may mention that
shortly before this, we had met a man who had travelled
three days and a-half on foot, and had as many to return,
for the sake of recovering the value of a small axe and a
few fish. How very difficult it must be to buy the smallest
article, when such trouble is taken to recover so small a debt!

In the evening we reached the island of San Pedro, where
we found the Beagle at anchor. In doubling the point, tw'o
of the officers landed to take a round of angles wuth the
theodolite. A fox (Canis fulvipis), of a kind said to be
peculiar to the island, and very rare in it, and which is a
new species, was sitting on the rocks. He was so intently
absorbed in watching the work of the officers, that I w'as
able, by quietly walking up behind, to knock him on the
head with my geological hammer. This fox, more curious
or more scientific, but less wise, than the generality of his
brethren, is now mounted in the museum of the Zoological
Society.

CHONOS ARCHIPELAGO

283

We sta3'ed three days in this harbour, on one of which
Captain Fitz Roy, with a party, attempted to ascend to
the summit of San Pedro. The woods here had rather a
different appearance from those on the northern part of
the island. The rock, also, being micaceous slate, there
was no beach, but the steep sides dipped directly beneath
the water. The general aspect in consequence was more
like that of Tierra del Fuego than of Chiloe. In vain we
tried to gain the summit ; the forest was so impenetrable,
that no one who has not beheld it can imagine so entangled
a mass of dying and dead trunks. I am sure that often, for
more than ten minutes together, our feet never touched the
ground, and we were frequently ten or fifteen feet above it,
so that the seamen as a joke called out the soundings. At
other times we crept one after another on our hands and
knees, under the rotten trunks. In the lower part of the
mountains, noble trees of the Winter’s Bark, and a laurel like
the sassafras with fragrant leaves, and others, the names of
which I do not know, were matted together by a trailing
bamboo or cane. Here we were more like fishes struggling in
a net than any other animal. On the higher parts, brushwood
takes the place of larger trees, with here and there a red
cedar or alerce pine. I was also pleased to see, at an
elevation of a little less than 1000 feet, our old friend the
southern beech. They were, however, poor stunted trees,
and I should think that this must be nearly their northern
limit. We ultimately gave up the attempt in despair.

December \0th. — The yawl and whale-boat, with Mr
Sulivan, proceeded on their siu'vey, but I remained on
board the Beagle, which the next day left San Pedro for the
southward. On the 13th we ran into an opening on the
southern part of Guayatecas, or the Chonos Archipelago ;
and it was fortunate we did so, for on the following day
a storm worthy of Tierra del Fuego raged with great fury.
White massive clouds were piled up against a dark blue sky,
and across them black ragged sheets of vapour were rapidly
driven. The successive mountain ranges appeared like dim
shadows, and the setting sun cast on the woodland a yellow
gleam, much like that produced by the flame of spirits of wine.
The water was white with the flying spray, and the wind lulled
and roared again tlurough the rigging : it was an ominous.

284.

CHONOS ARCHIPELAGO

sublime scene. During a few minutes there was a bright
rainbow, and it was curious to observe the effect of the spray,
which, being earned along the surface of the water, changed
the ordinary semi-circle into a circle — a band of prismatic
colours being continued from both feet of the common arch
across the bay, close to the vessel’s side : thus forming a
distorted, but very nearly entire ring.

We stayed here three days. The weather continued bad ;
but this did not much .signify, for the surface of the land in
all these islands is all but impassable. The coast is so very
rugged that to attempt to walk in that direction requires
continued scrambling up and down over the sharp rocks
of mica-slate ; and as for the woods, our faces, hands, and
shin-bones all bore witness to the maltreatment we received
in merely attempting to penetrate their forbidden recesses.

December ISth. — We stood out to sea. On the 20th we
bade farewell to the south, and with a fair wind turned the
ship’s head northward. From Cape Tres Montes we sailed
pleasantly along the lofty weather-beaten coast, which is
remarkable for the bold outline of its hills and the thick
covering of forest even on the almost precipitous flanks. The
next day a harbour was discovered, which on this dangerous
coast might be of great service to a distressed vessel. It can
easily be recognised by a hill l600 feet high, which is even
more perfectly conical than the famous sugar-loaf at Rio de
Janeiro. The next day after anchoring, I succeeded in reach-
the summit of this hill. It was a laborious undertaking, for
the sides were so steep that in some parts it was necessary to
use the trees as ladders. Thei’e were also several extensive
brakes of the Fuchsia, covered with its beautiful drooping
flowers, but very difficult to crawl through. In these wild
countries it gives much delight to gain the summit of any
mountain. There is an indefinite expectation of seeing some-
thing very strange, which, however often it may be baulked,
never failed with me to recur on each successive attempt.
Every one must know the feeling of triumph and pride which
a grand view from a height communicates to the mind. In
these little-frequented countries there is also joined to it some
vanity, that you perhaps are the first man who ever stood
on this pinnacle or admired this view.

A strong desire is always felt to ascertain whether any

BOAT-WRECKED SAILORS

285

human being has previously visited an imfrequented spot. A
bit of wood w’ith a nail in it is picked up and studied as if
it were covered with hieroglyphics. Possessed with this
feeling, I was much interested by finding, on a wild part of
the coast, a bed made of grass beneath a ledge of rock. Close
by it there had been a fire, and the man had used an axe.
The fire, bed, and situation showed the dexterity of an
Indian ; but he could scarcely have been an Indian, for the
race is in this part extinct, owing to the Catholic desire of
making at one blow Chi-istians and slaves. I had at the time
some misgivings that the solitary man who had made his bed
on this w ild spot, must have been some poor shipwrecked
sailor, w'ho, in trying to travel up the coast, had here laid
himself down for his dreary night.

December 28tli. — The weather continued very bad, but it
at last permitted us to proceed with the survey. The time
hung heavy on our hands, as it always did when we were
delayed from day to day by successive gales of wind. In the
evening another harbour was discovered, where we anchored.
Directly afterwards a man was seen waving his shirt, and a
boat was sent which brought back two seamen. A party
of six had run aw'ay from an American whaling vessel, and
had landed a little to the southward in a boat, which was
shortly afterwards knocked to pieces by the surf. They had
now been wandering up and down the coast for fifteen
months, without knowing which way to go, or where they
were. What a singular piece of good fortune it was that
this harbour was now discovered ! Had it not been for this
one chance, they might have wandered till they had grown
old men, and at last have perished on this wild coast. Their
sufferings had been very great, and one of their party had
lost his life by falling from the cliffs. They were sometimes
obliged to separate in search of food, and this explained
the bed of the solitary man. Considering what they had
undergone, I think they had kept a very good reckoning
of time, for they had lost only four days.

December SOth. — We anchored in a snug little cove at the
foot of some high hills, near the northern extremity of Tres
Montes. After breakfast the next morning, a party ascended
one of these mountains, which was 2400 feet high. The
scenery was remarkable. The chief part of the range was

286

CHONOS ARCHIPELAGO

composed of grand, solid, abrupt masses of granite, which ap-
peared as if they liad been coeval with the beginning of the
world. The granite was capped with mica-slate, and this in
the lapse of ages had been worn into strange finger-shaped
points. These two foianations, thus differing in their outlines,
agree in being almost destitute of vegetation. This barrenness
had to our eyes a strange apj^earance, from having been so
long accustomed to the sight of an almost universal forest of
dark green trees. I took much delight in examining the
structure of these mountains. The complicated and lofty
ranges bore a noble aspect of durability — equally profitless,
howevei’, to man and to all other animals. Granite to the
geologist is classic ground : from its widespread limits, and its
beautiful and compact texture, few rocks have been more
anciently recognised. Granite has given rise, perhaps, to more
discussion concerning its origin than any other formation.
We generally see it constituting the fundamental rock, and,
however formed, we know it is the deepest layer in the crust
of this globe to which man has penetrated. The limit of
man’s knowledge in any subject possesses a high interest,
which is perhaps increased by its close neighbourhood to the
realms of imagination.

January \st, 1835. — The new year is ushered in with the
ceremonies proper to it in these regions. She lays out no
false hopes ; a heavy north-western gale, with steady rain,
bespeaks the rising year. Thank God, we are not destined
here to see the end of it, but hope then to be in the Pacific
Ocean, where a blue sky tells one there is a heaven — a some-
thing beyond the clouds above our heads.

The north-west winds prevailing for the next four days,
we only managed to cross a great bay, and then anchored
in another secure harbour. I accompanied the captain in a
boat to the head of a deep creek. On the way the number
of seals which we saw was quite astonishing ; every bit of
fiat rock, and parts of the beech, were covered with them.
They appeared to be of a loving disposition, and lay huddled
together, fast asleep, like so many pigs ; but even pigs would
have been ashamed of their dirt, and of the foul smell wdiich
came from them. Each herd was watched by the patient
but inauspicious eyes of the tui'key-buzzard. This disgusting
bird, with its bald scarlet head, formed to walloAv in putridity.

CHONOS ARCHIPELAGO

287

is very common on the west coast, and their attendance on
the seals, shows on what they rely for their food. We found
the water (probably only that of the surface) nearly fresh ;
this was caused by the number of torrents which, in the form
of cascades, came tumbling over the bold granite mountains
into the sea. The fresh water attracts the fish, and these
bring many terns, gulls, and two kinds of cormorant. We
saw’ also a pair of the beautiful black-necked swans, and
several small sea-otters, the fur of which is held in such
high estimation. In returning, we were again amused by
the impetuous manner in which the heap of seals, old and
young, tumbled into the w’ater as the boat passed. They
did not remain long under water, but rising, followed us with
outstretched necks, expressing great wonder and cui’iosity.

Januan/ 1th. — Having run up the coast, we anchored near
the northern end of the Chonos Archipelago, in Low’s Har-
bour, w’here we remained a week. The islands were here,
as in Chiloe, composed of a stratified, soft, littoral deposit ;
and the vegetation in consequence was beautifully luxuriant.
The woods came down to the sea-beach, just in the manner
of an evergreen shrubbery over a gravel walk. We also
enjoyed from the anchorage a splendid view of four great
snowy cones of the Cordillera, including “ el famoso Corco-
vado ” : the range itself had in this latitude so little height,
that few parts of it appeared above the tops of the neigh-
bouring islets. We found here a party of five men from
Caylen, ‘‘ el fin del Cristiandad,” who had most adventurously
crossed in their miserable boat -canoe, for the purpose of
fishing, the open space of sea which separates Chonos from
Chiloe. These islands will, in all probability, in a short
time become peopled like those adjoining the coast of
Chiloe.

The wild potato grows on these islands in great abundance,
on the sandy, shelly soil near the sea-beach. The tallest plant
was four feet in height. The tubers were generally small,
but I found one, of an oval shape, two inches in diameter ;
they resembled in every respect and had the same smell as
English potatoes ; but when boiled they shrunk much, and
were watery and insipid, without any bitter taste. They are
undoubtedly here indigenous : they grow as far south, accord-

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CHONOS ARCHIPELAGO

ing to Mr Low, as lat. 50*, and are called Aquinas by the
wild Indians of that part : the Chilotan Indians have a differ-
ent name for them. Professor Henslow, who has examined
the dried specimens which I brought home, says that they
are the same with those desciibed by Mr Sabine* from
Valparaiso, but that they form a variety which by some
botanists has been considered as specifically distinct. It is
remarkable that the same plant should be found on the
sterile mountains of Centi-al Chile, where a drop of rain
does not fall for more than six months, and within the
damp forests of these southern islands.

In the centi'al parts of the Chonos Archipelago (lat. 45°),
the forest has very much the same character with that along
the whole west coast for 600 miles southward to Cape Horn.
The arborescent grass of Chiloe is not found here ; while
the beech of Tierra del Fuego grows to a good size, and
forms a considerable proportion of the wood ; not, however,
in the same exclusive manner as it does farther southward.
Cryptogamic plants here find a most congenial climate. In
the Strait of Magellan, as I have before remarked, the
country appears too cold and wet to allow of their arriving
at perfection ; but in these islands, within the forest, the
number of species and great abundance of mosses, lichens,
and small ferns, is quite extraordinary.! In Tierra del
Fuego trees grow only on the hill-sides — every level piece
of land being invariably covered by a thick bed of peat ;
but in Chiloe flat land supports the most luxuriant forests.
Here, within the Chonos Archipelago, the nature of the
climate more closely approaches that of Tierra del Fuego
than that of Northern Chiloe ; for every patch of level ground
is covered by two species of plants (^Astelia puviila and JDonatia
magellanicd), which, by their joint decay, compose a thick bed
of elastic peat.

* Horticultural Transact. , vol. v. p. 249. Mr Caldcleugh sent home
two tubers, which, being well manured, even the first season produced
numerous potatoes and an abundance of leaves. See Humboldt’s inter-
esting discussion on this plant, which, it appears, was unknown in Mexico.
— In Folit. Essay on New Spain, book iv. chap. ix.

! By sweeping with my insect-net, I procured from these situations a
considerable number of minute insects, of the family of Staphylinida and
others allied to Pselaphus, and minute Hyvienoptera. But the most
characteristic family in number, both of individuals and species, through-
out the more open parts of Chiloe and Chonos, is that of the Telephoridce.

CHONOS ARCHIPELAGO

289

In Tierra del Fuego, above the region of woodland, the
fonner of these eminently sociable plants is the chief agent in
the production of peat. Fresh leaves are always succeeding
one to the other round the central tap-root ; the lower ones
soon decay, and in tracing a root downwards in the peat,
the leaves, yet holding their place, can be observed passing
through every stage of decomposition, till the whole becomes
blended in one confused mass. The Astelia is assisted by a
few other plants, — here and there a small creeping Myrtus
(3/. mnmnularid), with a woody stem like our cranbeny and
with a sweet berry, — an Empetrum {E, riihrmn), like our
heath, — a rush {Juncm grandijlorus'), are nearly the only ones
that grow' on the swampy surface. These plants, though
possessing a very close general resemblance to the English
species of the same genera, are different. In the more level
parts of the country, the surface of the peat is broken up into
little pools of water, which stand at different heights, and
appear as if artificially excavated. Small streams of water,
flowing underground, complete the disorganisation of the
vegetable matter, and consolidate the whole.

The climate of the southern part of America appears
particularly favourable to the production of peat. In the
Falkland Islands almost every kind of plant, even the coarse
grass which covers the whole surface of the land, becomes
converted into this substance : scarcely any situation checks
its growth ; some of the beds are as much as twelve feet
thick, and the low'er part becomes so solid when diy that it
will hardly burn. Although every plant lends its aid, yet in
most parts the Astelia is the most efficient. It is rather a
singular circumstance, as being so very different from what
occurs in Europe, that I nowhere saw moss forming by its
decay any portion of the peat in South America. With
respect to the northern limit at which the climate allows of
that peculiar kind of slow decomposition which is necessary
for its production, I believe that in Chiloe (lat. 41° to 42°),
although there is much swampy ground, no well-characterised
})eat occurs ; but in the Chonos Islands, three degrees farther
southward, w'e have seen that it is abundant. On the
eastern coast in La Plata (lat. 35°) I was told by a Spanish
resident, who had visited Ireland, that he had often sought
for this substance, but had never been able to find any. He

T

290

ORNITHOLOGY

showed me, as the nearest approach to it which he had dis-
covered, a black peaty soil so penetrated with roots as to
allow of an extremely slow and imperfect combustion.

The zoology of these broken islets of the Chonos Archi-
pelago is, as might have been expected, very poor. Of
quadrupeds, two aquatic kinds are common. The Myopolamus
Coyptis (like a beaver, but with a round tail) is well known
from its fine fur, which is an object of trade throughout
the tributaries of La Plata. It here, however, exclusively
frequents salt water ; which same circumstance has been
mentioned as sometimes occurring with the great rodent,
the capybara. A small sea-otter is very numerous ; this
animal does not feed exelusively on fish, but, like the seals,
draws a large supjily from a small red crab, which swims in
shoals near the surface of the water. Mr Bynoe saw one in
Tien'a del Fuego eating a cuttle-fish ; and at Low’s Harbour,
another was killed in the act of cari*ying to its hole a large
volute shell. At one place I caught in a trap a singular little
mouse {M. hrachiolis) ; it appeared common on several of the
islets, but the Chilotans at Low’s Harbour said that it was
not found in all. What a succession of chances,* or what
changes of level must have been brought into play, thus to
spread these small animals throughout this broken archi-
pelago.

In all parts of Chiloe and Chonos, two very strange birds
occur, which are allied to, and replace, the Turco and Tapa-
colo of Central Chile. One is called by the inhabitants
“ Cheucau ” (Pleroptochos riibecula) : it frequents the most
gloomy and retired spots within the damp forests. Some-
times, although its cry may be heard close at hand, let a
person watch ever so attentively, he will not see the cheucau;
at other times, let him stand motionless and the red-breasted
little bird will approach within a few feet in the most
familiar manner. It then busily hops about the entangled
mass of rotting canes and branches, with its little tail cocked

*It is said that some rapacious birds bring their prey alive to their nests.
If so, in the course of centuries, every now and then one might escape
from the young birds. Some such agency is necessary to account for the
distribution of the smaller gnawing animals on islands not very near each
other.

ORNITHOLOGY

29 »

upwards. Tlie cheiicaii is held in superstitious fear by the
Chilotans, on account of its strange and varied cries. There
are three very distinct cries : one is called “ chiduco,” and
is an omen of good ; another “ huitreu,” which is extremely
unfavourable ; and a third, which I have forgotten. These
words are given in imitation of the noises ; and the natives
are in some things absolutely governed by them. The Chilo-
tans assuredly have chosen a most comical little creature
for their prophet. An allied species, but rather larger, is
called by the natives “Guid-guid” (Pteroptochos Tamil), and
by the English the barking-bird. This latter name is well
given ; for I defy any one at first to feel certain that a small
dog is not yelping somew’here in the forest. Just as with
the cheucau, a person will sometimes hear the bark close
by, but in vain may endeavour by watching, and with still
less chance by beating the bushes, to see the bird ; yet at
other times the guid-guid fearlessly comes near. Its manner
of feeding and its general habits are very similar to those
of the cheucau.

On the coast,* a small dusky-coloured bird (Opetiorhyiichus
Palagonicus) is very common. It is remarkable from its quiet
habits ; it lives entirely on the sea-beach, like a sand-piper.
Besides these birds only few others inhabit this broken land.
In my rough notes I describe the strange noises, which,
although frequently heard within these gloomy forests, yet
scarcely disturb the general silence. The yelping of the
guid-guid, and the sudden whew-whew of the cheucau, some-
times come from afar off, and sometimes from close at hand ;
the little black wren of Tierra del Fuego occasionally adds its
cry ; the creeper (Ojcyurus) follows the intruder screaming
and twittering : the humming-bird may be seen every now
and then darting from side to side, and emitting, like an in-
sect, its shrill chirp ; lastly, from the top of some lofty tree
the indistinct but plaintive note of the white-tufted tyrant-
fly-catcher (Ji/Iyiobius) may be noticed. From the great pre-
ponderance in most countries of certain common genera of

* I may mention, as a proof of how great a difference there is between the
seasons of the wooded and the open parts of this coast, that on September
20th, in lat. 34°, these birds had young ones in the nest, while among the
Chonos Islands, three months later in the summer, they were only laying ;
the difference in latitude between these two places being about 700 miles,

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ORNITHOLOGY

birdsj such as the finches, one feels at first surprised at
meeting with the peculiar forms above enumerated, as the
coimnonest birds in any district. In Central Chile two of
them, namely, the Oxyurus and Scytalopus, occur, although
most rarely. When finding, as in this case, animals which
seem to play so insignificant a part in the great scheme of
nature, one is apt to wonder why they were created. But it
should always be recollected, that in some other country per-
haps they are essential members of society, or at some former
period may have been so. If America, south of 37°, were
sunk beneath the waters of the ocean, these two birds might
continue to exist in Central Chile for a long period, but it is
very improbable that their numbers would increase. We
should then see a case which must inevitably have happened
with very many animals.

These southern seas are frequented by several species of
petrels : the largest kind, Procellaria gigmilea, or nelly {que-
brantahuesos, or break-bones, of the Spaniards), is a common
bii’d, both in the inland channels and on the open sea. In its
habits and manner of flight there is a very close resemblance
with the albatross ; and as with the albatross, a person may
watch it for hours together without seeing on what it feeds.
The “ break-bones ” is, however, a rapacious bird, for it was
observed by some of the officers at Port St Antonio chasing a
diver, which tried to escape by diving and flying, but was
continually stnick down, and at last killed by a blow on its
head. At Port St Julian these great petrels were seen killing
and devouring young gulls. A second species (Puffimis ciner-
eus^, which is common to Europe, Cape Horn, and the coast
of Pei*u, is of a much smaller size than the P. gigantea, but,
like it, of a dirty black colour. It generally frequents the
inland sounds in very large flocks : I do not think I ever saw
so many birds of any other sort together, as I once saw of these
behind the island of Chiloe. Hundreds of thousands flew in
an irregular line for several hours in one direction. When
part of the flock settled on the water the surface was black-
ened, and a noise proceeded from them as of human beings
talking in the distance.

There are several other species of petrels, but I will only
mention one other kind, the Pelacanoides Berardi, which offers
an example of these extraordinary cases of a bird evidently

ORNITHOLOGY

293

belonging to one well-marked family, yet both in its habits
and structure allied to a very distinct tribe. This bird never
leaves the quiet inland sounds. When disturbed it dives to a
distance, and on coming to the surface, with the same move-
ment takes flight. After flying by the rapid movement of its
sliort wings for a space in a straight line, it drops, as if struck
dead, and dives again. The form of its beak and nostrils,
length of foot, and even the colouring of its plumage, show
that the bird is a petrel ; on the other hand, its short wings
and consequent little power of flight, its form of body and
shape of tail, the absence of a hind toe to its foot, its habit
of diving, and its choice of situation, make it at first doubt-
ful whether its relationship is not equally close with the auks.
It would undoubtedly be mistaken for an auk when seen from
a distance, either on the wing or when diving and quietly
swimming about the retired channels of TieiTa del Fuego.

CHAPTER XIV

CMILOE AND CONCEPCION: GREAT EARTHQUAKE

SAN CARLOS, CHILOE OSORNO IN ERUPTION, CONTEMPORANEOUSLY

WITH ACONCAGUA AND COSEGUINA RIDE TO CUCAO IMPENE-
TRABLE FORESTS VALDIVIA INDIANS EARTHQUAKE

CONCEPCION GREAT EARTHQUAKE ROCKS FISSURED AP-
PEARANCE OF THE FORMER TOWNS THE SEA BLACK AND

BOILING DIRECTION OF THE VIBRATIONS STONES TWISTED

ROUND GREAT WAVE PERMANENT ELEVATION OF THE LAND

AREA OF VOLCANIC PHENOMENA THE CONNECTION BETWEEN

THE ELEVATORY AND ERUPTIVE FORCES CAUSE OF EARTH-
QUAKES SLOW ELEVATION OF MOUNTAIN-CHAINS.

N January the 15th we sailed from Low’s Harbour,
and three days afterwards anchored a second
time in the bay of San Carlos in Chiloe. On the
night of the 19th the volcano of Osorno was in
action. At midnight the sentiy observed some-
thing like a large star, which gradually increased in size till
about three o’clock, when it presented a very magnificent
spectacle. By the aid of a glass, dark objects, in constant
succession, were seen, in the midst of a great glare of red
light, to be thrown up and to fall down. The light was suffi-
cient to cast on the water a long bright reflection. Large
masses of molten matter seem very commonly to be cast out
of the craters in this part of the Cordillera. I was assured
that when the Corcovado is in eruption, great masses are pro-
jected ui^wards and are seen to burst in the air, assuming many
fantastical forms, such as trees : their size must be immense,
for they can be distinguished from the high land behind San
Carlos, which is no less than ninety-three miles from the
Corcovado. In the morning the volcano became tranquil.

I was surprised at hearing afterwards that Aconcagua in
Chile, 480 miles northwards, was in action on this same night ;

294

\ \K\\ OF COAST

OSF>KNO.

QUKLLAVI’O.

INSIDE ISLAND OF CHILOE.

SAN CARLOS.

I'J'o Jace p. 2/6

CHII-OE

295

and still more surprised to hear that the gi’eat eruption of
Coseguina (2700 miles north of Aconcagua)^ accompanied by an
earthquake felt over 1000 miles, also occurred within six hours
of this same time. This coincidence is the more remarkable,
as Coseguina had been dormant for twenty-six years ; and
Aconcagua most rarely shows any signs of action. It is diffi-
cult even to conjecture whether this coincidence was acci-
dental or shows some subteiTanean connection. If Vesuvius,
Etna, and Hecla in Iceland (all three relatively nearer each
other than the corresponding points in South America) sud-
denly burst forth in eraption on the same night, the coin-
cidence would be thought remarkable ; but it is far more
i-emarkable in this case where the three vents fall on the same
great mountain-chain, and where the vast plains along the
entire eastern coast, and the upraised recent shells, along
more than 2000 miles on the western coast, show in how
equable and connected a manner the elevatoiy forces have
acted.

Captain Fitz Roy being anxious that some beai’ings should
be taken on the outer coast of Chiloe, it was planned that
Mr King and myself should ride to Castro, and thence across
the island to the Capella de Cucao, situated on the west
coast. Having hired horses and a guide, we set out on the
morning of the 22nd. We had not pi-oceeded far before we
were Joined by a woman and two boys, who were bent on
the same journey. Every one on this road acts on a ^‘hail-
fellow - well - met ” fashion ; and one may hfere enjoy the
privilege, so rare in South America, of travelling without
fire-arms. At first, the country consisted of a succession of
hills and valleys : nearer to Castro it became very level. The
road itself is a curious affair ; it consists in its whole length,
with the exception of very few parts, of great logs of wood,
which are either broad and laid longitudinally, or narrow and
placed transversely. In summer the road is not very bad ;
but in winter, when the wood is rendered slippery from rain,
travelling is exceedingly difficult. At that time of the year,
the gi'ound on each side becomes a morass, and is often
overflowed : hence it is necessaiy that the longitudinal logs
should be fastened down by transverse poles, which are
pegged on each side into the earth. These pegs render a
fall from a horse dangerous ; as the chance of alighting on

296

CHILOE

one of them is not small. It is remarkable, however, how
active custom has made the Chilotan horses. In crossing
bad parts, where the logs had been displaced, they skipped
from one to the other, almost with the quickness and cer-
tainty of a dog. On both hands the road is bordered by the
lofty forest-trees, with their bases matted together by canes.
When occasionally a long reach of this avenue could be
beheld, it presented a curious scene of uniformity ; the white
line of logs, narrowing in perspective, became hidden by the
gloomy forest, or terminated in a zig-zag which ascended
some steep hill.

Although the distance from San Caiios to Castro is only
twelve leagues in a straight line, the formation of the road
must have been a great labour. I was told that several
people had formerly lost their lives in attempting to cross the
forest. The first who succeeded was an Indian, who cut his
way through the canes in eight days, and reached San Carlos;
he was rewarded by the Spanish Government with a grant
of land. During the summer, many of the Indians wander
about the forests (but chiefly in the higher parts, where the
woods are not quite so thick) in search of the half-wild
cattle ?vhich live on the leaves of the cane and certain trees.
It was one of these huntsmen who by chance discovered a
few years since an English vessel, which had been wrecked
on the outer coast. The crew were beginning to fail in
provisions, and it is not probable that, without the aid of
this man, they would ever have extricated themselves from
these scarcely penetrable woods. As it is, one seaman died
on the march from fatigue. The Indians in these excursions
steer by the sim ; so that if there is a continuance of cloudy
weather they cannot travel.

The day was beautiful, and tile number of trees wnich were
in full flower perfumed the air ; yet even this could hardly
dissipate the effect of the gloomy dampness of the forest.
Moreover, the many dead trunks that stand like skeletons
never fail to give to these primeval woods a character of
solemnity, absent in those of countries long civilised. Shortly
after sunset we bivouacked for the night. Our female com-
panion, who was rather good-looking, belonged to one of
the most respectable families in Castro ; she rode, however,
astride, and without shoes or stockings. I w'as surprised at

RIDE TO CUCAO

297

tlie total want of pride shown by her and her brother. They
brought food with tliem, but at all our meals sat watching
Mr King and myself whilst eating, till we were fairly shamed
into feeding the whole party. The night was cloudless ; and
while lying in our beds, we enjoyed the sight (and it is a high
enjoyment) of the multitude of stars which illumined the
darkness of the forest.

Januan/ 23rd. — We rose early in the morning, and reached
the pretty, quiet town of Castro by two o’clock. The old
governor had died since our last visit, and a Chileno was
acting in his place. We had a letter of introduction to Don
Pedro, whom we found exceedingly hospitable and kind, and
more disinterested than is usual on tliis side of the continent.
The next day Don Pedro procured us fresh horses, and offered
to accompany us liimself We proceeded to the south —
generally following the coast, and passing through several
hamlets, each with its large barn-like chapel built of wood.
At Vilipilli, Don Pedro asked the commandant to give us a
guide to Cucao. The old gentleman offered to come himself ;
but for a long time nothing would persuade him that two
Englishmen really wished to go to such an out-of-the-way
place as Cucao. We were thus accompanied by the two
greatest aristocrats in the country, as was plainly to be
seen in the manner of all the poorer Indians towards them.
At Chonchi we struck across the island, following intricate
winding paths, sometimes passing through magnificent forests,
and sometimes through pretty cleared spots, abounding with
corn and potato crops. This undulating woody country,
partially cultivated, reminded me of the wilder parts of
England, and therefore had to my eye a most fascinating
aspect. At Vilinco, which is situated on the borders of
the lake of Cucao, only a few fields were cleared ; and all
the inhabitants appeared to be Indians. This lake is twelve
miles long, and runs in an east and west direction. From
local circumstances, the sea-breeze blows very regularly during
the day, and during the night it falls calm : this has given rise
to strange exaggerations, for the phenomenon, as described
to us at San Carlos, was quite a prodigy.

The road to Cucao was so very bad that we determined
to embark in a periagua. The commandant, in the most
authoritative maimer, ordered six Indians to get ready to

298

RIDE TO CUCAO

pull us over, without deigning to tell them whether they
would be paid. The periagua is a strange rough boat,
but the crew were still stranger : I doubt if six uglier
little men ever got into a boat together. They pulled,
however, very well and cheerfully. The stroke-oarsman
gabbled Indian, and uttered strange cries, much after the
fashion of a pig-driver driving his pigs. We started -with
a light breeze against us, but yet reached the Capella de
Cucao before it was late. The country on each side of
the lake was one unbroken forest. In the same periagua
with us a cow was embarked. To get so large an animal
into a small boat appears at first a difficulty, but the Indians
managed it in a minute. They brought the cow alongside
the boat, which was heeled towards her ; then placing two
oars under her belly, with their ends resting on the gun-
wale, by the aid of these levers they fairly tumbled the
poor beast, heels over head, into the bottom of the boat,
and then lashed her down with ropes. At Cucao Ave found
an uninhabited hovel (which is the residence of the padre
when he pays this Capella a visit), where, lighting a fire,
we cooked our supper, and were veiy comfortable.

The district of Cucao is the only inhabited part on the
whole west coast of Chiloe. It contains about thirty or
forty Indian families, who are scattered along four or five
miles of the shore. They are very much secluded from
the rest of Chiloe, and have scarcely any sort of commerce,
except sometimes in a little oil, which they get from seal-
blubber. They ai’e tolerably di'essed in clothes of their
own manufacture, and they have plenty to eat. They
seemed, however, discontented, yet humble to a degree
which it was quite painful to Avitness. These feelings are,
I think, chiefly to be attributed to the harsh and authori-
tative manner in which they are treated by their rulers.
Our companions, although so very civil to us, behaved to
the poor Indians as if they had been slaves, rather than
free men. They ordered provisions and the use of their
horses, without ever condescending to say how much, or
indeed whether the oAvnei's should be paid at all. In the
morning, being left alone Avith these poor people, Ave soon
ingratiated ourselves by presents of cigars and mat^. A
lump of white sugar was divided between all present, and

RIDE TO CUCAO

299

tasted with the gi'eatest curiosity. The Indians ended all
their complaints by saying, “And it is only because we are
poor Indians, and know nothing ; but it was not so when
we had a king.”

The next day after breakfast, we rode a few miles north-
ward to Punta Huantamd. The road lay along a very
broad beach, on which, even after so many fine days, a
terrible surf was breaking. I was assured that after a
heavy gale the roar can be heard at night even at Castro,
a distance of no less than twenty-one sea-miles across a
hilly and wooded country'. We had some difficulty in
reaching the point, owing to the intolerably bad paths ;
for eveiy'where in the shade the ground soon becomes a
perfect quagmire. The point itself is a bold rocky hill.
It is covered by a plant allied, I believe, to Bromelia, and
called by the inhabitants Chepones. In scrambling through
the beds, our hands were very much scratched. I was
amused by observing the precaution our Indian guide took,
in turning up his trousers, thinking that they were more
delicate than his own hard skin. This plant bears a fruit,
in shape like an artichoke, in which a number of seed-
vessels are packed : these contain a pleasant sweet pulp,
here much esteemed. I saw at Low’s Harbour the Chilotans
making chichi, or cider, with this fruit : so true is it, as
Humboldt remarks, that almost everywhere man finds means
of preparing some kind of beverage from the vegetable
kingdom. The savages, Irowever, of Tierra del Fuego, and
I believe of Australia, have not advanced thus far in the
arts.

The coast to the north of Punta Huantam6 is exceedingly
rugged and broken, and is fronted by many breakers, on
which the sea is eternally roaring. Mr King and myself
were anxious to return, if it had been possible, on foot
along this coast ; but even the Indians said it was quite
impracticable. We were told that men have crossed by
striking directly through the woods from Cucao to San
Carlos, but never by the coast. On these expeditions, the
Indians carry with them only roasted com, and of this
they eat sparingly twice a day.

January 26th. — Re-embarking in the periagua, we returned
across the lake and then mounted our horses. Tlie whole of

300

VALDIVIA

Chiloe took advantage of this week of unusually fine weather
to clear the ground by burning. In every direction volumes
of smoke were curling upwards. Although the inhabitants
were so assiduous in setting fire to every part of the wood,
yet I did not see a single fire which they had succeeded in
making extensive. We dined with our friend the command-
ant, and did not reach Castro till after dark. The next
morning we started very early. After having ridden for
some time, we obtained from the brow of a steep hill an
extensive view (and it is a rare thing on this road) of the
great forest. Over the horizon of trees, the volcano of
Corcovado, and the great flat - topped one to the north,
stood out in proud pre-eminence : scarcely another peak in
the long range showed its snowy summit. I hope it will
be long before I forget this farewell view of the magnificent
Cordillera fronting Chiloe. At night we bivouacked under
a cloudless sky, and the next morning reached San Carlos.
We arrived on the right day, for before evening heavy rain
commenced.

February 4//t. — Sailed from Chiloe. During the last week
I made several short excursions. One was to examine a
great bed of now-existing shells, elevated 350 feet above
the level of the sea : from among these shells, large forest
trees were growing. Another ride was to Punta Huechu-
cucuy. I had with me a guide who knew the country far
too well ; for he would pertinaciously tell me endless Indian
names for every little point, rivulet, and creek. In the same
manner as in Tierra del Fuego, the Indian language appears
singularly well adapted for attaching names to the most
trivial features of the land. I believe every one was glad
to say farewell to Chiloe ; yet if we could forget the gloom
and ceaseless rain of winter, Chiloe might pass for a charming
island. There is also something very atti-active in the sim-
plicity and humble politeness of the poor inhabitants.

We steered northward along shore, but owing to thick
weather did not reach Valdivia till the night of the 8th.
The next morning the boat proceeded to the town, which is
distant about ten miles. We followed the course of the
river, occasionally passing a few hovels and patches of
ground cleared out of the otherwise unbroken forest ; and
sometimes meeting a canoe with an Indian family. The

VALDIVIA

301

town is situated on the low banks of the stream, and is
so completely buried in a wood of apple-trees that the
streets are merely paths in an orchard. I have never seen
any country where apple-trees appeared to thrive so well
as in this damp part of South America : on the borders
of the roads there were many young trees evidently self-
sown. In Chiloe the inhabitants possess a marvellously
short method of making an orchard. At the lower part
of almost eveiy branch, small, conical, brown, wrinkled
points project ; these are always ready to change into
roots, as may sometimes be seen, where any mud has been
accidentally splashed against the tree. A branch as thick
as a man’s thigh is chosen in the early spring, and is cut
off just beneath a group of these points ; all the smaller
branches are lopped off, and it is then placed about two
feet deep in the ground. During the ensuing summer the
stump throws out long shoots, and sometimes even bears
fruit : I was shown one which had produced as many as
twenty-three apples, but this was thought very unusual.
In the third season the stump is changed (as I have myself
seen) into a well-wooded tree, loaded with fruit. An old
man near Valdivia illustrated his motto, “ Necesidad es la
madre del invencion,” by giving an account of the several
useful things he manufactured from his apples. After
making cider, and likewise wine, he extracted from the
refuse a white and finely flavoured spirit ; by another pro-
cess he procured a sw'eet treacle, or, as he called it, honey.
His children and pigs seemed almost to live, during this
season of the year, in his orchard.

February lllh. — I set out with a guide on a short ride, in
w'hich, however, I managed to see singularly little, eithei- of
the geology of the country or of its inhabitants. There is not
much cleared land near Valdivia : after crossins a river at the
distance of a few miles, we entered the forest, and then
passed only one miserable hovel before reaching our sleeping-
place for the night. The short difference in latitude of 150
miles has given a new aspect to the forest, compared with
that of Chdoe. This is owing to a slightly different proportion
in the kinds of trees. The evergreens do not appear to be
quite so numerous ; and the forest in consequence has a
brighter tint. As in Chiloe, the lower parts are matted

S02

THE INDIANS

together by canes : here also another kind (resembling the
bamboo of Brazil and about twenty feet in height) grows in
clusters, and ornaments the banks of some of the streams in a
very pretty manner. It is with this plant that the Indians
make their chuzos, or long tapering spears. Our resting-
house was so dirty that I preferred sleeping outside : on these
journeys the first night is generally very uncomfortable, be-
cause one is not accustomed to the tickling and biting of the
fleas. I am sure, in the morning, there was not a space on
my legs of the size of a shilling which had not its little red
mark where the flea had feasted.

February \9,th. — We continued to ride through the uncleared
forest ; only occasionally meeting an Indian on horseback, or
a troop of fine mules bringing alerce planks and com from the
southern plains. In the afternoon one of the horses knocked
up : we were then on the brow of a hill, which commanded a
fine view of the Llanos. The view of these open plains was
very refreshing, after being hemmed in and buried in the
wilderness of trees. The uniformity of a forest soon becomes
very wearisome. This west coast makes me remember with
pleasure the free, unbounded plains of Patagonia ; yet, wnth
the true spirit of contradiction, I cannot forget how sublime
is the silence of the forest. The Llanos are the most fertile
and thickly-peopled parts of the country ; as they possess the
immense advantage of being nearly free from trees. Before
leaving the forest we crossed some flat little lawns, around
which single trees stood, as in an English park : I have often
noticed with surprise, in wooded undulatory districts, that
the quite level parts have been destitute of trees. On
account of the tired horse, I determined to stop at the
Mission of Cudico, to the friar of which I had a letter of in-
troduction. Cudico is an intermediate district betw'een the
forest and the Llanos. There are a good many cottages,
with patches of corn and potatoes, nearly all belonging to
Indians. The tribes dependent on Valdivia are “reducidos y
cristianos.” The Indians farther northward, about Arauco
and Imperial, are still very wild, and not converted ; but they
have all much intercourse with the Spaniards. The padre
said that the Christian Indians did not much like coming to
mass, but that otherwise they showed respect for religion.
The greatest difficulty is in making them observe the

THE INDIANS

303

ceremonies of marriage. The wild Indians take as many
wves as they can supj)ort, and a cacique will sometimes take
more than ten : on entering his house, the number may be
told by that of the separate fires. Each wife lives a week in
turn with the cacique ; but all are employed in weaving
ponchos, etc., for his profit. To be the wife of a cacique is
an honour much sought after by the Indian women.

The men of all these tribes wear a coarse woollen poncho :
those south of Valdivia w'ear short trousers, and those north
of it a petticoat, like the chilipa of the Gauchos. All have
their long hair bound by a scarlet fillet, but with no other
covering on their heads. These Indians are good sized men ;
their cheek-bones are prominent, and in general appearance
they resemble the great American family to which they
belong ; but their physiognomy seemed to me to be slightly
different from that of any other tribe which I had before seen.
Their expression is generally grave, and even austere, and
possesses much character : this may pass either for honest
bluntness or fierce determination. The long black hair, the
grave and much-lined features, and the dark complexion,
called to my mind old portraits of James I. On the road we
met with none of that humble politeness so universal in
Chiloe. Some gave their mari-mari ” (good morning) with
j promptness, but the greater number did not seem inclined to
I offer any salute. This independence of manners is probably
a consequence of their long wars, and the repeated victories
I which they alone, of all the tribes in America, have gained
» over the Spaniards.

I spent the evening very pleasantly, talking with the padre.

(He was exceedingly kind and hospitable ; and coming from
Santiago, had contrived to surround himself with some few
: comforts. Being a man of some little education, he bitterly

t complained of the total want of society. With no particular
I zeal for religion, no business or pursuit, how completely must
I this man’s life be wasted ! The next day, on our return, we
I met seven very wild-looking Indians, of whom some were

i caciques that had just received from the Chilian Government
their yearly small stipend for having long remained faithful.
They were fine-looking men, and they rode one after the
l| other with most gloomy faces. An old cacique, who headed
( them, had been, I suppose, more excessivel_y drunk than the

304

THE INDIANS

rest, for he seemed both extremely grave and very crabbed.
Shortly before this, two Indians joined us, who were travelling
from a distant mission to Valdivia concerning some lawsuit.
One was a good-humoured old man, but from his wrinkled
beardless face looked more like an old woman than a man. I
frequently presented both of them with cigars ; and though
ready to receive them, and I dare say grateful, they would
hardly condescend to thank me. A Chilotan Indian would
have taken off his hat, and given his “Dios le page!” The
travelling was very tedious, both from the badness of the
roads and from the number of great fallen trees, which it was
necessary either to leap over or to avoid by making long
circuits. We slept on the road, and next morning reached
Valdivia, whence I proceeded on board.

A few days afterwards I crossed the bay with a party of
officers and landed near the fort called Niebla. The
buildings were in a most ruinous state, and the gun-carriages
quite rotten. Mr Wickham remarked to the commanding
officer, that with one discharge they would certainly all fall to
pieces. The poor man, trying to put a good face upon it,
gravely replied, No ; I am sure, sir, they would stand two 1 ’’
The Spaniards must have intended to have made this place
impregnable. There is now lying in the middle of the court-
yard a little mountain of mortar, which rivals in hardness the
rock on which it is placed. It was brought from Chile, and
cost 7000 dollars. The revolution having broken out, pre-
vented its being applied to any purpose, and now it remains a
monument of the fallen greatness of Spain.

I wanted to go to a house about a mile and a-half distant,
but my guide said it was quite impossible to penetrate the
wood in a straight line. He offered, however, to lead me, by
following obscure cattle tracks, the shortest way : the walk,
nevertheless, took no less than three hours ! This man is
employed in hunting strayed cattle ; yet, well as he must
know the woods, he was not long since lost for two whole
days, and had nothing to eat. These facts convey a good
idea of the impracticability of the forests of these countries.
A question often occurred to me — how long does any vestige of
fallen tree remain ? This man showed me one which a party
of fugitive Royalists had cut down fourteen years ago ; and
taking this as a criterion, I should think a bole a foot and a-

EARTHQUAKE AT VALDIVIA 305

half in diameter would in thirty years be changed into a heap
of mould.

Februari! 20lh. — This day has been memorable in the annals
of Valdivia, for the most severe earthquake experienced by
the oldest inhabitant. I happened to be on shore, and was
lying down in the wood to rest myself. It came on suddenly,
and lasted two minutes, but the time appeared much longer.
The rocking of the ground w^as very sensible. The undu-
lations appeared to my companion and myself to come from
due east, whilst others thought they proceeded from south-
west : this shows how difficult it sometimes is to perceive the
direction of the vibrations. There was no difficulty in
standing upright, but the motion made me almost giddy ; it
was something like the movement of a vessel in a little cross-
ripple, or still more like that felt by a person skating over
thin ice, which bends under the weight of his body.

A bad earthquake at once destroys our oldest associations ;
the earth, the very emblem of solidity, has moved beneath
our feet like a thin cnist over a fluid ; — one second of time
has created in the mind a strange idea of insecurity, which
hours of reflection would not have produced. In the forest,
as a breeze moved the trees, I felt only the earth tremble,
but saw no other effect. Captain Fitz Roy and some officers
were at the town during the shock, and there the scene was
more striking ; for although the houses, from being built
of wood, did not fall, they were violently shaken, and the
boards creaked and rattled together. The peojile rushed out
of doors in the greatest alarm. It is these accompaniments
that create that perfect horror of earthquakes, experienced by
all who have thus seen, as well as felt, their effects. Within
the forest it was a deeply interesting, but by no means an awe-
exciting phen smenon. The tides were very curiously affected.
The great shock took place at the time of low water ; and
an old woman who was on the beach told me that the water
flowed very quickly, but not in great waves, to high-water
mark, and then as quickly returned to its proper level ; this
was also evident by the line of wet sand. Tliis same kind
of quick but quiet movement in the tide happened a few
years since at Chiloe, during a slight earthquake, and created
much causeless alarm. In the course of the evening there
were many weaker shocks, whicii seemed to j)roduce in the

u

ao6 EARTHQUAKE AT CONCEPCION

harbour the most complicated currents^ and some of great
strength.

March Mil. — We entered the harbour of Concepcion. While
the ship was beating up to the anchorage, I landed on the
island of Quinquina. The major-domo of the estate quickly
rode down to tell me the terrible news of the great earthquake
of the 20th : “ That not a house in Concepcion or Talcahu-
ano (the port) was standing ; that seventy villages were
destroyed ; and that a great wave had almost washed away
the ruins of Talcahuano.” Of this latter statement I soon
saw abundant proofs — the whole coast being strewed over
with timber and furniture as if a thousand ships had been
wrecked. Besides chairs, tables, bookshelves, etc., in great
numbers, there were several roofs of cottages, which had
been transported almost whole. The storehouses at Talca-
huano had been burst open, and great bags of cotton,
yerba, and other valuable merchandise were scattered on
the shore. During my walk round the island, I observed
that numerous fragments of rock, which, from the marine
jjroductions adhering to them, must recently have been lying
in deep water, had been cast up high on the beach ; one of
these was six feet long, three broad, and two thick.

The island itself as plainly showed the overwhelming power
of the earthquake as the beach did that of the consequent
great wave. The ground in many parts w'as fissured in north
and south lines, perhaps caused by the yielding of the parallel
and steep sides of this nan-ow island. Some of the fissures
near the cliffs were a yard wide. Many enonnous masses had
already fallen on the beach ; and the inhabitants thought
that when the rains commenced far greater slips w'ould
happen. The effect of the vibration on the hard primary
slate, which composes the foundation of the island, was still
more curious ; the superficial parts of some naiTow ridges M'ere
as completely shivered as if they had been blasted by gun-
powder. This effect, which was rendered conspicuous by the
fresh fractures and displaced soil, must be confined to near
the surface, for otherwise there would not exist a block of
solid rock throughout Chile ; nor is this improbable, as it is
known that the surface of a vibrating body is affected
differently from the central part. It is, perhaps, owing to

EARTHQUAKE AT CONCEPCION

807

this same reason, that earthquakes do not cause quite such
terrific havoc within deep mines as would be expected. I
believe this convulsion has been more effectual in lessening
the size of the island of Quinquina, than the ordinary wear-
and-tear of the sea and weather during the course of a whole
centuiy.

The next day I landed at Talcahuano, and afterwards rode
to Concepcion. Both towns presented the most awful yet
interesting spectacle I ever beheld. To a person who had
fonnerly known them, it possibly might have been still more
impressive ; for the ruins were so mingled together, and the
whole scene possessed so little the air of a habitable place,
that it was scarcely possible to imagine its foi-mer condition.
The earthquake commenced at half-past eleven o’clock in the
forenoon. If it had happened in the middle of the night, the
greater number of the inhabitants (which in this one province
amount to many thousands) must have perished, instead of
less than a hundred ; as it was, the invariable practice of
running out of doors at the first trembling of the ground alone
saved them. In Concepcion each house, or row of houses,
stood by itself, a heap or line of ruins ; but in Talcahuano,
owing to the great w^ave, little more than one layer of bricks,
tiles, and timber, with here and there part of a wall left
standing, could be distinguished. From this circumstance
Concepcion, although not so completely desolated, was a more
terrible, and, if I may so call it, picturesque sight. The first
shock was very sudden. The major-domo at Quinquina told
me that the first notice he received of it was finding both the
horse he rode and himself rolling together on the ground.
Rising up, he was again throwm down. He also told me that
some cows which were standing on the steep side of the
i,, island were rolled into the sea. The great wave caused the

r destruction of many cattle ; on one low island, near the head

I of the bay, seventy animals were washed off and drowned. It

I is generally thought that this has been the worst earthquake

i ever recorded in Chile ; but as the very severe ones occur

> only after long intervals, this cannot easily be known ; nor

i indeed would a much w'orse shock have made any great

}, difference, for the ruin was now complete. Innumerable

t small tremblings followed the great earthquake, and within

^ the first tw’elve days no less than three hundred were counted.

EARTHQUAKE AT CONCEPCION

S08

After viewing Concepcion^ I cannot unclerstand how the
greater number of inhabitants escajied unhurt. The houses
in many parts fell outwards ; thus forming in the middle of
the streets little hillocks of brickwork and laibbish. Mr
Rouse, the English consul, told us that he was at breakfast
when the first movement caused him to run out. He had
scarcely reached the middle of the courtyard, when one side
of his house came thundering down. He retained presence of
mind to remember that if he once got on the top of that
part which had already fallen, he would be safe. Not being
able from the motion of the ground to stand, he crawled up on
his hands and knees ; and no sooner had he ascended this
little eminence than the other side of the house fell in, the
great beams sweeping close in front of his head. With his
eyes blinded, and his mouth choked M'ith the cloud of dust
which darkened the sky, at last he gained the street. As
shock succeeded shock at the interval of a few minutes, no
one dared approach the shattered ruins ; and no one knew
whether his dearest friends and relations were not perishing
from the want of help. Those who had saved any property
Were obliged to keep a constant watch, for thieves prowled
about, and at each little trembling of the ground, with one
hand they beat their breasts, and cried ‘‘ Misericordia ! ” and
then with the other filched what they could from the ruins.
The thatched roofs fell over the fires, and flames burst forth in
all parts. Hundreds knew themselves ruined, and few had
the means of providing food for the day.

Earthquakes alone are sufficient to destroy the prosperity of
any country. If beneath England the now inert subterranean
forces should exert those powers, M-hich most assuredly in
former geological ages they have exerted, how completely
w'ould the entire condition of the country be changed ! What
would become of the lofty houses, thickly-packed cities, great
manufactories, the beautiful public and j)rivate edifices.^ If
the new period of disturbance were first to commence by
some great earthquake in the dead of the night, how terrific
would be the carnage ! England would at once be bankrupt ;
all papers, records, and accounts would from that moment be
lost. Government being unable to collect the taxes, and
failing to maintain its authority, the hand of violence and
rapine wnuld remain uncontrolled. In every large town

EARTHQUAKE AT CONCEPCION 309

famine would go forth, pestilence and death following in its
train.

Shortly after the shock, a great wave was seen, from the
distance of three or four miles, approaching in the middle of
the bay with a smooth outline ; but along the shore it tore up
cottages and trees, as it swept onwards with irresistible force.
At the head of the bay it broke in a fearful line of white
breakers, which rushed up to a height of twenty-three
vertical feet above the highest spring-tides. Their force
must have been prodigious ; for at the Fort a cannon with its
carriage, estimated at four tons in weight, was moved fifteen
feet inwards. A schooner was left in the midst of the ruins,
200 yards from the beach. The first wave was followed by
two others, which in their retreat carried away a vast wreck
of floating objects. In one part of the bay a ship was pitched
high and diy on shore, was carried off, again driven on shore,
and again carried off. In another part, two large vessels
anchored near together were whirled about, and their cables
were thrice w’ound round each other : though anchored at
a depth of thirty-six feet, they were for some minutes
aground. The great wave must have travelled slowly, for
the inhabitants of Talcahuano had time to run up the hills
behind the town ; and some sailors pulled out seaward,
trusting successfully to their boat riding securely over the
sw'ell, if they could reach it before it broke. One old
woman, with a little boy, four or five years old, ran into
a boat, but there was nobody to row it out ; the boat was
consequently dashed against an anchor and cut in twain ;
the old woman was drowned, but the child was picked up
some hours afterwards clinging to the wreck. Pools of salt
water were still standing amidst the ruins of the houses, and
children, making boats with old tables and chairs, appeared
as happy as their parents were miserable. It was, however,
exceedingly interesting to observe how much more active
and cheerful all appeared than could have been expected.
It wa§ remarked, with much truth, that from the destruc-
tion being universal, no one individual was humbled more
than another, or could suspect his friends of coldness — that
most grievous result of the loss of wealth. Mr Rouse, and
a large party whom he kindly took under his protection,
lived for the first week in a garden beneath some apple-

310

EARTHQUAKE AT CONCEPCION

trees. At first they were as merry as if it had been a
picnic ; but soon afterwards heavy rain caused much dis-
comfort, for they were absolutely without shelter.

In Captain Fitz Roy’s excellent account of the earthquake
it is said that two explosions, one like a column of smoke
and another like the blowing of a great whale, w^ere seen
in the bay. The water also appeared everywhere to be
boiling : and it “ became black, and exhaled a most dis-
agreeable sulphureous smell.” These latter circumstances were
observed in the Bay of Valparaiso during the earthquake
of 1822; they may, I think, be accounted for by the dis-
turbance of the mud at the bottom of the sea containing
organic matter in decay. In the Bay of Callao, during a
calm day, I noticed that as the ship dragged her cable over
the bottom, its course was marked by a line of bubbles.
The lower orders in Talcahuano thought that the earthquake
was caused by some old Indian women who, two years ago,
being offended, stopped the volcano of Antuco. This silly
belief is curious, because it shows that experience has taught
them to observe that there exists a relation between the
suppressed action of the volcanoes and the trembling of the
ground. It was necessary to apply the witchcraft to the
point where their perception of cause and effect failed ; and
this was the closing of the volcanic vent. This belief is
the more singular in this particular instance, because, accord-
ing to Captain Fitz Roy, there is reason to believe that
Antuco was noways affected.

The town of Concepcion was built in the usual Spanish
fashion, with all the streets running at right angles to each
other : one set set ranging S.W, by W., and the other set
N.W. by N. The walls in the former direction certainly
stood better than those in the latter : the greater number
of the masses of brickwork were thrown down towards the
N.E. Both these circumstances perfectly agree with the
general idea of the undulations having come from the S.W. ;
in which quarter subterranean noises were also heard : for
it is evident that the walls running S.W. and N.E., which
presented their ends to the point whence the undulations
came, would be much less likely to fall than those walls
which, running N.W. and S.E., must in their whole lengths
have been at the same instant thrown out of the perpen-

EARTHQUAKE AT CONCEPCION

311

dicular ; for the undulations, coming from the S.W., must
have extended in N.W. and S.E. waves, as they passed
under the foundations. This may be illustrated by placing
books edgeways on a carpet, and then, after the manner
suggested by Mitchell, imitating the undulations of an earth-
quake : it will be found that they fall with more or less
readiness, according as their direction more or less nearly
coincides with the line of the waves. The fissures in the
ground generally, though not uniformly, extended in a S.E.
and N.W. direction ; and therefore corresponded to the
lines of undulation or of principal flexure. Bearing in mind
all these circumstances, which so clearly point to the S.W. as
the chief focus of disturbance, it is a very interesting fact
that the island of S. Maria, situated in that quarter, was,
during the general uplifting of the land, raised to nearly
three times the height of any other {>art of the coast.

The different resistance offered by the walls, according to
their direction, was well exemplified in the case of the
Cathedral. Tlie side which fronted the N.E. presented a
grand pile of ruins, in the midst of which door-cases and
masses of timber stood up, as if floating in a stream. Some
of the angular blocks of brickwork were of great dimensions ;
and they were rolled to a distance on the level plaza, like
fragments of rock at the base of some high mountain. The
side walls (running S.W. and N.E.), though exceedingly
fractured, yet remained standing ; but the vast buttresses
(at right angles to them, and therefore parallel to the walls
that fell) were in many cases cut clean off, as if by a chisel,
and hurled to the ground. Some square ornaments on the
coping of these same walls were moved by the earthquake
into a diagonal position. A similar circumstance was observed
after an earthquake at Valparaiso, Calabria, and other places,
including some of tlie ancient Greek temples.* This twisting
displacement at first appeai-s to indicate a vorticose move-
ment beneath each point thus affected ; but this is highly
improbable. May it not be caused by a tendency in each
stone to arrange itself in some particular position, with
respect to the lines of vibration — in a manner somewhat

* M. Arago in L’Instilut, 1839, p. 337. See also Miers’ Chile, vol. i.
p. 392 ; also Lyell’s Principles of Geology, book ii. chap. xv.

312

EARTHQUAKE AT CONCEPCION

similar to pins on a sheet of paper when shaken ? Generally
speaking, arched doorways or windows stood much better
than any other part of the buildings. Nevertheless, a poor
lame old man, who had been in the habit, during trifling
shocks, of crawling to a certain doorway, was this time
crushed to pieces.

I have not attempted to give any detailed descrijition of the
appearance of Concepcion, for I feel that it is quite impos-
sible to convey the mingled feelings which I experienced.
Several of the officers visited it before me, but their strongest
language failed to give a just idea of the scene of desolation.
It is a bitter and humiliating thing to see works, which
have cost man so much time and labour, overthrown in one
minute; yet compassion for the inhabitants was almost
instantly banished by the surprise in seeing a state of
things produced in a moment of time which one was accus-
tomed to attribute to a succession of ages. In my opinion,
we have scarcely beheld, since leaving England, any sight
so deeply interesting.

In almost every severe earthquake, the neighbouring waters
of the sea are said to have been greatly agitated. The
disturbance seems generally, as in the case of Concepcion, to
have been of two kinds : first, at the instant of the shock,
the water swells high up on the beach with a gentle motion,
and then as quietly retreats ; secondly, some time afterwards,
the whole body of the sea retires from the coast, and then
returns in waves of overwhelming force. The first movement
seems to be an immediate consequence of the eai’thquake
affecting differently a fluid and a solid, so that their respec-
tive levels are slightly deranged ; but the second case is a far
more important phenomenon. During most earthquakes, and
especially during those on the west coast of America, it is
certain that the first great movement of the waters has been
a retirement. Some authors have attempted to explain this,
by supposing that the water retains its level, whilst the land
oscillates upwrads : but surely the water close to the land,
even on a rather steep coast, would partake of the motion of
the bottom : moreover, as urged by Mr Lyell, similar move-
ments of the sea have occurred at islands far distant from the
chief line of disturbance, as was the case with Juan Fernandez
during this earthquake, and with Madeira during the famous

PERMANENT ELEVATION OF LAND

313

Lisbon shock. I suspect (but the .subject is a very obscure
one) that a wave, however produced, first draws the water
from the shore on which it is advancing to break : I have
observed that this happens with the little waves from the
paddles of a steam-boat. It is remarkable that whilst Talca-
huano and Callao (near Lima), both situated at the head of
large shallow bays, have suffered during every severe earth-
quake from great waves, Valparaiso, seated close to the edge
of profoundly deep water, has never been overwhelmed,
though so often shaken by the severest shocks. From the
great wave not immediately following the earthquake, but
sometimes after the interval of even half-an-hour, and from
distant islands being affected similarly with the coasts near
the focus of the disturbance, it appears that the wave first
rises in the offing ; and as this is of general occurrence, the
cause must be general : I suspect we must look to the line
where the less disturbed waters of the deej) ocean join the
water nearer the coast, which has partaken of the movements
of the land, as the place where the great wave is first
generated ; it would also appear that the wave is larger or
smaller according to the extent of shoal water which has
been agitated together with the bottom on which it rested.

The most remarkable effect of this earthquake was the
permanent elevation of the land ; it would probably be far
more correct to speak of it as the cause. There can be no
doubt that the land round the Bay of Concepcion was
upraised two or three feet ; but it deserves notice that, owing
to the wave having obliterated the old lines of tidal action on
the sloping sandy shores, I could discover no evidence of this
fact, except in the united testimony of the inhabitants, that
one little rocky shoal, now exposed, was formerly covered
with water. At the island of S. Maria (about thirty miles
distant) the elevation was greater ; on one part. Captain Fitz
Roy found beds of jnitrid mussel-shells still adhering to the
rocks, ten feet above high-water mark : the inhabitants had
formerly dived at low'-water spring-tides for these shells.
The elevation of this province is particularly interesting from
its having been the theatre of several other violent earth-
quakes, and from the vast numbers of sea-shells scattered
over the land, up to a height of certainly 600, and I believe.

314.

PERMANENT ELEVATION OF LAND

of 1000 feet. At Valpai-aiso, as I have remarked, similar shells
are found at the height of 1 .300 feet ; it is hardly possible to
doubt that this great elevation has been effected by successive
small uprisings, such as that which accompanied or caused
the earthquake of this year, and likewise by an insensibly slow
rise, which is certainly in progress on some parts of this coast.

The island of Juan Fernandez, 360 miles to the N.E., was,
at the time of the great shock of the 20th, violently shaken,
so that the trees beat against each other, and a volcano burst
forth under water close to the shore : these facts are remark-
able because this island, during the earthquake of 1751, was
then also affected more violently than other places at an equal
distance from Concepcion, and this seems to show some
subterranean connection between these two points. Chiloe,
about 340 miles southward of Concepcion, appeal’s to have
been shaken more strongly than the intermediate district of
Valdivia, where the volcano of Villarica was noways affected,
whilst in the Cordillera in front of Chiloe two of the volcanoes
burst forth at the same instant in violent action. These two
volcanoes, and some neighbouring ones, continued for a long
time in eruption, and ten months afterwards were again
influenced by an earthquake at Concepcion. Some men,
cutting wood near the base of one of these volcanoes, did not
perceive the shock of the 20thj although the whole surround-
ing province w'as then trembling ; here we have an eruption
relieving and taking the place of an earthquake, as would
have happened at Concepcion, according to the belief of the
lower orders, if the volcano of Antuco had not been closed by
witchcraft. Two years and three-quarters afterwards, Val-
divia and Chiloe were again shaken, more violently than on
the 20th, and an island in the Chonos Archipelago was per-
manently elevated moi-e than eight feet. It will give a better
idea of the scale of these phenomena if (as in the case of the
glaciers) w’e siqjpose them to have taken place at correspond-
ing distances in Eui’ope : then would the land from the
North Sea to the Mediterranean have been violently shaken,
and at the same instant of time a lai'ge tract of the eastern
coast of England would have been permanently elevated,
together with some outlying islands, — a train of volcanoes on
the coast of Holland would have burst forth in action, and
an eruption taken place at the bottom of the sea, near the

i

PERMANENT ELEVATION OF LAND

315

northern extremity of Ireland — and lastly, the ancient vents
of Auvergne, Cantfd, and Mont d’Or would each have sent up
to the sky a dark column of smoke, and have long remained
in fierce action. Two years and three - quarters afterwards,
France, from its centre to the English Channel, would
have been again desolated by an earthquake, and an island
permanently upraised in the Mediterranean.

The space from under which volcanic matter on the 20th
was actually erupted is 720 miles in one line, and 400 miles
in another line at right angles to the first : hence, in all prob-
ability, a subterranean lake of lava is here sti*etched out, of
nearly double the area of the Black Sea. From the intimate
and complicated manner in which the elevatory and eruptive
forces were shown to be connected during this train of pheno-
mena, we may confidently come to the conclusion that the
forces which slowly and by little starts uplift continents, and
those w'hich at successive periods jjour forth volcanic matter
from open orifices, are identical. From many reasons, I
believe that the frequent quakings of the earth on this line of
coast are caused by the rending of the strata, necessarily
consequent on the tension of the land when upraised, and
their injection by fluidified rock. This rending and injection
would, if repeated often enough (and we know that earth-
quakes repeatedly affect the same areas in the same manner),
form a chain of hills ; and the linear island of St Mary, which
was upraised thrice the height of the neighbouring country,
seems to be undergoing this process. I believe that the solid
axis of a mountain differs in its manner of formation from a
volcanic hill only in the molten stone having been repeatedly
injected, instead of having been repeatedly ejected. More-
over, I believe that it is impossible to explain the structure of
great mountain-chains, such as that of the Cordillera, where
the strata, capjjing the injected axis of plutonic rock, have
been thrownon their edges along several parallel and neigh-
bouring lines of elevation, except on this view of the rock of
the axis having been repeatedly injected, after intervals
sufficiently long to allow the upper parts or wedges to cool
and become solid ; for if the strata had been thrown into their
present highly-inclined, vertical, and even inverted positions
by a single blow, the very bowels of the earth would have
gushed out ; and instead of beholding a.brupt mountain-axes

316 PERMANENT ELEVATION OF LAND

of rock solidified under great pressure, deluges of lava would
have flowed out at innumerable points on every line of eleva-
tion.*

* For a full account of the volcanic phenomena which accompanied the
earthquake of the 20th, and for the conclusions deducible from them, I must
refer to vol. v. of the Geological Transactions.

CHAPTER XV

PASSAGE OF THE CORDILLERA

VALPARAISO PORTILLO PASS SAGACITY OF MULES MOUNTAIN-

TORRENTS MINES, HOW DISCOVERED PROOFS OF THE

GRADUAL ELEVATION OF THE CORDILLERA EFFECT OF SNOW

ON ROCKS GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF THE TWO MAIN

RANGES, THEIR DISTINCT ORIGIN AND UPHEAVAL GREAT

SUBSIDENCE RED SNOW WINDS PINNACLES OF SNOW

DRY AND CLEAR ATMOSPHERE ELECTRICITY PAMPAS

ZOOLOGY OF THE OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE ANDES LOCUSTS

GREAT BUGS MENDOZA USPALLATA PASS SILICIFIED

TREES BURIED AS THEY GREW INCAS BRIDGE BADNESS OF

THE PASSES EXAGGERATED CUMBRE CASUCHAS VALPARAISO.

7t7i, 1835. — We stayed thi’ee days at Con-
I cepcion, and then sailed for Valparaiso. The
I wind being northerly, we only reached the
I mouth of the harbour of Concepcion before it
dark. Being very near the land, and a fog
coming on, the anchor was dropped. Presently a large
American whaler appeared close alongside of us ; and we heard
the Yankee swearing at his men to keej) quiet, whilst he
listened for the breakers. Captain Fitz Roy hailed him, in a
loud clear voice, to anchor where he then was. The poor man
must have thought the voice came from the shore : such a
babel of cries issued at once from the ship — every one halloo-
ing out, “ Let go the anchor ! veer cable ! shorten sail ! ” It
was the most laughable thing I ever heard. If the ship’s
crew had been all captains, and no men, there could not have
been a greater uproar of orders. We afterwards found that
the mate stuttered : I suppose all hands were assisting him in
giving his orders.

On the nth we anchored at Valuaraiso, and two days

317

318

PASSAGE OF THE CORDILLERA

afterwards I set out to cross the Cordillera. I proceeded to
Santiago, where Mr Caldcleugh most kindly assisted me in
every possible way in making the little preparations which
were necessaiy. In this part of Chile there are two passes
across the Andes to Mendoza : the one most commonly used
— namely, that of Aconcagua or Uspallata — is situated some
way to the north ; the other, called the Portillo, is to the
south, and nearer, but more lofty and dangerous.

March 18/A. — We set out for the Portillo pass. Leaving
Santiago we crossed the wide burnt-up plain on which that city
stands, and in the afternoon arrived at the Maypu, one of the
principal rivers in Chile. The valley, at the point where it
enters the first Cordillera, is bounded on each side by lofty
barren mountains ; and although not broad, it is very fertile.
Numerous cottages were surrounded by vines, and by orchards
of apple, nectarine, and peach trees — their boughs breaking
with the weight of the beautiful ripe fruit. In the evening
w'e passed the custom-house, where our luggage was examined.
The frontier of Chile is better guarded by the Cordillera than
by the waters of the sea. There are very few valleys which
lead to the ceirtral ranges, and the mountains are quite im-
passable in other parts by beasts of binrlen. The custom-
house officers were very civil, which was perhaps partly owing
to the passport which the President of the Republic had given
me ; but I must express my admiration at the natural polite-
ness of almost every Chileno. In this instance, the contrast
with the same class of men in most other countries was strongly
marked. I may mention an anecdote with which I was at
the time much pleased : we met near Mendoza a little and
very fat negress, riding astride on a mule. She had a goitre so
enormous that it was scarcely jjossible to avoid gazing at her
for a moment ; but my two companions almost instantly, by
way of apology, made the common salute of the country, by
taking off their hats. Where would one of the lower or
higher classes in Europe have shown such feeling politeness
to a poor and miserable object of a degraded race ?

At night we slept at a cottage. Our manner of travelling
was delightfully independent. In the inhabited parts we
bought a little firewood, hired pasture for the animals, and
bivouacked in the corner of the same field with them. Carry-
ing an iron jwt, we cooked and ate our supper under a cloud-

PASSAGE OF THE COUDILLEIG^

.^19

less sky, and knew no trouble. My comjjanions were Mariano
Gonzales, who had formerly accompanied me in Chile, and an
“arriero,” with his ten mules and a ^Gnadrina.” The madrina
(or godmother) is a most important personage : she is an old
steady mare, with a little bell round her neck ; and wherever
she goes, the mules, like good children, follow her. The
affection of these animals for their madrinas saves infinite
trouble. If several large troops are turned into one field to
graze, in the morning the muleteers have only to lead the
madrinas a little apart and tinkle their bells ; and although
there may be two or three hundred together, each mule im-
mediately knows the bell of its own madrina, and comes to
her. It is nearly impossible to lose an old mule ; for if detained
for several hours by force, she will, by the power of smell, like
a dog, track out her companions, or rather the madrina, for,
according to the muleteer, she is the chief object of affection.
The feeling, however, is not of an individual nature ; for I
believe I am right in saying that any animal with a bell will
serve as a madrina. In a troop each animal cames on a level
road a cargo weighing 41 6 ])ounds (more than 29 stone), but
in a mountainous country 100 pounds less ; yet with what
delicate slim limbs, without any proportional bulk of muscle,
these animals support so great a burden ! The mule always
appears to me a most surprising animal. That a hybrid should
possess more reason, memory, obstinacy, social affection, powers
of muscular endurance, and length of life, than either of its
j)arents, seems to indicate that art has here outdone nature.
Of our ten animals, six were intended for riding, and four for
carrying cargoes, each taking turn about. We carried a
good deal of food in case we should be snowed uj), as the
season was rather late for passing the Portillo.

Mmrh \^th. — We rode during this day to the last, and
therefore most elevated, house in the valley. The number of
inhabitants became scanty ; but Avherever water could be
brought on the land it was very fertile. All the main valleys
in the Cordillera are characterised by having, on both sides, a
fringe or terrace of shingle and sand, rudely stratified, and
generally of considerable thickness. These fringes evidently
once extended across the valleys, and were united ; and the
bottoms of the valleys in northern Chile, wdiere there are no
streams, are thus smoothly filled up. On these fringes the

320

PASSAGE OF THE CORDILLERA

roads are generaUy carried, for tlieir surfaces are even, and
they rise with a veiy gentle slope up the valleys ; hence, also,
they are easily cidtivated by irrigation. They may be traced
up to a height of between 7000 and 9000 feet, when they
become hidden by the irregular piles of debris. At the lower
ends or mouths of the valleys, they are continuously united to
those land-locked plains (also formed of shingle) at the foot
of the main Coi’dillera, which I have described in a former
chapter as characteristic of the sceneiy of Chile, and which
were undoubtedly deposited when the sea penetrated Chile,
as it now does the more southern coasts. No one fact in the
geology of South America interested me more than these ter-
races of rudely-stratified shingle. They precisely resemble in
composition the matter which the torrents in each valley
would deposit if they were checked in their course by any
cause, such as entering a lake or aian of the sea ; but the
torrents, instead of depositing matter, are now steadily at work
wearing away both the solid rock and these alluvial deposits,
along the whole line of every main valley and side valley. It
is impossible here to give the reasons, but I am convinced
that the shingle terraces were accumulated during the gradual
elevation of the Cordillera, by the torrents delivering, at suc-
cessive levels, their detritus on the beach-heads of long
narrow arms of the sea, first high up the valleys, then lower
and lower down as the land slowly rose. If this be so, and I
cannot doubt it, the grand and broken chain of the Cordillera,
instead of having been suddenly thrown up, as was till lately
the universal, and still is the common opinion of geologists,
has been slowly upheaved in mass, in the same gi’adual manner
as the coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific have risen within the
recent period. A multitude of facts on the structure of the
Cordillera, on this view receive a simple explanation.

The rivers which flow in these valleys ought rather to be
called mountain-ton-ents. Their inclination is very great,
and their water the colour of mud. The roar which the
Maypu made, as it rushed over the great rounded fragments,
was like that of the sea. Amidst the din of rushing waters,
the noise from the stones, as they rattled one over the other,
was most distinctly audible even from a distance. This ratt-
ling noise, night and day, may be heard along the whole course
of the torrent. Tiie sound spoke ehupiently to the geologist ;

PASSAGE OF THE CORDILLERA

321

the thousands and thousands of stones, which, strikinjr against
each other, made the one dull uniform sound, were all hurry -
ing in one direction. It was like thinking on time, where
the minute that now glides past is irrecoverable. So was it
with these stones ; the ocean is their eternity, and each note
of that wild music told of one more step towards their
destiny.

It is not possible for the mind to comprehend, except by a
slow process, any effect which is produced by a cause repeated
so often that the multiplier itself conveys an idea not more
definite than the savage implies when he points to the hairs
of his head. As often as I have seen beds of mud, sand,
and shingle accumulated to the thickness of many thousand
feet, I have felt inclined to exclaim that causes such as the
present rivers and the present beaches could never have
ground down and j^roduced such masses. But, on the other
hand, when listening to the rattling noise of these torrents,
and calling to mind that whole races of animals have passed
away from the face of the earth, and that during this whole
period, night and day, these stones have gone rattling onwards
in their course, I have thought to myself, can any mountains,
any continent, withstand such waste

In this part of the valley the mountains on each side were
from 3000 to 6000 or 8000 feet high, with rounded outlines
and steep bare flanks. The general colour of the rock was
dullish purple, and the stratification very distinct. If the
scenery was not beautiful, it was remarkable and grand. We
met during the day several herds of cattle, which men were
driving down from the higher valleys in the Cordillera. This
sign of the approaching winter hurried our steps more than
was convenient for geologising. The house where we slept
was situated at the foot of a mountain, on the summit of
which are the mines of San Pedro de Nolasko. Sir F. Head
marvels how mines have been discovered in such extraordinary
situations as the bleak summit of the mountain of San Pedro
de Nolasko. In the first place, metallic veins in this country
are generally harder than the surrounding strata : hence, dur-
ing the gradual wear of the hills, they project above the surface
of the ground. Secondly, almost every labourer, especially
in the northern parts of Chile, understands something about
the appearance of ores. In the great mining provinces of

X

322

PASSAGE OF THE CORDILLERA

Coquimbo and Copiapb, firewood is very scarce, and men search
for it over every hill and dale; and by this means nearly all the
I'ichest mines have there been discovered. Chanuncillo, from
which silver to the value of many hundred thousand pounds has
been raised in the course of a few years, was discovered by a
man who threw a stone at his loaded donkey, and thinking that
it was very heavy, he picked it up, and found it full of pure
silver : the vein occurred at no great distance, standing up like
a wedge of metal. The miners also, taking a crowbar with
them, often wander on Sundays over the mountains. In this
south part of Chile, the men who drive cattle into the Cor-
dillera, and who frequent eveiy ravine where there is a
little pasture, are the usual discoverers.

March 20th. — As we ascended the valley, the vegetation,
with the exception of a few pretty Alpine flowers, became ex-
ceedingly scanty ; and of quadrupeds, birds, or insects, scarcely
one could be seen. The lofty mountains, their summits
marked with a few patches of snow, stood well separated from
each other ; the valleys being filled up with an immense
thickness of stratified alluvium. The features in the scenery
of the Andes which struck me most, as contrasted with the
other mountain-chains with which I am acquainted, were —
the flat fringes sometimes expanding into narrow plains on
each side of the valleys ; the bright colours, chiefly red and
purple, of the utterly bare and precipitous hills of porphyry ;
the grand and continuous wall-like dykes ; the plainly divided
strata which, where nearly vertical, formed the picturesque and
wild central pinnacles, but where less inclined composed the
great massive mountains on the outskirts of the range ; and
lastly, the smooth conical piles of fine and bright-coloured
detritus which sloped up at a high angle from the base of the
mountains, sometimes to a height of more than 2000 feet.

I frequently observed, both in Tierra del Fuego and within
the Andes, that where the rock was covered during the greater
part of the year with snow, it was shivered in a very extra-
ordinary manner into small angular fragments. Scoresby has
observed the same fact in Spitzbergen.* The case appears to
me rather obscure : for that part of the mountain which is
protected by a mantle of snow must be less subject to repeated

* Scoxeshy's Arctic Jtegions, vol. i. p. I22,

GEOLOGY OF THE CORDILLERA

323

and {Treat changes of temperature than any other part. I
have sometimes thought that the earth and fragments of stone
on the surface were perhaps less effectually removed by slowly
percolating snow-water * than by rain, and therefore that the
appearance of a quicker disintegration of the solid rock under
the snow was deceptive. Whatever the cause may be, the
quantity of crumbling stone on the Cordillera is very great.
Occasionally in the spring, great masses of this detritus slide
down the mountains and cover the snow-drifts in the valleys,
thus forming natui-al ice-houses. We rode over one, the
height of which was far below the limit of perpetual snow.

As the evening drew to a close, we reached a singular
basin-like plain, called the Valle del Yeso. It was covered
by a little dry pasture, and we had the pleasant sight of a
herd of cattle amidst the surrounding rocky deserts. The
valley takes its name of Yeso from a great bed, I should
think at least 2000 feet thick, of white, and in some parts
quite pure, gypsum. We slept with a party of men who were
employed in loading mules with this substance, which is used
in the manufacture of wine. We set out early in the morning
(21^<), and continued to follow the course of the river, which
had become very small, till we arrived at the foot of the
ridge that separates the waters flowing into the Pacific and
Atlantic Oceans. The road, which as yet had been good,
with a steady but very gradual ascent, now changed into a
steep zig-zag track up the great range, dividing the republics
of Chile and Mendoza.

I will here give a very brief sketch of the geology of the
several parallel lines forming the Cordillera. Of these lines,
there are two considerably higher than the others — namely,
on the Chilian side, the Peuquenes ridge, which, where the
road crosses it, is 13,210 feet above the sea; and the Portillo
ridge, on the Mendoza side, which is 14,305 feet. The lower
beds of the Peuquenes ridge, and of the several great lines
to the westward of it, are composed of a vast pile, many

* I have heard it remarked in Shropshire, that the water, when the
Severn is flooded from long-continued rain, is much more turbid than when
it proceeds from the snow-melting on the Welsh mountains. D’Orbigny
(tom. i. p. 184), in explaining the cause of the various colours of the rivers
in South America, remarks that those with blue or clear water have their
source in the Cordillera, where the snow melts.

324

GEOLOGY OF THE CORDILLERA

thousand feet in thickness, of porphyries which have flowed
as submarine lavas, alternating with angular and rounded
fragments of the same rocks, thrown out of the submarine
craters. These alternating masses are covered in the central
parts by a great thickness of red sandstone, conglomerate,
and calcareous clay-slate, associated with, and passing into,
prodigious beds of gypsum. In these upper beds .shells are
tolerably frequent ; and they belong to about the period of
the lower chalk of Europe. It is an old story, but not the
less wonderful, to hear of shells which were once crawling
on the bottom of the sea, now standing nearly 14,000 feet
above its level. The lower beds in this great pile of strata
have been dislocated, baked, crystallised, and almost blended
together thi’ough the agency of mountain masses of a peculiar
white soda-granitic rock.

The other main line — namely, that of the Portillo — is of a
totally different formation ; it consists chiefly of grand bare
pinnacles of a red potash-granite, which low down on the
western flank are covered by a sandstone, converted by the
former heat into a quartz-rock. On the quartz there rest
beds of conglomerate several thousand feet in thickness,
which have been upheaved by the red granite, and dip at
an angle of 45° towards the Peuquenes line. I was aston-
ished to find that this conglomerate was pai-tly composed of
pebbles, derived from the rocks, with their fossil shells, of
the Peuquenes range ; and partly of red jjotash-granite, like
that of the Portillo. Hence we must conclude that both
the Peuquenes and Portillo ranges were partially upheaved
and exposed to wear and tear when the conglomerate was
forming ; but as the beds of the conglomerate have been
thrown off at an angle of 45° by the red Portillo granite
(with the underlying sandstone baked by it), we may feel
sure that the greater part of the injection and upheaval of
the already pai-tially formed Portillo line took place after
the accumulation of the conglomerate, and long after the
elevation of the Peuquenes ridge. So that the Portillo, the
loftiest line in this part of the Cordillera, is not so old as the
less lofty line of the Peuquenes. Evidence derived from an
inclined stream of lava at the eastern base of the Portillo
might be adduced to show that it owes part of its great
height to elevations of a still later date. Looking to its

GEOLOGY OF THE CORDILLERA

325

earliest origiiij the red granite seems to have been injected
on an ancient pre-existing line of white granite and mica-
slate. In most parts, perhaps in all parts, of the Cordillera,
it may be concluded that eacli line has been fomned by
repeated upheavals and injections ; and that the several
parallel lines are of different ages. Only thus can we gain
time at all sufficient to explain the tnily astonishing amount
of denudation which these great, though comparatively with
most other ranges recent, mountains have suffered.

Finally, the shells in the Peuquenes or oldest ridge, prove,
as before remarked, that it has been upraised 14,000 feet
since a secondary period, which in Europe we are accustomed
to consider as far from ancient ; but since these shells lived
in a moderately deep sea, it can be shown that the area
now occupied by the Cordillera must have subsided several
thousand feet — in northern Chile as much as 6000 feet —
so as to have allowed that amount of submarine strata to
have been heaped on the bed on which the shells lived.
The proof is the same with that by which it was shown,
that at a much later period since the tertiary shells of Pata-
gonia lived, there must have been there a subsidence of
several hundred feet, as well as an ensuing elevation. Daily
it is forced home on the mind of the geologist that nothing,
not even the wind that blows, is so unstable as the level of
the crust of this earth.

I will make only one other geological remark ; although
the Portillo chain is here higher than the Peuquenes, the
waters, draining the intermediate valleys, have burst through
it. The same fact, on a grander scale, has been remarked
in the eastern and loftiest line of the Bolivian Cordillera,
through which the rivers pass : analogous facts have also
been observed in other quarters of the world. On the
supposition of the subsequent and gradual elevation of the
Portillo line, this can be understood ; for a chain of islets
would at first appear, and, as these were lifted up, the
tides Avould be always wearing deeper and bi’oader channels
between them. At the present day, even in the most retired
Sounds on the coast of Tierra del Fuego, the currents in the
transverse breaks which connect the longitudinal channels
are very strong, so that in one transverse channel even a
small vessel under sail was whirled round and round.

326

PORTILLO PASS

About noon we began the tedious ascent of the Peuquenes
ridge, and then for the first time experienced some little
difficulty in our respiration. The mules would halt every
fifty yards, and after resting for a few seconds the poor
willing animals started of their own accord again. The
short breathing from the rarefied atmosphere is called by the
Chilenos “ puna ” ; and they have most ridiculous notions
concerning its origin. Some say, “all the waters here have
puna ” ; others that “ where there is snow there is puna ” ; —
and this no doubt is true. The only sensation I experienced
was a slight tightness across the head and chest, like that
felt on leaving a warm room and running quickly in frosty
weather. There was some imagination even in this ; for upon
finding fossil shells on the highest ridge, I entirely forgot
the puna in my delight. Certainly the exertion of walking
was extremely great, and the respiration became deep and
laborious. I am told that in Potosi (about 13,000 feet above
the sea) strangers do not become thoroughly accustomed to
the atmosphere for an entire year. The inhabitants all recom-
mend onions for the puna ; as this vegetable has sometimes
been given in Europe for pectoral complaints, it may possibly
be of real service : for my part, I found nothing so good as
the fossil shells !

When about half-way up we met a large party with seventy
loaded mules. It was interesting to hear the wild cries
of the muleteers, and to watch the long descending string
of the animals ; they appeared so diminutive, there being
nothing but the bleak moun tarns with which they could be
comjiared. When near the summit, the wind, as generally
happens, was impetuous and extremely cold. On each side
of the ridge we had to pass over broad bands of perpetual
snow, which were now soon to be covered by a fresh layer.
When we reached the crest and looked backwards, a glorious
view was presented. The atmosphere resplendently clear ;
the sky an intense blue : the profound valleys ; the M-ild
broken foi’ins ; the heaps of ruins, piled up during the lapse
of ages ; the bright-coloured rocks, contrasted with the quiet
mountains of snow ; all these together produced a scene no
one could have imagined. Neither plant nor bird, excepting
a few condors wheeling around the higher pinnacles, dis-
tracted my attention from the inanimate oiass. I felt glad

PORTILLO PASS

327

that I was alone : it was like watching a thunderstorm, or
hearing in full orchestra a chorus of the Messiah.

On several patches of the snow I found the Prolococcus
nivalis, or red snow, so well known from the accounts of
Arctic navigators. My attention was called to it by observing
the footsteps of the mules stained a pale red, as if their hoofs
had been slightly bloody. I at first thought that it was
owing to dust blown from the surrounding mountains of red
porphyry ; for from the magnifying power of the crystals of
snow, the groups of these microscopical plants appeared like
coarse particles. The snow was coloured only where it had
thawed very rapidly, or had been accidentally crushed. A
little rubbed on paper gave it a faint rose tinge mingled
with a little brick-red. I afterwards scraped some off the
paper, and found that it consisted of groups of little spheres
in colourless cases, each the thousandth part of an inch in
diameter.

The wind on the crest of the Peuquenes, as just remarked,
is generally impetuous and very cold : it is said * to blow
steadily from the westward or Pacific side. As the observa-
tions have been chiefly made in summer, this wind must be
an upper and i-eturn current. The Peak of Teneriffe, with
a less elevation, and situated in lat. 28°, in like manner falls
within an upper return stream. At first it appears rather
surprising that the trade-wind along the northern parts of
Chile and on the coasts of Peru should blow in so veiy
southerly a direction as it does ; but when we reflect that the
Cordillera, running in a north and south line, intercepts,
like a great wall, the entire depth of the lower atmospheinc
current, we can easily see that the trade-wind must be
drawn northward, following the line of mountains, towards
the equatorial regions, and thus lose part of that easterly
movement which it otherwise would have gained from the
earth’s rotation. At Mendoza, on the eastern foot of the
Andes, the climate is said to be subject to long calms, and to
frequent though false appearances of gathering rain-storms :
we may imagine that the wind, which, coming from the
eastward, is thus banked up by the line of mountains, would
become stagnant and irregular in its movements.

* Dr Gillies in Journal of Natural and Geographical Science, Aug. 1830.
This author gives the heights of the Passes,

328

PORTILLO PASS

Having crossed the Peuquenes^ we descended into a moun-
tainous country, intemiediate between the two main ranges,
and then took up our quarters for the night. We were now
in the republic of Mendoza. The elevation was probably
not under 11,000 feet, and the vegetation in consequence
exceedingly scanty. The root of a small scrubby plant
served as fuel, but it made a miserable fire, and the wind
was piercingly cold. Being quite tired with my day’s
work, I made up my bed as quickly as I could, and went to
sleep. About midnight I observed the sky became suddenly
clouded : I awakened the arriero to know if there was any
danger of bad weather ; but he said that without thunder
and lightning there was no risk of a heavy snowstorm.
The peril is imminent, and the difficulty of subsequent escape
great, to any one overtaken by bad weather between the
two ranges. A certain cave offers the only place of refuge :
Mr Caldcleugh, who crossed on this same day of the month,
was detained there for some time by a heavy fall of snow.
Casuchas, or houses of refuge, have not been built in this
pass as in that of Uspallata, and therefore, during the
autumn, the Portillo is little frequented. I may here remark
that within the main Cordillera rain never falls, for during
the summer the sky is cloudless, and in winter snowstorms
alone occur.

At the place where we slept water necessarily boiled, from
the diminished pressure of the atmosphere, at a lower tem-
perature than it does in a less lofty country ; the case being
the converse of that of a Papin’s digester. Hence the
potatoes, after remaining for some hours in the boiling water,
were nearly as hard as ever. The pot was left on the fire all
night, and next morning it was boiled again, but yet the
potatoes were not cooked. I found out this, by overhearing
my two companions discussing the cause ; they had come to
the simple conclusion, “ that the cursed pot (which was a new
one) did not choose to boil potatoes.”

March 22nd. — After eating our potato-less breakfast, we
travelled across the intermediate tract to the foot of the
Portillo range. In the middle of summer cattle are brought up
here to graze ; but they had now all been removed ; even the
greater number of the guanacos had decamped, knowing well
that if overtaken here by a snowstorm, they Avould be caught

PORTILLO PASS

329

in a trap. We had a fine view of a mass of mountains called
Tupungato, the whole clothed with unbroken snow, in the
midst of which there was a blue patch, no doubt a glacier ; —
a circumstance of rare occurrence in these mountains. Now
commenced a heavy and long climb, similar to that up the
Peuquenes. Bold conical hills of red granite rose on each
hand ; in the valleys there were several broad fields of
perpetual snow. These frozen masses, during the process of
thawing, had in some parts been convei’ted into pinnacles or
columns,* which, as they were high and close together, made
it difficult for the cargo mules to pass. On one of these
columns of ice, a frozen horse was sticking as on a pedestal,
but with its hind legs straight up in the air. The animal, I
suppose, must have fallen with its head downward into a hole,
when the snow was continuous, and afterwards the surround-
ing parts must have been removed by the thaw.

When nearly on the crest of the Portillo, we were enveloped
in a falling cloud of minute frozen spicula. This was very
unfortunate, as it continued the whole day, and quite inter-
cepted our view. The pass takes its name of Portillo from a
narrow cleft or doorway on the highest ridge, through which
the road passes. From this point on a clear day, those vast
plains which uninterruptedly extend to the Atlantic Ocean can
be seen. W'e descended to the upper limit of vegetation, and
found good quarters for the night under the shelter of some
large fragments of rock. We met here some passengers, who
made anxious inquiries about the state of the road. Shortly
after it was dark the clouds suddenly cleared away, and the
effect was quite magical. The gi’eat mountains, bright with
the full moon, seemed impending over us on all sides, as over
a deep crevice : one morning very early, I witnessed the same
striking effect. As soon as the clouds were dispersed it froze
severely ; but as there was no wind, we slept very comfortably,

* This structure in frozen snow was long since observed by Scoresby in
the icebergs near Spitzbergen, and lately, with more care by Colonel
Jackson {Journal of Geographical Society, vol. v. p. 12) on the Neva. Mr
Lyell {Principles, vol. iv. p. 360) has compared the fissures, by which the
columnar structure seems to be determined, to the joints that traverse
nearly all rocks, but which are best seen in the non-stratified masses. I
may observe that, in the case of the frozen snow, the columnar structure
must be owing to a “ metamorphic ” action, and not to a process during
deposition.

330

DRY AND CLEAR ATMOSPHERE

The increased brilliancy of the moon and stars at this
elevation, owing to the j)erfect transparency of the atmosphere,
was very remarkable. Travellers having observed the difliculty
of judging heights and distances amidst lofty mountains, have
generally attributed it to the absence of objects of comparison.
It appears to me that it is fully as much owing to the
transparency of the air confounding objects at different
distances, and likewise partly to the novelty of an unusual
degree of fatigue arising from a little exertion, — habit being
thus opposed to the evidence of the senses. I am sure that
this extreme clearness of the air gives a 2>eculiar character to
the landscape, all objects appearing to be bi-ought nearly into
one plane, as in a di-awing or panorama. The transjoarency
is, I presume, owing to the equable and high state of
atmospheric dryness. This dryness was shown by the manner
in which woodwork shrank (as I soon found by the trouble my
geological hammer gave me) ; by articles of food, such as
bread and sugar, becoming extremely hard ; and by the
preservation of the skin and parts of the flesh of the beasts
which had perished on the road. To the same cause we
must attribute the singular facility with which electricity is
excited. My flannel waistcoat, when rubbed in the dark,
appeared as if it had been washed with phosphorus ; — every
hair on a dog’s back cracked ; — even the linen sheets, and
leathern straps of the saddle, when handled, emitted sparks.

March 28th. — The descent on the eastern side of the
Cordillera is much shorter or steeper than on the Pacific side ;
in other words, the mountains rise more abruptly from the
jflains than from the Alpine country of Chile. A level and
brilliantly white sea of clouds was stretched out beneath our
feet, shutting out the view of the equally level Pampas. We
soon entered the band of clouds, and did not again emerge
from it that day. About noon, finding pasture for the
animals and bushes for firewood at Los Arenales, we stopped
for the night. This was near the uppermost limit of bushes,
and the elevation, I sujipose, was between seven and eight
thousand feet.

I was much struck with the marked difference between the
vegetation of these eastern valleys and those on the Chilian
side ; yet the climate, as well as the kind of soil, is nearly
the same, and the difference of longitude very trifling. The

PORTILLO PASS

331

same remark holds good with the quadnipcdSj and in a lesser
degree with the birds and insects. I may instance the mice,
of which I obtained thirteen species on the shores of the
Atlantic, and five on the Pacific, and not one of them is
identical. We must except all those species which habitually
or occasionally frequent elevated mountains ; and certain
birds, which range as far south as the Strait of Magellan.
This fact is in perfect accordance with the geological history
of the Andes ; for these mountains have existed as a great
barrier since the present races of animals have appeared ;
and therefore, unless w'e suppose the same species to have
been created in two different places, we ought not to expect
any closer similarity between the organic beings on the
opposite sides of the Andes than on the opposite shores of
the ocean. In both cases, we must leave out of the question
those kinds which have been able to cross the barrier,
whether of solid rock or salt-watei’.*

A great number of the plants and animals were absolutely
the same as, or most closely allied to, those of Patagonia.
We here have the agouti, bizcacha, three species of armadillo,
the ostrich, certain kinds of partridges and other birds, none
of which are ever seen in Chile, but are the characteristic
animals of the desert plains of Patagonia. We have likewise
many of the same (to the eyes of a person who is not a
botanist) thorny stunted bushes, Avithered grass, and dwarf
plants. Even the black, slowly-crawling beetles are closely
similar, and some, I believe, on rigorous examination,
absolutely identical. It had always been to me a subject
of regret that we were unavoidably compelled to give up the
ascent of the Santa Cruz river before reaching the mountains :
I always had a latent hope of meeting with some great change
in the features of the country ; but I now feel sure that it
would only have been following the plains of Patagonia up a
mountainous ascent.

March 9,Mh. — Early in the morning I climbed up a moun-

* This is merely an illustration of the admirable laws, first laid down by
Mr Lyell, on the geographical distribution of animals as influenced by
geological changes. The whole reasoning, of course, is founded on the
assumption of the immutability of species ; otherwise the difference in the
species in the two regions might be considered as superinduced during a
length of time^

332

PORTILLO PASS

tain on one side of the valley, and enjoyed a far-extended
view over the Pampas. This was a spectacle to which I had
always looked forward with interest, but I was disappointed ;
at the first glance it much resembled a distant view of the
ocean, but in the northern parts many irregularities were
soon distinguishable. The most striking features consisted in
the rivers, which, facing the rising sun, glittered like silver
thi’eads, till lost in the immensity of the distance. At mid-
day we descended the valley, and reached a hovel, where an
officer and three soldiers were posted to examine passports.
One of these men was a thorough-bred Pampas Indian : he
was kept much for the same purpose as a bloodhound, to track
out any person who might pass by secretly, either on foot or
horseback. Some years ago, a passenger endeavoured to
escape detection by making a long circuit over a neighbouring
mountain ; but this Indian, having by chance crossed his
track, followed it for the whole day over dry and very stony
hills, till at last he came on his prey hidden in a gulley. We
here heard that the silvery clouds, which we had admired
from the bright region above, had poured down toiTents of
rain. The valley from this point gradually opened, and the
hills became mere water-worn hillocks compared to the giants
behind ; it then expanded into a gently-sloping plain of
shingle, covered with low trees and bushes. This talus,
although appearing nari’ow, must be nearly ten miles ^\ide
before it blends into the apparently dead level Pampas. We
passed the only house in this neighbourhood, the Estancia of
Chaquaio ; and at sunset we pulled up in the first snug corner
and there bivouacked.

March 25th. — I was reminded of the Pampas of Buenos
Ayres, by seeing the disc of the rising sun, intersected by an
horizon, level as that of the ocean. During the night a
heavy dew fell, a circumstance which we did not experience
within the Cordillera. The road proceeded for some distance
due east across a low swamp ; then meeting the dry plain,
it turned to the north towards Mendoza. The distance is two
very long days’ journey. Our first day’s journey was called
fourteen leagues to Estacado, and the second seventeen to
Luxam, near Mendoza. The whole distance is over a level
desert plain, with not more than two or three houses. The
sun was exceedingly powerful, and the ride devoid of all

PORTILLO PASS

333

interest. There is very little water in this “ traversia/’ and
in our second day’s journey we found only one little pool.
Little water flows from the mountains^ and it soon becomes
absorbed by the dry and porous soil : so that, although we
travelled at the distance of only ten or fifteen miles from the
outer range of the Cordillera, we did not cross a single stream.
In many parts the ground was incrusted with a saline
efflorescence ; hence we had the same salt-loving plants which
are common near Bahia Blanca. The landscape has a uniform
character from the Strait of Magellan, along the whole eastern
coast of Patagonia, to the Rio Colorado ; and it appears that
the same kind of country extends inland from this river, in a
sweeping line as far as San Luis, and perhaps even farther
north. To the eastward of this curved line lies the basin of
the comparatively damp and green plains of Buenos Ayres.
The sterile plains of Mendoza and Patagonia consist of a bed
of shingle, ■worn smooth and accumulated by the waves of the
sea ; while the Pampas, covered by thistles, clover, and grass,
have been formed by the ancient estuary mud of the Plata.

After our two days’ tedious journey, it was refreshing to
see in the distance the row's of poplars and willows growing
round the village and river of Luxan. Shortly before we
arrived at this place, we observed to the south a ragged cloud
of a dark reddish-brown coloui'. At first we thought that it
w'as smoke from .some great fire on the plains ; but we soon
found that it was a swarm of locusts. They were flying north-
ward ; and, with the aid of a light breeze, they overtook us at
a rate of ten or fifteen miles an hour. The main body filled
the air from a height of twenty feet to that, as it appeared,
of two or three thousand above the ground, “and the sound
of their wings w'as as the sound of chariots and of many
horses running to battle ” ; or rather, I should say, like a
strong breeze passing through the rigging of a ship. The sky,
seen through the advance guard, appeared like a mezzo-tinto
engraving, but the main body was impervious to sight ; they
were not, however, so thick together but that they could
escape a stick waved backwards and forwards. When they
alighted, they were more numerous than the leaves in the
field, and the surface became reddish instead of being green :
the swarm having once alighted, the individuals flew from
side to side in all directions. Locusts are not an unconunon

334

MENDOZA

pest in this country : already dm-ing this season several
smaller swarms had come up from the south, where, as
apparently in all other parts of the world, they are bred in
the deserts. The poor cottagers in vain attempted, by light-
ing fires, by shouts, and by waving branches, to avert the
attack. This species of locusts closely resembles, and perhaps
is identical with, the famous Gryllus migratorius of the East.

We crossed the Luxan, which is a river of considerable size,
though its course towards the sea-coast is very imperfectly
known : it is even doubtful whether, in passing over the
plains, it is not evaporated and lost. We .slept in the village
of Luxan, which is a small place suiTounded by gardens, and
foi'ms the most southern cultivated district in the province of
Mendoza ; it is five leagues south of the capital. At night I
experienced an attack (for it deserves no less a name) of
the Benchuca, a species of Reduvius, the great black bug of
the Pampas. It is most disgusting to feel soft wingless
insects, about an inch long, crawling over one’s body.
Before sucking they are quite thin, but afterwards they
become round and bloated with blood, and in this state
are easily crushed. One which I caught at Iquique (for they
are found in Chile and Peru) was very empty. When placed
on a table, and though surrounded by people, if a finger was
presented, the bold insect would immediately protrude its
sucker, make a charge, and, if allowed, draw blood. No pain
was caused by the wound. It was curious to watch its body
during the act of sucking, as in less than ten minutes it
changed from being as flat as a wafer to a globular form.
This one feast, for which the benchuca was indebted to one of
the officers, kept it fat during four whole months ; but after
the fii'st fortnight, it was quite ready to have another suck.

March 9,1th. — We rode on to Mendoza. The country
was beautifully cultivated, and resembled Chile. This
neighbourhood is celebrated for its fruit ; and certainly
nothing could appear more flourishing than the vineyards and
the orchards of figs, peaches, and olives. We bought water-
melons nearly twice as large as a man’s head, most deliciously
cool and well-flavoured, for a halfpenny apiece ; and for the
value of threepence, half a wheel-barrowful of peaches. The
cultivated and enclosed part of this province is very small ;
there is little more than that which we passed through

USPALLATA PASS

335

between Luxan and the capital. The land^ as in Chile, owes
its fertility entirely to artificial irrigation ; and it is really
wonderful to observe how extraordinarily productive a barren
traversia is thus rendered.

We stayed the ensuing day in Mendoza. The prosperity
of the place has much declined of late years. The inhabit-
ants say, “ It is good to live in, but very bad to grow rich
in.” The lower orders have the lounging, reckless manners
of the Gauchos of the Pampas ; and their dress, riding-gear,
and habits of life are nearly the same. To my mind the
town had a stupid, forlorn aspect. Neither the boasted
alameda, nor the scenery, is at all comparable with that of
Santiago ; but to those who, coming from Buenos Ayres, have
just crossed the unvaried Pampas, the gardens and orchards
must appear delightful. Sir F. Head, speaking of the inhabit-
ants, says : “ They eat their dinners, and it is so veiy hot,
they go to sleep — and could they do better ” I quite agree
■with Sir F. Head : the happy doom of the Mendozinos is to
eat, sleep, and be idle.

March '3.Qlh. — We set out on our return to Chile by the
Uspallata Pass, situated north of Mendoza. We had to cross
a long and most sterile traversia of fifteen leagues. The soil
in parts was absolutely bare, in others covered by numberless
dwarf cacti, armed with formidable spines, and called by the
inhabitants “little lions.” There were also a few low bushes.
Although the jdain is nearly three thousand feet above the
sea, the sun was very powerful ; and the heat, as well as the
clouds of impalpable dust, rendered the travelling extremely
irksome. Our course during the day lay nearly parallel to
the Cordillera, but gradually approaching them. Before sun-
set we entered one of the wide valleys, or rather bays, which
open on the plain : this soon narrowed into a ravine, where a
little higher up the house of Villa Vicencio is situated. As
we had ridden all day without a drop of water, both our
mules and selves were very thirsty, and we looked out
anxiously for the stream which flows down this valley. It
was curious to observe how gradually the water made its
appearance : on the plain the course was quite dry ; by
degrees it became a little damper ; then puddles of water
appeared ; these soon became connected ; and at Villa
Vicencio there was a nice little rivulet.

336

USPALLATA PASS

March 30fh. — The solitary hovel which bears the imposing
name of Villa Vicencio has been mentioned by every traveller
who has crossed the Andes. I stayed here and at some
neighbouring mines during the two succeeding days. The
geology of the surrounding country is veiy curious. The
Uspallata range is separated from the main Cordillera by a
long narrow plain or basin, like those so often mentioned in
Chile, but highei-, being six thousand feet above the sea.
This range has nearly the same geographical position with
respect to the Cordillera which the gigantic Portillo line has,
but it is of a totally different origin : it consists of various
kinds of submarine lava, alternating with volcanic sandstones
and other remarkable sedimentary deposits ; the whole having
a very close resemblance to some of the tertiary beds on the
shores of the Pacific. From this resemblance I expected to
find silicified wood, which is generally characteristic of those
formations. I was gratified in a very extraordinary manner.

In the central part of the range, at an elevation of about
seven thousand feet, I observed on a bare slope some snow-
white projecting columns. These were petrified trees, eleven
being silicified, and from thirty to forty converted into
coarsely-crystallised white calcareous spar. They were
abruptly broken off, the upright stumps projecting a few feet
above the ground. The trunks measured from three to five
feet in circumference. They stood a little way apart from
each other, but the whole formed one group. Mr Robert
Brown has been kind enough to examine the w’ood : he says it
belongs to the fir tribe, partaking of the character of the
Araucarian family, but with some curious points of affinity
with the yew. The volcanic sandstone in which the trees
were embedded, and from the lower part of which they must
have sprung, had accumulated in successive thin layers around
their trunks ; and the stone yet retained the impression of the
bark.

It required little geological practice to interpret the marvel- i
lous story which this scene at once unfolded ; though I I
confess I was at first so much astonished that I could scarcely
believe the plainest evidence. I saw the spot where a cluster
of fine trees once waved their branches on the shores of the
Atlantic, when that ocean (now driven back 700 miles) came
to tlie foot of the Andes. I saw that they had sprung from a I

USPALLATA PASS

337

volcanic soil which had been raised above the level of the sea,
and that subsequently this dry land, with its upright trees,
I'.ad been let down into the depths of the ocean. In these
depths, the fonnerly dry land was covered by sedimentary
beds, and these again by enormous streams of submarine lava
— one such mass attaining the thickness of a thousand feet ;
and these deluges of molten stone and aqueous deposits five
times alternately had been spread out. The ocean which
received such thick masses must have been profoundly deep ;
but again the subterranean forces exerted themselves, and I
now beheld the bed of that ocean forming a chain of moun-
tains more than seven thousand feet in height. Nor had those
antagonist forces been dormant, which are always at work
wearing down the surface of the land : the great piles of
strata had been intersected by many wide valleys, and the
trees, now' changed into silex, were exposed projecting from
the volcanic soil, now changed into rock, whence formerly, in
a green and budding state, they had raised their lofty heads.
Now', all is utterly irreclaimable and desert ; even the lichen
cannot adhere to the stony casts of former trees. Vast, and
scarcely comprehensible as such changes must ever appear,
yet they have all occurred within a period, recent when
compared with the history of the Cordillera : and the Cor-
dillera itself is absolutely modern as compared with many of
the fossiliferous strata of Europe and America.

April \st. — We crossed the Uspallata range, and at night
slept at the custom-house — the only inhabited spot on the
plain. Shortly before leaving the mountains, there was a
very extraordinary view ; red, purple, green, and quite white
sedimentary rocks, alternating with black lavas, were broken
up and throw'll into all kinds of disorder by masses of porphyry
of every shade of colour, from dark brown to the brightest
lilac. It was the first view I ever saw which really resembled
those pretty sections which geologists make of the inside of
the earth.

The next day we crossed the plain, and followed the course
of the same great mountain stream which flows by Luxan.
Here it was a furious torrent, quite impassable, and appeared
larger than in the low country, as was the case with the
rivulet of Villa Vicencio. On the evening of the succeeding
day we reached the Rio de las Vacas, which is considered the

V

S38

USPALLATA PASS

worst stream in the Cordillera to cross. As all these rivers
have a rapid and short course, and are formed by the melting
of the snow, the hour of the day makes a considerable differ-
ence in their volume. In the evening the stream is muddy
and full, but about daybreak it becomes clearer and much
less impetuous. This we found to be the case with the Rio
Vacas, and in the morning we crossed it with little difficulty.

The sceneiy thus far was very uninteresting compared
with that of the Portillo pass. Little can be seen beyond the
bare walls of the one grand, flat-bottomed valley, which the
road follows up to the highest crest. The valley and the huge
rocky mountains are extremely barren : during the two previous
nights the poor mules had absolutely nothing to eat, for ex-
cepting a few low resinous bushes, scarcely a plant can be seen.
In the course of this day we crossed some of the worst passes
in the Cordillera, but their danger has been much exaggerated.
I was told that if I attempted to pass on foot, my head would
turn giddy, and that there was no room to dismount; but I
did not see a place where any one might not have walked over
backwards, or got off his mule on either side. One of the bad
passes, called /as Animas (the Souls), I had crossed, and did
not find out till a day afterwards, that it was one of the
most awful dangers. No doubt there are many parts in
which, if the mule should stumble, the rider would be hm-led
down a great precipice ; but of this there is little chance. I
daresay, in the spring, the “laderas,” or roads, which each
year are formed anew across the piles of fallen detritus, are
very bad ; but from what I saw, I suspect the real danger is
nothing. With cargo-mules the case is rather different, for
the loads project so far that the animals, occasionally
ninning against each other, or against a point of rock, lose
their balance and are thrown down the precipices. In
crossing the rivers I can well believe that the difficulty may
be very great : at this season there was little trouble, but
in the summer they must be very hazardous. I can quite
imagine, as Sir F. Head describes, the different expressions
of those who have passed the gulf, and those who are passing.
I never heard of any man being drowned, but with loaded
mules it frequently happens. The arriero tells you to show
your mule the best line and then allow her to cross as she
bkes : the cargo-mule takes a bad line, and is often lost

USPALLATA PASS

339

April 4//i. — From the Rio de las Vacas to the Puente del
Incas, half-a-day’s journey. As there was pasture for the
mules, and geology for me, we bivouacked here for the night.
When one hears of a natural Bridge, one pictures to oneself
some deep and narrow ravine, across which a bold mass of
rock has fallen ; or a great arch hollowed out like the vault of
a cavern. Instead of this, the Incas Bridge consists of a
crust of stratified shingle, cemented together by the deposits
of the neighbouring hot springs. It appears as if the stream
had scooped out a channel on one side, leaving an overhang-
ing ledge, which was met by eai'th and stones falling down
from the opposite cliff. Certainly an oblique junction, as
would happen in such a case, was very distinct on one
side. The Bridge of the Incas is by no means worthy of
the great monarchs whose name it bears.

April 5th. — We had a long day’s ride across the central
ridge, from the Incas Bridge to the Ojos del Agua, which
are situated near the lowest casucha on the Chilian side.
These casuchas are round little towers, with steps outside
to reach the floor, which is raised some feet above the ground
on account of the snow-drifts. They are eight in number,
and under the Spanish Government were kept during the
winter well stored with food and charcoal, and each courier
had a master-key. Now they only answer the purpose of
caves, or rather dungeons. Seated on some little eminence,
they are not, however, ill suited to the surrounding scene
of desolation. The zigzag ascent of the Cumbre, or the
partition of the waters, was very steep and tedious ; its
height, according to Mr Pentland, is 12,454 feet. The
road did not pass over any perpetual snow, although there
were patches of it on both hands. The wind on the summit
w'as exceedingly cold, but it was impossible not to stop for
a few' minutes to admire, again and again, the colour of the
! heavens and the brilliant transparency of the atmosphere.

The scenery was grand : to the westward there was a fine
' chaos of mountains, divided by profound ravines. Some snow

I generally falls before this period of the season, and it has

even happened that the Cordillera have been finally closed
I by this time. But we w'ere most fortunate. The sky by

I night and by day was cloudless, excepting a few round little

masses of vapour that floated over the highest pinnacles.

340

USPALLATA PASS

1 have often seen these islets in the sky, marking the
position of the Cordillera, when far distant mountains have
been hidden beneath the horizon.

Apjil 6th. — In the morning we found some thief had stolen
one of our mules and the bell of the madrina. We there-
fore rode only two or three miles down the valley, and stayed
there the ensuing day in hopes of recovering the mule, which
the arriera thought had been hidden in some ravine. The
scenery in this part had assumed a Chilian character : the
lower sides of the mountains, dotted over with the pale
evergreen Quillay tree, and with the great chandelier-like
cactus, are certainly more to be admired than the bare eastern
valleys ; but I cannot quite agi’ee with the admiration ex-
pressed by some travellers. The extreme pleasure, I suspect,
is chiefly owing to the prospect of a good fire and of a good
supper, after escaping from the cold regions above ; and I am
sure I most heartily participated in these feelings.

April 8th. — We left the valley of the Aconcagua, by which
we had descended, and reached in the evening a cottage near
the Villa de St Rosa. The fertility of the plain was delight-
ful ; the autumn being advanced, the leaves of many of the
fruit-trees were falling ; and of the labourers, — some were
busy in drjdng figs and peaches on the roofs of their cottages,
while others were gathering the grapes from the vineyards.
It was a pretty scene ; but I missed that pensive stillness
which makes the autumn in England indeed the evening of
the year. On the 10th we reached Santiago, where I
received a very kind and hospitable reception from Mr
Caldcleugh. My excursion only cost me twenty-four days,
and never did I more deeply enjoy an equal space of time.
A few days afterwards I returned to Mr Corfield’s house at
Valparaiso.

CHAPTER XVI

NORTHERN CHILE AND PERU

COAST-ROAD TO COQUIMBO GREAT LOADS CARRIED BY THE MINERS

COQUIMBO EARTHQUAKE STEP-FORMED TERRACES

ABSENCE OF RECENT DEPOSITS CONTEMPORANEOUSNESS OF

THE TERTIARY FORMATIONS EXCURSION UP THE VALLEY

ROAD TO GUASCO DESERTS VALLEY OF COPIAPO RAIN

AND EARTHQUAKES HYDROPHOBIA THE DESPOBLADO

INDIAN RUINS PROBABLE CHANGE OF CLIMATE RIVER-BED

ARCHED BY AN EARTHQUAKE COLD GALES OF WIND NOISES

FROM A HILL IQUIQUE SALT ALLUVIUM NITRATE OF SODA

LIMA UNHEALTHY COUNTRY RUINS OF CALLAO, OVER-
THROWN BY AN EARTHQUAKE RECENT SUBSIDENCE

ELEVATED SHELLS ON SAN LORENZO, THEIR DECOMPOSITION

PLAIN WITH EMBEDDED SHELLS AND FRAGMENTS OF POTTERY
ANTIQUITY OF THE INDIAN RACE.

RIL 9,1th. — I set out on a journey to Coquimbo,
and thence through Guasco to Copiapo, where
Captain Fitz Roy kindly offered to pick me up
in the Beagle. The distance in a straight line
along the shore northward is only 420 miles ;
but my mode of travelling made it a very long journey. I
bought four horses and two mules, the latter carrying the
luggage on alternate days. The six animals together only
cost the value of twenty-five pounds sterling, and at Copiapo I
sold them again for twenty -three. We travelled in the same
independent manner as before, cooking our own meals, and
sleeping in the open air. As we rode towards the Vino del
Mar, I took a farew'ell view of Valparaiso, and admired its
picturesque appearance. For geological purposes, I made a
detour from the high road to the foot of the Bell of Quillota.
We passed through an alluvial district rich in gold, to the
neighbourhood of Limache, where we slept. Washing for
gold supports the inhabitants of numerous hovels scattered

341

342

COAST-ROAD TO COQUIMBO

along the sides of each little rivulet ; but, like all those whose
gains are uncertain, they are unthrifty in their habits, and
consequently poor.

April 28th. — In the afternoon we arrived at a cottage at the
foot of the Bell mountain. The inhabitants were freeholders,
which is not very usual in Chile. They supported themselves
on the produce of a garden and a little field, but were very
poor. Capital is here so deficient that the people are obliged
to sell their green corn while standing in the field, in order
to buy necessaries for the ensuing year. Wheat, in conse-
quence, was dearer in the very district of its production than
at Valparaiso, where the contractors live. The next day we
joined the main road to Coquimbo. At night there was a
very light shower of rain ; this was the first drop that had
fallen since the heavy rain of September J 1th and 12th, which
detained me a prisoner at the Baths of Cauquenes. The in-
terval was seven and a-half months ; but the rain this year in
Chile was rather later than usual. The distant Andes were now
covered by a thick mass of snow ; and were a glorious sight.

Map 2nd. — The road continued to follow the coast at no
great distance from the sea. The few trees and bushes which
are common in central Chile decreased rapidly in numbers,
and were replaced by a tall plant, something like a yucca in
appearance. The surface of the country, on a small scale,
was singularly broken and in-egular ; abrupt little peaks of
rock rising out of small plains or basins. The indented coast
and the bottom of the neighbouring sea, studded with breakers,
would, if converted into dry land, present similar forms ; and
such a conversion without doubt has taken place in the part
over which we rode.

Map 3rd. — Quilimari to Conchalee. The countiy became
more and more barren. In the valleys there was scarcely
sufficient water for any irrigation ; and the intermediate land
was quite bare, not supporting even goats. In the spring,
after the winter showers, a thin pasture rapidly springs up,
and cattle are then driven down fi’om the Cordillera to graze
for a short time. It is curious to obsei-ve how the seeds of
the grass and other ]>lants seem to accommodate themselves,
as if by an acquired habit, to the quantity of rain which falls
on different parts of this coast. One shower far northward at
Copiapo produces as great an effect on the vegetation as two

NORTHERN CHILE

343

at Guasco and as three or four in this district. At Valparaiso
a winter so dry as greatly to injure the pasture would at
Guasco produce the most unusual abundance. Proceeding
northward, the quantity of rain does not appear to decrease
in strict proportion to the latitude. At Conchalee, which is
only 67 miles north of Valparaiso, rain is not expected till the
end of May ; whereas, at Valparaiso some generally falls early
in April : the annual quantity is likewise small in proj)ortion
to the lateness of the season at which it commences.

May 4//i. — Finding the coast-road devoid of interest of any
kind, we turned inland towards the mining district and valley of
Illapel. This valley, like every other in Chile, is level, broad,
and very fertile : it is bordered on each side, either by cliffs of
stratified shingle or by bare rocky mountains. Above the
straight line of the uppermost irrigating ditch, all is brown as
on a highroad ; while all below is of as bright a green as verdi-
gris, from the beds of alfarfa, a kind of clover. We proceeded
to Los Hornos, another mining district, where the principal
hill was drilled ■with holes, like a great ants’ nest. The
Chilian miners are a peculiar race of men in their habits.
Living for weeks together in the most desolate spots, when
they descend to the villages on feast-days there is no excess
or extravagance into which they do not run. They sometimes
gain a considerable sum, and then, like sailors with prize-
money, they try how soon they can contrive to squander it.
They drink excessively, buy quantities of clothes, and in a few
days return penniless to their miserable abodes, there to work
harder than beasts of burden. This thoughtlessness, as with
sailors, is evidently the result of a similar manner of life.
Their daily food is found them, and they acquire no habits of
carefulness ; moreover, temptation and the means of yielding
to it are placed in their power at the same time. On the
other hand, in Cornwall, and some other parts of England,
where the system of selling j^art of the vein is followed, the
miners, from being obliged to act and think for themselves,
are a singularly intelligent and w'ell-conducted set of men.

The dress of the Chilian miner is pecidiar and rather pic-
turesque. He wears a very long shirt of some dark-coloured
baize, with a leathern apron ; the whole being fastened round
his waist by a bright-coloured sash. His trousers are very
broad, and his small cap of scarlet cloth is made to fit the

3i4>

NORTHERN CHILE

head closely. We met a party of these miners in full costume,
carrying the body of one of their companions to be buried.
They marched at a very quick trot, four men supporting the
corpse. One set having run as hard as they could for about
two hundred yards, were relieved by four others, who had
previously dashed on ahead on horseback. Thus they pro-
ceeded, encouraging each other by wild cries : altogether the
scene formed a most strange funeral.

We continued travelling northward in a zig-zag line ;
sometimes stopping a day to geologise. The country was
so thinly inhabited, and the track so obscure, that we often
had difficulty in finding our way. On the 12th I stayed at
some mines. The ore in this case was not considered par-
ticularly good, but, from being abundant, it was supposed the
mine would sell for about thirty or forty thousand dollars
(that is, 6000 or 8000 pounds sterling) ; yet it had been
bought by one of the English Associations for an ounce of
gold (£3, 8s.). The ore is yellow pyrites, which, as I have
already remarked, before the arrival of the English, was not
supposed to contain a particle of copper. On a scale of
profits nearly as great as in the above instance, piles of
cinders, abounding with minute globules of metallic copper,
were purchased ; yet with these advantages the mining asso-
ciations, as is well known, contrived to lose immense sums
of money. The folly of the greater number of the com-
missioners and shareholders amounted to infatuation ; — a
thousand pounds per annum given in some cases to entertain
the Chilian authorities ; libraries of well - bound geological
books ; miners brought out for particular metals, as tin, which
are not found in Chile ; contracts to supply the miners with
milk in parts where there are no cows ; machinery, where it
could not possibly be used, and a hundred similar arrange-
ments, bore witness to our absurdity, and to this day afford
amusement to the natives. Yet there can be no doubt that
the same capital well employed in these mines would have
yielded an immense return : a confidential man of business, a
practical miner and assayer, would have been all that was
required.

Captain Head has described the wonderful load wliich the
Apires,” truly beasts of burden, carry up from the deepest
mines. I confess I thought the account exaggerated; so that

NORTHERN CHILE

345

1 was glad to take an opportunity of weighing one of the
loads, which I picked out by hazard. It required considerable
exertion on my part, when standing directly over it, to lift it
from the ground. The load M'as considered under weight
M-hen found to be 197 pounds. The apire had carried this
up eighty perpendicular yards, — part of the way by a steep
passage, but the greater part up notched poles, placed in a
zigzag line up the shaft. According to the general regulation
the apire is not allowed to halt for breath, except the mine is
six hundred feet deep. The average load is considered as
rather more than 200 pounds, and I have been assured that
one of 300 pounds (twenty-two stone and a-half) by way of a
trial has been brought up from the deepest mine ! At this
time the apires were bringing up the usual load twelve times
in the day — that is, 2400 pounds from eighty yards deep; and
they wei’e employed in the intervals in breaking and picking ore.

These men, excepting from accidents, are healthy, and
appear cheerful. Their bodies are not veiy muscular. They
rarely eat meat once a week, and never oftener, and then
only the hard dry charqui. Although with a knowledge that
the labour was voluntary, it was nevertheless quite revolting
to see the state in which they reached the mouth of the mine ;
their bodies bent forward, leaning with their arms on the
steps, their legs bow'ed, their muscles quivering, the perspira-
tion streaming from their faces over their breasts, their nostrils
distended, the corners of their mouth forcibly drawn back, and
the expulsion of their breath most laborious. Each time they
draw their breath they utter an articulate cry of “ Ay, ay,”
which ends in a sound rising from deep in the chest, but
shrill like the note of a fife. After staggering to the pile of
ore, they emptied the “ carpacho ” ; in two or three seconds
recovering their breath, they wdperl the sweat from their
brow's, and apparently quite fresh descended the mine again
at a quick pace. This appears to me a wondeiTul instance of
the amount of labour which habit, for it can be nothing else,
will enable a man to endure.

In the evening, talking with the major-domo of these mines
about the number of foreigners now scattered over the whole
country, he told me that, though quite a young man, he
remembers, when he was a boy at school at Coquimbo, a
holiday being given to see the captain of an English ship.

346

COQUIMBO

who was brought to the city to speak to the governor. He
believes that nothing would have induced any boy in the
school, himself included, to have gone close to the English-
man ; so deeply had they been impressed with an idea of the
heresy, contamination, and evil to be derived from contact
with such a person. To this day they relate the atrocious
actions of the buccaneers ; and especially of one man, who
took away the figure of the Virgin Mary, and returned the
year after for that of St Joseph, saying it was a pity the
lady should not have a husband. I heard also of an old
lady who, at a dinner in Coquimbo, remarked how wonder-
fully strange it was that she should have lived to dine in
the same room with an Englishman ; for she remembered
as a girl, that twice, at the mere cry of “ Los Ingleses,”
every soul, carrying what valuables they could, had taken
to the mountains.

May \Mh. — We reached Coquimbo, where we stayed a few
days. The town is remarkable for nothing but its extreme
quietness. It is said to contain from 6000 to 8000 inhabit-
ants. On the morning of the 17th it rained lightly, the first
time this year, for about five hours. The farmers, who plant
corn near the sea-coast, where the atmosphere is more humid,
taking advantage of this shower, would break up the ground ;
after a second they would put the seed in ; and if a third
shower should fall, they would reap a good harvest in the
spring. It was interesting to v'^atch the effect of this trifling
amount of moisture. Twelve hours afterwards the ground
appeared as dry as ever ; yet after an interval of ten days, all
the hills were faintly tinged with green patches ; the grass
being sparingly scattered in hair-like fibres a fidl inch in
length. Before this shower every part of the surface was
bare as on a high road.

In the evening Captain Fitz Roy and myself were dining
with Mr Edwards, an English resident well knovm for his
hospitality by all who have visited Coquimbo, when a sharp
earthquake happened. I heard the forecoming rumble, but
from the screams of the ladies, the running of the servants,
and the rush of several of the gentlemen to the doorway, I
could not distinguish the motion. Some of the women after-
wards were crying with teiTor, and one gentleman said he
should not be able to sleep all night, or if he did, it would

COQUIMBO

31.7

only be to dream of falling houses. The father of this person
had lately lost all his property at Talcahuano, and he himself
had only just escaped a falling roof at Valparaiso in 1822.
He mentioned a curious coincidence which then happened ;
he was pla}ing at cards, when a German, one of the party, got
up, and said he would never sit in a room in these countries
with the door shut, as, owing to his having done so, he had
nearly lost his life at Copiapd. Accordingly he opened the
door ; and no sooner had he done this than he cried out,
“ Here it comes again ! ” and the famous shock commenced.
The whole party escaped. The danger in an earthquake is
not from the time lost in opening a door, but from the chance
of its becoming jammed by the movement of the walls.

It is impossible to be much surprised at the fear which
natives and old residents, though some of them known to be
be men of great command of mind, so generally experience
during earthquakes. I think, however, this excess of panic
may be j)artly attributed to a M^ant of habit in governing their
fear, as it is not a feeling they are ashamed of. Indeed, the
natives do not like to see a person indiffei-ent. I heard of
two Englishmen who, sleeping in the open air during a smart
shock, knowing that there was no danger, did not rise. The
natives cried out indignantly, “ Look at those heretics, they
will not even get out of their beds ! ”

I spent some days in examining the step-formed terraces of
shingle, first noticed by Captain B. Hall, and believed by Mr
Lyell to have been formed by the sea during the gradual
rising of the land. This certainly is the true explanation, for
I found numerous shells of existing species on these terraces.
Five narrow, gently-sloping, fringe-like terraces rise one be-
hind the other, and where best developed are foraaed of
shingle : they front the bay, and sweep up both sides of the
valley. At Guasco, north of Coquimbo, the phenomenon is
displayed on a much grander scale, so as to strike with
surprise even some of the inhabitants. The terraces are
there much broader, and may be called plains ; in some parts
there are six of them, but generally only five ; they run up
the valley for thirty-seven miles from the coast. These step-
formed terraces or fringes closely resemble those in the valley
of Santa Cruz, and, except in being on a smaller scale, those

348

COQUIMBO

great ones along the whole coast-line of Patagonia. They
have undoubtedly been formed by the denuding power of
the sea, during long periods of rest in the gradual elevation
of the continent.

Shells of many existing species not only lie on the surface
of the terraces at Coquimbo (to a height of 250 feet), but are
embedded in a friable calcareous rock, which in some places
is as much as between twenty and thirty feet in thickness,
but is of little extent. These modern beds rest on an ancient
tertiary formation containing shells, ajiparently all extinct.
Although I examined so many hundred miles of coast on the
Pacific, as well as Atlantic side of the continent, I found no
regular strata containing sea-shells of recent species, excepting
at this place, and at a few points northward on the road to
Guasco. This fact appears to me highly remarkable ; for the
explanation generally given by geologists of the absence in
any district of stratified fossiliferous deposits of a given
period — namely, tli^t the surface then existed as dry land — is
not here applicable ; for we know from the shells strewed on
the surface and embedded in loose sand or mould, that the
land for thousands of miles along both coasts has lately been
submerged. The explanation, no doubt, must be sought in
the fact that the whole southern part of the continent has been
for a long time slowly rising ; and therefore that all matter
deposited along shore in shallow water must have been soon
brought up and slowly exposed to the wearing action of the
sea-beach ; and it is only in comparatively shallow water that
the greater number of marine organic beings can flourish, and
in such water it is obviously impossible that strata of any great
thickness can accumulate. To show the vast power of the
wearing action of sea-beaches, we need only appeal to the
great cliffs along the present coast of Patagonia, and to the
escarpments or ancient sea-cliffs at different levels, one above
another, on that same line of coast.

The old underlying tertiary formation at Coquimbo appears
to be of about the same age "with several deposits on the coast
of Chile (of which that of Navedad is tlie principal one), and
with the great formation of Patagonia. Both at Navedad and
at Patagonia there is evidence that since the shells (a list of
which has been seen by Professor E. Forbes) there entombed
were living, there has been a subsidence of several hundred

COQUIMBO

349

feet, as well as an ensuing elevation. It may naturally be asked
how it comes that although no extensive fossiliferous deposits
of the recent period, nor of any period intermediate between it
and the ancient tertiary epoch, have been preserved on either
side of the continent, yet that at this ancient tertiary epoch
sedimentary matter, containing fossil remains, should have been
deposited and preserved at diiferent points in north and south
lines, over a space of 1100 miles on the shores of the Pacific,
and of at least 1350 miles on the shores of the Atlantic, and
in an east and west line of 700 miles across the widest part of
the continent I believe the explanation is not difficult, and
that it is perhaps applicable to nearly analogous facts observed
in other quarters of the world. Considering the enormous
power of denudation which the sea possesses, as shown by
numberless facts, it is not probable that a sedimentary de-
posit, when being upraised, could pass through the ordeal of
the beach, so as to be preserved in sufficient masses to last to
a distant period, without it were originally of wide extent and
of considerable thickness ; now it is impossible on a moder-
ately shallow bottom, which alone is favourable to most living
creatures, that- a thick and widely extended covering of sedi-
ment could be spread out, without the bottom sank down to
receive the successive layers. This seems to have actually
taken place at about the same period in Southern Patagonia
and Chile, though these places are a thousand miles apart.
Hence, if prolonged movements of approximately contempor-
aneous subsidence are generally widely extensive, as I am
strongly inclined to believe from my examination of the
Coral Reefs of the great oceans — or if, confining our view to
South America, the subsiding movements have been co-exten-
sive with those of elevation, by which, within the same period
of existing shells, the shores of Peru, Chile, Tierra del Fuego,
Patagonia, and La Plata have been upraised — then we can
see that at the same time, at far distant points, circumstances
would have been favourable to the formation of fossiliferous
deposits of wide extent and of considerable thickness ; and
such deposits, consequently, would have a good chance of
resisting the w'ear and tear of successive beach-lines, and of
lasting to a future epoch.

May 2\st. — I set out in company wnth Don Jose Edwards

S50

NORTHERN CHILE

to the silver-mine of Arqueros, and thence up the valley of Co-
quimbo. Passing through a mountainous country, we reached
by nightfall the mines belonging to Mr Edwards. I enjoyed
my night’s rest here from a reason which will not be fully
appreciated in England — namely, the absence of fleas ! The
rooms in Coquimbo swarm with them ; but they will not live
here at the height of only three or four thousand feet : it can
scarcely be the trifling diminution of temperature, but some
other cause which destroys these troublesome insects at this
place. The mines are now in a bad state, though they formerly
yielded about 2000 pounds in weight of silver a year. It has
been said that “ a person with a copper-mine will gain ; with
silver, he may gain ; but with gold, he is sure to lose.” This
is not true : all the large Chilian fortunes have been made by
mines of the more precious metals. A short time since an
English physician returned to England from Copiap6, taking
with him the profits of one share in a silver mine, which
amounted to about 24,000 pounds sterling. No doubt a
copper-mine with care is a sure game, whereas the other is
gambling, or rather taking a ticket in a lottery. The owners
lose great quantities of rich ore ; for no precautions can pre-
vent robberies. I heard of a gentleman laying a bet with
another, that one of his men should rob him before his face.
The ore when brought out of the mine is broken into pieces,
and the useless stone thrown on one side. A couple of the
miners who were thus emjdoyed, pitched, as if by accident,
two fragments away at the same moment, and then cried out
for a joke, “ Let us see which rolls farthest.” The owner,
who was standing by, bet a cigar with his friend on the race.
The miner by this means watched the very point amongst the
rubbish where the stone lay. In the evening he picked it up
and cari'ied it to his master, showing him a rich mass of silver-
ore, and saying, “ This was the stone on which you won a
cigar by its rolling so far.”

May 23rd. — We descended into the fertile valley of
Coquimbo, and followed it till we reached an Hacienda be-
longing to a relation of Don Jose, where we stayed the next
day. I then rode one day’s journey farther, to see what were
declared to be some petrified shells and beans, which latter
turned out to be small quartz pebbles. We passed through
several small villages ; and the valley was beautifully cultivated.

VALLEY OF GUASCO

351

and the wliole scenery very jrrand. We were here near the main
Cordillera, and the surrounding hills were lofty. In all parts
of northern Chile, fruit-trees produce much more abundantly
at a considerable height near the Andes tlian in the lower
country. The figs and grapes of this district are famous for
their excellence, and are cultivated to a great extent. This
valley is, perhaps, the most productive one north of Quillota :
I believe it contains, including Coquimbo, 25,000 inhabitants.
The next day I returned to the Hacienda, and thence, together
with Don Jose, to Coquimbo.

June 27id. — We set out for the valley of Guasco, following
the coast-road, which was considered rather less desert than
the other. Our first day’s ride was to a solitary house called
Yerba Buena, where there was pasture for our horses. The
show^er mentioned as having fallen a fortnight ago only
reached about half-way to Guasco ; w^e had, therefore, in
the first part of our journey a most faint tinge of green,
which soon faded quite away. Even where brightest, it
was scarcely sufficient to remind one of the fresh turf and
budding flowers of the spring of other countries. While
travelling through these deserts one feels like a prisoner
shut up in a gloomy court, who longs to see something
green and to smell a moist atmosphere.

June 3rd. — Yerba Buena to Carizal. During the first part
of the day we crossed a mountainous rocky desert, and after-
wards a long deep sandy plain, strewed with broken sea-
shells. There was very little water, and that little saline ,
the whole country, from the coast to the Cordillera, is an
uninhabited desert. I saw traces only of one living animal
in abundance — namely, the shells of a Bulimus, which were
collected together in extraordinary numbers on the driest
spots. In the spring one humble little plant sends out a
few leaves, and on these the snails feed. As they are seen
only very early in the morning, when the ground is slightly
damp w'ith dew, the Guascos believe that they are bred from
it. I have observed in other places that extremely dry and
sterile districts, where the soil is calcareous, are extraordin-
arily favourable to land-shells. At Carizal there were a few
cottages, some brackish water, and a trace of cultivation ;
but it was with difficulty that we purchased a little com and
straw for our horses.

352

VALLEY OF GUASCO

June 4‘lh. — Carizal to Sauce. We continued to ride over
desert plains, tenanted by large herds of guanaco. We
crossed also the valley of Chaneral ; which, although the
most fertile one between Guasco and Coquimbo, is very
narrow, and produces so little pasture that we could not
purchase any for our horses. At Sauce we found a very civil
old gentleman superintending a copper-smelting furnace. As
an especial favour, he allowed me to purchase at a high price
an armful of dirty straw, which was all the poor horees had
for supper after their long day’s journey. Few smelting-
furnaces are now at work in any part of Chile ; it is found
more profitable, on account of the extreme scarcity of fire-
wood, and from the Chilian method of reduction being so
unskilful, to ship the ore for Sw'ansea. The next day we
crossed some mountains to Freyrina, in the valley of Guasco.
During each day’s ride farther northward the vegetation
became more and more scanty ; even the great chandelier-
like cactus was here replaced by a different and much smaller
species. During the winter months, both in Northern Chile
and in Peru, a uniform bank of clouds hangs, at no great
height, over the Pacific. From the mountains we had a very
striking view of this white and brilliant aerial-field, w'hich
sent arms up the valleys, leaving islands and promontories
in the same manner as the sea does in the Chonos Archi-
pelago and in Tierra del Fuego.

We stayed two days at Freyrina. In the valley of Guasco
there are four small towms. At the mouth there is the port,
a spot entirely desert, and without any water in the imme-
diate neighbourhood. Five leagues higher up stands Freyrina,
a long straggling village, with decent w'hite-w'ashed houses.
Again, ten leagues farther up Ballenar is situated ; and above
this Guasco Alto, a horticultural village, famous for its dried
fruit. On a clear day the view up the valley is very fine ;
the straight opening terminates in the far-distant snowy
Cordillera ; on each side an infinity of crossing lines are
blended together in a beautiful haze. The foreground is
singular from the number of parallel and step-formed teiTaces;
and the included strip of green valley, with its willow-bushes,
is contrasted on both hands with the naked hills. That the
surrounding country was most barren will be readily believed,
w'hen it is known that a shower of rain had not fallen during

VALLEY OF GUASCO

35S

tlie last thirteen months. The inhabitants heard with the
greatest envy of tlie I’ain at Coquimbo ; from the appearance
of the skj' they had hopes of equally good fortune, which, a
fortnight afterwards, were realised. I was at Copiapb at the
time ; and there the people, with equal envy, talked of the
abundant rain at Guasco. After two or three very dry years,
perhaps with not more than one shower during the whole
time, a rainy year generally follows ; and this does more harm
than even the drought. The rivers swell, and cover with
gravel and sand the narrow strips of ground which alone are
fit for cultivation. The floods also injure the irrigating
ditches. Great devastation had thus been caused three years
ago.

June 8th. — We rode on to Ballenar, which takes its name
from Ballenagh in Ireland, the birthplace of the family of
O’Higgins, who, under the Spanish govei-nment, were presi-
dents and generals in Chile. As the rocky mountains on each
hand ■were concealed by clouds, the terrace-like plains gave to
the valley an appearance like that of Santa Cruz in Patagonia.
After S2jending one day at Ballenar, I set out, on the 10th,
for the vqjjier part of the valley of Copiapo. We rode all day
over an uninteresting country. I am tired of repeating the
epithets barren and sterile. These words, however, as
commonly used, are comparative ; I have always applied them
to the jjiains of Patagonia, which can boast of spiny bushes
and some tufts of grass ; and this is absolute fertility, as
compared with Northern Chile. Here again, there are not
many spaces of tw'o hundred yards square where some little
bush, cactus, or lichen, may not be discovered by careful
examination ; and in the soil seeds lie dormant ready to sjiring
up during the first rainy winter. In Peru real deserts occur
over wide tracts of country. In the evening we arrived at a
valley, in which the bed of the streamlet was damj^ : following
it up, w'e came to tolerably good water. During the night,
the stream, from not being evaporated and absorbed so
quickly, flows a league lower down than during the day.
Sticks were jflentiful for firewood, so that it -was a good place
of bivouac for us ; but for the poor animals there was not a
mouthful to eat.

Jufie llfk. — We rode without stojjping for twelve houm,
till we reached an old smelting-furnace, where there ■was

z

354.

NORTHERN CHILE

water and firewood ; but our horses again had notliing to eat,
being shut up in an old courtyard. The line or road was hilly,
and the distant views interesting from the varied colours of
the bare mountains. It was almost a pity to see the sun
shining constantly over so useless a country ; such splendid
weather ought to have brightened fields and pretty gardens.
The next day we reached the valley of Copiap6. I was
heartily glad of it ; for the whole journey was a continued
source of anxiety : it was most disagreeable to hear, whilst
eating our own supperis, our horses gnawing the posts to which
they were tied, and to have no means of relieving their hunger.
To all appearance, however, the animals were quite fresh ;
and no one could have told that they had eaten nothing for
the last fifty-five hours.

I had a letter of introduction to Mr Bingley, who received
me very kindly at the Hacienda of Potrero Seco. This estate
is between twenty and thirty miles long, but very narrow,
being generally only two fields wide, one on each side of the
river. In some parts the estate is of no width — that is to say,
the land cannot be irrigated, and therefore is valueless, like
the surrounding rocky desert. The small quantity of culti-
vated land in the whole line of valley does not so much
depend on inequalities of level, and consequent unfitness for
irrigation, as on the small supply of water. The river this
year was remarkably full : here, high up the valley, it reached
to the horse’s belly, and was about fifteen yards wide, and
rapid ; lower down it becomes smaller and smaller, and is
generally quite lost, as haj)pened during one period of thirty
yeans, so that not a drop entered the sea. The inhabitants
watch a storm over the Cordillera with great interest ; as one
good fall of snow provides them with water for the ensuing
year. This is of infinitely more consequence than rain in the
lov/er country. Rain, as often as it falls, which is about once
in every two or three years, is a great adv^antage, because the
cattle and mules can for some time afterwards find a little
pasture on the mountains. But without snow on the Andes,
desolation extends throughout the valley. It is on record
that three times nearly all the inhabitants have been obliged
to emigrate to the south. This year there was plenty of
water, and every man irrigated his ground as much as he
chose ; but it has frequently been necessary to jx>st soldiers at

NORTHERN CHILE

855

the sluices, to see that eacli estate took only its projjer
allowance during so many liours in the Aveek. The valley is
said to contain 12,000 souls, but its produce is sufficient only
for three months in the year : the rest of the sujiply being
drawn from Valparaiso and the south. Before the discovery
of the famous silver mines of Chanuncillo, Copiapb was in a
rapid state of decay ; but now it is in a very thriving con-
dition ; and the town, which was completely overthrown by
an earthquake, has been rebuilt.

The valley of Copiapb, fonning a mere ribbon of green in
a desert, runs in a very southerly direction ; so that it is of
considerable lengtli to its source in the Cordillera. The
valleys of Guasco and Copiapo may both be considered as long
narrow islands, se})arated from the rest of Chile by deserts of
rock instead of by salt water. Northward of these, there is
one other very miserable valley, called Paposo, which contains
about two hundred souls ; and then there extends the real
desert of Atacama — a barrier far worse than the most turbu-
lent ocean. After staying a few days at Potrero Seco, I
proceeded up the valley to the house of Don Benito Cruz, to
whom I had a letter of introduction. I found him most
hospitable ; indeed, it is impossible to bear too strong
testimony to the kindness with which ti’avellers are received
in almost every part of South America. The next day I hired
some mules to take me by the ravine of Jolquera into the
central Cordillera. On the second night the weather seemed
to foretell a storm of siioav or rain, and whilst lying in om’
beds we felt a trifling shock of an earthquake.

The connection between earthquakes and the weather
has been often disputed ; it appears to me to be a point of
great interest, which is little understood. Humboldt has
remarked in one part of the Personal Narrative* that it would
be difficult for any person who had long resided in New
Andalusia, or in Lower Peru, to deny that there exists some
connection between these jjhenomena ; in another part,

* Vol. iv. p. 1 1, and vol. ii. p. 217. For the remarks on Guayaquil, see
Silliman’s Journal, vol. xxiv. p. 384. For those on Tacna, by Mr Hamil-
ton, see Transactions of British Association, 1840. For those on Coseguina,
see Mr Caldcleugh in Philosophical Transactions, 1835. In the former
edition I collected several references on the coincidences between sudden
falls in the barometer and earthquakes ; and between earthquakes and
meteors.

356

NORTHERN CHILE

however, he seems to think the connection fanciful. At
Guayaquil, it is said that a heavy shower in the diy season is
invariably followed by an eai-thquake. In Northern Chile,
from the extreme infrequency of rain, or even of weather
foreboding rain, the probability of accidental coincidences
becomes very small ; yet the inhabitants are here most firmly
convinced of some connection between the state of the
atmosphere and of the trembling of the ground. I was much
struck by this, when mentioning to some people at Copiapd
that there had been a sharp shock at Coquimbo : they
immediately cried out, “ How foidunate ! there will be plenty
of pasture there this year.” To their minds an earthquake
foretold rain, as surely as rain foretold abundant pasture.
Certainly it did so happen that on the very day of the earth-
quake that shower of rain fell which I have described as in
ten days’ time producing a thin sprinkling of grass. At other
times, rain has followed earthquakes, at the period of the year
when it is a far greater prodigy than the earthquake itself :
this happened after the shock of November 1822, and again
in 1829, at Valparaiso; also after that of September 1833, at
Tacna. A person must be somewhat habituated to the climate
of these countries to perceive the extreme improbability of
rain falling at such seasons, except as a consequence of some
law quite unconnected with the ordinary course of the
weather. In the cases of great volcanic eruptions, as that of
Coseguina, where torrents of rain fell at a time of the year
most unusual for it, and '^almost unprecedented in Central
America,” it is not difficult to undei’stand that the volumes of
vapour and clouds of ashes might have disturbed the atmo-
spheric equilibrium. Humboldt extends this view to the case
of earthquakes unaccompanied by eruptions ; but I can hardly
conceive it possible that the small quantity of aeriform fluids
which then escape from the fissiu-ed ground can produce such
remarkable effects. There appears much probability in the
view first proposed by Mr P. Scrope, that when the barometer
is low, and when rain might naturally be expected to fall, the
diminished pressure of the atmosphere over a wide extent of
country might well determine the precise day on which the
earth, already stretched to the utmost by the subterranean
forces, should yield, crack, and consequently tremble. It is,
however, doubtful how far this idea will explain the circum-

NORTHERN CHILE

357

stance of torrents of rain falling in the dry season during
several days after an e^irthquake unaccompanied by an
eruption ; such cases seem to bespeak some more intimate
conneetion between the atmospheric and subterranean
regions.

Finding little of interest in this part of the ravine, we
retraced our steps to the house of Don Benito, where I stayed
two days collecting fossil shells and wood. Great prostrate
silicified trunks of trees, embedded in a conglomerate, were
extraordinarily numerous. I measured one, which was fifteen
feet in circumference : how surprising it is that every atom of
the woody matter in this great cylinder should have been
removed and replaced by silex so perfectly that each vessel
and pore is preserved ! These trees flourished at about the
period of our lower chalk ; they all belonged to the fir-tribe.
It was amusing to hear the inhabitants discussing the nature
of the fossil shells which I collected, almost in the same
terms as were used a century ago in Europe, — namely,
whether or not they had been thus “born by nature.” My
geological examination of the countiy generally created a
good deal of surprise amongst the Chilenos : it was long
before they could be convinced that I was not hunting for
mines. This was sometimes troublesome. I found the most
ready way of explaining my emifioyment was to ask them
how it was that they themselves were not curious concerning
earthquakes and volcanoes ? — why some springs Avere hot and
others cold ? — why there were mountains in Chile, and not a
hill in La Plata ? These bare questions at onee satisfied and
silenced the greater number ; some, however (like a few in
England Avho are a century behindhand), thought that all such
inquiries were useless and impious ; and that it was sufficient
that God had thus made the mountains.

An order had recently been issued that all stray dogs
should be killed, and Ave saw many lying dead on the road.
A great number had lately gone mad, and several men had
been bitten and had died in consequence. On several
occasions hydrophobia has prevailed in this valle)^ It is
remarkable thus to find so strange and dreadful a disease
appearing time after time in the same isolated spot. It has
been remarked that certain villages in England are in like
manner much more subject to this visitation than others. Dr

358

COPIAPO

Unaniie states that hydrophobia was first known in South
America in 1803: this statement is corroborated by Azara
and Ulloa having never heard of it in tlieir time. Dr Unanue
says that it broke out in Central America, and slowly travelled
southward. It reached Arequipa in 1807 ; and it is said that
some men there who had not been bitten wei'e affected, as
were some negroes who had eaten a bullock which had died
of hydrophobia. At Ica forty-two peojjle thus miserably
perished. The disease came on between twelve and ninety
days after the bite ; and in those cases where it did come on
death ensued invariably within five days. After 1808, a long
interval ensued without any cases. On inquiry, I did not
hear of hydrophobia in Van Diemen’s Land, or in Australia ;
and Burchell says that during the five years he Avas at the
Cape of Good Hope he never heard of an instance of it.
Webster asserts that at the Azores hydrophobia has never
occurred ; and the same assertion has been made with respect
to Mauritius and St Helena.* In so strange a disease, some
information might possibly be gained by considering the
circumstances under Avhich it originates in distant climates ;
for it is improbable that a dog already bitten should have
been brought to these distant countries.

At night a stranger arrived at the house of Don Benito,
and asked permission to sleep there. He said he had been
wandering about the mountains for seventeen days, having
lost his way. He started from Guasco, and being accustomed
to travelling in the Cordillera, did not expect any difficulty
in following the track to Copiapb ; but he soon became
involved in a labyrinth of mountains, whence he could not
escape. Some of his mules had fallen over precipices, and
he had been in great distress. His chief difficulty arose from
not knowing where to find water in the lower countiy, so that
he was obliged to keep bordering the central ranges.

We I’eturned down the valley, and on the 22nd reached the
town of Copiap6. The lower part of the valley is broad,
forming a fine plain like that of Quillota. The town covers a
considerable space of ground, each house possessing a garden ;

* Observa. sobre el clima de Lima, p. 67 ; Azara’s Travels, vol. i. p. 381 ;
Ulloa’s Voyage, vol. ii. p. 28 ; Burchell’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 524 ; Webster’s
Description of the Azores, p. 124 ; Voyage a I ’Isle de France par un Officier
dll Roi, tome i. p. 284 ; Description of St Helena, p. 123.

COPIAPO

359

but it is an uncomfortable place, and the dwellings ai-e poorly
furnished. Every one seems bent on the one object of
making money, and then migrating as quickly as possible.
All the inhabitants are more or less directly concerned with
mines ; and mines and ores are the sole subjects of conver-
sation. Necessaries of all sorts are extremely dear : as the
distance from the town to the port is eighteen leagues, and
the land carriage very expensive. A fowl costs five or si.x
shillings ; meat is nearly as dear as in England ; firewood, or
ratlier sticks, ai’e brought on donkeys from a distance of two
and three days’ journey within the Cordillera ; and pasturage
for animals is a shilling a day : all this for South America is
wonderfully exorbitant.

June 26th. — I hired a guide and eight mules to take me
into the Cordillera by a different line from my last excursion.
As the country was utterly desert, we took a cargo and a-half
of barley mixed with chopped straw. About two leagues
above the town, a broad valley called the “ Despoblado,” or
uninhabited, branches off from that one by which we had
arrived. Although a valley of the grandest dimensions, and
leading to a pass across the Cordillera, yet it is completely
dry, excepting perhaps for a few days during some very rainy
winter. The sides of the crumbling mountains were furrowed
by scarcely any ravines ; and the bottom of the main valley,
filled with shingle, was smooth and nearly level. No con-
siderable torrent could ever have flowed down this bed of
shingle ; for if it had, a gi’eat cliff-bounded channel, as in all
the southern valleys, would assui’edly have been formed.
I feel little doubt that this valley, as well as those mentioned
by travellers in Peru, were left in the state w'e now see them
by the waves of the sea, as the land slowly rose. I observed
in one place, where the Despoblado was joined by a ravine
(whicli in almost any other chain would have been called a
grand valley), that its bed, though composed merely of sand
and gravel, was higher than that of its tributary. A mere
rivulet of water, in the course of an hour, would have cut a
channel for itself; but it M^as evident that ages had passed
away and no such rivulet had drained this great tributary.
It was curious to behold the machinery, if such a term may
be used, for the drainage, all, with the last trifling exception.

360

NORTHERN CHILE

perfect, yet without any signs of action. Every one must
have remarked how mud-banks, left by the retiring tide,
imitate in miniature a country with hill and dale ; and here
we have the original model in rock, formed as the continent
rose during the secular retirement of the ocean, instead of
during the ebbing and flowing of the tides. If a shower of
rain falls on the mud-bank, when left dry, it deepens the
already-fonned shallow lines of excavation ; and so it is with
the rain of successive centuries on the bank of rock and soil
which we call a continent.

We rode on after it was dark till we reached a side ravine
with a small well called “ Agua amarga.” The water deseiwed
its name, for besides being saline it was most offensively
putrid and bitter; so that we could not force ourselves to
drink either tea or mate. I suppose the distance from the
river of Copiapb to this spot was at least twenty-five or thirty
English miles : in the whole space there was not a single drop
of water, the country deserving the name of desert in the
strictest sense. Yet about half-way we passed some old
Indian ruins near Punta Gorda. I noticed also in front of
some of the valleys which branch off’ from the Despoblado
two piles of stones placed a little way apart, and directed so
as to point up the mouths of these small valleys. My com-
panions knew nothing about them, and only answered my
queries by their imiierturbable “ Quien sabe ? ”

I observed Indian ruins in several parts of the Cordillera :
the most perfect which I saw were the Ruinas de Tambillos,
in the Uspallata Pass. Small square rooms were there
huddled together in separate groups ; some of the door-
ways were yet standing ; they were formed by a cross slab
of stone only about three feet high. Ulloa has remarked on
the lowness of the doors in the ancient Peruvian dwellings.
These houses, when perfect, must have been capable of
containing a considerable number of persons. Tradition
says that they were used as halting-places for the Incas,
when they crossed the mountains. Traces of Indian habi-
tations have been discovered in many other parts, where
it does not appear probable that they were used as mere
resting-places, but yet where the land is as utterly unfit for
any kind of cultivation as it is near the Tambillos or at the
Incas Bridge, or in the Portillo Pass, at all Avhich places I saw

NORTHERN CHILE

361

mins. In the ravine of Jajuel, near Aconcagua, where tliere
is no pass, I heard of remains of houses situated at a great
height, where it is extremely cold and sterile. At first I
imagined that these buildings had been places of refuge,
built by the Indians on the first arrival of the Spaniards ;
but I have since been inclined to speculate on the probability
of a small change of climate.

In this northern part of Chile, within the Cordillera, old
Indian houses are s;iid to be specially numerous ; by digging
amongst the mins, bits of woollen articles, instruments of
precious metals, and heads of Indian corn are not unfre-
quently discovered : an arrow-head made of agate, and of
precisely the same form with those now used in Tierra del
Fuego, was given me. I am aware that the Peruvian Indians
now frequently inhabit most lofty and bleak situations ; but
at Copiapd I was assured by men who had spent their lives
in travelling through the Andes, that there were very many
{int(ch 'mmai) buildings at heights so great as almost to border
on the perpetual snow, and in ])arts where there exist
no passes, and where the land produces absolutely nothing,
and what is still more extraordinary, where there is no water.
Nevertheless, it is the opinion of the people of the country
(although they are much puzzled by the circumstance)
that, from the appearance of the houses, the Indians must
have used them as places of residence. In this valley at
Punta Gorda the remains consisted of seven or eight square
little rooms, which were of a similar form with those at
Tambillos, but built chiefly of mud, which the present inhab-
itants cannot, either here or, according to Ulloa, in Peru,
imitate in durability. They were situated in the most con-
spicuous and defenceless position, at the bottom of the
flat broad valley. There was no water nearer than three
or four leagues, and that only in very small quantity,
and bad ; the soil was absolutely sterile ; I looked in vain
even for a lichen adhering to the rocks. At the present
day, with the advantage of beasts of burden, a mine, unless it
were verj' rich, could scarcely be worked here with profit.
Yet the Indians formerly chose it as a place of residence!
If at the present time two or three showers of ram were
to fall annually, instead of one, as now is the case, during
as many years, a small rill of water would probably be formed

362

PROBABLE CHANGE OF CLIMATE

in this great valley ; and then, by irrigation (which was
formerly so well understood by the Indians), the soil would
easily be rendered suHiciently productive to support a few
families.

I have convincing j)roofs that this part of the continent
of South America has been elevated near the coast at least
from 400 to 500, and in some parts from 1000 to 1300
feet, since the epoch of existing shells ; and farther inland
the rise possibly may have been greater. As the peculiarly
arid character of the climate is evidently a consequence of
the height of the Cordillera, we may feel almost sure that
before the later elevations the atmosphere could not have
been so completely drained of its moisture as it now is ;
and as the rise has been gradual, so w'ould have been the
change in climate. On this notion of a change of climate
since the buildings were inhabited, the ruins must be of
extreme antiquity, but I do not think their preservation
under the Chilian climate any great difficulty. We must
also admit on this notion (and this perhaps is a greater
difficulty), that man has inhabited South America for an
immensely long period, inasmuch as any change of climate
effected by the elevation of the land must have been
extremely gradual. At Valparaiso, within the last two
hundred and twenty years, the rise has been somewhat
less than nineteen feet : at Lima a sea-beach has certainly
been upheaved from eighty to ninety feet within the
Indo-human period : but such small elevations could have
had little power in deflecting the moisture-bringing atmo-
spheric currents. Dr Lund, however, found human skeletons
in the caves of Brazil, the ajj^iearance of which induced him
to believe that the Indian race has existed during a vast lapse
of time in South America.

When at Lima, I conversed on these subjects * with Mr Gill,
a civil engineer, who had seen much of the interior country.
He told me that a conjecture of a change of climate had

* Temple, in his travels through Upper Peru, or Bolivia, in going irom
Potosi to Oruro, says : “I saw many Indian villages or dwellings in ruins,
up even to the very tops of the mountains, attesting a former population
where now all is desolate.” lie makes similar remarks in another place ;
but I cannot tell whether this desolation has been caused by a want of
population, or by an altered condition of the land.

PROBABLE CHANGE OF CLIMATE 368

sometimes crossed his mind ; but that he thoufi;ht tliat the
greater j)ortion of land now incapable of cultivation, but
covered with Indian ruins, had been reduced to this state by
the water-conduits, which the Indians formerly constructed
on so wonderful a scale, having been injured by neglect and
by subterranean movements. I may here mention that the
Peruvians actually carried their irrigating streams in tunnels
through hills of solid rock. Mr Gill told me he had been
employed professionally to examine one ; he found the passage
low, narroAv, crooked, and not of uniform breadth, but of very
considerable length. Is it not most wonderful that men
should have attempted such operations without the use of
iron or gunpow'der '? Mr Gill also mentioned to me a most
interesting and, as far as I am aware, quite unj)aralleled case, of
a subterranean disturbance having changed the drainage of a
countiy. Travelling from Casma to Huaraz (not very far
distant from Lima), he found a plain covered with ruins and
marks of ancient cultivation, but now quite barren. Near it
was the dry course of a considerable river, whence the water
for irrigation had formerly been conducted. There was
nothing in the appearance of the watercourse to indicate
that the river had not flowed there a few years pi-eviously ; in
some pfirts, beds of sand and gravel were spread out ; in
others, the solid rock had been worn into a broad channel,
which in one spot was about forty yards in breadth and
eight feet deep. It is self-evident that a person following
up the course of a stream will always ascend at a greater
or less inclination : Mr Gill, therefore, was much astonished,
when walking up the bed of this ancient river, to find
himself suddenly going down hill. He imagined that the
downward slope had a fall of about forty or fifty feet per-
pendicular. We here have unequivocal evidence that a
ridge had been uplifted right aci-oss the old bed of a
stream. From the moment the river - course was thus
arched, the water must necessarily have been thrown back,
and a new channel formed. From that moment, also, the
neighbouring plain must have lost its fci*tilising stream, and
become a desert.

June 27th. — We set out early in the morning, and by
midday reached the ravine of Paypote, where there is a

364

COLD GALES OF WIND

tiny rill of water, with little vegetation, and even a few
algarroba trees, a kind of mimosa. From having firewood,
a smelting - furnace had formerly been built here : we
found a solitai-y man in charge of it, whose sole employ-
ment was hunting guanacos. At night it froze sharjily ;
but having plenty of wood for our fire, we kept ourselves
warm.

June 28th. — We continued gradually ascending, and the
valley now changed into a ravine. During the day we saw
several guanacos, and tlie track of the closely-allied species,
the vicuna : this latter animal is pre-eminently Alpine in its
habits ; it seldom descends much below the limit of perpetual
snow, and therefore haunts even a more lofty and sterile
situation than the guanaco. The only other animal which we
saw in any number was a small fox : I suppose this animal
preys on the mice and other small rodents, which, as long as
there is the least vegetation, subsist in considerable numbers
in very desert places. In Patagonia, even on the borders of
the salinas, where a drop of fresh water can never be found,
excepting dew, these little animals swarm. Next to lizards,
mice appear to be able to support existence on the smallest
and driest portions of the earth, — even on islets in the midst
of great oceans.

The scene on all sides showed desolation, brightened and
made palpable by a clear, unclouded sky. For a time such
scenery is sublime, but this feeling cannot last, and tlien it
becomes uninteresting. We bivouacked at the foot of the
^'primera linea,” or the first line of the partition of the
waters. The streams, however, on the east side do not
flow to the Atlantic, but into an elevated district, in the
middle of which there is a large salina, or salt lake : thus
forming a little Caspian Sea at the height, perhajis, of ten
thousand feet. Where we slept, there were some consider-
able patches of snow, but they do not remain through the
year. The winds in these lofty regions obey very regular
laws : every day a fresh breeze blows up the valley, and at
night, an hour or two after sunset, the air from the cold
regions above descends as through a funnel. This night
it blew a gale of wind, and the temperature must have
been considerably below the freezing-point, for water in a
vessel soon became a block of ice. No clothes seemed to

COLD (LVLES OF WIND

S65

oppose any obstacle to the air ; I suffered very nmcli from the
cold, so that I could not sleep, and in the mornijig rose with
my body quite dull and benumbed.

In the Cordillera farther southwai’d, people lose their lives
from snowstorms ; here, it sometimes happens from another
cause. My guide, when a boy of fourteen years old, was
passing the Cordillei'a with a party in the month of May ;
and while in the central parts, a furious gale of wdnd arose, so
that the men could hardly cling on their mules, and stones
were flying along the ground. The day was cloudless, and
not a speck of snow fell, but the temperature was low. It is
probable that the thermometer would not have stood very
many degrees below the freezing-point, but the effect on
their bodies, ill-protected by clothing, must have been in
proportion to the rapidity of the current of cold air. The
gale lasted for more than a day ; the men began to lose their
strength, and the mules would not move onwards. My
guide’s brother tried to return, but he perished, and his body
was found two years afterwards, lying by the side of his mule
near the road, with the bridle still in his hand. Two other
men in the party lost their fingers and toes ; and out of two
hundred mules and thirty cows, only fourteen mules escaped
alive. Many years ago the whole of a large party are
supposed to have perished from a similar cause, but their
bodies to this day have never been discovered. The union of
a cloudless sky, low temperature, and a furious gale of wind,
must be, I should think, in all parts of the world, an unusual
occurrence.

Jime 29ih. — We gladly travelled down the valley to our
former night’s lodging, and thence to near the Agua amarga.
On July 1st w'e reached the valley of Copiap6. The smell of
the fresh clover was quite delightful, after the scentless air of
the diy .sterile Despoblado. Whilst staying in the town I
heard an account from several of the inhabitants of a hill in
the neighbourhood which they called “ El Bramador,”- — the
roarer or bellower. I did not at the time pay sufficient
attention to the account ; but, as far as I understood, the hill
was covered by sand, and the noise was produced only when
people, by ascending it, put the sand in motion. The same
circumstances are described in detail on the authority of

366

IQUIQUE

Seetzen and Ehrenberg, * as the cause of the sounds which
have been lieard by many travellers on Mount Sinai near the
Red Sea. One person with whom I conversed had himself
heard the noise ; he described it as very surprising ; and he
distinctly stated that, although he could not understand how
it was caused, yet it was necessary to set the sand rolling
down the acclivity. A horse walking over dry and coarse
sand causes a peculiar chirping noise from the friction of the
particles ; a circumstance which I several times noticed on the
coast of Bi'azil.

Three days aftei’wards I heard of the Beagle s amval at the
Port, distant eighteen leagues from the town. There is very
little land cultivated down the valley ; its wide expanse
supports a wretched wiry grass, which even the donkeys can
hardly eat. This poorness of the vegetation is owing to the
quantity of saline matter with which the soil is impregnated.
The Port consists of an assemblage of miserable little hovels,
situated at the foot of a sterile plain. At present, as the
liver contains water enough to reach the sea, the inhabitants
enjoy the advantage of having fresh water within a mile and
a-half. On the beach there were large piles of merchandise,
and the little place had an air of activity. In the evening I
gave my adios, with a hearty good-will, to my companion
Mariano Gonzales, with whom I had ridden so many leagues
in Chile. The next morning the Beagle sailed for Iquique.

Jidy \9,th. — We anchored in the port of Iquique, in lat.
20° 12', on the coast of Peru. The town contains about a
thousand inhabitants, and stands on a little plain of sand at
the foot of a great wall of rock, two thousand feet in height,
here forming the coast. The whole is utterly desert. A
light shower of rain falls only once in very many years ; and
the rxvines consequently are filled with detritus, and the
mountain-sides covered by piles of fine Avhite sand, even to
a height of a thousand feet. During this season of the
year a heavy bank of clouds, stretched over the ocean, seldom
rises above the wall of rocks on the coast. The aspect of the
place was most gloomy ; the little port, with its few vessels,

* Edinburgh Philosopliical Journal, 1S30, p. 74; and April 1830,
p. 258. Also Daubeny on Volcanoes, p. 438 ; and Bengal Journal, vol.
vii. p. 324.

IQUIQUE

S67

and small group of wretched houses, seemed overwhelmed
and out of all proportion with the rest of the scene.

The inhabitants live like persons on board a ship ; every
necessary comes from a distance : water is brought in boats
from Pisagua, about forty miles northward, and is sold at the
rate of nine reals (4s. 6d.) an eighteen-gallon cask : I bought
a wine-bottle full for threepence. In like manner firewood,
and of course every article of food, is imported. Very few
animals can be maintained in such a place ; on the ensuing
morning I hired with difficulty, at the price of four pounds
sterling, two mules and a guide to take me to the nitrate of
soda works. These are at present the support of Iquique.
This salt was first exported in 1830: in one year an amount
in value of one hundred thousand pounds sterling was sent to
France and England. It is principally used as a manure and
in the manufacture of nitric acid : owing to its deliquescent
property it will not serve for gunpowder. Formerly there
were two exceedingly rich silver-mines in this neighbour-
hood, but their produce is now very small.

Our arrival in the offing caused some little apprehension.
Peru was in a state of anarchy ; and each party having
demanded a contribution, the poor town of Iquique was in
tribulation, thinking the evil hour was come. The people
had also their domestic troubles ; a short time before, three
French carpenters had broken open, during the same night,
the two churches, and stolen all the plate : one of the
robbers, however, subsequently confessed, and the plate was
recovered. The convicts were sent to Arequipa, which,
though the capital of this jirovince, is two hundred leagues
distant ; the government there thought it a ])ity to punish
such useful workmen, who could make all sorts of furniture ;
and accordingly liberated them. Thi]igs being in this state,
the churches were again broken open, but this time the
plate was not recovered. The inhabitants became dreadfully
enraged, and declaring that none but heretics would thus
“eat God Almighty,” jwoceeded to torture some Englishmen,
with the intention of afterwards shooting them. At last the
authorities interfered, and peace was established.

Julif \Slh. — In the morning I started for the saltpetre works,
a distance of fourteen leagues. Having ascended the steep
coast-mountains by a zig-zag sandy track, we soon came in

368

IQUIQUE

view of the mines of Guantajaya and St Rosa. These two
small villages are placed at the very mouths of the mines ; and
being jjerched up on hills, they had a still more unnatural
and desolate appearance than the town of Iquique. We did
not reach the saltpetre works till after sunset, having ridden
all day across a7i undulating country, a complete and utter
desert. The road was sti’ewed Avith the bones and dried
skins of the many beasts of burden which had perished on it
h-om fatigue. Excepting the VuUur aura, Avhich jireys on the
carcasses, I saw neither bird, quadruped, reptile, nor insect.
On the coast-mountains, at the height of about two thousand
feet, where during this season the clouds generally hang, a
very few cacti were growing in the clefts of rock ; and the
loose sand was strewed over with a lichen, which lies on the
surface quite unattached. This plant belongs to the genus
Cladonia, and somewhat resembles the reindeer lichen. In
some parts it was in sufficient quantity to tinge the sand, as
seen from a distance, of a pale yellowish colour. Farther in-
land, during the whole ride of fourteen leagues, I saw only
one other vegetable production, and that was a most minute
yellow lichen, growing on the bones of the dead mules. This
was the first true desert which I had seen : the effect on me
was not impressive ; but I believe this was owing to my hav-
ing become gradually accustomed to such scenes, as I rode
northward from Valparaiso, through Coquimbo, to Copiapo.
The appearance of the country was remarkable, from being
covered by a thick crust of common salt, and of a stratified
saliferous alluvium, which seems to have been deposited as
the land slowly rose above the level of the sea. The salt is
Avhite, very hard, and compact : it occurs in water-worn nodules
jH'ojecting from the agglutinated sand, and is associated with
much gypsum. The appearance of this superficial mass
very closely resembled that of a country after snow, before
the last dirty patches are thawed. The existence of this crust
of a soluble substance over the whole face of the country
shows hoAV extraordinarily diy the climate must have been
for a long period.

At night I slept at the house of the owner of one of the
saltpetre mines. The country is here as unproductive as near
the coast ; but water having rather a bitter and brackish
taste can be procured by digging wells. The Avell at this

CALLAO

S()9

house was thirty-six yards deep ; as scarcely any rain falls, it
is evident the water is not thus derived ; indeed, if it were, it
could not fail to be as salt as brine, for the whole surrounding
country is incrusted M'ith various saline substances. We must
therefore conclude that it pei-colates underground from the
Cordillera, though distant many leagues. In that direction
there are a few small villages, where the inhabitants, having
more water, are enabled to irrigate a little land and raise hay,
on which the mules and asses employed in carrying the salt-
petre are fed. The nitrate of soda was now selling at the
ship’s side at fourteen shillings per hundred pounds : the
chief expense is its transport to the sea-coast. The mine con-
sists of a hard stratum, between two and three feet thick, of
the nitrate mingled with a little of the sulphate of soda and
a good deal of common salt. It lies close beneath the surface,
and follows for a length of one hundred and fifty miles the
margin of a grand basin or plain ; this, from its outline, mani-
festly must once have been a lake, or more probably an inland
arm of the sea, as may be inferred from the presence of iodic
salts in the saline stratum. The surface of the plain is 3300
feet above the Pacific.

Jul^ 19th. — We anchored in the Bay of Callao, the sea-
port of lama, the capital of Peru. We stayed here six
weeks, but from the troubled state of public affairs, I saw very
little of the country. During our whole visit the climate was
far from being so delightful as it is generally represented.
A dull heavy bank of clouds constantly hung over the land,
so that during the first sixteen days I had only one view of
the Cordillera behind Lima. These mountains, seen in stages,
one above the other, through openings in the clouds, had a
very grand appearance. It has almost become a proverb,
that rain never falls in the lower part of Peru. Yet this can
hardly be considered coiTect ; for during almost every day of
our visit there was a thick drizzling mist, which was sufficient
to make the streets muddy and one’s clothes damp ; this the
people are pleased to call Peruvian dew. That much rain
does not fall is very certain, for the houses are covered only
with flat roofs made of hardened mud ; and on the mole ship-
loads of wheat were piled up, being thus left for weeks
together without any shelter.

2 A

370

PERU

I cannot say I liked the very little I saw of Peru ; in
summer, however, it is said that the climate is much pleas-
anter. In all seasons, both inhabitants and foreigners suffer
from severe attacks of ague. This disease is common on the
whole coast of Peru, but is unknown in the interior. The
attacks of illness which arise from miasma never fail to
ajjpear most mysterious. So difficult is it to judge from the
aspect of a country whether or not it is healthy, that if a
person had been told to choose within the tropics a situation
appearing favourable for health, very probably he would have
named this coast. The plain round the outskirts of Callao is
sparingly covered with a coarse grass, and in some parts
there are a few stagnant, though very small, pools of water.
The miasma, in all probability, arises from these : for the town
of Arica was similarly circumstanced, and its healthiness was
much improved by the drainage of some little pools. Miasma is
not always produced by a luxuriant vegetation with an ardent
climate ; for many parts of Brazil, even w here there are
marshes and a rank vegetation, are much more healthy than
this sterile coast of Peru. The densest forests in a temperate
climate, as in Chiloe, do not seem in the slightest degree to
affect the healthy condition of the atmosphere.

The island of St Jago, at the Cape de Verd, offers another
strongly-marked instance of a country, which any one would
have expected to find most healthy, being very much the
contrary. I have described the bare and open plains as
supporting, during a few weeks after the rainy season, a
thin vegetation, which directly withers away and dries up ;
at this period the air appears to become quite poisonous; both
natives and foreigners often being affected with violent fevers.
On the other hand, the Galapagos Archipelago, in the Pacific,
with a similar soil, and periodically subject to the same process
of vegetation, is perfectly healthy. Humboldt has observed,
that, under the torrid zone, the smallest marshes are the
most dangerous, being surrounded, as at Vera Cruz and
Carthagena, with an arid and sandy soil, which raises the
temperature of the ambient air.” * On the coast of Peru,
however, the temperature is not hot to any excessive degree ;
and perhaps in consequence, the intermittent fevers are not of

* Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, vol. iv. p. 199.

PERU

371

the malignant order. In all unhealthy countries the greatest
risk is run by sleeping on shore. Is this owing to the state of
the body during sleep, or to a greater abundance of miasma at
such times It appears certain that those who stay on board
a vessel, though anchored at only a short distance from the
coast, generally suffer less than those actually on shore. On
the other hand, I have heard of one remarkable case where a
fever broke out among the crew of a man-of-war some hundred
miles off the coast of Africa, and at the very same time that
one of those fearful periods * of death commenced at Sierra
Leone.

No State in South America, since the declaration of indepen-
dence, has suffered more from anarchy than Peru. At the time
of our visit, there were four chiefs in arms contending for su-
premacy in the government: if one succeeded in becoming
for a time very pow erful, the others coalesced against him; but
no sooner w'ere they victorious, than they were again hostile to
each other. The other day, at the Anniversary of the Inde-
pendence, high mass was performed, the President partaking
of the sacrament : during the Te Deum Laudajnus, instead of
each regiment displaying the Peruvian flag, a black one with
death’s head w'as unfurled. Imagine a government under
which such a scene could be ordered, on such an occasion, to
be typical of their determination of fighting to death ! This
state of affairs happened at a time very unfortunate for me, as
I was precluded from taking any excursions much beyond the
limits of the town. The barren island of San Lorenzo, which
forms the harbour, was nearly the only place where one could
walk securely. The upper part, which is upwards of 1000 feet
in height, during this season of the year (winter) comes within
the lower limit of the clouds; and in consequence, an abundant
cryptogamic vegetation and a few flowers cover the summit.
On the hills near Lima, at a height but little greater, the
ground is carpeted with moss and beds of beautiful yellow
lilies, called Ainancaes. This indicates a very much greater
degree of humidity than at a corresponding height at Iquique.

* A similar interesting case is recorded in the Madras Medical Quarterly
Journal, 1839, p. 340. Dr Ferguson, in his admirable Paper (see 9th vol.
of Edinburgh Royal Transactions), shows clearly that the poison is gene-
rated in the drying process ; and hence that dry hot countries are often the
most unhealthy.

372

PERU

Proceeding nortliward of Lima, the climate becomes damper,
till on the banks of the Guayaquil, nearly under the equator,
we find the most luxuriant forests. The change, however,
from the sterile coast of Peru to that fertile land is described
as taking place rather abruptly in the latitude of Cape
Blanco, two degrees south of Guayaquil.

Callao is a filthy, ill-built, small seaport. The inhabitants,
both here and at Lima, present every imaginable shade of
mixture between European, Negro, and Indian blood. They
appear a depraved, drunken set of people. The atmosphere
is loaded with foul smells, and that peculiar one, which may
be perceived in almost every town within the tropics, was
here very strong. The fortress, which withstood Lord
Cochrane’s long siege, has an imposing appearance. But
the President, during our stay, sold the brass guns and pro-
ceeded to dismantle paiis of it. The reason assigned was,
that he had not an officer to whom he could trust so im-
portant a charge. He himself had good reasons for thinking
so, as he had obtained the Presidentship by rebelling while
in charge of this same fortress. After we left South America,
he paid the penalty in the usual manner, by being conquered,
taken prisoner, and shot.

Lima stands on a plain in a valley fonned during the
gradual retreat of the sea. It is seven miles from Callao,
and is elevated 500 feet above it ; but from the slope being
very gradual, the road appears absolutely level ; so that when
at Lima it is difficult to believe one has ascended even
one hundred feet: Humboldt has remarked on this singularly
deceptive case. Steep, barren hills rise like islands from the
plain, which is divided, by straight mud-walls, into large
green fields. In these scarcely a tree grows excepting a few
willows, and an occasional clump of bananas and of oranges.
The city of Lima is now in a wretched state of decay : the
streets are nearly unpaved ; and heaps of filth are piled up in
all directions, where the black gallinazos, tame as poultry,
pick up bits of can-ion. The houses have generally an upper
storey, built, on account of the earthquakes, of plastered wood-
work ; but some of the old ones, which are now used by
several families, are immensely lai-ge, and would rival in
suites of apartments the most magnificent in any place.
Lima, the City of the Kings, must formerly have been a

PERU

373

splendid town. The extrcaovdinary number of churches gives
it, even at the present day, a peculiar and striking character,
especially when viewed from a short distance.

One day I went out with some merchants to hunt in the
immediate vicinity of the city. Our sport was very poor ;
but I had an opportunity of seeing the ruins of one of the
ancient Indian villages, with its mound like a natural hill in
the centre. The remains of houses, enclosures, irrigating
streams, and burial mounds, scattei'ed over this plairr, cannot
fail to give one a high idea of the condition and number of
the ancient population. When their earthenware, woollen
clothes, utensils of elegant forms cut out of the hardest rocks,
tools of copper, ornaments of precious stones, palaces, and
hydi'aulic works, are considered, it is imjrossible not to respect
the considerable advance made by them in the arts of civilisa-
tion. The burial mounds, called Huacas, are really stupendous ;
although in some places they appear to be natural hills encased
and modelled.

There is also another and vei-y different class of ruins,
which possesses some interest — namely, those of old Callao,
overwhelmed by the great earthquake of 1746, and its
accompanying wave. The destruction must have been more
complete even than at Talcahuano. Quantities of shingle
almost conceal the foundations of the walls, and vast masses
of brickwork appear to have been whirled about like pebbles
by the retiring waves. It has been stated that the land
subsided during this memorable shock ; I could not dis-
cover any proof of this ; yet it seems far from improbable,
for the form of the coast must certainly have undergone
some change since the foundation of the old town ; as no
people in their senses would willingly have chosen for their
building place the narrow spit of .shingle on which the ruins
now stand. Since our voyage, M. Tschudi has come to the
conclusion, by the comparison of old and modern maps, that
the coast both north and south of Lima has certainly subsided.

On the island of San Lorenzo there are very satisfactory
proofs of elevation within the recent period ; this, of course,
is not opposed to the belief of a small sinking of the ground
having subsequently taken place. The side of this island
fronting the bay of Callao is worn into three obscure terraces,
the lower one of which is covered by a bed a mile in length,

374

PERU

almost wholly composed of shells of eighteen species, now
living in the adjoining sea. The height of this bed is eighty-
five feet. Many of the shells are deeply corroded, and have
a much older and decayed appearance than those at the
height of 500 or 600 feet on the coast of Chile. These
shells are associated with much common salt, a little sul-
phate of lime (both probably left by the evaporation of the
spray, as the land slowly rose) together with sulphate of
soda and muriate of lime. They rest on fragments of the
underlying sandstone, and are covered by a few inches thick
of deti’itus. The shells, higher up on this terrace, could be
traced scaling off in flakes, and falling into an impalpable
powder; and on an upper terrace, at the height of 170 feet,
and likewise at some considerably higher points, I found a
layer of saline powder of exactly similar appearance, and
lying in the same relative position. I have no doubt that
this upper layer originally existed as a bed of shells, like
that on the eighty-five-feet ledge ; but it does not now
contain even a trace of organic structure. The powder has
been analysed for me by Mr T. Reeks ; it consists of sul-
phates and muriates both of lime and soda, with very little
carbonate of lime. It is known that common salt and
carbonate of lime, left in a mass for some time together,
partly decompose each other ; though this does not happen
with small quantities in solution. As the half-decomposed
shells in the lower parts are associated with much common
salt, together with some of the saline substances composing
the upper saline layer, and as these shells are corroded and
decayed in a remarkable manner, I strongly suspect that
this double decomposition has hei'e taken place. The re-
sultant salts, however, ought to be carbonate of soda and
muriate of lime ; the latter is present, but not the carbonate
of soda. Hence I am led to imagine that by some unex-
plained means, the carbonate of soda becomes changed into
the sulphate. It is obvious that the saline layer could not
have been preserved in any countiy in which abundant rain
occasionally fell ; on the other hand, this very circumstance,
which at first sight appears so highly favourable to the long
preservation of exposed shells, has probably been the indirect
means, through the common salt not having been Avashed
away, of their decomposition and early decay.

PERU

375

1 was much interested by finding on the terrace^ at the
height of eighty-five feet, embedded amidst the shells and
much sea-drifted rubbish, some bits of cotton-thread, plaited
rush, and the head of a stalk of Indian corn ; I compared
these relics with similar ones taken out of the Huacas, or
old Peruvian tombs, and found them identical in appearance.
On the mainland in front of San Lorenzo, near Bellavista,
there is an extensive and level plain about a hundred feet
high, of which the lower part is formed of alternating layers
of sand and impure clay, together with some gravel, and the
surface, to the depth of from three to six feet, of a reddish
loam, containing a few scattered sea-shells and numerous
small fragments of coarse red earthenware, more abundant at
certain spots than at others. At first I was inclined to believe
that this superficial bed, from its wide extent and smoothness,
must have been deposited beneath the sea ; but I afterwards
found, in one spot, that it lay on an artificial floor of round
stones. It seems, therefore, most probable that at a period
when the land stood at a lower level, there was a plain veiy
similar to that now surrounding Callao, whieh being protected
by a shingle beach, is raised but very little above the level of
the sea. On this plain, with its underlying red-clay beds, I
imagine that the Indians manufactured their earthen vessels ;
and that, during some violent earthquake, the sea broke over
the beach, and converted the plain into a temporary lake, as
happened round Callao in 1713 and 1746. The w'ater would
then have deposited mud, containing fragments of pottery from
the kilns, more abundant at some spots than at others, and
shells from the sea. This bed with fossil earthenware stands
at about the same height with the shells on the lower terrace
of San Lorenzo, in which the eotton-thread and other relics
were embedded. Hence we may safely conclude that within
the Indo-human period there has been an elevation, as before
alluded to, of more than eighty-five feet ; for some little
elevation must have been lost by the coast having subsided
since the old maps were engraved. At Valparaiso, although
in the 220 years before our visit the elevation cannot have
exceeded nineteen feet, yet subsequently to 1817 there has
been a rise, partly insensible and partly by a start daring the
shock of 1822, of ten or eleven feet. The antiquity of the
Indo-human race here, judging by the eighty-five-feet rise of

376

PERU

the land since the relics were embedded, is the more remark-
able, as on the coast of Patagonia, when the land stood about
the same number of feet lower, the Macrauchenia was a living
beast ; but as the Patagonian coast is some way distant from
the Cordillera, the rising there may have been slower than
here. At Bahia Blanca the elevation has been only a few
feet since the numerous gigantic quadrupeds were there
entombed ; and according to the generally received opinion,
when these extinct animals were living, man did not exist.
But the rising of that part of the coast of Patagonia is
perhaps noways comiected with the Cordillera, but rather
with a line of old volcanic rocks in Banda Oriental, so that it
may have been infinitely slower than on the shores of Peru.
All these speculations, however, must be vague ; for who will
pretend to say that there may not have been several periods
of subsidence intercalated between the movements of eleva-
tion ; for we know that along the whole coast of Patagonia
there have certainly been many and long pauses in the
upward action of the elevatory forces.

CHAPTER XVII

GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO

THE WHOLE GROUP VOLCANIC NUMBER OF CRATERS LEAFLESS

BUSHES COLONY AT CHARLES ISLAND JAMES ISLAND

SALT-LAKE IN CRATER NATURAL HISTORY OF THE GROUP

ORNITHOLOGY, CURIOUS FINCHES REPTILES GREAT

TORTOISES, HABITS OF MARINE LIZARD, FEEDS ON SEA-WEED

TERRESTRIAL LIZARD, BURROWING HABITS, HERBIVOROUS

IMPORTANCE OF REPTILES IN THE ARCHIPELAGO FISH,

SHELLS, INSECTS BOTANY AMERICAN TYPE OF ORGANISATION

DIFFERENCES IN THE SPECIES OR RACES ON DIFFERENT

ISLANDS TAMENESS OF THE BIRDS FEAR OF MAN, AN

ACQUIRED INSTINCT.

HEPTEMBER 1 5th. — This archipelago consists of
ten principal islands, of which five exceed the
others in size. They are situated under the
equator, and between five and six hundred miles
westw’ard of the coast of America. They are all
formed of volcanic rocks ; a few fragments of granite curiously
glazed and altered by the heat can hardly be considered as
an exception. Some of the craters surmounting the larger
islands are of immense size, and they rise to a height of
betw'een three and four thousand feet. Their flanks are
studded by innumerable smaller orifices. I scarcely hesitate
to affirm that there must be in the whole archipelago at
least two thousand craters. These consist either of lava and
scoriae, or of finely-stratified, sandstone-like tuff. Most of the
latter are beautifully symmetrical ; they owe their origin to
eruptions of volcanic mud without any lava : it is a remarkable
circumstance that every one of the twenty-eight tuff-craters
which were examined had their southern sides either much
lower than the other sides, or quite broken down and re-
moved. As all these craters apparently have been formed
when standing in the sea, and as the waves from the trade-

377

378

GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO

wind and the swell from the open Pacific here unite their
forces on the southern coasts of all the islands, this singular
uniformity in the broken state of the craters, composed of the
soft and yielding tuff, is easily explained.

Considering that these islands are placed directly under
the equator, the climate is far from being excessively hot ;
this seems chiefly caused by the singularly low temperature
of the surrounding water, brought here by the great southern
Polar current. Excepting during one short season, very little
rain falls, and even then it is irregular ; but the clouds gener-
ally hang low. Hence, whilst the lower parts of the islands
are very sterile, the upper parts, at the height of a thousand
feet and upwards, possess a damp climate and a tolerably
luxuriant vegetation. Tliis is especially the case on the
windward sides of the i.slands, which first receive and con-
dense the moisture from the atmosphere.

In the morning (17/A) we landed on Chatham Island, wdiich,
like the others, rises with a tame and rounded outline, broken
here and there by scattered hillocks, the remains of former
craters. Nothing could be less inviting than the first appear-
.tnce. A broken field of black basaltic lava, thrown into the
most rugged waves, and crossed by great fissures, is every-
where covered by stunted, sun-burnt bmshwood, which shows
little signs of life. The dry and parched surface, being
heated by the noonday sun, gave to the air a close and sultry
feeling, like that from a stove : w'^e fancied even that the
bushes smelt unpleasantly. Although I diligently tried to
collect as many plants as possible, I succeeded in getting veiy
few ; and such wretched-looking little weeds would have
better become an arctic than an equatorial flora. The
brushwood appears, from a short distance, as leafless as our
trees during winter ; and it was some time before 1 discovered
that not only almost every plant was now in full leaf, but that
the greater number w^ere in flower. The commonest bush is
one of the Euphorbiacoi : an acacia and a great odd-looking
cactus are the only trees which afford any shade. After the
season of heavy rains, the islands are said to appear for a short
time partially gi’een. The volcanic island of Fernando
Noronha, placed in many respects under nearly similar con-
ditions, is the only other country where 1 have seen a vegeta-
tion at all like this of the Galapagos islands.

GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO

37f)

The Beagle sailed round Chatham Island, and anchored in
several bays. One night I slept on shore on a part of the
island where black truncated cones were extraordinarily
numerous : from one small eminence I counted sixty of them,
all surmounted by craters more or less perfect. The greater
number consisted merely of a ring of red scoriee or slags,
cemented together : and their height above the plain of lava
was not more than from fifty to a hundred feet : none had been
very lately active. The entire surface of this part of the
island seems to have been permeated, like a sieve, by the sub-
terranean vapours : here and there the lava, whilst soft, has
been blown into great bubbles ; and in other parts, the tops of
caverns similarly formed have fallen in, leaving circular pits
with steep sides. From the regular form of the many craters,
they gave to the country an artificial ajipearance, which vividly
reminded me of those parts of Staffordshire where the gi'eat
iron-foundries are most numerous. The day was glowing hot,
and the scrambling over the rough surface and through the
intricate thickets was very fatiguing ; but I was well repaid
by the strange Cyclopean scene. As I was walking along 1
met two large tortoises, each of which must have weighed at
least two hundred pounds ; one was eating a piece of cactus,
and, as I ai^proached, it stared at me and slowly stalked away ;
the other gave a deep hiss, and drew in its head. These
huge reptiles, surrounded by the black lava, the leafless
shrubs, and large cacti, seemed to my fancy like some ante-
diluvian animals. The few dull-coloured birds cared no more
for me than they did for the great tortoises.

September 23rd. — The Beagle proceeded to Charles Island.
This archipelago has long been frequented, first by the buc-
caneers, and latterly by whalers, but it is only within the last
six years that a small colony has been established here. The
inhabitants are between two and three hundred in number ;
they are nearly all people of colour, who have been banished
for political crimes from the Republic of the Equator, of
which Quito is the capital. The settlement is placed about
four and a-half miles inland, and at a height probably of a
thousand feet. In the first part of the road we passed
through leafless thickets, as in Chatham Island. Higher up,
the woods gradually became greener ; and as soon as we
crossed the ridge of the island we were cooled by a fine

380

GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO

southerly breeze, and our sight refreshed by a green and
thriving vegetation. In this upper region coarse grasses and
ferns abound ; but there are no tree-ferns : I saw nowhere
any member of tlie palm family, which is the more singular,
as 360 miles northward. Cocos Island takes its name from the
number of cocoa-nuts. The houses are irregularly scattered
over a flat space of ground, which is cultivated with sweet
potatoes and bananas. It will irot easily be imagined how
pleasant the sight of black mud was to us, after having been
so long accustomed to the parched soil of Peru and Northern
Chile, dlie inhabitants, although complaining of poverty,
obtain, Avithout much trouble, the means of subsistence. In
the woods there are many wild pigs and goats ; but the staple
article of animal food is supplied by the tortoises. Their
numbei's have, of course, been greatly reduced in this island,
but the people yet count on two days’ hunting giving them
food for the rest of the week. It is said that formerly single
vessels have taken away as many as seven hundred, and that
the ship’s company of a frigate some years since brought
down in one day two hundred tortoises to the beach.

September 29th. — We doubled the south-west extremity of
Albemarle Island, and the next day were nearly becalmed
between it and Narborough Island. Both are covered with
immense deluges of black, naked lava, which have flowed
either over the rims of the great cauldrons, like pitch over the
rim of a pot in which it has been boiled, or have burst forth
from smaller orifices on the flanks ; in their descent they have
spread over miles of the sea-coast. On both of these islands,
eruptions are known to have taken place ; and in Albemarle,
we saw a .small jet of smoke curling from the summit of one
of the great craters. In the evening Ave anchored at Banks’
Cove, in Albemarle Island. The next morning I Avent out
walking. To the south of the broken tuff-crater, in Avhich
the Beagle Avas anchored, there was another beautifully
symmetrical one of an elliptic form ; its longer axis AA'as a
little less than a mile, and its depth about 500 feet. At its
bottom there was a shallow lake, in the middle of AA’hich a
tiny crater formed an islet. The day Avas overpoweringly
hot, and the lake looked clear and blue : I hurried doAvn the
cindery slope, and, choked Avith dust, eagerly tasted the water
— but, to my sorrow, I found it salt as brine.

GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO

381

The rocks on the coast abounded with great black lizards,
between three and four feet long ; and on the hills an ugly
yellowish-brown species was equally common. We saw many
of this latter kind, some clumsily running out of our way,
and others shuffling into their burrows. I shall presently
describe in more detiiil the habits of both these reptiles.
The whole of this northern ])art of Albemarle Island is
miserably sterile.

October 8th. — We arrived at James Island : this island, as
well as Charles Island, were long since thus named after
our kings of the Stuart line. Mr Bynoe, myself, and our
servants were left here for a week, with provisions and a
tent, whilst the Beagle went for water. We found here a
party of Spaniards, who had been sent from Charles Island
to dry fish, and to salt tortoise-meat. About six miles inland,
and at the height of nearly 2000 feet, a hovel had been built
in which two men lived who were employed izr catching
tortoises, whilst the others wei*e fishiizg on the coast. I paid
this pai’ty two visits, and slept there oize night. As in the
other islands, the lower region was covered by nearly leafless
bushes, but the trees were here of a larger growth than else-
where, several being two feet and some even two feet nine
inches in diameter. The upper region, being kept damp by
the clouds, suppoi’ts a gi-een and flourishing vegetation. So
damp was the ground that there were large beds of a coarse
cyperus, in which great numbers of a veiy small watei'-rail
lived and bred. WTiile staying in this upper region we lived
entirely upon tortoise-meat : the breast-plate roasted (as the
Gauchos do came con cuero\ with the flesh on it, is very good ;
and the young toi'toises make excellent soup ; but othei’wise
the meat to my taste is indiffei’ent.

One day we accompanied a party of the Spaniards m their
whale-boat to a salina, or lake, from which salt is procured.
After landing, w'e had a very rough walk over a rugged field
of recent lava, which has almost surrounded a tuff-crater, at
the bottom of which the salt-lake lies. The water is only
three or four inches deep, and I'ests on a layer of beautifully
crj'stallised white salt. The lake is quite circulai', and is
fringed with a border of bright green succulent plants ; the
almost precipitous walls of the cniter are clothed with wood,
so that the scene was altogether both picturesque and curious.

382

NATURAL HISTORY

A few years since, the sailors belonging to a sealing-vessel
murdered their captain in this quiet spot ; and we saw his
skull lying among the bushes.

During the greater ))art of our sbiy of a week the sky was
cloudless, and if the trade-wind failed for an hour the heat
became very oppressive. On two days the thennonieter within
the tent stood for .some hoiu's at 93° ; but in the open air, in
the wind and sun, at only 85°. The sand was extremely hot ;
the thermometer placed in some of a brown colour immediately
I’ose to 137°, and how much above that it would have risen I
do not know, for it was not graduated any higher. The black
sand felt much hotter, so that even in thick boots it was quite
disagreeable to walk over it.

The natural history of these islands is eminently curious,
and well deserves attention. Most of the organic productions
are aboriginal creations, found nowhere else ; there is even a
difference between the inhabitants of the different islands ;
yet all show a marked relationship with those of America,
though sejmrated from that continent by an open space of
ocean between 500 and 600 miles in width. The archipelago
is a little woi'ld within itself, or rather a satellite attached to
America, whence it has derived a few stray colonists, and has
received the general character of its indigenous productions.
Considering the small size of these islands, we feel the more
astonished at the number of their aboriginal beings, and at
their confined range. Seeing every height crowned with its
crater, and the boundaries of most of the lava streams still
distinct, we are led to believe that within a period geologically
recent the unbroken ocean was here spread out. Hence, both
in space and time, we seem to be brought somew'hat near to
that great fact — that mystery of mysteries — the first appear-
ance of new beings on this earth.

Of terrestrial mammals, there is only one which must
be considered as indigenous — namely, a mouse (M/fs
Galapagoensis^, and this is confined, as far as I could
ascertain, to Chatham Island, the most easterly island of
the group. It belongs, as I am informed by Mr Water-
house, to a division of the family of mice characteristic of
America. At James Island there is a rat sufficiently distinct
from the common kind to have been named and described
by Mr Waterhouse ; but as it belongs to the old-world

ORNITHOLOGY

383

division of the family, and as this island has been frequented
by ships for the last hundred and fifty years, I can hardly
doubt that this rat is merely a variety, produced by the new
and peculiar climate, food, and soil to which it has been
subjected. Although no one has a right to speculate without
distinct facts, yet, even with respect to the Chatham Island
mouse, it should be borne in mind that it may possibly be an
American species imported here ; for I have seen, in a most
unfrequented part of the Pampas, a native mouse living in
the roof of a newly-built hovel, and therefore its transporta-
tion in a vessel is not improbable ; analogous facts have been
observed by Dr Richardson in Noi’th America.

Of land-birds I obtained twenty-six kinds, all peculiar to
the group, and found nowhere else, with the exception of one
lark-like finch from North America (Dolichoiiifx oryzivoriis),
which ranges on that continent as far north as 54“, and
generally frequents marshes. The other twenty-five birds
consist — Firstly, of a hawk, curiously intennediate in structure
between a buzzard and the American group of carrion-feeding
Pol^bori ; and with these latter birds it agrees most closely in
eveiy habit and even tone of voice. Secondly, there are two
owls, representing the short-eared and white barn owls of
Europe. Thirdly, a wren, three tyrant fly-catchers (two of
them species of Pyrocephalus, one or both of which would be
ranked by some ornithologists as only varieties), and a dove —
all analogous to, but distinct from, American species. Fourthly,
a swallow, which, though differing from the Progiie purperea
of both Americas only in being rather duller coloured, smaller,
and slenderer, is considered by Mr Gould as specifically
distinct. Fifthly, there are three species of mocking-thrush —
a form highly characteristic of America. The remaining
land-birds form a most singular group of finches, related to
i each other in the structure of their beaks, short tails, form of
J body, and plumage : there are thirteen species, which Mr
Gould has divided in four sub-groups. All these species
are peculiar to this archipelago ; and so is the whole group,
with the exception of one species of the sub-group Cactomis,
lately brought from Bow Island, in the Low Archipelago. Of
Cactomis, the two species may be often seen climbing about
the flowers of the great cactus-tree ; but all the other species
of this group of finches, mingled together in flocks, feed on

384

ORNITHOLOGY

the dry and sterile ground of the lower districts. The males
of all, or certainly of the greater number, are jet black ; and
the females (with perhaps one or two exceptions) are brown.
The most curious fact is the perfect gradation in the size of
the beaks in the different species of Geospiza, from one as
large as that of a hawfinch to that of a chaffinch, and (if Mr
Gould is right in including his sub-group, Cerlhidea, in the main
group), even to that of a warbler. The largest beak in the

3

2. Geospiza forth.

4. Certhidca olivacea.

I. Geospiza magnirostris,
3. Geospiza parvuia.

genus Geospiza is sho^vn in Fig. 1, and the smallest in Fig. 3 ;
but instead of there being only one intermediate species, wth
a beak of a size shown in Fig. 2, there are no less than six
species with insensibly graduated beaks. The beak of the
sub-group Cerlhidea is shown in Fig. 4. The beak of Cactomis
is somewhat like that of a starling ; and that of the fourth
sub-group, Caniarhipichus, is slightly parrot-shaped. Seeing
this gradation and diversity of structure in one small, inti-
mately related group of birds, one might really fancy that,
from an original paucity of birds in this archipelago, one
species had been taken and modified for different ends. In
a like manner it might be fancied that a bird, originally a
buzzard, had been induced here to undertake the office of the
carrion-feeding Polt/hori of the American continent.

Of waders and water-birds I was able to get only eleven
kinds, and of these only three (including a rail confined to
the damp summits of the islands) are new species. Consider-

ORNITHOLOGY

S85

ing the wandering habits of the gulls, I was surprised to find
that the sj)ecies inhabiting these islands is peculiar, but
allied to one from the southern parts of South America. The
far greater peculiarity of the land-birds — namely, twenty-five
out of twenty-six being new species, or at least new' races,
compared with the waders and web-footed birds — is in
accordance with the greater range which these latter orders
have in all parts of the world. We shall hereafter see this
law of acpiatic forms, whether marine or fresh-water, being
less peculiar at any given point of the earth’s surface than the
terrestrial foi*ms of the same classes, strikingly illustrated
in the shells, and in a lesser degree in the insects of this
archipelago.

Tw'o of the waders are rather smaller than the same species
brought from other places ; the swallow is also smaller,
though it is doubtful whether or not it is distinct from its
analogue. The two owls, the two tyrant fly-catchers
(^Pyrocephalus), and the dove are also smaller than the
analogous but distinct species to which they are most nearly
related ; on the other hand, the gull is rather larger. The
tw'o owls, the swallow, all three species of mocking-thrush,
the dove in its separate colours, though not in its whole
plumage, the Totanus, and the gull, are likewise duskier
coloured than their analogous species ; and in the case of the
mocking-thrush and Totanus than any other species of the
two genera. With the exception of a wren with a fine yellow
breast, and of a tyrant fly-catcher with a scarlet tuft and
breast, none of the birds are brilliantly coloured, as might
have been expected in an equatorial district. Hence it would
appear probable that the same causes which here make the
immigrants of some species smaller, make most of the peculiar
Galapageian species also smaller, as well as very generally
more dusky-coloured. All the plants have a wretched, weedy
appearance, and I did not see one beautiful flower. The
insects, again, are small-sized and dull-coloured, and, as Mr
Waterhouse informs me, there is nothing in their general
appearance which would have led him to imagine that they
had come from under the equator. The birds, plants, and
insects have a desert character, and are not more brilliantly
coloured than those from Southern Patagonia ; we may,
therefore, conclude that the usual gaudy colouring of the

2 B

386

ZOOLOGY

intertropical productions is not related either to the heat or
light of those zones, but to some other cause, perhaps to the
conditions of existence being generally favourable to life.

We will now turn to the order of reptiles, which gives
the most striking character to the zoology of these islands.
The species are not numerous, but the numbers of individuals
of each species are extraordinarily great. There is one small
lizard belonging to a South American genus, and two species
(and probably more) of the Amhlyrhynchus — a genus confined to
the Galapagos islands. There is one snake, which is numerous ;
it is identical, as I am informed by M. Bibron, with the
Psammophis Temminckii from Chile. Of sea-turtle I believe
there is more than one species ; and of tortoises there are,
as we shall presently show, two or three sjjecies or races. Of
toads and frogs there are none : I was surprised at this,
considering how well suited for them the temperate and
damp upper woods appeared to be. It recalled to my mind
the remark made by Bory St Vincent *— namely, that none of
this family are found on any of the volcanic islands in the
great oceans. As far as I can ascertain from various works,
this seems to hold good throughout the Pacific, and even in the
large islands of the Sandwich archipelago. Mauritius ofFei*s
an apparent exception, where I saw the Rana Mascariensis
in abundance : this frog is said now to inhabit the Seychelles,
Madagascar, and Bourbon ; but on the other hand, Du Bois,
in his voyage in I669, states that there were no reptiles
in Bourbon except tortoises ; and the Officier du Roi asserts
that before 1768 it had been attempted, without success, to
introduce frogs into Mauritius — I presume, for the purpose of
eating : hence it may be well doubted whether this frog is an
aboriginal of these islands. The absence of the frog family in
the oceanic islands is the more remarkable when contrasted
with the case of lizards, which swarm on most of the smallest
islands. May this difference not be caused by the greater
facility with which the eggs of lizards, protected by calcareous

* Voyage aux Quatre lies d' Afrique. With respect to the Sandwich
Islands, see Tyerman and Bennett’s Journal, vol. i. p. 434. For Mauritius
.see Voyage par un Officier, etc., part i. p. 170. There are no frogs in the
Canary Islands : Webb et Berthelot i^Hist. Nat. des lies Canaries). I saw
none at St Jago in the Cape de Verds. There are none at St Helena.

THE TORTOISE

387

shells, might be transported through salt-water, than oould
the slimy spawn of frogs ?

I will first describe the habits of the tortoise (Tesludo nigra,
formerly called Indica'), which has been so frequently
alluded to. These animals are found, I believe, on all the
islands of the Archipelago ; certainly on the greater number.
They frequent in preference the high damp parts, but they
likewise live in the lower and arid districts. I have already
shown, from the numbers which have been caught in a single
day, how very numerous they must be. Some grow to an
immense size : Mr Lawson, an Englishman, and vice-governor
of the colony, told us that he had seen several so large that
it required six or eight men to lift them from the ground ;
and that some had afforded as much as two hundred pounds
of meat. The old males are the largest, the females rarely
gi'owing to so great a size ; the male can readily be distin-
guished from the female by the greater length of its tail.
The tortoises which live on those islands where there is no
w'ater, or in the lower and arid parts of the others, feed
chiefly on the succulent cactus. Those which frequent the
higher and damp regions, eat the leaves of various trees, a
kind of berry (called guayavita) which is acid and austere,
and likewise a pale gi’een filamentous lichen (Usnera plicata),
that hangs in tresses from the boughs of the trees.

The tortoise is very fond of water, drinking large quantities,
and wallowing in the mud. The larger islands alone possess
springs, and these are always situated towards the central
parts, and at a considerable height. The tortoises, therefore,
which frequent the lower districts, when thirsty, are obliged
to travel from a long distance. Hence broad and well-beaten
paths branch off in every direction from the wells down to
the sea-coast ; and the Spaniards, by following them up, first
discovered the w'atering-places. When I landed at Chatham
Island, I could not imagine what animal travelled so methodi-
cally along well-chosen tracks. Near the springs it w'as a
curious spectacle to behold many of these huge creatures, one
set eagerly travelling onwards with outstretched necks, and
another set returning, after having drunk their fill. When
the tortoise arrives at the spring, quite regardless of any
spectator, he buries his head in the water above his eyes, and
greedily swallows great mouthfuls, at the rate of about ten in

388

THE TORTOISE

a minute. The inhabitants say each animal stays three or
four days in the neighbourhood of the water, and then re-
turns to the lower country ; but they differed respecting the
frequency of these visits. The animal probably regulates
them according to the nature of the food on which it has
lived. It is, however, certain that tortoises can subsist even
on those islands where there is no other water than what
falls during a few rainy days in the year.

I believe it is well ascertained that the bladder of the frog
acts as a reservoir for the moisture necessary to its existence :
such seems to be the case with the tortoise. For some time
after a visit to the springs their urinary bladders are distended
with fluid, which is said gradually to decrease in volume, and
to become less pure. The inhabitants, when walking in the
lower district, and overcome with thirst, often take advantage
of this circumstance, and drink the contents of the bladder if
full ; in one I saw killed, the fluid was quite limpid, and had
only a very slightly bitter taste. The inhabitants, however,
always first drink the water in the pericardium, which is
described as being best.

The tortoises, when purposely moving towards any point,
travel by night and day, and arrive at their journey’s end
much sooner than would be expected. The inhabitants, from
observing marked individuals, consider that they travel a
distance of about eight miles in two or three days. One
large tortoise, which I watched, walked at the rate of sixty
yards in ten minutes — that is, three hundred and sixty yards
in the hour, or four miles a day, allowing a little time for it
to eat on the road. During the breeding season, when the
male and female are together, the male utters a hoarse roar
or bellowing, which, it is said, can be heard at the distance
of more than a hundred yards. The female never uses her
voice, and the male only at these times ; so that when the
people hear this noise they know that the two are together.
They wei'e at this time (October) laying their eggs. The
female, where the soil is sandy, deposits them together, and
covers them up with sand ; but where the ground is rocky
she drops them indiscriminately in any hole : Mr Bynoe found
seven placed in a fissure. The egg is white and spherical ;
one which I measured was seven inches and three-eighths in
circumference, and therefore larger than a hen’s egg. The

THE MARINE LIZARD

389

young tortoises, as soon as they are hatched, hill a prey in
great numbers to the carrion-feeding buzzard. The old ones
seem generally to die from accidents, as from falling down
precipices : at least sevei'al of the inhabitants told me that
they had nev'er found one dead without some evident cause.

The inhabitants believe that these animals are absolutely
deaf; certainly they do not overhear a person walking close
behind them. I was always amused when overtaking one of
these great monsters, as it was quietly pacing along, to see
how suddenly," the instant I passed, it would draw in its head
and legs, and uttering a deep hiss fall to the ground with a
heavy sound, as if struck dead. I frequently got on their
backs, and then giving a few i*aps on the hinder part of their
shells, they would rise up and walk away ; but I found it very
difficult to keep my balance. The flesh of this animal is largely
employed, both fresh and salted ; and a beautifully clear oil is
prepared from the fat. When a tortoise is caught, the man
makes a slit in the skin near its tail, so as to see inside its
body, whether the fat under the dorsal plate is thick. If it
is not, the animal is liberated ; and it is said to recover soon
from this strange operation. In order to secure the tortoises,
it is not sufficient to turn them like turtle, for they are often
able to get on their legs again.

There can be little doubt that this tortoise is an aboriginal
inhabitant of the Galapagos ; for it is found on all, or nearly
all, the islands, even on some of the smaller ones where there
is no water ; had it been an imported species this would hardly
have been the case in a gi-oup which has been so little fre-
quented. Moreover, the old buccaneers found this tortoise
in greater numbers even than at present : Wood and Rogers
also, in 1708, say that it is the opinion of the Spaniards that
it is found nowhere else in this quarter of the world. It is
now widely distributed ; but it may be questioned whether it
is in any other place an aboriginal. The bones of a tortoise
at Mauritius, associated with those of the extinct Dodo, have
generally been considered as belonging to this tortoise ; if
this had been so, undoubtedly it must have been there in-
digenous ; but M. Bibron informs me that he believes that it
was distinct, as the species now living there certainly is.

The Aviblyrhynchis, a remarkable genus of lizards, is con-
fined to this archipelago : there are two species resembling

.390

THE MARINE LIZARD

each athei’ in general foiiiij one being terrestrial and the other
aquatic. This latter species (^A. cr'isiatus) was first character-
ised by Mr Bell, who well foresaw, from its short, broad head,
and strong claws of equal length, that its habits of life would
turn out very peculiar and different from those of its nearest
ally, the Iguana. It is extremely common on all the islands
throughout the group, and lives exclusively on the rocky sea-
beaches, being never found, at least I never saw one, even ten
yards in-shore. It is a hideous-looking creature, of a dirty
black colour, stupid, and sluggish in its movements. The
usual length of a full-grown one is about a yard, but there
are some even four feet long ; a large one weighed twenty
pounds : on the island of Albemarle they seem to grow to a
larger size than elsewhere. Their tails are flattened side-
ways, and all four feet partially webbed. They are occasion-
ally seen some hundred yards from the shore, swimming
about ; and Captain Collnett, in his Voyage, says, “ They go
to sea in herds a-fishing, and sun themselves on the rocks ;
and may be called alligatoi’s in miniature.” It must not,
however', be sup2Dosed that they live on fish. When in the
water this lizard swims with perfect ease and quickness, by a
serpentine movement of its body and flattened tail — the legs
being motionless and closely collapsed on its sides. A seaman
on board sank one with a heavy w'eight attached to it, think-
ing thus to kill it directly ; but when, an hour afterwards, he
drew up the line it was quite active. Their limbs and strong
claws are admirably adajrted for crawling over the rugged and
fissured masses of lava which everywhere form the coast. In
such sitirations, a group of six or seven of these hideous reptiles
may oftentimes be seerr on the black rocks, a few feet above
the sitrf, basking in the sun with out-stretched legs.

I opened the stomachs of several, and found them largely
distended w'ith minced seaweed (Ulvce), which grows iir thirr
foliaceous exparrsions of a bright greetr or a dull red coloirr. I
do rrot recollect having observed this seaweed in any quantity
on the tidal rocks ; and I have reason to believe it grows at
the bottom of the sea, at some little distairce from the coast.
If such be the case, the object of these animals occasionally
going out to sea is explaitred. The stomach contained rrothing
but the seaweed. Mr Bynoe, however', found a piece of a
crab in oirc ; but this might have got hr accidentally, irr the

THE MARINE LIZARD

3f)l

same manner as I have seen a caterpillar, in the midst of
some lichen, in the paunch of a toi-toise. The intestines were
large, as in other herbivoi'ous animals. The nature of this
lizard’s food, as well as the structure of its tail and feet, and
the fact of its having been seen voluntarily swimming out at
sea, absolutely prove its aquatic habits ; yet there is in this
respect one strange anomaly — namely, that when frightened
it will not enter the water. Hence it is easy to drive these
lizards down to any little point overhanging the sea, where
they will sooner allow a person to catch hold of their tails
than jump into the water. They do not seem to have any
notion of biting, but when much frightened they squirt a drop
of fluid from each nostril. I threw one several times as far as
I could into a deep pool left by the retiring tide, but it in-
variably returned in a direct line to the spot where I stood.
It swam near the bottom, with a very graceful and rapid
movement, and occasionally aided itself over the uneven
ground ^vdth its feet. As soon as it arrived near the edge,
but still being under water, it tried to conceal itself in the
tufts of seaweed, or it entered some crevice. As soon as it
thought the danger was past, it crawled out on the dry rocks,
and shuffled away as fast as it could. I several times caught
this same lizard, by driving it down to a point, and though
possessed of such perfect powers of diving and swimming,
nothing would induce it to enter the water; and as often as
I threw it in, it returned in the manner above described.
Perhaps this singular piece of apparent stupidity may be
accounted for by the circumstance that this reptile has no
enemy whatever on shore, whereas at sea it must often fall a
prey to the numerous sharks. Hence, probably, urged by a
fixed and hereditary instinct that the shore is its place of
safety, whatever the emergency may be, it there takes refuge.

During our visit (in October) I saw extremely few small
individuals of this species, and none I should think under
a year old. From this circumstance it seems probable that
the breeding season had not then commenced. I asked
several of the inhabitants if they knew where it laid its
eggs ; they said that they knew nothing of its propagation,
although well acquainted with the eggs of the land-kind — a
fact, considering how very common this lizard is, not a little
extraordinary.

392

THE TERRESTRIAL LIZARD

We will now turn to the terrestrial species (A. Demarlii),
with a round tail, and toes without webs. This lizard, instead
of being found like the other on all the islands, is confined to
the central part of the archipelago — namely, to Albemarle,
James, Barrington, and Indefatigable Islands. To the south-
ward, in Charles, Hoop, and Chatham Islands, and to the
northward, in Towers, Bindloes, and Abingdon I neither
saw nor heard of any. It would appear as if it had been
created in the centre of the archipelago, and thence had
been dispersed only to a certain distance. Some of these
lizards inhabit the high and damp parts of the islands, but
they are much more numerous in the lower and sterile dis-
tricts near the coast. I cannot give a more forcible proof of
their numbers than by stating that when w'e were left at
James Island we could not for some time find a spot free
from their burrows on which to pitch our single tent. Like
their brothers, the sea-kind, they are ugly animals, of a
yellowish orange beneath, and of a brownish-red colour
above ; from their low facial angle they have a singularly
stupid appearance. They are, perhaps, of a rather less
size than the marine species ; but several of them weighed
between ten and fifteen pounds. In their movements
they are lazy and half-torpid. When not frightened, they
slowly crawl along with their tails and bellies dragging
on the ground. They often stop and doze for a minute
or two, with closed eyes, and hind legs spi*ead out on the
parched soil.

They inhabit burrows, which they sometimes make between
fragments of lava, but more generally on level patches of the
soft sandstone-like tuff. The holes do not appear to be very
deep, and they entered the ground at a small angle ; so that
when walking over those lizard-warrens the soil is constantly
giving way, much to the annoyance of the tired walker. This
animal, when making its burrow, works alternately the oppo-
site sides of its body. One front leg for a short time scratches
up the soil, and throws it towards the hind foot, which is
well placed so as to heave it beyond the mouth of the hole.
That side of the body being tired, the other takes up the
task, and so on alternately. I watched one for a long time,
till half its body was buried ; I then walked up and pulled
it by the tail ; at this it was greatly astonished, and soon

THE TERRESTRIAL LIZARD

3f>3

shuffled up to see what was the matter ; and then stared
me in the face, as much as to say, “ What made you pull
my tail ? ”

They feed by day, and do not wander far from their
burrows ; if frightened, they rush to them with a most
awkward gait. Except when running downhill, they cannot
move very fast, apparently from the lateral position of their
legs. They are not at all timorous : when attentively watch-
ing any one, they curl their tails and, raising themselves on
their front legs, nod their heads vertically, with a quick
movement, and try to look very fierce ; but in reality they
are not at all so ; if one just stamps on the ground, down go
their tails, and off they shuffle as quickly as they can. I have
frequently observed small fly-eating lizards, when watching
anything, nod their heads in precisely the same manner ; but
I do not at all know for what purpose. If this Amhlyrhpichtis
is held and plagued with a stick, it will bite it very severely ;
but I caught many by the tail, and they never tried to bite
me. If two are placed on the ground and held together,
they will fight, and bite each other till blood is drawn.

The individuals, and they are the greater number, which
inhabit the lower countiy, can scarcely taste a drop of water
throughout the ye-'^r ; but they consume much of the .suc-
culent cactus, the branches of which are occasionally broken
off by the wind. I several times threw a piece to two or
three of them when together ; and it was amusing enough
to see them trying to seize and carry it away in tlieir mouths,
like so many hungry dogs with a bone. They eat very
deliberately, but do not chew their food. The little birds
are aware how harmless these creatures are ; I have seen
one of the thick-billed finches picking at one end of a
piece of cactus (which is much relished by all the animals
of the lower region), whilst a lizard was eating at the
other end ; and afterwards the little bird with the utmost
indifference hopped on the back of the reptile.

I opened the stomachs of several, and found them full
of vegetable fibres and leaves of different tree.s, especially
of an acacia. In the upper region they live chiefly on
the acid and astringent berries of the 'guaya vita, under
which trees I have seen these lizards and the huge tortoises
feeding together. To obtain the acacia-leaves they crawl

394.

THE TERRESTRIAL LIZARD

up the low stunted trees ; and it is not uncommon to see
a pair quietly browsing, whilst seated on a branch several
feet above the ground. These lizards, when cooked, yield
a white meat, which is liked by those whose stomachs soar
above all prejudices. Humboldt has remarked that in in-
tertropical South America all lizards which inhabit dry
regions are esteemed delicacies for the table. The inhabi-
tants state that those which inhabit the upper damp parts
drink water, but that the others do not, like the tortoises,
travel up for it from the lower sterile country. At the time
of our visit the females had within their bodies numerous,
large, elongated eggs, which they lay in their burrows ;
the inhabitants seek them for food.

These two species of Amblyrhynchm agree, as I have already
stated, in their general structure, and in many of their habits.
Neither have that rapid movement so characteristic of the
genera Lacerta and Iguana. They are both herbivorous,
although the kind of vegetation on which they feed is so
very different. Mr Bell has given the name to the genus
from the shortness of the snout ; indeed, the form of the
mouth may almost be compared to that of the tortoise : one is
led to suppose that this is an adaptation to their herbivorous
appetites. It is very interesting thus to find a well-character-
ised genus, having its marine and terrestrial species, belonging
to so confined a portion of the world. The aquatic species is
by far the most remarkable, because it is the only existing
lizard which lives on marine vegetable productions. As I at
first obseiwed, these islands are not so remarkable for the
number of the species of reptiles as for that of the individuals ;
when we remember the well-beaten paths made by the
thousands of huge tortoises — the many turtles — the great
warrens of the terrestrial Amhhirliynchns — and the groups of
the marine species basking on the coast - rocks of every
island — we must admit that there is no other quarter of the
world where this Order replaces the herbivorous mammalia in
so extraordinary a manner. The geologist, on hearing this,
will probably refer back in his mind to the Secondary epochs,
when lizards, some herbivorous, some carnivorous, and of
dimensions comparable only with our existing whales,
swarmed on the land and in the sea. It is, therefore, worthy
of liis observation, that this archijielago, instead of possessing

ZOOLOGY

395

a humid climate and rank vegetation, cannot be considered
otherwise than extremely arid, and, for an equatorial region,
remarkably temperate.

To finish wth the zoology : the fifteen kinds of sea-fish
which I procured here are all new species ; they belong to
twelve genera, all widely distributed, with the exception of
Piioiiotiis, of which the four previously known species live on
the eastern side of America. Of land-shells I collected
sixteen kinds (and two marked varieties), of which, with the
exception of one Hellv found at Tahiti, all ai'e peculiar to this
archipelago ; a single fresh-water shell (Paludind) is common
to Tahiti and Van Diemen’s Land. Mr Cuming, before our
voyage, procured here ninety species of sea-shells, and this
does not include sevei'al species not yet specifically examined,
of Trocus, Turbo, Monodonta, and Nassa. He has been kind
enough to give me the following intei'esting results : of the
ninety shells, no less than forty-seven are unknown elsew’here —
a wonderful fact, considering how widely distributed sea-shells
generally are. Of the forty-three shells found in other parts
of the world, twenty-five inhabit the western coast of Ameidca,
and of these eight are distinguishable as varieties : the
remaining eighteen (including one variety) were found by Mr
Cuming in the Low Archipelago, and some of them also at
the Philippines. This fact of shells from islands in the central
I parts of the Pacific occurring here deserves notice, for not one
1 single sea-shell is known to be common to the islands of that

I ocean and to the w'est coast of America. The space of open

i sea running north and south off the west coast separates two
I quite distinct conchological provinces ; but at the Galapagos
Archipelago we have a halting-place, where many neAv forms
I have been created, and whither these two great conchological
provinces have each, sent several colonists. The Amei’ican
province has also se/ft here representative species ; for there is
a Galapageian species of Monoceros, a genus only found on the
west coast of America ; and there are Galapageian species of
Fissurella and Cancellaria, genera common on the west coast,
but not found (as I am informed by Mr Cuming) in the central
islands of the Pacific. On the other hand, there are
Galapageian species of Oniscia and Stylifer, genera common to
the West Indies and to the Chinese and Indian seas, but not
found either on the west coast of America or in the central

396

GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO

Pacific. I may here add, that after the comparison by Messrs
Cuming and Hinds of about two thousand shells from the
eastern and western coasts of America, only one single shell
was found in common — namely, the Purpura patula, which in-
habits the West Indies, the coast of Panama, and the Galapagos.
We have, therefore, in this quarter of the world three great
conchological sea-provinces, quite distinct, though surprisingly
near each other, being separated by long north and south
spaces either of land or of open sea.

I took great pains in collecting the insects, but, excepting
Tierra del Fuego, I never saw in this respect so poor a country.
Even in the upper and damp region I procured very few,
excepting some minute Diptera and Hymcnoptera, mostly of
common mundane forms. As befoi'e remarked, the insects, for
a tropical region, are of very small size and dull colours. Of
beetles I collected twenty -five species (excluding a Dennestus
and Corynetes, imported wherever a ship touches) ; of these,
two belong to the Harpalidce, two to the HydrophUidce, nine to
three families of the Heferomera, and the remaining twelve to
as many different families. This circumstance of insects (and
I may add plants), where few in number, belonging to many
different families, is, I believe, very general. Mr Waterhouse,
who has published* an account of the insects of this archi-
pelago, and to whom I am indebted for the above details,
informs me that there are several new genera ; and that of
the genera not new, one or two are American, and the rest of
mundane distribution. With the exception of a wood-feeding
Apate, and of one, or probably two, water-beetles from the
American continent, all the species appear to be new.

The botany of this group is fully as interesting as the
zoology. Dr J. Hooker will soon publish in the Linnean
Transactions a full account of the Flora, and I am much
indebted to him for the following details. Of flowering plants
there are, as far as at present is known, 185 species, and 40
cryptogamic species, making together 225 ; of this number I
was foi'tunate enough to bring home 1 93. Of the flowering
plants, 100 are new species, and are probably confined to this
archipelago. Dr Hooker conceives that, of the plants not so
confined, at least 10 species, found near the cultivated ground

* Ann. and of Natural History ^ vol. xvi. p. 19.

GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO

397

at Charles Island, have been imported. It i.s, I think,
surprising that more American species have not been intro-
duced miturally, considering that the distance is only between
.500 and 600 miles from the continent ; and that (according to
Coll nett, j). 58) drift-wood, bamboos, canes, and the nuts of a
palm, are often washed on the south-eastern shores. The
proportion of 100 flowering j)lants out of 185 (or 175, excluding
the imported weeds) being new is sufficient, I conceive, to
make the Galapagos Archipelago a distinct botanical province ;
but this Flora is not nearly so peculiar as that of St Helena,
nor, as I am informed by Dr Hooker, of Juan Fernandez.
The peculiarity of the Galapageian Flora is best shown in
certain families; thus there are 21 species of Compositce, of
which 20 are peculiar to this archipelago ; these belong to
tweh'e genera, and of these genera no less than ten are
confined to the archipelago ! Dr Hooker informs me that the
Flora has an undoubted Western American chai'acter ; nor can
he detect in it any affinity with that of the Pacific. If, there-
fore, we except the eighteen marine, the one fi’esh-water, and
one land-shell, which have apparently come here as colonists
from the central islands of the Pacific, and likewise the one
distinct Pacific species of the Galapageian groups of finches,
we see that this archipelago, though standing in the Pacific
Ocean, is zoologically part of America.

If this character were owing merely to immigrants from
America there would be little remarkable in it ; but we
see that a vast majority of all the land animals, and that
more than half of the flowering plants, are aboriginal pro-
ductions. It was most striking to be sun-ounded by new
birds, new reptiles, new shells, new insects, new plants,
and yet by innumerable trifling details of structure, and
even by the tones of voice and plumage of the birds, to
have the temperate plains of Patagonia, or the hot dry
plains of Northern Chile, vividly brought before my eyes.
Why, on these small points of land, which within a late
geological period must have been covered by the ocean,
which are formed of basaltic lava, and therefore differ in
geological character from the American continent, and
which are placed under a peculiar climate, — why were their
aboriginal inhabitants, associated, I may add, in different
proportions, both in kind and number, from those on the

398

DIFFERENCE IN SPECIES

continent, and therefore acting on each other in a different
manner, — why were they created on American types of
organisation ? It is probable that the islands of the Ca})e
de Verd group resemble, in all their physical conditions,
far more closely the Galapagos islands than these latter
physically resemble the coast of America ; yet the aboriginal
inhabitants of the two groups are totally unlike — those of
the Cape de Verd Islands bearing the impress of Africa, as
the inhabitants of the Galapagos Archipelago are stamped
with that of America.

I have not as yet noticed by far the most remarkable
feature in the natural history of this archipelago : it is,
that the different islands to a considerable extent are in-
habited by a different set of beings. My attention was
first called to this fact by the Vice-Governor, Mr Lawson,
declaring that the tortoises differed from the different islands
and that he could with certainty tell from which island
any one was brought. I did not for some time pay sufficient
attention to this statement, and I had already partially
mingled together the collections from two of the islands.
I never dreamed that islands, about fifty or sixty miles
apart, and most of them in sight of each other, formed of
precisely the same rocks, placed under a quite similar climate,
rising to a nearly equal height, would have been differently
tenanted ; but we shall soon see that this is the case. It
is the fate of most voyagers, no sooner to discover what
is most interesting in any locality, than they are hurried
from it ; but I ought, perhaps, to be thankful that I obtained
sufficient materials to establish this most remarkable fact
in the distribution of organic beings.

The inhabitants, as I have said, state that they can dis-
tinguish the tortoise from the different islands ; and that
they differ not only in size, but in other characters. Captain
Porter has described* those from Charles and from the
nearest island to it — namely. Hood Island — as having their
shells in front thick and turned up like a Spanish saddle ;
whilst the tortoises from James Island are rounder, blacker,
and have a better taste Avhen cooked. M. Bibron, however,

* Voyage in the U.S. ship "Essex,” vol. i. p. 215.

DIFFERENCE IN SPECIES

m

informs me that he has seen what he considers two distinct
species of tortoise from the Galapagos, but he does not know
from which islands. The specimens that I brought from
three islands were young ones ; and probably owing to
this cause, neither Mr Gray nor myself coidd find in them
any sjiecific differences. I have remarked that the marine
Amblyrhynchua was larger at Albemarle Island than else-
where ; and M. Bibron informs me that he has seen
two distinct aquatic species of this genus ; so that the
different islands probably had their representative species
or races of the Amblyrhynchiis, as well as of the tortoise.
My attention was first thoroughly aroused by comparing
together the numerous specimens, shot by myself and
several other parties on board, of the mocking -thrushes,
when, to my astonishment, I discovered that all those from
Charles Island belonged to one species (^Mimus trifasciatus) ;
all from Albemarle Island to M. parvulus ; and all from
James and Chatham Islands (between which two other
islands are situated, as connecting links) belonged to M.
melanotis. These two latter species are closely allied, and
would by some ornithologists be considered as only well-
marked races or varieties ; but the Mimas trifascialus is very
distinct. Unfortunately most of the specimens of the finch
tribe w'ere mingled together ; but I have strong reasons to
suspect that some of the species of the sub-group Geospiza are
confined to separate islands. If the different islands have
their representatives of Geospiza, it may help to explain
the singularly large number of the species of this sub-group
in this one small archipelago, and as a probable consequence
of their numbers, the perfectly-graduated series in the size
I of their beaks. Tw'o species of the sub-group Cactomis, and
I two of Camarhynchus, were procured in the archipelago ; and
of the numerous specimens of these two sub-groups shot by
four collectors at James Island, all were found to belong
to one species of each ; whereas the numerous specimens
shot either on Chatham or Charles Island (for the two sets
were mingled together) all belonged to the two other
species ; hence we may feel almost sure that these islands
possess their representative species of these two sub-groups.
In land-shells this law of distribution does not appear to
f hold good. In my very small collection of insects, Mr

I

’»

J

400

DIFFERENCE IN SPECIES

Waterhouse remarks, that of those which were ticketed
with their locality not one was common to any two of the
islands.

If w'e now turn to the Flora, we shall find the aboriginal
plants of the different islands wonderfully different. I give
all the following results on the high authority of my friend
Dr J. Hooker. I may premise that I indiscriminately col-
lected everything in flower on the different islands, and
fortunately kept my eollections separate. Too much con-
fidence, howevei-, must not be placed in the proportional
results, as the small collections, brought home by some other
naturalists, though in some respects confirming the result,
plainly shows that much remains to be done in the botany
of this group ; the Leguminosce, moreover, have as yet been
only approximately worked out : —

Name

of

Island.

Total
No. of
Species.

No. of
Species
found in
other parts
of the world.

No. of
Species
confined to
the Galapa-
gos Archi-
pelago.

No. con*
fined to
the one
island.

No. of Species
confined to the
Galapagos
Archipelago, but
found on more
than the one
island.

James Island . .

71

33

38

30

8

Albemarle Island.

46

18

26

22

4

Chatham Island .

32

16

16

12

4

Charles Island

68

39

(or 29, if
the prob-
ably im-
ported
plants be
subtracted.

29

21

8

Hence we have the truly wonderful fact that in James
Island, of the thirty-eight Galapageian plants, or those found
in no other part of the world, thirty are exclusively confined
to this one island ; and in Albemarle Island, of the twenty-
six aboriginal Galapageian plants, twenty-two are confined
to this one island — that is, only four are at present known
to grow in the other islands of the archipelago ; and so on,
as shown in the above table with the plants from Chatham

DIFFERENCE IN SPECIES

■101

and Charles Islands. This fact will, perhaps, be rendered
even more striking by giving a few illustrations : — thus
Scalesia, a remarkable arborescent genus of the Composiia;,
is confined to the archipelago ; it has si.v species : one from
Chatham, one from Albemarle, one from Charles Island, two
from James Island, and the sixth from one of the three latter
islands, but it is not known from which ; not one of these
six species grows on any two islands. Again, Euphorbia, a
mundane or widely-distributed genus, has here eight .species,
of which seven are confined to the archipelago, and not one
found on any two islands ; Acalypha and Borreria, both mun-
dane genera, have respectively six and seven species, none
of which have the same species on two islands, with the
exception of one Borreria, which does occur on two islands.
The species of the Composiia; are particularly local ; and
Dr Hooker has furnished me with several other most strik-
ing illustrations of the difference of the .species on the differ-
ent islands. He remarks that this law of distribution holds
good, both with those genera confined to the archipelago,
and those distributed in other quarters of the world : in
like manner we have seen that the different islands have
their proper species of the mundane genus of tortoise, and
of the widely-distributed American genus of the mocking-
thrush, as well as of two of the Galapageian sub-groups
of finches, and almost certainly of the Galapageian genus
A mblyrhpnchus.

The distribution of the tenants of this archipelago would
not be nearly so wonderful if, for instance, one island had
a mocking -thrush, and a second island some other quite
distinct genus : if one island had its genus of lizard, and
a second island another distinct genus, or none whatever ;
or if the different islands were inhabited, not by representa-
tive species of the same genera of plants, but by totally
different genera, as does to a certain extent hold good ; for,
to give one instance, a large berry-bearing tree at James
Island had no representative species in ChaiJes Island. But
it is the circumstance that several of the islands possess
their own species of the tortoise, mocking-thrush, finches,
and numerous plants, these species having the same general
habits, occupying analogous situations, and obviously filling
the same place in the natural economy of this archipelago,

2 c

402

GALAPACJOS ARCHIPELAGO

that strikes me with wonder. It may be suspected that
some of these representative species, at least in the case
of the tortoise and of some of the birds, may liereafter
pi’ove to be only well-marked races ; but this would be of
equally great interest to the philosophical naturalist. I have
said that most of the islands are in sight of each other ; I
may specify that Charles Island is fifty miles from the nearest
part of Chatham Island, and thirty - three miles from the
nearest part of Albemarle Island. Chatham Island is sixty
miles from the nearest part of James Island, but there are
two intermediate islands between them which were not
visited by me. James Island is only ten miles from the
nearest part of Albemarle Island, but the two points where
the collections Avere made are thirty-two miles apart. I must
repeat, that neither the nature of the soil, nor height of
the land, nor the climate, nor the general character of the
associated beings, and therefore their action one on another,
can differ much in the different islands. If there be any
sensible difference in their climates, it must be between the
windward group — namely, Charles and Chatham Islands — and
that to leeward ; but there seems to be no corresponding
difference in the productions of these two halves of the
archipelago.

The only light which I can throw on this remarkable
difference in the inhabitaivts of the different islands is,
that very strong currents of the sea running in a Avesterly
and W.N.W. direction must separate, as far as transportal
by the sea is concerned, the southern islands from the
northern ones ; and between these northern islands a strong
N.W. current was observed, which must effectually separate
James and Albemarle Islands. As the archipelago is free
to a most remarkable degree from gales of wind, neither
the birds, insects, nor lighter seeds would be bloAvn from
island to island. And lastly, the profound depth of the
ocean, between the islands, and their apparently recent (in
a geological sense) volcanic origin, render it highly un-
likely that they were ever united : and this, probably, is
a far more imjAortant consideration than any other, with
respeet to the geographical distribution of their inhabitants.
Reviewing the facts here given, one is astonished at the
amount of creative force, if such an expression may be used.

GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO

403

displayed on these small, barren, and rocky islands ; and
still more so at its diverse yet analogous action on points so
near each other. I have said that the Galapagos Archipelago
might be called a satellite attached to America, but it should
rather be called a gi-oup of satellites, physically similar,
organically distinct, yet intimately related to each other,
and all related in a mai’ked, though much lesser degree,
to the great American continent.

I will conclude my description of the natural history of
these islands by giving an account of the extreme tameness of
the birds.

This disposition is common to all the terrestrial species —
namely, to the mocking-thrushes, the finches, wrens, tyrant
fly-catchers, the dove, and carrion-buzzard. All of them
often approached sufficiently near to be killed with a switch,
and sometimes, as I myself tried, with a cap or hat. A
gun is here almost superfluous ; for with the muzzle I pushed
a hawk off the branch of a tree. One day, whilst lying
down, a mocking-thrush alighted on the edge of a pitcher,
made of the shell of a tortoise, Avhich I held in my hand,
and began very quietly to sip the water ; it allowed me
to lift it from the ground whilst seated on the vessel : I
often tried, and very nearly succeeded, in catching these
birds by their legs. Formerly the birds appear to have
been even tamer than at present. Cowley (in the year
1684) says that the “Turtle-doves were so tame, that they
would often alight upon our hats and arms, so as that we
could take them alive : they not fearing man, until such
time as some of our company did fire at them, whereby
they were rendered more shy.” Dampier also, in the same
year, says that a man in a morning’s walk might kill six
or seven dozen of these doves. At present, although certainly
very tame, they do not alight on people’s arms, nor do they
suffer themselves to be killed in such large numbers. It is
surprising that they have not become wilder ; for these
islands during the last hundred and fifty years have been
frequently visited by buccaneers and whalers ; and the sailors,
wandering through the woods in search of tortoises, always
take cruel delight in knocking down the little birds.

These birds, although now still more persecuted, do not

404

GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO

readily become wild : in Charles Island, which had then been
colonised about six years, 1 saw a boy sitting by a well with a
switch in his hand, with which he killed the doves and finches
as they came to drink. He had already procured a little heap
of them for his dinner ; and he said that he had constantly
been in the habit of waiting by this well for the same
purpose. It would appear that the birds of this archipelago,
not having as yet learnt that man is a more dangerous animal
than the tortoise or the Amhlyrliynchus, diregard him, in the
same manner as in England shy birds, such as magpies,
disregard the cows and horses grazing in our fields.

The Falkland Islands offer a second instance of birds with a
similar disposition. The extraordinaiy tameness of the little
Opetiorhynchiis has been remarked by Pernety, Lesson, and
other voyagers. It is not, however, peculiar to that bird :
the Folyborus, snipe, upland and lowland goose, thrush,
bunting, and even some true hawks, are all more or less tame.
As the birds are so tame there, where foxes, hawks, and owls
occur, we may infer that the absence of all rapacious animals
at the Galapagos is not the cause of their tameness here.
The upland geese at the Falklands show, by the precaution
they take in building on the islets, that they are aware of their
danger from the foxes ; but they are not by this rendered
wild towards man. This tameness of the birds, especially of
the water-fowl, is strongly contrasted with the habits of the
same species in Tierra del Fuego, where for ages past they
have been persecuted by the wild inhabitants. In the
Falklands, the sportsman may sometimes kill more of the
upland geese in one day than he can carry home ; whereas, in
Tierra del Fuego, it is nearly as difficult to kill one as it is in
England to shoot the common wild goose.

In the time of Pernety (1763), all the birds there appear to
have been much tamer than at present : he states that the
Opetiorhynchiis would almost perch on his finger ; and that
with a wand he killed ten in half-an-hour. At that period
the birds must have been about as tame as they now are at
the Galapagos. They appear to have learnt caution more
slowly at these latter islands than at the Falklands, where
they have had proportionate means of experience ; for besides
frequent visits from vessels, those islands have been at
intervals colonised during the entire })eriod. Even formerly.

GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO

405

when all the birds w'ere so taniCj it was impossible^ by Pernety’s
account, to kill the black-necked swan — a bird of passage,
which probably brought wdth it the wisdom learnt in foreign
countries.

I may add that, according to Du Bois, all the birds at
Bourbon in 1571-72, with the exception of the flamingoes and
geese, w'ere so extremely tame, that they could be caught by
the hand, or killed in any number with a stick. Again, at
Tristan d’Acunha in the Atlantic, Carmichael * states that the
only two land-birds, a thrush and a bunting, were “ so tame
as to suffer themselves to be caught with a hand-net.” From
these several facts we may, I think, conclude, first, that the
wildness of birds with regard to man is a particular instinct
directed against hhn, and not dependent on any general degree
of caution arising from other sources of danger ; secondly,
that it is not accpiired by individual birds in a short time, even
when much persecuted ; but that in the course of successive
generations it becomes hereditary. With domesticated
animals we are accustomed to see new mental habits or
instincts acquired and rendered hereditary ; but with animals
in a state of nature, it must always be most difficult to dis-
cover instances of acquired hereditary knowledge. In regard
to the wildness of birds towards man, there is no way of
accounting for it, except as an inherited habit : comparatively
few young birds, in any one year, have been injured by man
in England, yet almost all, even nestlings, are afraid of him ;
many individuals, on the other hand, both at the Galapagos
and at the Falklands, have been pursued and injured by man,
but yet have not learned a salutary dread of him. We may
infer from these facts what havoc the introduction of any
new beast of prey must cause in a country before the
instincts of the indigenous inhabitants have become adapted
to the stranger’s craft or pow'er.

* Li miean Tra?isactious, vol. xii. p. 496. The most anomalous fact on
this subject which I have met with, is the wildness of the small birds in the
Arctic parts of North America (as described by Richardson, Fauna Bor.,
vol. ii. p. 332), where they are said never to be persecuted. This case is
the more strange, because it is asserted that some of the same species in
their winter-quarters in the United States are tame. There is much as Dr
Richardson well remarks, utterly inexplicable connected with the different
degrees of shyness and care with which birds conceal their nests, flow
strange it is that the English wood-pigeon, generally so w'ild a bird, should
very frequently rear its young in shrubberies close to houses..

CHAPTER XVIII

TAHITI AND NEW ZEALAND

PASS THROUGH THE LOW ARCHIPELAGO TAHITI ASPECT

VEGETATION ON THE MOUNTAINS VIEW OF EIMOE EX-
CURSION INTO THE INTERIOR PROFOUND RAVINES SUCCES-
SION OF WATERFALLS NUMBER OF WILD USEFUL PLANTS

TEMPERANCE OF THE INHABITANTS THEIR MORAL STATE

PARLIAMENT CONVENED NEW ZEALAND— BAY OF ISLANDS

HIPPAHS— EXCURSION TO WAIMATE MISSIONARY ESTABLISH-
MENT—ENGLISH WEEDS NOW RUN WILD WAIOMIO

FUNERAL OF A NEW ZEALAND WOMAN SAIL FOR AUSTRALIA.

CTOBER 20th. — The survey of the Galapagos
Archipelago being concluded^ we steered to-
wards Tahiti and commenced our long passage
of 3200 miles. In the course of a few days we
sailed out of the gloomy and clouded ocean
district which extends during the winter far from the coast of
South America. We then enjoyed bright and clear weather,
while ininning pleasantly along at the rate of 150 or l60 miles
a day before the steady trade-wind. The temperature in this
more central part of the Pacific is higher than near the
American shore. The thermometer in the poop cabin, by
night and day, ranged between 80° and 83°, which feels very
pleasant ; but with one degree or two higher, the heat
becomes oppressive. We passed through the Low or Danger-
ous Archipelago, and saw several of those most curious rings
of coral land, just rising above the water’s edge, which have
been called Lagoon Islands. A long and brilliantly-white
beach is capped by a margin of green vegetation ; and the
strip, looking either way, rapidly narrows away in the
distance and sinks beneath the horizon. From the mast-
head a wide expanse of smooth water can be seen within the
ring. These low hollow coral islands bear no proportion to
406

1

TAHITI

407

the vast ocean out of wliicli they abruptly rise ; and it seems
wonderful that such weak invaders are not overwhelmed by
the all-powerful and never-tiring waves of that great sea,
miscalled the Pacific.

November \5l/i. — At daylight, Tahiti, an island which must
for ever remain classical to the voyager in the South Sea, was
in view. At a distance the appearance was not attractive.
The luxuriant vegetation of the lower part could not yet be
seen, and as the clouds rolled past, the wildest and most
precipitous peaks showed themselves towards the centre of
the island. As soon as we anchored in Matavai Bay, we were
surrounded by canoes. This was our Sunday, but the Monday
of Tahiti ; if the case had been reversed, we should not
have received a single visit ; for the injunction not to launch
a canoe on the Sabbath is rigidly obeyed. After dinner we
landed to enjoy all the delights produced by the first im-
pressions of a new country, and that country the charming
Tahiti. A crowd of men, women, and children was collected
on the memorable Point Venus, ready to receive us with
laughing, merry faces. They mai'shalled us towards the
house of Mr Wilson, the missionaiy of the district, who met
us on the road, and gave us a very friendly reception. After
sitting a short time in his house, we separated to walk about,
but returned there in the evening.

The land capable of cultivation is scarcely in any part more
than a fringe of Ioav alluvial soil, accumulated round the base
of the mountains, and protected from the waves of the sea
by a coral reef, which encircles the entire line of coast.
Within the reef there is an expanse of smooth water, like that
of a lake, where the canoes of the natives can ply with safety
and where ships anchor. The low land which comes down to
the beach of coral-sand, is covered by the most beautiful
productions of the intertropical regions. In the midst of
bananas, orange, cocoa-nut, and bread-fruit trees, spots are
cleared where yams, sweet potatoes, the sugar-cane, and
pine-apples are cultivated. Even the brushwood is an
imported fruit-tree — namely, the guava — which from its
abundance has become as noxious as a weed. In Brazil I
have often admired the varied beauties of the bananas, palms,
and orange-trees contrasted together ; and here we also have
the bread-fruit, conspicuous from its large, glossy, and deeply

410

VIEW OF EIMEO

offered 800 dollars (about l60 pounds sterling) for a small
vessel ; and frequently they purchase whale-boats and horses
at the rate of from 50 to 100 dollars.

After breakfast I went on shore, and ascended the nearest
slope to a height of between two and three thousand feet.
The outer mountains are smooth and conical, but steep ; and
the old volcanic rocks, of which they are formed, have been
cut through by many profound ravines, diverging from the
central broken parts of the island to the coast. Having
crossed the narrow low girt of inhabited and fertile land, I
followed a smooth steep ridge between two of the deep ravines.
The vegetation was singular, consisting almost exclusively of
small dwarf ferns, mingled, higher up, with coarse grass ; it
was not very dissimilar from that on some of the Welsh hills,
and this so close above the orchard of tropical plants on the
coast was very surprising. At the highest point which I
reached trees again appeared. Of the three zones of com-
parative luxuriance, the lower one owes its moisture, and
therefore fertility, to its flatness ; for, being scarcely raised
above the level of the sea, the water from the higher land
drains away slowly. The intermediate zone does not, like the
upper one, reach into a damp and cloudy atmosphere, and
therefore i-emains sterile. The woods in the upper zone are
very pretty, ti'ee-ferns replacing the cocoa-nuts on the coast.
It must not, however, be supposed that these woods at all
equal in splendour the forests of Brazil. The vast number of
productions which characterise a continent cannot be expected
to occur in an island.

J'rom the highest point which I attained there was a good
view of the distant island of Eimeo, dependent on the same
sovereign with Tahiti. On the lofty and broken pinnacles
white massive clouds were piled up, which formed an island
in the blue sky, as Eimeo itself did in the blue ocean. The
island, with the exception of one small gateway, is completely
encircled by a reef. At this distance a narrow' but well-
defined brilliantly white line was alone visible, where the
waves first encountered the wall of coral. The mountains
rose abruptly out of the glassy expanse of the lagoon included
within this narrow white line, outside which the heaving
w'aters of the ocean were dark-coloured. The view was
striking : it may aptly be com25ared to a framed engraving.

EIMEO, AND BARRIER-KEEE. yj'o JacC p. 39O.

TAHITI

41 1

where the frame represents the breakers, the marginal paper
the smooth lagoon, and tlie drawing tlie island itself. Wdien
in the evening I descended from the mountain, a man, whom
I had pleased with a trifling gift, met me, bringing with him
hot roasted bananas, a pine-apple, and cocoa-nuts. After
walking under a burning sun, I do not know anything more
delicious than the milk of a young cocoa-nut. Pine-apples
are here so abundant that the people eat them in the same
wasteful manner as we might turniiis. They are of an excel-
lent flavour — perhaps even better than those cultivated in
England ; and this I believe is the highest compliment which
can be paid to any fruit. Before going on board, Mr Wilson
interpreted for me to the Tahitian who had paid me so adroit
an attention that I wanted him and another man to accom-
pany me on a short excursion into the mountains.

November \Sth. — In the morning I came on shore early,
bringing with me some provisions in a bag, and two blankets
for myself and servant. These were lashed to each end of a
long pole, which was alternately carried by my Tahitian com-
panions on their shoulders. These men are accustomed thus
to carry, for a w'hole day, as much as fifty pounds at each end
of their poles. I told my guides to provide themselves with
food and clothing ; but they said that there was plenty of food
in the mountains, and for clothing, that their skins were
sufficient. Our line of march was the valley of Tia-auru, down
which a river flows into the sea by Point Venus. This is one
of the principal streams in the island, and its source lies at the
base of the loftiest central pinnacles, which rise to a height of
about 7000 feet. The whole island is so mountainous that the
only way to penetrate into the interior is to follow up the
valleys. Our road at first lay through woods which bordered
each side of the river ; and the glimpses of the lofty central
peaks, seen as through an avenue, with here and there a
waving cocoa-nut tree on one side, were extremely picturesque.
The valley soon began to narrow, and the sides to grow lofty
and more precipitous. After having walked between three and
four hours, we found the width of the ravine scarcely exceeded
that of the bed of the stream. On each hand the walls were
nearly vertical ; yet from the soft nature of the volcanic strata,
trees and rank vegetation sprang from every projecting ledge.
Tliese precipices must have been some thousand feet high ; and

412

TAHITI

the whole formed a mountain gorge far more magnificent than
anything which I had ever before beheld. Until the mid-day
sun stood vertically over the ravine^ the air felt cool and damp,
but now it became veiy sultry. Shaded by a ledge of rock,
beneath a fac^ade of columnar lava, we ate our dinner. My
guides had already procured a dish of small fish and fresh-
water prawns. They carried with them a small net stretched
on a hoop ; and where the water was deep and in eddies,
they dived, and, like otters, with their eyes open, followed
the fish into holes and corners, and thus caught them.

The Tahitians have the dexterity of amphibious animals in
the watei’. An anecdote mentioned by Ellis shows how much
they feel at home in this element. When a horse was landing
for Pomare in 1817, the slings broke, and it fell into the
water ; immediately the natives j umped ovei’board, and by
their cries and vain efforts at assistance almost di'owned it. As
soon, however, as it reached the shore, the whole population
took to flight, and tried to hide themselves from the man-
carrying pig, as they christened the horse.

A little higher up the river divided itself into three little
streams. The two northern ones were impracticable, owing
to a succession of waterfalls which descended from the jagged
.summit of the highest mountains ; the other to all appearance
was equally inacces.sible, but we managed to ascend it by a
most extraordinary road. The sides of the valley were here
nearly precipitous ; but, as frequently happens with stratified
rocks, small ledges projected, which were thickly covered by
wild bananas, liliaceous plants, and other luxui’iant productions
of the tropics. The Tahitians, by climbing amongst these
ledges, searching for fruit, had discovered a track by which the
whole precipice could be scaled. The fiivst ascent from the
valley was very dangerous ; for it was necessary to pass a
steeply-inclined face of naked rock by the aid of ropes which
we brought with us. How any person discovered that this
formidable spot was the only point w'here the side of the
mountain was practicable, I cannot imagine. We then
cautiously walked along one of the ledges till we came to one
of the tihree streams. This ledge formed a flat spot, above
which a beautiful cascade, some hundred feet in height,
poured down its waters, and beneath, another high cascade
fell into the main stream in the valley below. From this cool

TAHITI

413

and shady recess we made a circuit to avoid the overhanging
watei'fall. As before, we followed little projecting ledges, the
danger being partly concealed by the thickness of the vegeta-
tion. In passing from one of the ledges to another there was
a vertical wall of rock. One of the Tahitians, a fine active
man, placed the trunk of a tree against this, climbed up it,
and then by the aid of crevices reached the summit. He
fixed the ropes to a projecting point, and lowered them for
our dog and luggage, and then we clambered up ourselves.
Beneath the ledge on which the dead tree was placed the
precipice must have been five or six hundred feet deep ; and
if the abyss had not been partly concealed by the over-
hanging ferns and lilies my head would have turned giddy,
and nothing should have induced me to have attempted it.
We continued to ascend, sometimes along ledges, and some-
times along knife-edged ridges, having on each hand profound
ravines. In the Cordillera I have seen mountains on a far
grander scale, but for abruptness, nothing at all comparable
with this. In the evening we reached a flat little spot on the
banks of the same stream which we had continued to follow,
and which descends in a chain of waterfalls : here we
bivouacked for the night. On each side of the ravine there
were great beds of the mountain-banana, covered with ripe
fruit. Many of these plants were from twenty to twenty-five
feet high, and from three to four in circumference. By the
aid of strips of bark for rope and the stems of bamboos for
rafters and the large leaf of the banana for a thatch, the
Tahitians in a few minutes built us an excellent house ; and
with withered leaves made a soft bed.

They then proceeded to make a fii’e and cook our evening
meal. A light was procured by rubbing a blunt-pointed stick
in a groove made in another, as if with the intention of
deepening it, until by the friction the dust became ignited.
A j)eculiarly white and very light wood (the Hibiseus tiliaceus)
is alone used for this purpose : it is the same which serves for
poles to caiTy any burden, and for the floating outriggers to
their canoes. The fire was produced in a few seconds ; but to
a person who does not understand the art it requires, as I
found, the greatest exertion ; but at last, to my great pride, I
succeeded in igniting the dust. The Gaucho in the Pampas
uses a different method . taking an elastic stick about eighteen

414

TAHITI

inches long, he presses one end on his breast, and the other
pointed end into a hole in a piece of wood, and then rapidly
turns the curved part, like a carpenter’s centre-bit. The
Tahitians, having made a small fire of sticks, placed a score of
stones, of about the size of cricket-balls, on the burning wood.
In about ten minutes the sticks wei’e consumed, and the
.stones hot. They had pi’eviously folded up in small parcels of
leaves, pieces of beef, fish, ripe and unripe bananas, and the
tops of the wild arum. These green parcels were laid in a
layer between two layers of the hot stones, and the hole then
covered up with earth, so that no smoke or steam could escape.
In about a quarter of an hour, the whole was most deliciously
cooked. The choice green parcels were now laid on a cloth
of banana leaves, and with a cocoa-nut shell we drank the
cool water of the running stream ; and thus we enjoyed our
rustic meal.

I could not look on the suiTounding plants without admu*a-
tion. On every side were forests of banana ; the fruit of
which, though seiwing for food in various ways, lay in heaps
decaying on the gi’ound. In front of us there was an exten-
sive brake of wild sugar-cane ; and the stream was shaded by
the dark-green knotted stem of the ava, — so famous in former
days for its powerful intoxicating effects. I chewed a piece,
and found that it had an acrid and unpleasant taste, which
would have induced any one at once to have pronounced it
poisonous. Thanks to the missionaries, this plant now thrives
only in these deep ravines, innocuous to every one. Close by
I saw the wild arum, the roots of which, when well baked, are
good to eat, and the young leaves better than spinach. There
was the Avild yam, and a liliaceous plant called Ti, Avhich
grows in abundance, and has a soft brown root, in shape and
size like a huge log of wood : this served us for dessert, for it
is as sweet as treacle, and with a pleasant taste. There were,
moreover, several other wild fruits and useful vegetables.
The little stream, besides its cool water, produced eels and
cray-fish. I did indeed admire this scene, when I compared
it with an uncultivated one in the temperate zones. I felt
the force of the remark, that man, at least saA^age man, Avith
his reasoning powers only partly developed, is the child of the
tropics.

As the evening drew to a close, I strolled beneiith the

TEMPERANCE OF THE NATIVES

■Hf)

gloomy shade of the bananas up the course of the stream.
My walk w'as soon brought to a close by coming to a waterfall
between two and three hundred feet high ; and again above
this there was another. I mention all these waterfalls in this
one brook, to give a general idea of the inclination of the
land. In the little recess where the water fell, it did not
appear that a breath of wind had ever blown. The thin edges
of the great leaves of the banana, damp with spray, were
unbroken, instead of being, as is so generally the case, split
into a thousand shreds. From our position, almost suspended
on the mountain-side, there were glimpses into the depths of
the neighbouring valleys ; and the lofty points of the central
mountains, towering up within sixty degrees of the zenith,
hid half the evening sky. Thus seated, it w'as a sublime
spectacle to watch the shades of night gradually obscuring the
last and highest pinnacles.

Before we laid ourselves down to sleep, the elder Tahitian
fell on his knees, and with closed eyes repeated a long prayer
in his native tongue. He prayed as a Christian should do,
with fitting reverence, and without the fear of ridicule or any
ostentation of piety. At our meals neither of the men would
taste food without saying beforehand a short grace. Those
travellers who think that a Tahitian prays only when the
eyes of the missionary are fixed on him should have slept
with us that night on the mountain-side. Before morning it
rained very heavily ; but the good thatch of banana-leaves
kept us dry.

November \Qth. — At daylight my friends, after their morning
prayer, prepared an excellent breakfast in the same manner
as in the evening. They themselves certainly partook of it
largely ; indeed I never saw any men eat near so much. I
suppose such enormously capacious stomachs must be the
effect of a large part of their diet consisting of fruit and
vegetables, which contain, in a given bulk, a comparatively
small portion of nutriment. Unwittingly, I was the means of
my companions breaking, as I afterwards leai-ned, one of their
own laws and resolutions ; I took with me a flask of spirits,
which they could not refuse to partake of ; but as often as
they drank a little, they put their fingers before their mouths,
and uttered the word “ Missionary.” About two years ago,
although the use of the ava was prevented, drunkenness from

•116'

TEMPERANCE OF THE NATIVES

the introduction of spirits became very prevalent. The
missionaries prevailed on a few good men, who saw that
their country was rapidly going to ruin, to join with them in
a Temperance Society. From good sense or shame, all the
chiefs and the queen were at last persuaded to join. Imme-
diately a law was passed that no spirits should be allowed to
be introduced into the island, and that he who sold and he
who bought the forbidden article should be punished by a
fine. With remarkable justice, a certain period was allowed
for stock in hand to be sold, before the law came into effect.
But when it did, a general search was made, in which even
the houses of the missionaries wei’e not exempted, and all the
ava (as the natives call all ardent spirits) was poured on the
ground. When one reflects on the effect of intemperance on
the aborigines of the two Americas, I think it will be ac-
knowledged that every well-wisher of Tahiti owes no common
debt of gratitude to the missionaries. As long as the little
island of St Helena remained under the government of the
East India Company, spirits, owing to the great injury they
had produced, were not allowed to be imported ; but wine was
supplied from the Cape of Good Hope. It is rather a striking,
and not vei-y gratifying fact, that in the same year that spirits
were allowed to be sold in St Helena, their use was banished
from Tahiti by the free will of the people.

After breakfast we proceeded on our joumey. As my
object was merely to see a little of the interior scenery, we
returned by another track, which descended into the main
valley lower down. For some distance we wound, by a most
intricate path, along the side of the mountain which fonned
the valley. In the less precipitous parts we passed through
extensive groves of the wild banana. The Tahitians, with
their naked, tattooed bodies, their heads ornamented with
flowers, and seen in the dark shade of these groves, would
have formed a fine picture of man inhabiting some primeval
land. In our descent we followed the line of ridges ; these
were exceedingly nan-ow, and for considerable lengths steep
as a ladder ; but all clothed with vegetation. The extreme
care necessary in poising each stej) rendered the walk fatigu-
ing. I did not cease to wonder at these ravines and precipices ;
when viewing the country from one of the knife-edged ridges,
the point of support was so small that the effect was nearly

TAHITI

•1.17

the same as it must be from a balloon. In this descent we had
to use roj)es only once, at the point where we entered the main
valley. We slej)t under the same ledge of rock where we had
dined the day before ; the night was fine, but from the depth
and naiTowness of the gorge, profoundly dark.

Before actually seeing this country, I found it difficult to
understand two facts mentioned by Ellis — namely, that after
the murderous battles of former times, the survivors on the
conquered side retired into the mountains, where a handful of
men could resist a multitude. Certainly half-a-dozen men, at
the spot where the Tahitian reared the old tree, could easily
have repulsed thousands. Secondly, that after the introduc-
tion of Christianity, there were wild men who lived in the
mountains, and whose retreats were unknown to the more
ci\dlised inhabitants.

Xovonber 2Qih. — In the morning we started early, and
reached Matavai at noon. On the road we met a large party
of noble athletic men going for wild bananas. 1 found that the
shi{), on account of the difficulty in watering, had moved to
the harbour of Papawa, to which place I immediately walked.
This is a very pretty spot. The cove is sun-ounded by reefs,
and the water as smooth as in a lake. The cultivated ground,
with its beautiful productions, interspersed with cottages,
comes close down to the water’s edge.

From the varying accounts which I had read before reach-
ing these islands, I was very anxious to form, from my own
observation, a judgment of their moral state — although such
judgment would necessarily be very impei'fect. First impres-
sions at all times very much depend on one’s previously
acquired ideas. My notions wei-e drawm from Ellis’s Poly-
nesian Researches — an admirable and most interesting work,
but naturally looking at everything under a favourable point
of view ; from Beechey’s Voyage ; and from that of Kotzebue,
which is strongly adverse to the whole missionary system.
He who compares these three accounts w'ill, I think, form a
tolerably accurate conception of the present state of Tahiti.
One of my impressions, which I took from the two last
authorities, was decidedly incorrect — viz., that the Tahitians
had become a gloomy race, and lived in fear of the mission-
aries. Of the latter feeling I saw no trace, unless, indeed,
fear and respect be confounded imder one name. Instead of

TAHITI

H8

discontent being a common feeling, it would be difficult in
bmrope to pick out of a crowd half so many merry and happy
faces. The prohibition of the flute and dancing is inveighed
against as wrong and foolish — the more than Presbyterian
manner of keeping the Sabbath is looked at in a similar light.
On these points I will not pretend to offer any opinion in
opposition to men who have resided as many years as I was
days on the island.

On the whole, it appears to me that the morality and
religion of the inhabitants are highly creditable. There are
many who attack, even more acrimoniously than Kotzebue,
both the missionai-ies, their system, and the effects produced
by it. Such reasoners never compare the present state with
that of the island only twenty years ago ; nor even with that
of Europe at this day ; but they compare it with the high
standard of Gospel perfection. They expect the missionaries
to effect that which the Apostles themselves failed to do.
Inasmuch as the condition of the people falls short of this
high standard, blame is attached to the missionary, instead of
credit for that which he has effected. They forget, or will not
remember, that human sacrifices, and the power of an idola-
trous priesthood — a system of profligacy unparalleled in any
other part of the world — infanticide a consequence of that
system — bloody wars, where the conquerors spared neither
women nor children — that all these have been abolished ;
and that dishonesty, intemperance, and licentiousness have
been greatly reduced by the introduction of Christianity. In
a voyager to forget these things is base ingratitude ; for
should he chance to be at the point of shipwreck on some
unknown coast, he will most devoutly jjray that the lesson of
the missionary may have extended thus far.

In point of morality, the virtue of the women, it has been
often said, is most open to exception. But before they are
blamed too severely, it will be well distinctly to call to mind
the scenes described by Captain Cook and Mr Banks, in which
the grandmothers and mothers of the present race played a
}iart. Those who are most severe should consider how much
of the morality of the women in Europe is oMing to the system
eai-ly impressed by mothers on their daughters, and how much
in each individual case to the precepts of religion. But it is
useless to argue against such reasoners ; I believe that, dis-

I’A'lAilUA FAl.l,, lAUlll.

\_lo JUCC /. _390.

TAHITI

'll 9

appointed in not finding the field of licentiousness quite so
open as formerly, they will not give credit to a morality which
they do not wish to practise, or to a religion which they under-
value, if not despise.

Sunday, Noi'cmher 22iid. — The harbour of Papiete, where
the queen resides, may be considered as the capital of the
island ; it is also the seat of government, and the chief re-
sort of shipping. Captain Fitz Roy took a party there this
day to hear di\nne service, first in the Tahitian language, and
afterwards in our own. Mr Pritchard, the leading missionary in
the island, performed the service. The chapel consisted of a
large airy framework of wood ; and it was filled to excess by
tidy, clean people, of all ages and both sexes. I was rather
disappointed in the apparent degree of attention ; but I
believe my expectations were raised too high. At all events
the appearance was quite equal to that in a country church in
England. The singing of the hymns was decidedly very
pleasing ; but the language from the pulpit, although fluently
delivered, did not sound w'ell : a constant repetition of words
like “ tala in, mala mat,” rendered it monotonous. After
English service a party returned on foot to Matavai. It w’as
a pleasant walk, sometimes along the sea-beach and sometimes
under the shade of the many beautiful trees.

About two years ago a small vessel under English colours
was plundered by some of the inhabitants of the Low
Islands, which M'ere then under the dominion of the Queen
of Tahiti. It was believed that the perpetrators were
instigated to this act by some indiscreet laws issued by
her majesty. The British Government demanded com-
pensation ; which was acceded to, and a sum of nearly
three thousand dollars was agreed to be paid on the first
of last September. The Commodore at Lima ordered
Captain Fitz Roy to inquire concerning this debt, and to
demand satisfaction if it were not paid. Captain Fitz
Roy accordingly requested an interview w’ith the Queen
Pomare, since fiimous from the ill-treatment she has re-
ceived from the French ; and a parliament w'as held to
consider the question, at which all the principal chiefs of
the island, and the queen, were assembled. I will not
attempt to describe what took place after the interesting
account given by Captain Fitz Roy. The money, it

420

TAHITI

appeared, had not been paid ; perhaps the alleged reasons
wei’e rather equivocal ; but otherwise I cannot sufficiently
express our general surprise at the extreme good sense,
the reasoning powers, moderation, candour, and prompt
resolution, which were displayed on all sides. I believe
we all left the meeting with a very different opinion of
the Tahitians from what we entertained when we entered.
The chiefs and peojde resolved to subscribe and complete
the sum which was wanting ; Captain Fitz Roy urged that
it was hard that their private property should be sacrificed
for the crimes of distant islanders. They replied that
they were grateful for his consideration, but that Pomare
was their Queen, and that they were determined to help
her in this her difficulty. This resolution and its prompt
execution, for a book was opened early the next morning,
made a perfect conclusion to this very remarkable scene
of loyalty and good feeling.

After the main discussion was ended, several of the
chiefs took the opportunity of asking Captain Fitz Roy
many intelligent questions on international customs and
laws, relating to the treatment of ships and foreignei-s.
On some points, as soon as the decision was made, the law
was issued verbally on the spot. This Tahitian parliament
lasted for several hours ; and when it was over Captain
Fitz Roy invited Queen Pomare to pay the Beagle a visit.

November 25th. — In the evening four boats were sent for
her majesty; the ship was dressed with flags, and the
yards manned on her coming on board. She was accom-
panied by most of the chiefs. The behaviour of all was
very proper: they begged for nothing, and seemed much
pleased with Captain Fitz Roy’s presents. The Queen is
a large awkward woman, without any beauty, grace, or
dignity. She has only one royal attribute ; a perfect im-
movability of expression under all circumstances, and that
rather a sullen one. The rockets were most admired ; and
a deep “ Oh ! ” could be heard from the shore, all round
the dark bay, after each explosion. The sailors’ songs
were also much admired ; and the Queen said she thought
that one of the most boisterous ones certainly could not
be a hymn ! The royal party did not return on shore till
past midnight.

NEW ZEALAND

421

Noveniber 26tfi. — In the evening, with a gentle land-
breeze, a course was steered for New Zealand ; and as the
sun set we had a farewell view of the mountains of Tahiti
— the island to which every voyager has offered up his
tribute of admiration.

December \^)ih. — In the evening we saw in the distance
New Zealand. We may now consider that w^e have nearly
crossed the Pacific. It is necessary to sail over this great
ocean to comprehend its immensity. Moving quickly on-
wards for weeks together, we meet with nothing but the same
blue, profoundly deep, ocean. Even within the archipelagoes,
the islands are mere specks, and far distant one from the
other. Accustomed to look at maps drawn on a small
scale, where dots, shading, and names are crowded together,
we do not rightly judge how infinitely small the proportion
of dry land is to the water of this vast expanse. The
meridian of the Antipodes has likewise been passed ; and
now every league, it made us happy to think, was one
league nearer to England. These Antipodes call to one’s
mind old recollections of childish doubt and wonder. Only
the other day I looked forward to this aii-y barrier as a
definite point in our voyage homewards ; but now I find
it and all such resting-places for the imagination are like
shadows, which a man moving onwards cannot catch. A
gale of wind lasting for some days has lately given us full
leisure to measure the future stages in our long homeward
voyage, and to wish most earnestly for its termination.

December 21 5/. — Early in the morning we entered the
Bay of Islands, and being becalmed for some hours near
the mouth, we did not reach the anchorage till the middle
of the day. The country is hilly, with a smooth outline,
and is deeply intersected by numerous arms of the sea
extending fi-om the bay. The surface appears from a dis-
tance as if clothed with coarse pasture, but this in truth is
nothing but fern. On the more distant hills, as well as in
parts of the valleys, there is a good deal of woodland. The
general tint of the landscape is not a bright green ; and
it resembles the country a short distance to the south of
Concepcion in Chile. In several parts of the bay, little
villages of square tidy -looking houses are scattered close
down to the water’s edge. Three whaling ships were lying

NEW ZEALAND

‘t‘22

at anchor, and a canoe every now and then crossed from
shore to shore ; with these exceptions, an air of extreme
quietness reigned over the whole district. Only a single
canoe came alongside. This, and the aspect of the whole
scene, afforded a remarkable and not very pleasing contrast
with our joyful and boisterous welcome at Tahiti.

In the afternoon we went on shore to one of the larger
groups of houses, which yet hardly deserves the title of a
village. Its name is Pahia : it is the residence of the
missionaries ; and there are no native residents except
servants and labourers. In the vicinity of the Bay of
Islands the number of Englishmen, including their families,
amounts to between two and three hundred. All the
cottages, many of which are whitewashed, and look very
neat, are the property of the English. The hovels of the
natives are so diminutive and paltry that they can scarcely
be perceived from a distance. At Pahia it was quite pleasing
to behold the English flowers in the gardens before the
houses ; there were roses of several kinds, honeysuckle,
jasmine, stocks, and whole hedges of sweetbriar.

Dece7nber 227id. — In the morning I went out walking ; but
I soon found that the country was very impracticable. All
the hills are thickly covered with tall fern, together with
a low bush which grows like a cypress ; and very little
ground has been cleared or cultivated. I then tried the
sea-beach ; but pi-oceeding towards either hand, my walk
was soon stopped by salt - water creeks and deep brooks.
The communication between the inhabitants of the different
jiarts of the bay is (as in Chiloe) almost entirely kept iqi
by boats. I was surprised to find that almost every hill
which I ascended had been at some fonner time more
or less fortified. The summits were cut into steps or
successive terraces, and frequently they had been protected
by deep trenches. I afterwards observed that the principal
hills inland in like manner showed an artificial outline.
These are the pahs, so frequently mentioned by Captain
Cook under the name of ‘‘hippah”; the difference of sound
being owing . to the prefixed article.

That the pahs had formerly been much used was evident
from the jnles of shells, and the pits in which, as I was
informed, sweet potatoes used to be kept as a reserve. As

NEW ZEALAND

423

there was no water on these hills, the defenders could
never have anticipated a long siege, but only a hurried
attack for plunder, against which the successive terraces
would have afforded good protection. The general intro-
duction of firearms has changed the whole system of war-
fare ; and an exposed situation on the top of a hill is now
worse than useless. The pahs in consequence are, at the
present day, always built on a level piece of ground. They
consist of a double stockade of thick and tall posts, placed
in a zig-zag line, so that every part can be flanked. Within
the stockade a mound of earth is thrown up, behind which
the defenders can rest in safety, or use their firearms over
it. On the level of the ground little ai'chways sometimes
pass through this breastwork, by which means the defen-
ders can crawl out to the stockade to reconnoitre their
enemies. The Rev. W. Williams, who gave me this account,
added, that in one pahs he had noticed spurs or buttresses
projecting on the inner and protected side of the mound
of earth. On asking the chief the use of them, he replied,
that if two or three of his men were shot, their neighbours
would not see the bodies, and so be discouraged.

These pahs are considered by the New Zealanders as very
perfect means of defence ; for the attacking force is never
so well disciplined as to rush in a body to the stockade,
cut it down, and effect their entry. When a tribe goes
to war, the chief cannot order one party to go here and
another there ; but every man fights in the manner which
best pleases himself ; and to each separate individual to
approach a stockade defended by firearms must appear
certain death. I should think a more warlike race of
inhabitants could not be found in any part of the world
than the New Zealanders. Their conduct on first seeing
a ship, as described by Captain Cook, strongly illustrates
this ; the act of throwing volleys of stones at so great and
novel an object, and their defiance of “Come on shore
and we will kill and eat you all,” shows uncommon bold-
ness. This warlike spirit is evident in many of their
customs, and even in their smallest actions. If a New
Zealander is struck, although but in a joke, the blow must
be returned ; and of this I saw an instance with one of
our officers.

424

NEW ZEALAND

At the present day, from the progress of civilisation,
there is much less warfare, except among some of the
southern tribes. I heard a characteristic anecdote of what
took place some time ago in the south. A missionary
found a chief and his tribe in preparation for war ; — their
muskets clean and bright, and their ammunition ready.
He reasoned long on the inutility of the war, and the little
provocation which had been given for it. The chief was
much shaken in his resolution, and seemed in doubt ; but
at length it occurred to him that a barrel of his gunpowder
was in a bad state, and that it would not keep much longer.
This was brought forward as an unanswerable argument for
the necessity of immediately declaring war; the idea of
allowing so much good gunpowder to spoil was not to be
thought of ; and this settled the point. I was told by the
missionaries that in the life of Shongi, the chief who visited
England, the love of war was the one and lasting spring
of every action. The tribe in which he was a principal
chief had at one time been much oppressed by another
tribe, from the Thames River. A solemn oath was taken
by the men, that when their boys should grow up, and
they should be powerful enough, they would never forget
or forgive these injuries. To fulfil this oath appears to
have been Shongi’s chief motive for going to England ; and
when there it was his sole object. Presents were valued
only as they could be converted into arms ; of the arts, those
alone interested him which were connected with the manu-
facture of arms. When at Sydney, Shongi, by a strange
coincidence, met the hostile chief of the Thames River at
the house of Mr Marsden ; their conduct was civil to each
other; but Shongi told him that when again in New
Zealand he would never cease to cany war into his country.
The challenge was accepted ; and Shongi on his return ful-
filled the threat to the utmost letter. The tribe on the Thames
River was utterly overthrown, and the chief to whom the
challenge had been given was himself killed. Shongi,
although harbouring such deep feelings of hatred and
revenge, is described as having been a good-natured person.

In the evening I went with Captain Fitz Roy and Mr
Baker, one of the missionaries, to pay a visit to Kororadika :
we wandered about the village, and saw and conversed with

TATTOOING

425

many of the people, botli men, women, and children. I-ook-
ing at the New Zealander, one naturally compares him with
the Tahitian ; both belonging to the same family of man.,
kind. The comparison, however, tells heavily against the
New Zealander. He may, perhaps, be superior in energy,
but in every other respect his character is of a much lower
order. One glance at their respective expressions bi-ings
conviction to the mind that one is a savage, the other
a civilised man. It would be vain to seek in the whole
of New Zealand a person with the face and mien of the
old Tahitian chief Utamme. No doubt the extraordinary
manner in which tatooing is here practised gives a disagree-
able expression to their countenances. The complicated
but symmetrical figures covering the whole face, puzzle
and mislead an unaccustomed eye : it is moreover probable,
that the deep incisions, by destroying the play of the super-
ficial muscles, give an air of rigid inflexibility. But, besides
this, there is a twinkling in the eye which cannot indicate
anything but cunning and ferocity. Their figures are tall
and bulky ; but not comparable in elegance with those of
the working-classes in Tahiti.

Both their persons and houses are filthily dirty and offen-
sive ; the idea of washing either their bodies or their clothes
never seems to enter their heads. I saw a chief, who was
wearing a shirt black and matted with filth, and when asked
how it came to be so dirty, he replied, with surprise, “ Do
not you see it is an old one ? ” Some of the men have shirts;
but the common dress is one or two large blankets, generally
black with dirt, which are thrown over their shoulders in a
very inconvenient and awkward fashion. A few of the prin-
cipal chiefs have decent suits of English clothes ; but these
are only worn on great occasions.

December 25rd. — At a jflace called Waimate, about fifteen
miles from the Bay of Islands, and midway between the
eastern and western coasts, the missionaries have purchased
some land for agricultural purposes. I had been introduced
to the Rev. W. Williams, who, ujjon my expressing a wish,
invited me to pay him a visit there. Mr Bushby, the British
resident, offered to take me in his boat by a creek, where I
should see a pretty waterfall, and by which means my walk
would be shortened. He likewise procured for me a guide.

NEW ZEALAND

4'2()

Upon asking a neighbouring cliief to recommend a man, the
chief himself offered to go ; but his ignorance of the value of
money was so complete that at first he asked how many
pounds 1 would give him, but afterwards was well contented
with two dollars. When I showed the chief a very small
bundle, which I wanted carried, it became ab.solutely neces-
sary for him to take a slave. These feelings of pride are
beginning to wear away ; but formerly a leading man would
sooner have died than undergone the indignity of carrying the
smallest burden. My companion was a light, active man,
dressed in a dirty blanket, and with his face completely
tattooed. He had formerly been a great warrior. He ap-
peared to be on very cordial terms with Mr Bushby ; but at
various times they had quarrelled violently. Mr Bushby re-
marked that a little quiet irony w'ould frequently silence any
one of these natives in their most blustering moments. This
chief has come and harangued Mr Bushby in a hectoring
manner, saying, “ A great chief, a great man, a friend of mine,
has come to pay me a visit — you must give him something
good to eat, some fine presents,” etc. Mr Bushby has allowed
him to finish his discourse, and then has quietly replied by
some such answer as, “What else shall your slave do for
you ? ” The man would then instantly, w'ith a veiy comical
expression, cease his braggadocio.

Some time ago Mr Bushby suffered a far more serious
attack. A chief and a party of men tried to break into his
house in the middle of the night, and not finding this so ea.sy,
commenced a brisk firing with their muskets. Mr Bushby
was slightly wounded ; but the party was at length driven
away. Shortly afterwards it w'as discovered who was the
aggressor ; and a general meeting of the chiefs was convened
to consider the case. It was considered by the New Zea-
landers as very atrocious, inasmuch as it w'as a night attack,
and that Mrs Bushby was lying ill in the house ; this latter
circumstance, much to their honour, being considered in all
cases as a protection. The chiefs agreed to confiscate the land
of the aggressor to the King of England. The whole proceed-
ing, however, in thus trying and punishing a chief was entirely
without precedent. The aggressor, moreover, lost caste in the
estimation of his equals ; and this was considered by the
British as of more consequence than the confiscation of his land.

NEW ZEALAND

4.27

As the boat was shoving off, a second chief stepped into
her, who only wanted the amusement of the passage up and
down the creek. I never saw a more horrid and ferocious ex-
pression than this man had. It immediately struck me I had
somewhere seen his likeness ; it will be found in Retzch’s
outlines to Schiller’s ballad of Fridoliii, where two men are
pushing Robert into the burning iron furnace. It is the man
who has his arm on Robert’s breast. Physiognomy here spoke
the truth ; this chief had been a notorious murderer, and was
an arrant coward to boot. At the point where the boat
landed, Mr Bush by accompanied me a few hundred yards on
the road : I could not help admiring the cool impudence of
the hoary old villain, whom we left lying in the boat, when
he shouted to Mr Bushby, ‘‘ Do not you stay long, I shall be
tired of waiting here.”

We now commenced our walk. The road lay along a well-
beaten path, bordered on each side by the tall fern, which
covers the whole country. After travelling some miles we
came to a little country village, where a few hovels were
collected together, and some patches of ground cultivated
with potatoes. The introduction of the potato has been the
most essential benefit to the island ; it is now much more
used than any native vegetable. New Zealand is favoured
by one great natural advantage — namely, that the inhabitants
can never perish from famine. The whole country abounds
with fern ; and the roots of this plant, if not very palatable,
yet contain much nutriment. A native can always subsist on
these, and on the shell-fish, which are abundant on all parts
of the sea-coast. The villages are chiefly conspicuous by the
platforms, which are raised on four posts, ten or twelve feet
above the ground, and on which the 2>roduce of the field is
kept secure from all accidents.

On coming near one of the huts I was much amused by
seeing in due form the ceremony of rubbing, or, as it ought
to be called, pressing noses. The women, on our first
approach, began uttering something in a most dolorous
voice ; they then squatted themselves down and held up
their faces ; my companion standing over them, one after
I another, placing the bridge of his nose at right angles to
I theirs, and commenced pressing. This lasted rather longer
I than a cordial shake of the hand with us ; and as we vary

428

NEW ZEALAND

the force of the grasp of the hand in shakings so do they in
pressing. During the process they uttered comfortable little
grunts, very much in the same manner as two pigs do when
rubbing against each other. I noticed that the slave would
press noses with any one he met, indifferently either before
or after his master the chief. Although among these savages
the chief has absolute power of life and death over his slave,
yet there is an entire absence of ceremony between them.
Mr Burchell has remarked the same thing in Southern Africa,
with the rude Bachapins. Where civilisation has an-ived at a
certain point, complex formalities arise between the different
grades of society : thus at Tahiti all were formerly obliged to
uncover themselves as low as the waist in the presence of the
king.

The ceremony of pressing noses having been duly com-
pleted with all present, we seated ourselves in a circle in the
front of one of the hovels, and rested there half-an-hour. All
the hovels have nearly the same form and dimensions, and
all agree in being filthily dirty. They resemble a cow-shed
with one end open, but having a partition a little way within,
with a square hole in it, making a small gloomy chamber. In
this the inhabitants keep all their property, and when the
weather is cold they sleep there. They eat, however, and
pass their time in the open part in front. My guides having
finished their pipes, we continued our walk. The path led
through the same undulating country, the whole uniformly
clothed as before with fern. On our right hand we had a
serpentine river, the banks of which were fringed with trees,
and here and there on the hillsides there w'as a clump of
wood. The whole scene, in spite of its green colour, had
rather a desolate aspect. The sight of so much fern im-
presses the mind with an idea of sterility ; this, however, is
not correct ; for wherever the fern grows thick and breast-
high, the land by tillage becomes productive. Some of the
residents think that all this extensive open country originally
was covered with forests, and that it has been cleared by
fire. It is said that, by digging in the barest spots, lumps
of the kind of resin which flows from the kauri pine are
frequently found. The natives had an evident motive in
clearing the country ; for the fern, formerly a staple article
of food, flourishes only in the open cleared tracks. The

WAIMATE

almost entire absence of associated grasses, which forms so
remarkable a feature in the vegetation of this island, may
perhaps be accounted for by the land having been aborigin-
ally covered with forest-trees.

The soil is volcanic : in several j)arts we passed over slaggy
lavas, and craters could clearly be distinguished on several of
the neighbouring hills. Although the scenery is nowhere
beautiful, and only occasionally pretty, I enjoyed my walk.
I should have enjoyed it more if my companion, the chief,
had not possessed extraordinary conversational powers. I
knew only three words: “good,” “bad,” and “yes”; and with
these I answered all his remarks, without, of course, having
understood one word he said. This, however, was quite
sufficient : I was a good listener, an agreeable person, and he
never ceased talking to me.

At length we reached Waimate. After having passed over
so many miles of an uninhabited useless country the sudden
appearance of an English farmhouse, and its well-dressed
fields, placed there as if by an enchantei'’s wand, was exceed-
ingly pleasant. Mr Williams not being at home, I received
in Mr Davies’ house a cordial welcome. After drinking tea
with his family party, we took a stroll about the farm. At
Waimate there are three large houses, where the missionary
gentlemen, Messrs Williams, Davies, and Clarke, reside ; and
near them are the huts of the native labourers. On an adjoin-
ing slope, fine crops of barley and wheat were standing in full
ear ; and in another part, fields of potatoes and clover. But
I cannot attempt to describe all I saw ; there were large
gardens, with every fruit and vegetable which England pro-
duces ; and many belonging to a wanner clime. I may
instance asparagus, kidney beans, cucumbers, rhubarb, apples,
pears, figs, peaches, apricots, grapes, olives, gooseberries,
currants, hops, gorse for fences, and English oaks ; also many
kinds of flowers. Around the faraiyard there were stables,
a thrashing-barn with its winnowing machine, a blacksmith’s
forge, and on the ground ploughshares and other tools : in
the middle was that happy mixture of pigs and poultiy, lying
comfortably together, as in every English farmyard. At the
distance of a few hundred yards, where the water of a little
rill had been dammed up into a pool, there was a large and
substantial water-mill.

430

WAIMATE

All this is very surprising, when it is considered that five
years ago nothing but the fern flourished here. Moreover,
native workmanship, taught by the missionaries, has effected
this change ; — tlie lesson of the missionary is the enchanter’s
■wand. 'The house had been built, the windows framed, the
fields ploughed, and even the trees grafted by the New
Zealander. At the mill, a New Zealander was seen powdered
white with flour, like his brother miller in England. When
I looked at this whole scene, I thought it admirable. It was
not merely that England was brought vividly before my mind ;
yet, as the evening drew to a close, the domestic sounds, the
fields of corn, the distant undulating country with its trees
might well have been mistaken for our fatherland : nor was
it the triumphant feeling at seeing what Englishmen could
effect ; but rather the high hopes thus inspired for the future
progress of this fine island.

Several young men, redeemed by the missionaries from
slavery, were employed on the farm. They were dressed in
a shirt, jacket, and trousers, and had a respectable appear-
ance. Judging from one trifling anecdote, I shordd think
they must be honest. When walking in the fields, a young
labourer came up to Mr Davies, and gave him a knife and a
gimlet, saying that he had found them on the road, and did
not know to whom they belonged ! These young men and
boys appeared very mciTy and good-humoured. In the even-
ing I saw a party of them at cricket : when I thought of the
austerity of which the missionaries have been accused, I
was amused by observing one of their own sons taking an
active part in the game. A more decided and pleasing
change was manifested in the young women, who acted as
servants within the houses. Their clean, tidy, and healthy
appearance, like that of dairymaids in England, formed a
wonderful contrast with the women of the filthy hovels in
Kororadika. The wives of the missionaries tried to persuade
them not to be tatooed ; but a famous operator having arrived
from the south, they said, “ We really must just have a few
lines on our lips ; else when we grow old, our lips will shrivel,
and we shall be so very ugly.” There is not nearly so much
tattooing as formerly ; but as it is a badge of distinction
between the chief and the slave, it will pi’obably long be prac-
tised. So soon does any train of ideas become habitual, that

M^\IMATE

4.31

the missionaries told me that even in their eyes a plain face
looked mean, and not like that of a New Zealand gentleman.

Ljite in the evening I went to Mr Williams’ house, where I
passed the night. I found there a large party of children,
collected together for Christmas Day, and all sitting round a
table at tea. I never saAV a nicer or more merry group ; and
to think that this was in the centre of the land of cannibal-
ism, murder, and all atrocious crimes ! The cordiality and
happiness so plainly pictured in the faces of the little circle,
appeared equally felt by the older persons of the mission.

December 2-itli. — In the morning prayers were read in the
native tongue to the whole family. After breakfast I
rambled about the gardens and farm. This was a market-
day, when the natives of the surrounding hamlets bring
their potatoes, Indian corn, or pigs to exchange for blankets,
tobacco, and sometimes, through the persuasions of the
missionaries, for soap. Mr Davies’ eldest son, w’ho manages
a farm of his own, is the man of business in the market.
The children of the missionaries, who came while young to
the island, understand the language better than their parents,
and can get anything more readily done by the natives.

A little before noon Messrs Williams and Davies walked
w'ith me to part of a neighbouring forest, to show me the
famous kauri pine. I measured one of these noble trees, and
found it thirty-one feet in circumference above the roots.
There was another close by, which I did not see, thirty-three
feet ; and I heard of one no less than forty feet. These trees
are remarkable for their smooth cylindrical boles, w’hich run
up to a height of sixty, and even ninety feet, w'ith a nearly
equal diameter, and without a single branch. The crown of
branches at the summit is out of all proportion small to the
trunk ; and the leaves are likewise small compared with the
branches. The forest was here almost composed of the kauri;
and the largest trees, from the parallelism of their sides, stood
up like gigantic columns of wood. The timber of the kauri
is the most valuable production of the island ; moreover, a
quantity of resin oozes from the bark, w'hich is sold at a penny
a pound to the Americans, but its use w'as then unknoAvn.
Some of the New Zealand forests must be impenetrable to an
extraordinary degi-ee. Mr Matthews informed me that one
forest, only thirty-four miles in width, and sej)arating two

432

NEW ZEALAND

inhabited districts, had only lately, for the first time, been
crossed. He and another missionary, each with a party of
about fifty men, undertook to open a road ; but it cost them
more than a fortnight’s labour ! In the w'oods I saw very few
birds. With regard to animals, it is a most remarkable fact
that so lai'ge an island, extending over more than 700 miles
in latitude, and in many parts ninety broad, with varied
stations, a fine climate, and land of all heights, from 14,000
feet downwards, with the exception of a small rat, did not
possess one indigenous animal. The several species of that
gigantic genus of birds, the Deinoriiis, seem here to have
replaced mammiferous quadrupeds, in the same manner as
the reptiles still do at the Galapagos Archipelago. It is said
that the common Norway rat, in the short space of two years,
annihilated in this northern end of the island the New Zealazid
species. In many places I noticed several sorts of w^eeds,
which, like the rats, I was forced to own as countrymen. A
leek has overrun whole districts, and will prove very trouble-
some, but it was imported as a favour by a French vessel.
The common dock is also widely disseminated, and will, I
fear, for ever remain a proof of the rascality of an English-
man, who sold the seeds for those of the tobacco plant.

On returning from our pleasant walk to the house, I dined
with Mr Williams ; and then, a horse being lent me, I returned
to the Bay of Islands. I took leave of the missionaries, with
thankfulness for their kind welcome, and with feelings of
high respect for their gentlemanlike, useful, and upright
characters. I think it would be difficult to find a body of
men better adapted for the high office wdiich they fulfil.

Christmas Day. — In a few more days the fourth year of our
absence from England will be completed. Our first Christmas
Day was spent at Plymouth ; the second at St Martin’s Cove,
near Cape Horn ; the third at Port Desire, in Patagonia ; the
fourth at anchor in a wild harbour in the peninsula of Tres
Montes ; this fifth here ; and the next, I trust in Pro\idence,
will be in England. We attended divine service in the chapel
of Pallia ; part of the service being read in English, and part
in the native language. Whilst at New Zealand we did not
hear of any recent acts of cannibalism ; but Mr Stokes found
burnt human bones strewed round a fireplace on a small island
near the anchorage ; but these remains of a comfortable j

WAIOMIO

433

banquet might have been lying there for several years. It
is probable that the moral state of the people will rapidly
improve. Mr Bushby mentioned one pleasing anecdote as a
proof of the sincerity of some, at least, of those who profess
Christianity. One of his young men left him, who had been
accustomed to read prayers to the rest of the servants. Some
weeks afterwards, happening to pass late in the evening by
an out-house, he saw and heard one of his men reading the
Bible with difficulty by the light of the fire to the others.
After this the party knelt and prayed : in their prayers they
mentioned Mr Bushby and his family, and the missionaries,
each separately in his respective district.

December 26lk. — Mr Bushby offered to take Mr Sulivan and
myself in his boat some miles up the river to Cawa-Cawa ; and
proposed afterwards to walk on to the village of Waiomio,
where there are some curious rocks. Following one of the
arms of the bay, we enjoyed a pleasant row, and passed
through pretty sceneiy, until we came to a village, beyond
which the boat could not pass. From this place a chief and
a party of men volunteered to walk with us to Waiomio, a
distance of four miles. The chief was at this time rather
notorious from having lately hung one of his wives and a slave
for adulteiy. When one of the missionaries remonstrated with
him he seemed surprised, and said he thought he was exactly
following the English method. Old Shongi, who happened
to be in England during the Queen’s trial, expressed great
disapprobation at the whole proceeding : he said he had five
•wives, and he would rather cut off all their heads than be so
much troubled about one. Leaving this village, we crossed
over to another, seated on a hillside at a little distance. The
daughter of a chief, who was still a heathen, had died there
five days before. The hovel in which she had expired had
been burnt to the ground ; her body, being enclosed between
tw'o small canoes, was placed upright on the ground, and pro-
tected by an enclosure bearing wooden images of their gods,
and the whole was painted bright red, so as to be conspicuous
from afar. Her gown was fastened to the coffin, and her hail
being cut off was cast at its foot. The relatives of the family
had tom the flesh off their arms, bodies, and faces, so that
they w'ere covered with clotted blood ; and the old women
looked most filthy, disgusting objects. On the following day

2 E

WAIOMIO

4a4

some of the officers visited this place, and found the women
still howling and cutting themselves.

We continued our walk, and soon reached Waiomio. Here
there are some singular masses of limestone, resembling
ruined castles. These rocks have long served for burial-
places, and in consequence are held too sacred to be ap-
proached. One of the young men, however, cried out,
“ Let us all be brave,” and ran on ahead ; but when within
a hundred yards, the whole party thought better of it, and
stopped short. With perfect indifference, however, they
allowed us to examine the whole place. At this village
we rested some hours, during which time there was a long
discussion with Mr Bushby, concerning the right of sale of
certain lands. One old man, who appeared a perfect gene-
alogist, illustrated the successive possessors by bits of stick
driven into the ground. Before leaving the houses a little
basketful of roasted sAveet potatoes was given to each of our
party ; and we all, according to the custom, carried them away
to eat on the road. I noticed that among the women em-
ployed in cooking there was a man-slave ; it must be a
humiliating thing for a man in this warlike country to be
employed in doing that which is considered as the lowest
woman’s work. Slaves are not allowed to go to war ; but
this, perhaps, can hardly be considered as a hardship. I
heard of one poor wretch, who, during hostilities, ran away
to the opposite party ; being met by two men, he was im-
mediately seized ; but as they could not agree to whom he
should belong, each stood over him with a stone hatchet, and
seemed determined that the other at least should not take
him away alive. The poor man, almost dead with fright, was
only saved by the address of a chief s wife. We afterwards
enjoyed a pleasant walk back to the boat, but did not reach
the ship till late in the evening.

December 30th. — In the afternoon Ave stood out of the Bay
of Islands, on our course to Sydney. I believe Ave AA'ere all
glad to leave New Zealand. It is not a pleasant place.
Amongst the natives there is absent that charming simplicity
Avhich is found at Tahiti ; and the greater part of the English
are the very refuse of society. Neither is the country itself
attractive. I look back but to one bright spot, and that is
Waimate, with its Christian inhabitants.

CHAPTER XIX

AUSTRALIA

SYDNEY EXCURSION TO BATHURST ASPECT OF THE WOODS PARTY

OF NATIVES GRADUAL EXTINCTION OF THE ABORIGINES IN-
FECTION GENERATED BY ASSOCIATED MEN IN HEALTH BLUE

MOUNTAINS VIEW OF THE GRAND GULF-LIKE VALLEYS THEIR

ORIGIN AND FORMATION BATHURST, GENERAL CIVILITY OF

THE LOWER ORDERS STATE OF SOCIETY VAN DIEMEN’s LAND

HOBART TOWN ABORIGINES ALL BANISHED MOUNT WEL-
LINGTON— KING George’s sound — cheerless aspect of the

COUNTRY BALD HEAD, CALCAREOUS CASTS OF BRANCHES OF

TREES PARTY OF NATIVES LEAVE AUSTRALIA.

Patagonia,

ANUARY 12/A, 1836. — Early in the morning a
light air carried us towards the entrance of Port
Jackson. Instead of beholding a verdant country,
interspersed with fine houses, a straight line of
yellowish clift' brought to our minds the coast of
A solitary lighthouse, built of white stone, alone
told us that we were near a great and populous city. Having
entered the harbour, it appears fine and spacious, with cliff-
formed shores of horizontally stratified sandstone. The nearly
level country is covered with thin scrubby trees, bespeaking
the curse of sterility. Proceeding farther inland, the country
improves : beautiful villas and nice cottages are here and
there scattered along the beach. In the distance stone
houses, two and three storeys high, and windmills standing
on the edge of a bank, pointed out to us the neighbourhood
of the capital of Australia.

At last we anchored within Sydney Cove. We found the
little basin occupied by many large ships, and surrounded by
warehouses. In the evening I walked through the town, and
returned full of admiration at the w’hole scene. It is a most
magnificent testimony to the power of the British nation.

435

436

NEW SOUTH WALES

Here, in a less promising country, scores of years have done
many times more than an equal number of centuries have
effected in South America. My first feeling was to congratu-
late myself that I was born an Englishman. Upon seeing
more of the town afterwards, perhajis my admiration fell a
little ; but yet it is a fine town. The streets are regular,
broad, clean, and kept in excellent order ; the houses are
of a good size, and the shops well furnished. It may be
faithfully compared to the large suburbs which stretch out
from London and a few other greaj; towns in England ; but
not even near London or Birmingham is there an appearance
of such rapid growth. The number of large houses and other
buildings just finished was truly surprising ; nevertheless,
every one complained of the high rents and difficulty in pro-
curing a house. Coming from South America, where in the
towns every man of property is known, no one thing surprised
me more than not being able to ascertain at once to whom
this or that carriage belonged.

I hired a man and two horses to take me to Bathurst, a
village about one hundred and twenty miles in the interior,
and the centre of a great pastoral district. By this means I
hoped to gain a general idea of the appearance of the country.
On the morning of the I6th (January) I set out on my ex-
cursion. The first stage took us to Paramatta, a small country
town, next to Sydney in importance. The roads were excel-
lent, and made upon the Macadam principle, whinstone having
been brought for the purpose from the distance of several miles.
In all respects there was a close resemblance to England :
perhaps the alehouses here were more numerous. The iron
gangs, or parties of convicts who have committed here some
offence, appeared the least like England ; they were working
in chains, under the charge of sentries with loaded arms. The
power which the Government possesses, by means of forced
labour, of at once opening good roads throughout the country
has been, I believe, one main cause of the early prosperity of
this colony. I slept at night at a very comfortable inn at
Emu feny, thirty-five miles from Sydney, and near the ascent
of the Blue Mountains. This line of road is the most fre-
quented, and has been the longest inhabited of any in the
colony. The whole land is enclosed with high railings, for
the farmers have not succeeded in rearing hedges. There are

NEW SOUTH WALES

437

many substantial houses and good cottages scattered about ;
but although considerable pieces of land ai‘e under cultivation,
the greater part yet remains as when first discovered.

The extreme uniformity of the vegetation is the most re-
markable feature in the landscape of the greater part of New
South Wales. Everywhere we have an open woodland, the
ground being partially covered with a veiy thin pasture, with
little appearance of verdure. The trees nearly all belong to
one family, and mostly have their leaves placed in a vertical,
instead of, as in Europe, in a nearly horizontal position ; the
foliage is scanty, and of a peculiar pale green tint, without
any gloss. Hence the woods appear light and shadowless ;
this, although a loss of comfort to the traveller under the
scorching rays of summer, is of importance to the farmer,
as it allows grass to grow where it otherwise would not.
The leaves are not shed periodically : this character appeal's
common to the entire southern hemisphere — namely. South
America, Australia, and the Cape of Good Hope. The
inhabitants of this hemisphere, and of the intertropical
regions, thus lose perhaps one of the most glorious, though
to our eyes common, spectacles in the world — the first
bursting into full foliage of the leafless tree. They may,
however, say that we pay dearly for this by having the land
covered with mere naked skeletons for so many months.
This is too true ; but our senses thus acquire a keen relish
for the exquisite green of the spring, which the eyes of
those living within the tropics, sated during the long year
with the gorgeous productions of those glowing climates,
can never experience. The greater number of the trees,
with the exception of some of the blue-gums, do not attain
a large size ; but they grow tall and tolerably straight, and
stand well apart. The bark of some of the eucalijpli falls
annually, or hangs dead in long shreds, which swing about
with the wind, and give to the woods a desolate and untidy
appearance. I cannot imagine a more complete contrast,
in every respect, than between the forests of Valdivia or
Chiloe and the woods of Australia.

At sunset a party of a score of the black aborigines passed
by, each carrying, in their accustomed manner, a bundle of
spears and other weapons. By giving a leading young man
a shilling, they were easily detained, and threw their spears

438

DECREASE OF THE ABORIGINES

for my amusement. They were all partly clothed, and several
could speak a little English ; their countenances were good-
humoured and pleasant, and they appeared far from being
such utterly degraded beings as they have usually been
I’epresented. In their own arts they are admirable. A cap
being fixed at thirty yards distance, they transfixed it with
a speai-, delivered by the throwing-stick with the rapidity
of an arrow from the bow of a practised archer. In tracking
animals or men they show most wonderful sagacity ; and I
heard of several of their remarks which manifested consider-
able acuteness. They will not, however, cultivate the gi'ound,
or build houses and remain stationary, or even take the
trouble of tending a flock of sheep when given to them.
On the whole, they appear to me to stand some few degrees
higher in the scale of civilisation than the Fuegians.

It is very curious thus to see, in the midst of a civilised
people, a set of harmless savages wandering about without
knowing where they shall sleep at night, and gaining their
livelihood by hunting in the woods. As the white man has
travelled onwards, he has spread over the country belonging
to several tribes. These, although thus enclosed by one
common people, keep up their ancient distinctions, and
sometimes go to war with each other. In an engagement
which took place lately, the two parties most singularly
chose the centre of the village of Bathurst for the field of
battle. This was of service to the defeated side, for the
runaway warriors took refuge in the barracks.

The number of aborigines is rapidly decreasing. In my
whole ride, with the exception of some boys brought up
by Englishmen, I saw only one other party. This decrease,
no doubt, must be partly owing to the introduction of spirits,
to European diseases (even the milder ones of which, such
as measles,* prove very destructive), and to the gradual
extinction of the wild animals. It is said that numbers of
their children invariably perish in very early infancy from

* It is remarkable how the same disease is modified in different climates.
At the little island of St Helena, the introduction of scarlet-fever is dreaded
as a plague. In some countries, foreigners and natives are as differently
affected by certain contagious disorders as if they had been different
animals ; of which fact some instances have occurred in Chile, and,
according to Humboldt, in Mexico. {Polii. Essay, New Spatn, vol. iv.)

DECREASE OF THE ABORIGINES

439

the effects of their waiidei’ing life : and as the difficulty of
procuring food increases, so must their wandering habits
increase ; and hence the population, without any apparent
deaths from famine, is repressed in a manner extremely
sudden compared to what happens in civilised countries,
where the father, though in adding to his labour he may
injure himself, does not destroy his offspring.

Besides these several evident causes of destruction, there
appears to be some more mysterious agency generally at
work. Wherever the European has trod, death seems to
pmsue the aboriginal. We may look to the wide extent
of the Americas, Polynesia, the Cape of Good Hope, and
Australia, and w'e find the same result. Nor is it the white
man alone that thus acts the destroyer ; the Polynesian of
Malay extraction has, in parts of the East Indian Archi-
jielago, thus driven before him the dark -coloured native.
The varieties of man seem to act on each other in the
same way as different species of animals — the stronger always
extirpating the weaker. It was melancholy at New Zealand
to hear the fine energetic natives saying that they knew
the land was doomed to pass from their children. Every
one has heard of the inexplicable reduction of the population
in the beautiful and healthy island of Tahiti since the date
of Captain Cook’s voyages : although in that case we might
have expected that it w ould have been increased ; for infanti-
cide, which formerly prevailed to so extraordinaiy a degree,
has ceased, profligacy has greatly diminished, and the mur-
derous wvirs become less frequent.

The Rev. J. Williams, in his interesting work,* says that
the first intercourse between natives and Europeans “ is
invariably attended with the introduction of fever, dysentery,
or some other disease, which carries off numbers of the
people.” Again he affirms, “ It is certainly a fact, which
cannot be controverted, that most of the diseases which
raged in the islands during my residence there have been
introduced by ships t ; and w'hat renders this fact remarkable

* Narrative of Missionary Enterprise, p. 282.

t Captain Beechey (chap. iv. vol. i.) states that the inhabitants of
Pitcairn Island are firmly convinced that after the arrival of every ship
they suffer cutaneous and other disorders. Captain Beechey attributes
this to the change of diet during the time of the visit. Dr Macculloch

440

NEW SOUTH WALES

is, there might be no appearance of disease among the crew
of the ship Avhich conveyed this destructive importation.”
This statement is not quite so extraordinary as it at first
appears ; for several cases are on record of the most malig-
nant fevers having broken out, although the parties them-
selves, who were the cause, were not affected. In the
early part of the reign of George III., a prisoner who had
been confined in a dungeon was taken in a coach with
four constables before a magistrate ; and, although the man
himself was not ill, the four constables died from a short
putrid fever ; but the contagion extended to no others.
From these facts it would almost appear as if the effluvium
of one set of men shut up for some time together was
poisonous when inhaled by others ; and possibly more so,
if the men be of different races. Mysterious as this cir-
cumstance appears to be, it is not more surprising than
that the body of one’s fellow-creature, directly after death,
and before putrefaction has commenced, should often be of
so deleterious a quality that the mere puncture from an
instrument used in its dissection should prove fatal.

January llth. — Early in the morning we passed the Nepean
in a ferry-boat. The river, although at this spot both broad
and deep, had a very small body of running water. Having
crossed a low piece of land on the opposite side, we reached
the slope of the Blue Mountains. The ascent is not steep,
the road having been cut with much care on the side of

( Western Isles, vol. ii. p. 32) says : “ It is asserted, that on the arrival
of a stranger (at St Kilda) all the inhabitants, in the common phraseology,
catch a cold.” Dr Macculloch considers the whole case, although often
previously affirmed, as ludicrous. He adds, however, that “the question
was put by us to the inhabitants, who unanimously agreed in the story.”
In Vancouver’s Voyage there is a somewhat similar statement with respect
to Otaheite. Dr Dieffenbach, in a note to his translation of this Journal,
states that the same fact is universally believed by the inhabitants of the
Chatham Islands, and in parts of New Zealand. It is impossible that
such a belief should have become universal in the northern hemisphere,
at the Antipodes, and in the Pacific, without some good foundation.
Humboldt (Polit. Essay on King, of New Spain, vol. iv. ) says that the
great epidemics at Panama and Callao are “marked” by the arrival of ships
from Chile, because the people from that temperate region first experience
the fatal effects of the torrid zones. I may add that I have heard it stated
in Shropshire, that sheep which have been imported from vessels, although
themselves in a healthy condition, if placed in the same fold with others,
frequently produce sickness in the flock.

NEW SOUTH WALES

441

a sandstone cliff. On the summit an almost level plain
extends, which, rising imperceptibly to the westward, at
last attains a height of more than 3000 feet. From .so
grand a title as Blue Mountains, and from their absolute
altitude, I expected to have seen a bold chain of mountains
crossing the country ; but instead of this, a sloping plain
presents merely an inconsiderable front to the low land
near the coast. From this first slope, the view of the
extensive woodland to the east was striking, and the sur-
rounding trees grew bold and lofty. But when once on
the sandstone platform the scenery becomes exceedingly
monotonous ; each side of the road is bordered by scrubby
trees of the never-failing Eucalyptus family ; and with the
exception of two or three small inns, there are no houses
or cultivated land; the road, moreover, is solitary: the most
frequent object being a bullock waggon, piled up with bales
of wool.

In the middle of the day we baited our Horses at a little
inn, called the Weatherboard. The country here is elevated
2800 feet above the sea. About a mile and a -half from
this place there is a view exceedingly well worth seeing.
Following down a little valley and its tiny rill of water, an
immense gulf unexpectedly opens through the trees which
border the pathway, with a depth of perhaps ] .500 feet.
Walking on a few yards, one stands on the brink of a vast
precipice, and below one sees a gi'and bay or gulf, for I
know not M'hat other name to give it, thickly covered with
forest. The point of view is situated as if at the head of
a bay, the line of cliff diverging on each side, and showing
headland behind headland, as on a bold sea-coast. These
cliffs are composed of horizontal strata of whitish sandstone ;
and are so absolutely vertical, that in many places a person
standing on the edge and throwing down a stone, can see
it strike the trees in the abyss below. So unbroken is the
line of cliff, that in order to reach the foot of the water-
fall formed by this little sti'eam, it is said to be necessary
to go sixteen miles round. About five miles distant in front,
another line of cliff extends, which thus appears completely
to encircle the valley ; and hence the name of bay is justified,
as applied to this grand amphitheatrical depression. If we
imagine a winding harbour, with its deep water suiTounded

442

GREAT VALLEYS

by bold cliff-like shores, to be laid dry, and a forest to spring
up on its sandy bottom, we should then have the appearance
and structure here exhibited. This kind of view was to me
quite novel, and extremely magnificent.

In the evening we reached the Blackheath. The sand-
stone plateau has here attained the height of 3400 feet ;
and is covered, as before, with the same scrabby woods.
From the road there were occasional glimpses into a pro-
found valley, of the same character as the one described ;
but from the steepness and depth of its sides, the bottom
was scarcely ever to be seen. The Blackheath is a very
comfortable inn, kept by an old soldier ; and it reminded
me of the small inns in North Wales.

January 18//i. — Very early in the morning I walked about
three miles to see Govett’s Leap ; a view of a similar character
with that near the Weatherboard, but perhaps even more
stupendous. So early in the day the gulf was filled with
a thin blue haze, which, although destroying the general
effect of the view, added to the apparent depth at which
the forest was stretched out beneath our feet. These valleys,
which so long presented an insuperable barrier to the attempts
of the most enterprising of the colonists to reach the interior,
are most remarkable. Great armlike bays, expanding at their
upper ends, often branch from the main valleys and penetrate
the sandstone platform ; on the other hand, the platform
often sends promontories into the valleys, and even leaves
in them great, almost insulated, masses. To descend into
some of these valleys, it is necessary to go round twenty
miles ; and into others, the sitrveyors have only lately pene-
trated, and the colonists have not yet been able to drive
in their cattle. But the most remarkable feature in their
structure is, that although several miles wide at their heads,
they generally contract towards their mouths to such a degree
as to become impassable. The Surveyor - General, Sir T.
Mitchell,* endeavoured in vain, first walking and then by
crawling between the great fiillen fragments of sandstone,
to ascend through the gorge by which the river Grose joins
the Nepean ; yet the valley of the Grose in its upper part,

* Travels in Australia, vol. i. p. 154. I must express my obligation to •
Sir T. Mitchell for several interesting personal communications on the
subject of these great valleys of New South Wales.

V

GREAT VALLEYS

443

as I saw, forms a magnificent level basin some miles in width,
and is on all sides surrounded by cliffs, the summits of which
are believed to be nowhere less than 3000 feet above the
level of the sea. When cattle are driven into the valley
of the Wolgan by a path (which I descended), partly natural
and partly made by the owner of the land, they cannot
escape ; for this valley is in every other part surrounded by
perpendicular cliffs, and eight miles lower down it contracts
from an average width of half - a - mile to a mere chasm,
impassable to man or beast. Sir T. Mitchell states that
the great valley of the Cox river, with all its branches, con-
tracts, where it unites wath the Nepean, into a gorge 2200
yai-ds in width, and about 1000 feet in depth. Other similar
cases might have been added.

The first impression, on seeing the coiTespondence of the
horizontal strata on each side of these valleys and great
amphitheatrical depressions, is that they have been hollowed
out, like other valleys, by the action of water ; but when
one reflects on the enormous amount of stone which on this
\aew must have been removed through mere gorges oi
chasms, one is led to ask whether these spaces may not
have subsided. But, considering the form of the irregularly
branching valleys, and of the narrow promontories project-
ing into them from the platforms, we are compelled to
abandon this notion. To attribute these hollows to the
present alluvial action would be preposterous ; nor does
the drainage from the summit-level always fall, as I re-
marked near the Weatherboard, into the head of these
valleys, but into one side of their bay-like recesses. Some
of the inhabitants remarked to me that they never viewed
one of those bay-like recesses, with the headlands receding
on both hands, without being struck with their resemblance
to a bold sea-coast. Tliis is certainly the case ; moreover,
on the present coast of New South Wales, the numerous,
fine, widely - branching harbours, which are generally con-
nected with the sea by a narrow mouth worn through the
sandstone coast-cliffs, varying from one mile in width to a
quarter of a mile, present a likeness, though on a miniature
scale, to the great valleys of the interior. But then imme-
diately occurs the startling difficulty. Why has the sea worn
out these great, though circumscribed depressions on a wide

444

GREAT VALLEYS

platform, and left mere gorges at the openings, through
which the whole vast amount of triturated matter must
have been carried away? The only light I can throw upon
this enigma is by remarking that banks of the most
irregular forms appear to be now forming in some seas,
as in parts of the West Indies and in the Red Sea, and
that their sides are exceedingly steep. Such banks, I have
been led to suppose, have been foi-med by sediment heaped
by strong currents on an irregular bottom. That in some
cases the sea, instead of spreading out sediment in a
uniform sheet, heaps it round submarine rocks and islands,
it is hardly possible to doubt, after examining the charts
of the West Indies ; and that the waves have power to
form high and precipitous cliffs, even in land-locked har-
bours, I have noticed in many parts of South America. To
apply these ideas to the sandstone platforms of New South
Wales, I imagine that the strata were heaped by the action
of strong currents, and of the undulations of an open sea,
on an irregular bottom ; and that the valley - like spaces
thus left unfilled have their steeply sloping flanks worn
into cliffs, during a slow elevation of the land ; the wom-
down sandstone being removed, either at the time when
the naiTow gorges were cut by the retreating sea, or subse-
quently by alluvial action.

Soon after leaving the Blackheath, we descended from
the sandstone platform by the pass of Mount Victoria. To
effect this pass, an enormous quantity of stone has been
cut through, the design, and its manner of execution, being
worthy of any line of road in England. We now entered
upon a country less elevated by nearly a thousand feet, and
consisting of granite. With the change of rock, the vege-
tation improved ; the trees were both finer and stood farther
apart ; and the pasture between them was a little greener
aird more plentiful. At Hassan’s Walls I left the high
road, and made a short detour to a farm called Walerawang,
to the superintendent of which I had a letter of introduc-
tion from the owner in Sydney. Mr Brown had the kind-
ness to ask me to stay the ensuing day, which I had much
pleasure in doing. This place offers an example of one of
the large farming, or rather sheep-grazing, establishments

NEW SOUTH WALES

445

of the colony. Cattle and horses are, however, in this case,
rather more numerous than usual, owing to some of the
valleys being swampy and producing a coarser pasture. Two
or three flat pieces of ground near the house were cleared
and cultivated with corn, which the harvest-men were now
reaping ; but no more wheat is sown than sufficient for the
annual support of the labourers employed on the establishment.
The usual number of assigned convict-servants hei’e is about
forty, but at the present time there were rather more.
Although the farm was well stocked with every necessary,
there was an apparent absence of comfort ; and not one
single woman resided here. The sunset of a fine day will
generally cast an air of happy contentment on any scene ;
but here, at this retired farmhouse, the brightest tints on
the suri’ounding woods could not make me forget that forty
hardened, profligate men were ceasing from their daily
labours, like the slaves from Africa, yet without their holy
claim for compassion.

Early on the next morning, Mr Archer, the joint superin-
tendent, had the kindness to take me out kangaroo-hunting.
We continued riding the greater part of the day, but had
very bad sport, not seeing a kangaroo, or even a wild dog.
The greyhounds pursued a kangaroo rat into a hollow tree,
out of which we dragged it ; it is an animal as large as a
rabbit, but with the figure of a kangaroo. A few years
since this country abounded with wild animals ; but now
the emu is banished to a long distance, and the kangaroo
is become scarce : to both the English greyhound has been
highly destructive. It may be long before these animals
are altogether exterminated, but their doom is fixed. The
aborigines are always anxious to borrow the dogs from the
farmhouses : the use of them, the offal when an animal is
killed, and some milk from the cows, are the peace-offerings
of the settlers, who push farther and farther towards the
interior. The thoughtless aboriginal, blinded by these
trifling advantages, is delighted at the approach of the
w^hite man, who seems predestined to inherit the country
of his children.

Although having poor sport, we enjoyed a pleasant ride.
The w'oodland is generally so open that a person on horse-
back can gallop through it. It is traversed by a few flat-

446

NEW SOUTH WALES

bottomed valleys, which are green and free from trees ; in
such spots the scenery was pretty like that of a park. In
the whole country I scarcely saw a place without the marks
of a fire ; whether these had been more or less recent —
whether the stumj)s were more or less black, was the
greatest change which varied the uniformity, so wearisome
to the traveller’s eye. In these woods there are not many
birds ; I saw, however, some large flocks of the white
cockatoo feeding in a corn-field, and a few most beautiful
parrots : crows like our jackdaws were not uncommon, and
another bird something like the magpie. In the dusk of
the evening I took a stroll along a chain of ponds, which
in this dry country represented the course of a river, and
had the good fortune to see several of the famous Oniilko-
rhynchus paradoxus. They were diving and playing about
the surface of the water, but showed so little of their bodies
that they might easily have been mistaken for water-rats.
Mr Brown shot one : cei’tainly it is a most extraordinary
animal ; a stuffed specimen does not at all give a good
idea of the appearance of the head and beak when fresh ;
the latter becoming hard and contracted.*

January 20lk. — A long day’s ride to Bathurst. Before
joining the high road we followed a mere path through
the forest ; and the country, with the exception of a few
squatters’ huts, w'as very solitary. We experienced this
day the sirocco-like wind of Australia, which comes from
the parched deserts of the interior. Clouds of dust were
travelling in every direction ; and the wind felt as if it
had passed over a fire. I afterwards heard that the ther-
mometer out of doors had stood at 119°, and in a closed
room at 96°. In the afternoon we came in view of the
downs of Bathurst. These undulating but nearly smooth

* I was interested by finding here the hollow conical pit-fall of the
lion-ant, or some other insect ; first a fly fell down the treacherous slope
and immediately disappeared ; then came a large but unwary ant ; its
struggles to escape being very violent, those curious little jets of sand,
described by Kirby and Spence (Etifomo/., \ol. i. p. 425) as being flirted
by the insect’s tail, were promptly directed against the expected victim.
But the ant enjoyed a better fate than the fly, and escaped the fatal jaws
which lay concealed at the base of the conical hollow. This Australian
pit-fall was only about half the size of that made by the European
lion-ant.

NEW SOUTH WALES

447

plains are very remarkable in this country, from being abso-
lutely destitute of trees. They support only a thin brown
pasture. We rode some miles over this country, and then
reached the township of Bathurst, seated in the middle of
what may be ealled either a very broad valley or narrow
])lain. I was told at Sydney not to form too bad an opinion
of Australia by judging of the country from the roadside,
nor too good a one from Bathurst ; in this latter respect,
I did not feel myself in the least danger of being pre-
judieed. The season, it must be owned, had been one of
great drought, and the country did not wear a favourable
aspect, although I understand it was incomparably worse
two or three months before. The secret of the rapidly-
growing pi-osperity of Bathurst is, that the brown pasture,
which appears to the stranger’s eye so wretched, is excel-
lent for sheep-grazing. The town stands, at the height of
2200 feet above the sea, on the banks of the Macquarie —
this is one of the rivers flowing into the vast and scarcely
known interior. The line of watershed, which divides the
inland streams from those on the coast, has a height of
about 3000 feet, and runs in a north and south direction
at the distance of from eighty to a hundred miles from the
seaside. The Macquarie figures in the map as a respectable
river, and it is the largest of those draining this part of
the Avatershed ; yet, to my surprise, I found it a mere chain
of ponds, separated from each other by spaces almost dry.
Generally a small stream is running ; and sometimes there
are high and impetuous floods. Scanty as the supply of the
Avater is throughout this district, it becomes still scantier
farther inland.

January 22nd. — I commenced my return, and followed a
ncAV road called Lockyer’s Line, along which the country
is rather more hilly and picturesque. This was a long day’s
ride ; and the house Avhere I wished to sleep was some
way off the road, and not easily found. I met on this
occasion, and indeed on all others, a very general and
ready civility among the lower orders, which, Avhen one
considers what they are, and what they have been, would
scarcely have been expected. The farm where I passed
the night was oAvned by two young men who had only
lately come out and were beginning settlers’ lives. TIac

4.4.8

NEW SOUTH WALES

total want of almost every comfort was not very attractive ;
but future and certain prosperity was before their eyes,
and that not far distant.

The next day we passed through large tracts of country
in flames, volumes of smoke sweeping across the road.
Before noon we joined our former road, and ascended
Mount Victoria. I slept at the Weatherboard, and before
dark took another walk to the amphitheatre. On the road
to Sydney I spent a very pleasant evening with Captain
King at Dunheved : and thus ended my little excursion in
the colony of New South Wales.

Before arriving here the three things which interested me
most were — the state of society amongst the higher classes,
the condition of the convicts, and the degree of attraction
sufficient to induce persons to emigi'ate. Of course, after
so very short a visit, one’s opinion is worth scarcely any-
thing; but it is as difficult not to form some opinion, as
it is to form a correct judgment. On the whole, from
what I heard, more than from what I saw, I was disappointed
in the state of society. The whole community is rancour-
ously divided into parties on almost every subject. Among
those who, from their station in life, ought to be the best,
many live in such open profligacy that respectable people
cannot associate with them. There is much jealousy be-
tween the children of the rich emancipist and the free
settlers, the former being pleased to consider honest men
as interlopers. The whole population, poor and rich, are
bent on acquiring wealth : amongst the higher orders, wool
and sheep-grazing form the constant subject of conversa-
tion. There are many serious drawbacks to the comforts
of a family, the chief of which, perhaps, is being surrounded
by convict servants. How thoroughly odious to every feel-
ing, to be waited on by a man who the day before, perhaps,
was flogged, from your representation, for some trifling mis-
demeanour. The female servants are of course much worse :
hence children learn the vilest expressions, and it is fortunate
if not equally vile ideas.

On the other hand, the capital of a person, without any
ti-ouble on his part, produces him treble interest to what it
will in England ; and with care he is sure to grow rich. The
luxuries of life are in abundance, and very little dearer than

NEW SOUTH WALES

449

in England, and most articles of food are cheaper. The
climate is splendid, and perfectly healthy ; but to my mind
its charms are lost by the uninviting aspect of the country.
Settlers possess a great advantage in finding their sons of
service when very young. At the age of from sixteen to
twenty they frequently take charge of distant farming sta-
tions. This, however, must happen at the expense of their
boys associating entirely with convict servants. I am not
aware that the tone of society has assumed any peculiar
character ; but with such habits, and without intellectual
pursuits, it can hardly fail to deteriorate. My opinion is
such, that nothing but rather sharp necessity should compel
me to emigrate.

The rapid prosperity and future prospects of this colony are
to me, not understanding these subjects, very puzzling. The
two main exports are wool and whale-oil, and to both of these
productions there is a limit. The country is totally unfit for
canals, therefore there is a not very distant point beyond
which the land-carriage of wool will not repay the expense
of shearing and tending sheep. Pasture eveiywhere is so
thin that settlers have already pushed far into the interior:
moreover, the country farther inland becomes extremely poor.
Agriculture, on account of the drought, can never succeed on
I an extended scale : therefore, so far as I can see, Australia

( must ultimately depend upon being the centre of commerce

1 for the southern hemisphere, and perhaps on her future manu-
i factories. Possessing coal, she always has the moving power
at hand. From the habitable country extending along the
coast, and from her English extraction, she is sure to be a
maritime nation. I formerly imagined that Australia w-ould
I rise to be as grand and pow'erful a country as North America,
but now it appears to me that such future grandeur is rather
problematical.

With respect to the state of the convicts, I had still fewer
opportunities of judging than on the other points. The first
question is, whether their condition is at all one of punish-
ment : no one will maintain that it is a very severe one.
This, however, I suppose, is of little consequence as long
as it continues to be an object of dread to criminals at
I home. The corporeal w^ants of the convicts are tolerably
i well supplied : their prospect of future liberty and comfort

2 F

450

HOBART TOWN

is not distant, and after good conduct certain. A “ ticket
of leave,” which, as long as a man keeps clear of suspicion
as well as of crime, makes him free within a certain district,
is given upon good conduct, after years proportional to the
length of the sentence ; yet with all this, and overlooking the
pi-evious imprisonment and wi-etched passage out, I believe
the years of assignment are passed away with discontent and
unhappiness. As an intelligent man remarked to me, the
convicts know no pleasure beyond sensuality, and in this they
are not gratified. The enormous bribe which Government
possesses in offering free pardons, together with the deep
horror of the secluded penal settlements, desti’oys confidence
between the convicts, and so prevents crime. As to a sense
of shame, such a feeling does not appear to be known, and
of this I witnessed some very singular proofs. Though it is a
curious fact, I was universally told that the character of the
convict population is one of arrant cowardice : not unfre-
quently some become desperate, and quite indifferent as to
life, yet a plan requii’ing cool or continued courage is seldom
put into execution. The worst feature in the whole case is,
that although there exists what may be called a legal reform,
and comparatively little is committed which the law can touch,
yet that any moral reform should take place appears to be
quite out of the question. I was assured by well-informed
people, that a man who should try to improve could not Avhile
living with other assigned servants ; — his life would be one of
intolerable misery and persecution. Nor must the contamin-
ation of the convict-ships and prisons, both here and in
England, be forgotten. On the whole, as a place of punish-
ment, the object is scarcely gained ; as a real system of
reform it has failed, as perhaps would every other plan ; but
as a means of making men outwardly honest, — of converting
vagabonds, most useless in one hemisphere, into active citizens
of another, and thus giving birth to a new and splencbd
country — a grand centre of civilisation — it has succeeded to a
degree perhaps unparalleled in history.

January 30th. — The Beagle sailed for Hobart Town in Van
Diemen’s Land. On the 5th of Februarj', after a six days’
passage, of which the first part Avas fine and the latter very
cold and squally, we entered the mouth of Storm Bay : the

HOBART TOWN

4.51

weather justified this aM-ful name. The bay should rather be
called an estuaiy, for it receives at its head the waters of the
Derwent. Near the mouth, there are some extensive basaltic
platforms ; but higher up the land becomes mountainous, and
is covered by a light wood. The low'er parts of the hills
which skirt the bay are cleared ; and the bright yellow fields
of corn, and dark green ones of potatoes, appear very luxuri-
ant. Late in the evening we anchored in the snug cove, on
the shores of which stands the capital of Tasmania. The first
aspect of the place was very inferior to that of Sydney ; the
latter might be called a city, this only a town. It stands at
the base of Mount Wellington, a mountain 3100 feet high,
but of little picturesque beauty ; from this source, however, it
receives a good supj^ly of water. Round the cove there are
some fine warehouses, and on one side a small fort. Coming
from the Spanish settlements, where such magnificent care
has generally been paid to the fortifications, the means of
defence in these colonies appeared very contemptible. Com-
paring the town with Sydney, I was chiefly struck with the
comparative fewness of the large houses, either built or build-
ing. Hobart Town, from the census of 1835, contained
13,826 inhabitants, and the whole of Tasmania 36,505.

All the aborigines have been removed to an island in Bass’s
Straits, so that Van Diemen’s Land enjoys the great advantage
of being free from a native population. This most cruel step
seems to have been quite unavoidable, as the only means of
stopping a fearful succession of robberies, burnings, and mur-
ders, committed by the blacks ; and which, sooner or later,
would have ended in their utter destruction. I fear there is
no doubt that this train of evil and its consequences originated
in the infamous conduct of some of our countrymen. Thirty
years is a short period in which to have banished the last
aboriginal from his native island, — and that island nearly
as large as Ireland. The correspondence on this subject,
which took place between the Government at home and
that of Van Diemen’s Land, is very interesting. Although
numbers of natives were shot and taken prisoners in the
skirmishing which was going on at intervals for several years,
nothing seems fully to have impressed them with the idea of
our ovei'whelming power, until the whole island, in 1830, was
put under martial law, and by proclamation the whole popula-

452

HOBART TOWN

tion commanded to assist in one great attempt to secure the
entire race. The plan adopted was nearly similar to that of
the great hunting matches in India : a line was formed reach-
ing across the island, with the intention of driving the natives
into a cul-de-sac on Tasman’s peninsula. The attempt failed ;
the natives, having tied up their dog.s, stole during one night
through the lines. This is far from surprising, when their
practised senses and usual manner of crawling after wild
animals is considered. I have been assured that they can
conceal themselves on almost bare ground, in a manner
which until witnessed is scarcely credible ; their dusky
bodies being easily mistaken for the blackened stumps
which are scattered all over the country. I was told of a
trial between a party of Englishmen and a native, who
was to stand in full view on the side of a bare hill ; if the
Englishmen closed their eyes for less than a minute, he would
squat down, and then they were never able to distinguish him
from the surrounding stumps. But to return to the hunting
match ; tbe natives, understanding this kind of warfare, were
terribly alarmed, for they at once perceived the power and
numbers of the whites. Shortly afterw'ards, a party of thir-
teen belonging to two tribes came in, and, conscious of their
unprotected condition, delivered themselves up in their de-
spair. Subsequently, by the intrepid exertions of Mr Robin-
son, an active and benevolent man, who fearlessly visited by
himself the most hostile of the natives, the whole were
induced to act in a similar manner. They were then removed
to an island, where food and clothes were provided them.
Count Strzelecki states,* that “ at the epoch of their deporta-
tion in 1835, the number of natives amounted to two hundred
and ten. In 1842, that is, after the interval of seven years,
they mustered only fifty-four individuals ; and, while each
family of the interior ot New South Wales, uncontaminated
by contact with the whites, swarms with children, those of
Flinders’ Island had during eight years an accession of only
fourteen in number ! ”

The Beagle stayed here ten days, and in this time I made
several pleasant little excursions, chiefly with the object of

* Physical Description of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land,
P- 354.

HOBART TOWN

453

examining the geological structure of the immediate neigh-
bourhood. The main points of interest consist, first, in some
highly fossiliferous strata, belonging to the Devonian or
Carboniferous period ; secondly, in proofs of a late small rise
of the land ; and lastly, in a solitai-y and supei’ficial patch of
yellowish limestone or travertin, which contains numerous
impressions of leaves of trees, together with land-shells, not
now existing. It is not improbable that this one small quarry
includes the only remaining recoi'd of the vegetation of Van
Diemen’s Land during one former epoch.

The climate here is damper than in New South Wales, and
hence the land is more fertile. Agriculture flourishes ; the
cultivated fields look well, and the gardens abound with
thriving vegetables and fruit-trees. Some of the farmhouses,
situated in retired spots, had a very attractive appearance.
The general aspect of the vegetation is similar to that of
Australia ; perhaps it is a little more green and cheerful ; and
the pasture between the trees rather more abundant. One
day I took a long walk on the side of the bay opposite to the
tovTi ; I crossed in a steamboat, two of which are constantly
plying backwards and fomards. The machinery of one of
these vessels was entirely manufactured in this colony, which,
from its very foundation, then numbered only three-and-thirty
years ! Another day I ascended Mount Wellington ; I took
with me a guide, for I failed in a first attempt, from the
thickness of the wood. Our guide, however, was a stupid
fellow, and conducted us to the southern and damp side of
the mountain, where the vegetation was very luxuriant ; and
where the labour of the ascent, from the number of rotten
trunks, was almost as great as on a mountain in Tieri'a del Fuego
or in Chiloe. It cost us five and a-half hours of hard climbing
before we reached the summit. In many parts the Eucalypti
grew to a gi*eat size, and composed a noble forest. In some
of the dampest ravines, tree-ferns flourished in an extra-
ordinary manner ; I saw one wdiich must have been at least
twenty feet high to the base of the fronds, and was in girth
exactly six feet. The fronds, forming the most elegant
parasols, produced a gloomy shade, like that of the first hour
of night. The summit of the mountain is broad and flat, and
is composed of huge angular masses of naked greenstone. Its
elevation is 3100 feet above the level of the sea. The day

4.54

KING GEORGE’S SOUND

was splendidly clear, and -we enjoyed a most extensive view ;
to the north, the country appeared a mass of wooded moun-
tains, of about the same height with that on which we were
standing, and with an equally tame outline : to the south, the
broken land and water, forming many intricate bays, was
mapped with clearness before us. After staying some hours
on the summit, we found a better way to descend, but did not
reach the Beagle till eight o’clock, after a severe day’s work.

Februarif Ith. — The Beagle sailed from Tasmania, and, on
the 6th of the ensuing month, reached King George’s Sound,
situated close to the S.-W. corner of Australia. We stayed
there eight days ; and we did not during our voyage pass a
more dull and uninteresting time. The country, viewed from
an eminence, appears a woody plain, with here and there
rounded and partly bare hills of granite protruding. One day
I went out with a party, in hopes of seeing a kangaroo hunt,
and walked over a good many miles of country. Everywhere
we found the soil sandy, and very poor : it supported either a
coarse vegetation of thin, low brushwood and wiry grass, or a
forest of stunted trees. The scenery resembled that of the
high sandstone platform of the Blue Mountains ; the casuarina
(a tree somewhat resembling a Scotch fir) is, however, here
in greater number, and the Eucalyptus in rather less. In the
open parts there were many grass-trees, — a plant which, in
appearance, has some affinity with the palm ; but, instead of
being surmounted by a crown of noble fronds, it can boast
merely of a tuft of very coarse grass-like leaves. The general
bright green colour of the brushwood and other plants, viewed
from a distance, seemed to promise fertility. A single walk,
however, was enough to dispel such an illusion ; and he who
thinks with me will never wish to walk again in so uninviting
a country.

One day I accompanied Captain Fitz Roy to Bald Head :
the place mentioned by so many navigators, where some
imagined that they saw corals, and others that they saw
peti’ified trees, standing in the position in which they had
grown. According to our view, the beds have been formed
by the wind having heaped up fine sand, composed of minute
rounded particles of shells and corals, during wdiich process
branches and roots of trees, together with many land-shells,
became enclosed, 'fhe whole then became consolidated by

KING GEORGE’S SOUND

455

the percolation of calcareous matter ; and the cylindrical
cavities left by the decaying of the wood were thus also filled
up with a hard pseudo-stalactitical stone. The weather is
now wearing away the softer parts, and in consequence the
hard casts of the roots and branches of the trees project above
the surface, and, in a singularly deceptive manner, resemble
the stumps of a dead thicket.

A large tribe of natives, called the White Cockatoo men,
happened to pay the settlement a visit while we were there.
These men, as well as those of the tribe belonging to King
George’s Sound, being tempted by the offer of some tubs of
rice and sugar, were persuaded to hold a “corrobery,” or
great dancing-party. As soon as it grew dark, small fires
were lighted, and the men commenced their toilet, which
consisted in painting themselves white in spots and lines.
As soon as all was ready, large fires were kept blazing, round
which the women and children were collected as spectators ;
tlie Cockatoo and King George’s men formed two distinct
parties, and generally danced in answer to each other. The
dancing consisted in their running either sideways or in Indian
file into an open space, and stamping the ground with great
force as they marched together. Their heavy footsteps were
accompanied by a kind of grunt, by beating their clubs and
spears together, and by various other gesticulations, such as
extending their ai-ms and wriggling their bodies. It was a most
rude, barbarous scene, and, to our ideas, without any sort of
meaning ; but we observed that the black women and
children watched it with the greatest pleasure. Perhaps
these dances originally represented actions, such as wars and
victories. There was one called the Emu dance, in which
each man extended his arm in a bent manner, like the neck
of that bird. In another dance, one man imitated the move-
ments of a kangaroo grazing in the woods, whilst a second
crawled up, and pretended to spear him. When both tribes
mingled in the dance, the ground trembled vvith the heaviness
of their steps, and the air resounded with then* wild cries.
Every one appeared in high spirits, and the group of nearly
naked figures, viewed by the light of the blazing fires, all
moving in hideous harmony, fonned a perfect display of a
festival amongst the lowest barbarians. In Tierra del Fuego,
we have beheld many curious scenes in savage life, but never.

456

KING GEORGE’S SOUND

I think, one where the natives were in such high spirits, and
so perfectly at their ease. After the dancing was over, the
whole party formed a great circle on the ground, and the
boiled rice and sugar was distributed, to the delight of all.

After several tedious delays from clouded weather, on the
14th of March we gladly stood out of King George’s Sound
on our course to Keeling Island. Farewell, Australia ! you
are a rising child, and doubtless some day will reign a great
princess in the South ; but you are too great and ambitious
for affection, yet not great enough for respect. I leave your
shores without sorrow or regret.

CHAPTER XX

KEELING ISLAND— CORAL FORMATIONS

KEELING ISLAND SINGULAR APPEARANCE SCANTY FLORA

TRANSPORT OF SEEDS BIRDS AND INSECTS EBBING AND

FLOWING SPRINGS FIELDS OF DEAD CORAL STONES TRANS-
PORTED IN THE ROOTS OF TREES GREAT CRAB STINGING

CORALS CORAL-EATING FISH CORAL FORMATIONS LAGOON

ISLANDS OR ATOLLS DEPTH AT WHICH REEF-BUILDING

CORALS CAN LIVE VAST AREAS INTERSPERSED WITH LOW

CORAL ISLANDS SUBSIDENCE OF THEIR FOUNDATIONS

BARRIER REEFS FRINGING REEFS CONVERSION OF FRINGING

REEFS INTO BARRIER REEFS, AND INTO ATOLLS EVIDENCE

OF CHANGES IN LEVEL BREACHES IN BARRIER REEFS

MALDIVA ATOLLS ; THEIR PECULIAR STRUCTURE DEAD AND

SUBMERGED REEFS AREAS OF SUBSIDENCE AND ELEVATION

DISTRIBUTION OF VOLCANOES SUBSIDENCE SLOW, AND VAST

IN AMOUNT.

RIL 1st. — We arrived in view of the Keeling or
Cocos Islands, situated in tlie Indian Ocean, and
about six lumdred miles distant from the coast of
Sumatra. This is one of the lagoon-islands (or
atolls) of coral formation, similar to those in the
Low Archipelago which we passed near. When the ship was
in the channel at the entrance, Mr Liesk, an English resident,
came off in his boat. The history of the inhabitants of this
place, in as few words as possible, is as follows : — About nine
years ago, Mr Hare, a worthless character, brought from the
East Indian Archipelago a number of Malay slaves, which now,
including children, amount to more than a hundred. Shortly
afterwards, Captain Ross, who had before visited these islands
in his merchant-ship, arrived from England, bringing with him
his family and goods, for settlement ; along with him came
Mr Liesk, who had been a mate in his vessel. Tlie Malay

457

4.58

KEELING ISLAND

slaves soon ran away from the islet on which Mr Hare -was
settled, and joined Captain Ross’s party. Mr Hare upon
this was ultimately obliged to leave the place.

The Malays are now nominally in a state of freedom, and
certainly are so, as far as regards their personal treatment ;
but in most other points they are considered as slaves. From
their discontented state, from the repeated removals from
islet to islet, and perhaps also from a little mismanagement,
things are not veiy prosperous. The island has no domestic
quadruped, excepting the pig, and the main vegetable pro-
duction is the cocoa-nut. The whole prosperity of the place
depends on this tree : the only exports being oil from the nut,
and the nuts themselves, which are taken to Singapore and
Mauritius, where they are chiefly used, when grated, in
making curries. On the cocoa-nut, also, the pigs, which are
loaded with fat, almost entirely subsist, as do the ducks and
poultry. Even a huge land-crab is furnished by nature
with the means to open and feed on this most useful
production.

The ring-formed reef of the lagoon-island is surmounted in
the greater part of its length by linear islets. On the northern
or leeward side, there is an opening through which vessels
can pass to the anchoi’age within. On entering, the scene
was very curious and rather pretty ; its beauty, however,
entirely depended on the brilliancy of the surrounding colours.

The shallow, clear, and still water of the lagoon, resting in its
greater part on white sand, is, when illumined by a vertical
sun, of the most vivid green. This brilliant expanse, several
miles in width, is on all sides divided, either by a line of
snow-white breakers from the dark heaving waters of the
ocean, or from the blue vault of heaven by the strips of land,
crowned by the level tops of the cocoa-nut trees. As a
white cloud here and there affords a pleasing contrast with
the azure sky, so, in the lagoon, bands of living coral darken j
the emerald green water.

The next morning, after anchoring, I went on shore on
Direction Island. The strip of dry land is only a few hundred
yards in width : on the lagoon side there is a white calcareous i
beach, the radiation from which under this sultry climate was ;
very oppressive ; and, on the outer coast, a solid broad flat of i
coral-rock served to break the violence of the open sea. Ex- ^

SEEDS TRANSPORTED BY THE SEA 459

cepting near the lagoon, where there is some sand, the land is
entirely composed of rounded fragments of coral. In such a
loose, dry, stony soil, the climate of the intertropical regions
alone could produce a vigorous vegetation. On some of the
smaller islets, nothing could be more elegant than the manner
in which the young and full-gi-own cocoa-nut trees, without
destroying each other’s symmetry, were mingled into one
wood. A beach of glittering white sand formed a border to
these fairy spots.

I will now give a sketch of the natural histoiy of these
islands, which, from its very paucity, possesses a peculiar
interest. The cocoa-nut tree, at the first glance, seems to
compose the whole wood ; there are, however, five or six
other trees. One of these grows to a very large size, but,
from the extreme softness of its wood, is useless ; another
sort affords excellent timber for shipbuilding. Besides the
trees, the number of plants is exceedingly limited, and
consists of insignificant weeds. In my eolleetion, which
includes, I believe, nearly the perfect Flora, there are
twenty species, without reckoning a moss, lichen, and fungus.
To this number two trees must be added ; one of which w'as
not in flower, and the other I only heard of. The latter is a
solitary tree of its kind, and grows near the beach, where,
without doubt, the one seed was thrown up by the weaves.
A Guilandhia also grows on only one of the islets. I do not
include in the above list the sugar-cane, banana, some other
vegetables, fruit-trees, and imported grasses. As the islands
consist entirely of coral, and at one time must have existed
as mere water-washed reefs, all their ten'estrial productions
must have been transported here by the waves of the sea. In
accordance wth this, the Florida has quite the character of
a refuge for the destitute : Professor Henslow informs me
that of the twenty species, nineteen belong to different
genera, and these again to no less than sixteen families ! *

In Holman’s f Travels an account is given, on the authority
of Mr A. S. Keating, who resided twelve months on these
islands, of the various seeds and other bodies which have
been known to have been washed on shore. Seeds and

* These plants are described in the Annals of Nat. Hist., vol. i. 1838,
P- 337.

t Holman’s Travels, vol. iv. p. 378.

460 SEEDS TRANSPORTED BY THE SEA

plants from Sumatra and Java have been driven up by the
surf on tlie windward side of the islands. Among them have
been found the Kmiri, native of Sumatra and the peninsula
of Malacca ; the cocoa-nut of Balci, known by its shape and
size ; the Dadass, which is planted by the Malays with the
pepper - vine, the latter intwining round its trunk, and
supporting itself by the prickles on its stem ; the soap-tree ;
the castor-oil plant ; trunks of the sago palm ; and various
kinds of seeds unknown to the Malays settled on the islands.
These are all supposed to have been driven by the N.-W,
monsoon to the coast of New’ Holland, and thence to these
islands by the S.-E. trade-wind. Large masses of Java teak
and yellow wood have also been found, besides immense trees
of red and white cedar, and the blue gum-wood of New
Holland, in a perfectly sound condition. All the hardy seeds,
such as creepers, retain their germinating power, but the
softer kinds, among w hich is the mangostin, are destroyed in
the passage. Fishing-canoes, apparently from Java, have at
times been washed on shore.” It is interesting thus to
discover how numerous the seeds are which, coming from
several countries, are drifted over the wide ocean. Professor
Henslow tells me, he believes that nearly all the plants which
I brought from these islands are common littoral species in
the East Indian Archipelago. From the direction, however,
of the winds and currents, it seems scarcely possible that they
could have come here in a direct line. If, as suggested with
much probability by Mr Keating, they were first carried
towards the coast of New Holland, and thence drifted back
together with the productions of that country, the seeds,
before germinating, must have travelled between 1800 and
2400 miles.

Chamisso,*when describing the Radack Archipelago, situated
in the western part of the Pacific, states that “ the sea brings
to these islands the seeds and fruits of many trees, most of
which have yet not grown here. The greater part of these
seeds appear to have not yet lost the capability of growing.”
It is also said that jialms and bamboos from somew’here in the
torrid zone, and trunks of northern firs, are washed on shore :
these firs must have come from an immense distance. These

* Kotzebue’s First Voyage, vol. iii. p. 1 55.

BIRDS AND INSECTS

4.61

facts are highly interesting. It cannot be doubted that, if
there were land-birds to pick up the seeds when first cast on
shore, and a soil better adapted for their growth than the
loose blocks of coral, the most isolated of the lagoon-islands
would in time possess a far more abundant Flora than they
now have.

The list of land animals is even poorer than that of the
plants. Some of the islets are inhabited by rats, which were
brought in a ship from the Mauritius, wrecked here. These
rats are considered by Mr Waterhouse as identical with the
English kind, but they are smaller and more brightly col-
oured. There are no true land-birds ; for a snipe and a rail
[lial/us PhiUippensis'), though living entirely in the dry herb-
age, belong to the order of Wadei's. Birds of this order are
said to occur on several of the small low islands in the Pacific.
At Ascension, where there is no land-bird, a rail {Porpkyrio
simplej.^ was shot near the summit of the mountain, and
it was evidently a solitary stragglei*. At Tristan d’Acunha,
where, according to Carmichael, there are only two land-birds,
there is a coot. From these facts I believe that the waders,
after the innumerable web-footed species, are generally the
first colonists of small isolated islands. I may add, that when-
ever I noticed birds, not of oceanic species, very far out at sea,
they always belonged to this order ; and hence they would
naturally become the earliest colonists of any remote point of
land.

Of reptiles I saw only one small lizard. Of insects I took
pains to collect every kind. Exclusive of spiders, which were
S numerous, there were thirteen species.* Of these, one only
r was a beetle. A small ant swarmed by thousands under the
: loose dry blocks of coral, and was the only true insect which
} was abundant. Although the productions of the land are
i thus scanty, if we look to the waters of the surrounding sea,
I the number of organic beings is indeed infinite. Chamisso
I has described t the natural history of a lagoon-island in the

I * The thirteen species belong to the following orders : — In the Coleoptera,
r a minute Elater ; Orthoptera, a Gryllus and a Blatta ; Hemiptera, one
« species ; Homoptera, two ; Neuroptera, a Chrysopa ; Hy7nemptera, two
r ants ; Lepidoptera nocturna, a Diopoea, and a Pterophorus (?) ; Dipiera,
» two species.

t Kotzebue’s First Voyage, vol. iii. p. 222.

462

BIRDS AND INSECTS

Radack Archipelago ; and it is remarkable how closely its
inhabitants, in number and kind, resemble those of Keeling
Island. There is one lizard and two waders — namely, a snipe
and curlew. Of plants there are nineteen species, including
a fern ; and some of these are the same with those growing
here, though on a spot so immensely remote, and in a differ-
ent ocean.

The long strips of land, forming the linear islets, have been
raised only to that height to w'hich the surf can throw frag-
ments of coral, and the wind heap up calcareous sand. The
solid flat of coral rock on the outside, by its breadth, breaks
the first violence of the waves, which otherwise, in a day,
would sweep away these islets and all their productions. The
ocean and the land seem here struggling for masteiy ; although
teiTa firma has obtained a footing, the denizens of the water
think their claim at least equally good. In every part one
meets hermit crabs of more than one species,* carrying on
their backs the shells w’hich they have stolen from the neigh-
bouring beach. Overhead, numerous gannets, frigate-birds,
and terns rest on the trees ; and the wood, from the many
nests and from the smell of the atmosphere, might be called
a sea-rookery. The gannets, sitting on their rude nests, gaze
at one with a stupid yet angry air. The noddies, as their
name expresses, are silly little creatures. But there is one
charming bii'd ; it is a small snow-white tern, which smoothly
hovers at the distance of a few feet above one’s head, its large
black eye scanning, with quiet curiosity, your expression.
Little imagination is required to fancy that so light and
delicate a body must be tenanted by some wandering fairy
spirit.

Sunday, April 3rd. — After service I accompanied Captain
Fitz Roy to the settlement, situated at the distance of some
miles, on the point of an islet thickly covered with tall cocoa-
nut trees. Captain Ross and Mr Liesk live in a large barn-
like house, open at both ends, and lined with mats made of
woven bark. The houses of the Malays are arranged along

* The large claws or pincers of some of these crabs are most beautifully
adapted, when drawn back, to form an operculum to the shell, nearly as J
perftct as the proper one originally belonging to the molluscous animal. I 1
was assured, and, as far as my observation went, I found it so, that certain I
species of the hermit-crabs always use certain species of shells. I

EBBING AND FLOWING SPRINGS

463

the shore of the lagoon. The whole place had rather a deso-
late aspect, for there were no gardens to show the signs of
care and cultivation. The natives belong to different islands
in the East Indian Archipelago, but all speak the same
language : we saw the inhabitants of Borneo, Celebes, Java,
and Sumatra. In colour they resemble the Tahitians, from
whom they do not widely differ in features. Some of the
women, however, show a good deal of the Chinese character.
I liked both their general expressions and the sound of their
voices. They appear poor, and their houses were destitute of
tumiture ; but it was evident, from the plumpness of the
little children, that cocoa-nuts and turtle afford no bad
sustenance.

On this island the wells are situated, from which ships obtain
water. At first sight it appears not a little remarkable that
the fresh water should regularly ebb and flow with the tides ;
and it has even been imagined that sand has the power of
filtering the salt from the sea-water. These ebbing wells are
common on some of the low islands in the West Indies. The
compressed sand, or porous coral rock, is permeated like a
sponge with the salt water ; but the rain which falls on the
surface must sink to the level of the surrounding sea, and
must accumulate there, displacing an equal bulk of the salt
water. As the water in the lower part of the great sponge-
like coral mass rises and falls with the tides, so will the water
near the surface ; and this will keep fresh, if the mass be
sufficiently compact to prevent much mechanical admixture ;
but where the land consists of great loose blocks of coral with
open interstices, if a well be dug, the water, as I have seen, is
brackish.

After dinner we stayed to see a curious half-supersrtitious
scene acted by the Malay women. A large wooden spoon
dressed in garments, and which had been carried to the gi-ave
of a dead man, they pretend becomes inspired at the full of
the moon, and will dance and jump about. After the proper
preparations, the spoon, held by two women, became con-
vulsed, and danced in good time to the song of the surround-
ing children and Avomen. It was a most foolish spectacle ;
but Mr Liesk maintained that many of the Malays believed in
its spiritual movements. The dance did not commence till
the moon had risen, and it w’as well Avorth remaining, to behold

464-

TURTLE-CHASE

her bright orb so quietly shining through the long arms of the
cocoa-nut trees as they waved in the evening breeze. The
scenes of the tropics are in themselves so delicious, that they
almost equal those dearer ones at home, to which we are
bound by each best feeling of the mind.

The next day I employed myself in examining the very
interesting, yet simple, structure and origin of these islands.
The water being unusually smooth, I waded over the outer
flat of dead rock as far as the living mounds of coral, on which
the swell of the open sea breaks. In some of the gullies and
hollows there were beautiful green and other coloured fishes,
and the forms and tints of many of the zoophytes w’ere admir-
able. It is excusable to grow enthusiastic over the infinite
numbers of organic beings with which the sea of the tropics,
so prodigal of life, teems ; yet I must confess I think those
naturalists who have described, in well-known words, the
submarine grottoes decked with a thousand beauties, have
indulged in rather exuberant language.

April &h. — I accompanied Captain Fitz Roy to an island
at the head of the lagoon : the channel was exceedingly
intricate, winding though fields of deUcately-branched corals.
We saw several turtle, and two boats were then employed in
catching them. The water was so clear and shallow, that
although at first a turtle quickly dives out of sight, yet in a
canoe or boat under sail, the pursuers after no very long chase
come up to it. A man standing ready in the bow, at this
moment dashes through the water upon the turtle’s back ;
then clinging with both hands by the shell of its neck, he is
carried away till the animal becomes exhausted and is secured.
It was quite an interesting chase to see the two boats thus
doubling about, and the men dashing head foremost into the
water trying to seize their prey. Captain Moresby informs
me that in the Chagos Archipelago in this same ocean, the
natives, by a horrible process, take the shell from the back of
the living turtle. “ It is covered with burning charcoal, which
causes the outer shell to curl upwards : it is then forced off
with a knife, and, before it becomes cold, flattened between
boards. After this barbarous process the animal is suffered to
regain its native element, where, after a cerkiin time, a new
shell is formed ; it is, however, too thin to be of any service,
and the animal always appears languishing and sickly.”

CORAL FORMATIONS

4.65

When M'c arrived at the head of the lagoon, we crossed a
narrow islet, and found a great surf breaking on the wind-
ward coast. I can hardly explain the reason, but there is to
my mind much grandeur in the view of the outer shores of
these lagoon-islands. There is a simplicity in the barrier-like
beach, the margin of green bushes and tall cocoa-nuts, the
solid flat of dead coral rock, strewed here and there with
great loose fragments, and the line of furious breakers, all
rounding away towards either hand. The ocean throwing its
waters over the broad reef appears an invincible, all-powerful
enemy ; yet we see it resisted, and even conquered, by means
which at first seem most weak and inefficient. It is not that
the ocean spares the rock of coral ; the great fragments
scattered over the reef, and heaped on the beach, whence the
tall cocoa-nut springs, plainly bespeak the unrelenting power
of the waves. Nor are any periods of repose granted. The
long swell caused by the gentle but steady action of the
trade-wind, always blowing in one direction over a wide area,
causes breakers, almost equalling in force those during a gale
of wind in the temperate regions, and which never cease to
rage. It is impossible to behold these waves without feeling
a conviction that an island, though built of the hardest rock,
let it be porphyry, granite, or quartz, would ultimately yield
and be demolished by such an irresistible power. Yet these
loAv, insignificant coral-islets stand and are victorious : for
here another power, as an antagonist, takes part in the con-
test. The organic forces separate the atoms of carbonate of
lime, one by one, from the foaming breakers, and unite them
into a symmetrical structure. Let the hurricane tear up its
thousand huge fi-agments ; yet what will that tell against the
accumulated labour of myriads of architects at work night
and day, month after month. Thus do we see the soft and
gelatinous body of a polypus, through the agency of the
vital laws, conquering the great mechanical power of the
waves of an ocean, which neither the art of man nor the
inanimate works of nature could successfully resist.

We did not return on board till late in the evening, for we
stayed a long time in the lagoon, examining the fields of coral
and the gigantic shells of the chama, into which, if a man
were to put his hand, he would not, as long as the animal
lived, be able to withdraw it. Near the head of the lauoon.

466

CORAL FORMATIONS

I was much surprised to find a wide area, considerably more
than a mile square, covered with a forest of delicately-
branching corals, which, though standing upright, were all
dead and rotten. At first I was quite at a loss to understand
the cause ; afterwards it occurred to me that it was owing to
the following rather curious combination of circumstances.

It should, however, first be stated, that corals are not able to
survive even a short exposure in the air to the sun’s rays, so
that their ujiward limit of gi’owth is determined by that of
lowest water at spring tides. It appears, from some old
charts, that the long island to windward was formerly separ-
ated by wide channels into several islets ; this fact is likewise
indicated by the trees being younger on these portions.
Under the former condition of the reef, a strong breeze,
by throwing more water over the barrier, would tend to
raise the level of the lagoon. Now it acts in a directly
contrary manner ; for the water within the lagoon not only
is not increased by cuiTents from the outside, but is itself
blown outwards by the foi'ce of the wind. Hence it is ob-
served that the tide near the head of the lagoon does not
rise so high during a strong breeze as it does when it is
calm. This difference of level, although no doubt very
small, has, I believe, caused the death of those coral-groves,
which under the former and more open condition of the outer
reef had attained the utmost possible limit of upward growth.

A few miles north of Keeling there is another small atoll,
the lagoon of which is nearly filled up with coral-mud.
CajDtain Ross found embedded in the conglomerate on the
outer coast a well-rounded fragment of greenstone, rather
larger than a man’s head : he and the men with him were so
much surprised at this that they brought it away and pre-
served it as a curiosity. The occurrence of this one stone,
where every other particle of matter is calcareous, certainly
is very puzzling. The island has scarcely ever been visited, nor
is it probable that a ship had been wrecked there. From the
absence of any better explanation, I came to the conclusion j
that it must have come entangled in the roots of some large 1
tree ; when, however, I considered the great distance from f
the nearest land, the combination of chances against a stone >
thus being entangled, the tree washed into the sea, floated so j
far, then landed safely, and the stone finally so embedded as |

I

CORAL FORMATIONS

467

to allow of its discovery, I was almost afraid of imagining a
means of transport apparently so improbable. It was there-
fore with great interest that I found Chamisso, the justly
distinguished naturalist who accompanied Kotzebue, stating
that the inhabitants of the Radack Archipelago, a group of
lagoon islands in the midst of the Pacific, obtained stones for
sharpening their instruments by seai'ching the roots of trees
which are cast upon the beach. It Avill be evident that this
must have happened several times, since laws have been
established that such stones belong to the chief, and a punish-
ment is inflicted on any one who attempts to steal them.
When the isolated position of these small islands, in the
midst of a vast ocean — their great distance from any land
excepting that of coral formation, attested by the value
which the inhabitants, who are such bold navigators, attach
to a stone of any kind,'^ — and the slowness of the currents
of the open sea, are all considered, the occurrence of pebbles
thus transported does appear wonderful. Stones may often
be thus carried ; and if the island on which they are stranded
is constructed of any other substance besides coral, they
would scarcely attract attention, and their origin at least
would never be guessed. Moi’eover, this agency may long
escape discover}^ from the probability of tree.s, especially
those loaded with stones, floating beneath the surface. In
the channels of Tierra del Fuego large quantities of drift
timber are cast upon the beach, yet it is extremely rare to
meet a tree swimming on the Avater. These facts may possibly
throAv light on single stones, Avhether angular or rounded,
occasionally found embedded in fine sedimentaiy masses.

During another day I visited West Islet, on which the
vegetation Avas pei-haps more luxuriant than on any other.
The cocoa-nut trees generally grow’ separate, but here the
young ones flourished beneath their tall parents, and formed
with their long and curved fronds the most shady arbours.
Those alone w ho have tried it knoAv how delicious it is to be
seated in such shade, and drink the cool, jdeasant fluid of the
cocoa-nut. In this island there is a large bay-like space, com-
posed of the finest Avhite sand ; it is quite level, and is only

* Some natives carried by Kotzebue to Kamtschatka collected stones to
take back to their country.

4.68

GREAT CRAB

covered by the tide at lii^h water ; from this large bay
smaller creeks penetrate the surrounding woods. A field of
glittering white sand, I’epresenting water, with the cocoa-nut
trees extending their tall and waving trunks round the margin,
formed a singular and very pretty vicAv.

I have before alluded to a crab Avhich lives on the cocoa-
nut t it is very common on all parts of the dry land, and grows
to a monstrous size : it is closely allied or identical with the
Birgos lah’o. The front pair of legs terminate in very strong
and heavy pincers, and the last pair are fitted with others
weaker and much narrower. It would at first be thought
quite impossible for a crab to open a strong cocoa-nut covered
with the husk ; but Mr Liesk assures me that he has re-
peatedly seen this effected. The crab begins by tearing the
husk, fibre by fibre, and always from that end under which
the three eye-holes are situated ; Avhen this is completed, the
crab commences hammering with its heavy claws on one of
the eye-holes till an opening is made. Then turning round
its body, by the aid of its posterior and narrow jiair of pincers,
it extracts the white albuminous substance. I think this is as
curious a case of instinct as ever I heard of, and likewise of
adajjtation in structure between two objects apparently so
remote from each other in the scheme of nature as a crab and
a cocoa-nut tree. The Birgos is diurnal in its habits ; but
every night it is said to pay a visit to the sea, no doubt for
the purpose of moistening its branchiae. The young are like-
wise hatched, and live for some time on the coast. These
crabs inhabit deep burrows, Avhich they holloAv out beneath
the roots of trees ; and where they accumulate surprising
quantities of the picked fibres of the cocoa-nut husk, on
which they rest as on a bed. The Malays sometimes take
advantage of this, and collect the fibrous mass to use as junk.
These crabs are very good to eat ; moreover, under the tail of
the larger ones there is a great mass of fat, Avhich, when
melted, sometimes yields as much as a quart bottle full of
limpid oil. It has been stated by some authors that the
Birgos crawls uja the cocoa-nut trees for the purpose of
stealing the nuts. I very much doubt the possibility of
this ; but with the Pandanus* the task Avould be very much

Proceedings of Zoological Society, 1832, p. 17.

CORAL FORMATIONS

469

easier. I was told by Mr Liesk that on these islands the
Birgos lives only on the nuts which have fallen to the
ground.

Captain Moresby informs me that this crab inhabits the
Chagos and Seychelle groups, but not the neighbouring
Maldiva Archipelago. It formerly abounded at Mauritius,
but only a few small ones are now found there. In the
Pacific, this species, or one with closely allied habits, is
said* to inhabit a single coral island north of the Society
gi’oup. To show the wonderful strength of the front pair of
pincers, I may mention that Captain Moresby confined one in
a strong tin-box, which had held biscuits, the lid being secured
with wire ; but the crab turned down the edges and escaped.
In turning down the edges it actually punched many small
holes quite through the tin !

I was a good deal surprised by finding two species of coral
of the genus Millepora (M. complanata and alcicornls) possessed
of the power of stinging. The stony branches or plates, when
taken fresh from the water, have a harsh feel and are not
slimy, although possessing a strong and disagreeable smell.
The stinging property seems to vary in different specimens ;
when a piece was pressed or rubbed on the tender skin of the
face or arm, a pricking sensation was usually caused, which
came on after the interval of a second, and lasted only for a
few minutes. One day, however, by merely touching my face
with one of the branches, pain was instantaneously caused ;
it increased as usual after a few seconds, and remaining sharp
for some minutes was perceptible for half-an-hour afterwards.
The sensation was as bad as that from a nettle, but more like
that caused by the Physalia or Portuguese man-of-war. Little
red spots were produced on the tender skin of the arm, which
appeared as if they would have formed watery pustules, but
did not. M. Quoy mentions this case of the Millepora ; and I
have heard of stinging corals in the West Indies. Many marine
animals seem to have this power of stinging : besides the Por-
tuguese man-of-war, many jelly-fish, and the Aplysia or sea-
slug of the Cape de Verd Islands, it is stated in the voyage of
the Astrolabe, that an Actinia or sea-anemone, as well as a
flexible coralline allied to Serfularia, both possess this means

*Tyreman and Bennet, Voyage, etc., vol. ii. p. 33.

470

CORAL FORMATIONS

of offence or defence. In the East Indian sea, a stinging sea-
weed is said to be found.

Two species of fish, of the genus Scarux, which are common
here, exclusively feed on coral ; both are coloured of a
splendid bluish -green, one living invariably in the lagoon,
and the other amongst the outer breakers. Mr Liesk as-
sured us that he had repeatedly seen whole shoals grazing
with their strong bony jaws on the tops of the coral branches:
I opened the intestines of several, and found them distended
with yellowish calcareous sandy mud. The slimy disgusting
Holuthuria: (allied to our star-fish), which the Chinese gour-
mands are so fond of, also feed largely, as I am informed by
Dr Allan, on corals ; and the bony apparatus within their
bodies seems well adapted for this end. These Holuthuria,
the fish, the numerous buiTowing shells, and nereidous worms,
which perforate every block of dead coral, must be very
efficient agents in producing the fine white mud which lies at
the bottom and on the shores of the lagoon. A portion, how-
ever, of this mud, which when wet strikingly resembled
pounded chalk, was found by Professor Ehrenberg to be
partly composed of silieeous-shielded infusoria.

April \9.th. — In the morning we stood out of the lagoon on
our passage to the isle of Franee. I am glad we have visited
these islands ; such foianations surely rank high amongst the
wonderful objects of this world. Captain Fitz Roy found no
bottom with a line 7200 feet in length, at the distance of
only 2200 yards from the shore ; hence this island forms a
lofty submarine mountain, with sides steeper even than those
of the most abrupt volcanic cone. The saucer-shaped summit
is nearly ten miles across ; and every single atom,* from the
least particle to the largest fragment of rock, in this great
pile, which, however, is small compared with very many other
lagoon-islands, bears the stamp of having been subjected to
organic arrangement. We feel surprise when travellers tell
us of the vast dimensions of the Pyramids and other great
ruins, but how utterly bisignificant are the greatest of these,
when compared to these mountains of stone accumulated by

* I exclude, of course, some soil which has been imported here in vessels
from Malacca and Java, and likewise some small fragments of pumice,
drifted here by the waves. The one block of greenstone, moreover, on
the northern island must be excepted.

CORAL FORMATIONS

471

tlie agency of various minute and tender animals! Ihis is
a wonder which does not at first strike the eye of the body,
but, after refiection, the eye of reason.

I will now give a very brief account ot the three great
classes of coral-reets — namely. Atolls, Barrier, and Fiinging-
reefs, and will explain my views * on their formation. Almost
every voyager who has crossed the Pacific has expressed his
unbounded astonishment at the lagoon-islands, or as I shall
for the future call them by their Indian name of atolls,
and has attemjited some explanation. Even as long ago as
the year l605, Pyrard de Laval well exclaimed, “C’est
line merveille de voir chacun de ces atollons, environne d un
grand banc de pierre tout autour, n’y ayant point d artifice
humain.”

The above sketch of WTiitsunday Island, in the Pacific,
copied from Captain Beechey’s admirable voyage, gives but
a faint idea of the singular aspect of an atoll; it is one of
the smallest size, and has its narrow islets united together
in a ring. The immensity of the ocean, the fury of the
breakers, contrasted with the lowness of the land and the
smoothness of the bright green Avater Avithin the lagoon,
can hardly be imagined without having been seen.

The earlier voyagers fancied that the coral - building

‘These were first read before the Geological Society in May 1837, and
have since been developed in a separate volume on the Stnuhtre ami
Distribution of Coral Reefs.

472

ATOLLS

animals instinctively built up their great circles to afford
themselves protection in the inner parts ; but so far is this
from the truth, that those massive kinds, to whose growth
on the exposed outer shores the very existence of the
reef depends, cannot live within the lagoon, where other
delicately - branching kinds flourish. Moreover, on this
view, many species of distinct genera and families are
supposed to combine for one end ; and of such a combin-
ation, not a single instance can be found in the whole of
nature. The theory that has been most generally received
is, that atolls are based on submarine craters ; but when
we consider the form and size of some, the number, prox-
imity, and relative positions of others, this idea loses its
plausible character : thus, Suadiva atoll is foi'ty - four
geographical miles in diameter in one line, by thirty-four
miles in another line ; Rimsky is fifty-four by twenty miles
across, and it has a strangely sinuous margin ; Bow atoll
is thirty miles long, and on an average only .six in width ;
Menchicoff atoll consists of three atolls united or tied
together. This theory, moreover, is totally inapplicable
to the northern Maldiva atolls in the Indian Ocean (one
of which is eighty-eight miles in length, and between ten
and twenty in breadth), for they are not bounded like
ordinary atolls by narrow reefs, but by a vast number of
separate little atolls ; other little atolls rising out of the
great central lagoon-like spaces. A third and better theory
was advanced by Chamisso, who thought that from the
corals gi'owing more vigorously where exposed to the open
sea, as undoubtedly is the case, the outer edges would
grow up fi’om the general foundation before any other part,
and that this would account for the ring or cuj)- shaped
structure. But we shall immediately see, that in this, as
well as in the crater-theory, a most important consideration
has been overlooked — namely, on w'hat have the reef-building
corals, which cannot live at a great depth, based their
massive structimes

Numerous soundings were carefully taken by Captain Fitz
Roy on the steep outside of Keeling atoll, and it was found that
within ten fathom.s, the prepared tallow^ at the bottom of the
lead invariably came up marked with the impressions of
living corals, but as perfectly clean as if it had been dropped

BARRIER-REEFS

473

on a carpet of turf ; as the depth increased the inpressions
became less numerous, but the adhering particles of sand more
and more numerous, until at last it was evident that the
bottom consisted of a smooth sandy layer : to carry on the
analogy of the turf, the blades of grass grew thinner and
thinner, till at last the soil was so sterile, that nothing sprang
from it. From these observations, confirmed by many others,
it may be safely inferi-ed that the utmost depth at which
corals can constiaict reefs is between twenty and thirty
fathoms. Now there are enormous areas in the Pacific and
Indian Oceans, in which every single island is of coral
formation, and is raised only to that height to which the
waves can throw up fragments, and the winds pile up sand.
Thus the Radack group of atolls is an iiTegular square, 520
miles long and 240 broad ; the Low Archipelago is elliptic-
formed, 840 miles in its longer, and 420 in its shorter axis ;
there are other small groups and single low i.slands between
these two archipelagoes, making a linear space of ocean
actually more than 4000 miles in length, in which not one
single island rises above the specified height. Again, in the
Indian Ocean there is a space of ocean 1500 miles in length,
including three archipelagoes, in which every island is low and
of coral formation. From the fact of the reef-building corals
not living at great depths, it is absolutely certain that through-
out these vast areas, wherever there is now an atoll, a founda-
tion must have originally existed within a depth of from
twenty to thirty fathoms from the surface. It is improbable
in the highest degree that broad, lofty, isolated, steep-sided
banks of sediment, arranged in groups and lines hundreds of
leagues in length, could have been deposited in the central
and profoundest parts of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, at an
immense distance from any continent, and where the water
is perfectly limpid. It is equally improbable that the eleva-
tory forces should have uplifted throughout the above vast
areas, iunumerable great rocky banks within twenty to thirty
fathoms, or 120 to 180 feet, of the surface of the sea, and not
one single point above that level ; for w'here on the whole
face of the globe can we find a single chain of mountains,
even a few hundred miles in length, with their many summits
rising within a few feet of a given level, and not one pinnacle
above it ? If then the foundations, whence the atoll-building

474

ByVUllI}:R-REEFS

corals sprang, were not formed of sediment, and if they were
not lifted up to the recjuired level, they must of necessity
have subsided into it ; and tliis at once solves the difficulty.
For as mountain after mountain, and island after island, slowly
sank bejieath the water, fresh bases would be successively
afforded for the growth of the corals. It is im])ossible here to
enter into all the necessary details, but I venture to defy "*■
any one to explain in any other manner, how it is possible
that numerous islands should be distributed throughout vast
areas — all the islands being low — all being built of corals,
absolutely vequii’ing a foundation within a limited depth from
the surface.

Before explaining how atoll-formed reefs acquire their
peculiar structure, we must turn to the second great class —

namely, barrier-reefs. These either extend in straight lines
in front of the shores of a continent or of a large island, or
they encircle smaller islands ; in both cases, being separated
from the land by a broad and rather dee]) channel of water,
analogous to the lagoon within an atoll. It is remarkable
how little attention has been paid to encircling barrier-reefs ;
yet they are truly wonderful structures. The above sketch
represents part of the barrier encircling the island of Bolabola
in the Pacific, as seen from one of the central peaks. In this

* It is remarkable that Mr Lyell, even in the first edition of his Principles
of Geology, inferred that the amount of subsidence in the Pacific must have
exceeded that of elevation, from the area of land being very small relatively
to the agents there tending to form it — namely, the growth of coral and
volcanic action.

BARRIER-REEFS

475

instance the whole line of reef has been converted into land ;
but usually a snow-white line of great breakers, with only here
and there a single low islet crowned with cocoa-nut trees,
divides the dai'k heaving waters of the ocean from the light-
green expanse of the lagoon-channel. And the quiet waters
of this channel generally bathe a fringe of low alluvial soil,
loaded with the most beautiful productions of the tropics,
and Ijdng at the foot of the wild, abrupt, central mountains.

Encircling barrier-reefs are of all sizes, from three miles to
no less than forty-four miles in diameter ; and that which
fronts one side, and encircles both ends, of New Caledonia is
400 miles long. Each reef includes one, tw^o, or several rocky
islands of various heights ; and in one instance, even as many
as twelve separate islands. The reef runs at a greater or less
distance from the included land ; in the Society Archipelago
generally from one to three or four miles ; but at Hogoleu the
reef is tw'enty miles on the southern side, and fourteen miles
on the opposite or noilhern side, from the included islands.
The depth within the lagoon-channel also varies much : from
ten to thirty fathoms may be taken as an average ; but at Vani-
koro there are spaces no less than fifty-six fathoms or 336
feet deep. Internally the reef either slopes gently into the
lagoon-channel, or ends in a perpendicular wall sometimes
betw’een two and three hundred feet under water in height :
externally the reef rises, like an atoll, with extreme abi-upt-
ness out of the profound depths of the ocean. What can be
more singular than these structures ? We see an island,
which may be compared to a castle situated on the summit of
a lofty submarine mountain, protected by a great wall of coral
rock, always steep externally and sometimes internally, with
a broad level summit, here and there breached by narrow
gateways, through which the largest ships can enter the wide
and deep encircling moat.

As far as the actual reef of coral is concerned, there is
not the smallest difference, in general size, outline, grouping,
and even in quite trifling details of structure, between a
barrier and an atoll. The geographer Balbi has well re-
marked, that an encircled island is an atoll with high land
rising out of its lagoon ; remove the land from within, and
a perfect atoll is left.

But what has caused these reefs to spring up at such

476

BARRIER- REEFS

great distances from the shores of the included islands? It
cannot be that the corals will not grow close to the land^
for the shores within the lagoon - channel, when not sur-
rounded by alluvial soil, are often fringed by living reefs ;
and we shall presently see that there is a whole class,
which I have called Fringing-Reefs, from their close attach-
ment to the shores both of continents and of islands. Again,
on what have the reef-building corals, which cannot live
at great depths, based their encircling structures ? This is a
great apparent difficulty, analogous to that in the case of
atolls, which has generally been overlooked. It Avill be
perceived more clearly by inspecting the following sections.

J052/. '■

I. Vanikoro. 2. Gambier Islands. 3. Maurua.

The horizontal shading shows the barrier-reefs and lagoon-channels. The inclined
shading above the level of the sea(AA) shows the actual form of the land ; the inclined
shading below this line, shows its probable prolongation under water.

which are real ones, taken in north and south lines, through
the islands with their barrier-reefs, of Vanikoro, Gambier,
and Maurua ; and they are laid down, both vertically and
horizontally, on the same scale of a quarter of an inch to a
mile.

It should be observed that the sections might have been
taken in any direction through these islands, or through
many other encircled islands, and the general features
Avould have been the same. Now, bearing in mind that
reef-building coral cannot live at a greater depth than from
twenty to thirty fathoms, and that the scale is so small

KRINGING-KEEFS

477

that the plummets on the right hand show a depth of 200
fatlioms, on what are these bamer-reefs based ? Are we
to suppose that each island is suiTounded by a collar-like
submarine ledge of rock, or by a great bank of sediment,
ending abruptly where the reef ends? If the sea had
formerly eaten deeply into the islands, before they were
protected by the reefs, thus having left a shallow ledge
round them under water, the present shores would have
been invariably bounded by great precipices ; but this is
most rarely the case. Moreover, on this notion, it is not
possible to explain why the corals should have sprung up,
like a wall, from the extreme outer margin of the ledge,
often leaving a bi-oad space of water within, too deep for
the growth of corals. The accumulation of a wide bank
of sediment all round these islands, and generally widest
where the included islands are smallest, is highly improb-
able, considering their exposed positions in the central
and deepest parts of the ocean. In the case of the bamer-
reef of New Caledonia, which extends for one hundred and
fifty miles beyond the northern point of the island, in the
same straight line with which it fi’onts the west coast, it
is hardly possible to believe that a bank of sediment could
thus have been straightly deposited in front of a lofty
island, and so far beyond its termination in the open sea.
Finally, if we look to other oceanic islands of about the
same height and of similar geological constitution, but not
encircled by coral reefs, we may in vain search for so trifling
a circumambient depth as thirty fathoms, except quite near
to their shores ; for usually land that rises abruptly out of
water, as do most of the encircled and non-encircled oceanic
islands, plunges abruptly under it. On what then, I repeat,
are these barrier-reefs based ? Why, with their wide and
deep moat-like channels, do they stand so far from the
included land ? We shall soon see how easily these difficulties
disappear.

We come now to our third class of Fringing- Reefs, which
will require a very short notice. Where the land slopes
abruptly under water, these reefs are only a few yards in
width, forming a mere ribbon or fringe round the shores ;
where the land slopes gently under the water the reef
extends farther, sometimes even as much as a mile from the

478

THEORY OF CORAL-REEFS

land ; but in such cases tlie soundings outside the reef always
show that the submarine prolongation of the land is gently
inclined. In fact, the reefs extend only to that distance from
the shore at which a foundation within the requisite depth,
from twenty to thirty fathoms, is found. As far as the actual
reef is concerned, there is no essential difference between it
and that forming a baiTier or an atoll ; it is, however,
generally of less width, and consequently few islets have
been formed on it. From the corals growing more vigorously
on the outside, and from the noxious effect of the sediment
washed inwards, the outer edge of the reef is the highest
jjart, and between it and the land there is generally a shallow

now converted into a barrier, with islets on it. B'B' . The shores of the now encircled
island. CC. Lagoon-channel.

JV.B. — In this and the following woodcut, the subsidence of the land could be
represented only by an apparent rise in the level of the sea.

sandy channel a few feet in depth. Where banks of sediment
have accumulated near to the surface, as in parts of the
West Indies, they sometimes become fringed with corals, and
hence in some degree resemble lagoon-islands or atolls ; in
the same manner as fringing-reefs, surrounding gently-sloping
islands, in some degree resemble barrier-reefs.

No theory on the formation of coral-reefs can be considered
satisfactory which does not include the three great classes.
We have seen that we are driven to believe in the subsidence
of those vast areas, interspersed vith low islands, of which
not one rises above the height to which the wnds and waves
can throw up matter, and yet are constructed by animals
requiring a foundation, and that foundation to lie at no great
depth. Let us then take an island surrounded by fringing-
reefs, which offer no difficulty in their stnicture ; and let this

THEORY OF CORAL-REEFS

479

island with its reef, represented by the unbroken lines in the
woodcut, slowly subside. Now as the island sinks down,
either a few feet at a time, or quite insensibly, we may safely
infer, from what is known of the conditions favourable to the
growth of coral, that the living masses, bathed by the surf on
the margin of the reef, will soon regain the surface. The
water, however, will encroach little by little on the shore, the
island becoming lower and smaller, and the space between
the inner edge of the reef and the beach proportionally
broader. A section of the reef and island in this state, after
a subsidence of several hundred feet is given by the dotted
lines. Coral islets are supposed to have been formed on the
reef ; and a ship is anchored in the lagoon-channel. This
channel will be more or less deep, according to the rate of
subsidence, to the amount of sediment accumulated in it, and
to the growth of the delicately-branched corals which can live
there. The section in this state resembles in every respect
one drawn through an encircled island ; in fact, it is a real
section (on the scale of ’517 of an inch to a mile) through
Bolabola in the Pacific. We can now' at once see why
encircling baarier-reefs stand so far from the shores which
they front. We can also perceive, that a line drawn per-
pendicularly down from the outer edge of the new reef,
to the foundation of solid rock beneath the old fringing-reef,
will exceed by as many feet as there have been feet of
subsidence, that small limit of depth at which the effective
corals can live — the little architects having built up their
great wall-like mass, as the whole sank down upon a basis
formed of other corals and their consolidated fragments.
Thus the difficulty on this head, w'hich appeared so gi'eat,
disappears.

If, instead of an island, we had taken the shore of a
continent fringed with reefs, and had imagined it to have
subsided, a great straight barrier, like that of Australia or
New’ Caledonia, separated from the land by a wide and dee^j
channel, would evidently have been the result.

Let us take our new encircling barrier-reef, of which the
section is now rejn’esented by unkroken lines, and which, as I
have said, is a real section through Bolabola, and let it go on
subsiding. As the barrier-reef slowly sinks down, the corals
will go on vigorously growing upwards ; but as the island

4.80

subsidence: of coral-reefs

sinks, tlie water will gain inch by inch on the shore — the
separate mountains first forming separate islands within one
great reef — and finally, the last and highest pinnacle dis-
appearing. The instant this takes place, a perfect atoll is
formed : I have said, remove the high land from within an
encircling barrier-reef, and an atoll is left, and the land has
been removed. We can now perceive how it comes that
atolls, having sprung from encircling bamer-reefs, resemble
them in general size, form, in the manner in which they are
grouped together, and in their arrangement, in single or
double lines ; for they may be called inide outline charts of
the sunken islands over which they stand. We can further
see how it arises that the atolls in the Pacific and Indian
Oceans extend in lines parallel to the generally prevailing

A' A'. Outer edges of the barrier-reei at the level of the sea, with islets on it.

B'B'. The shores of the included island.

CC. The lagoon-channel.

A" A". Outer edges of the reef, now converted into an atoll. C'. The lagoon of the
new atoll.

A^. 5.— According to the true scale, the depths of the lagoon-channel and lagoon are
much exaggerated.

strike of the high islands and great coast-lines of those
oceans. I venture, therefore, to affirm, that on the theory of
the upward growth of the corals during the sinking of the
land,* all the leading features in those wonderful structures,

■* It has been highly satisfactory to me to find the following passage in a
pamphlet by Mr Couthouy, one of the naturalists in the great Antarctic
Expedition of the United States: — “Having personally examined a large
number of coral islands, and resided eight months among the volcanic class
having shore and partially encircling reefs, I may be permitted to state that
my own observations have impressed a conviction of the correctness of the
theory of Mr Darwin.” The naturalists, however, of this expedition differ
with me on some points respecting coral formations.

SUBSIDENCE OF CORAL-REEFS

481

the lagoon-islands or atolls, which have so long excited the
attention of voyagers, as well as in the no less wonderful
barrier-reefs, Avliether encircling small islands or sti’etching
for hundreds of miles along the shores of a continent, are
simply explained.

It may be asked whether I can offer any direct evidence of
the subsidence of bairier-reefs or atolls ; but it must be borne
in mind how difficult it must ever be to detect a movement the
tendency of which is to hide under water the part affected.
Nevertheless, at Keeling Atoll I observed on all sides of the
lagoon old cocoa-nut ti'ees undermined and falling ; and in
one place the foundation posts of a shed, which the inhabitants
asserted had stood seven years before just above high-water
mark, but now was daily washed by every tide : on inquiry I
found that three earthquakes, one of them severe, had been
felt here during the last ten years. At Vanikoro the lagoon-
channel is remarkably deej), scarcely any alluvial soil has
accumulated at the foot of the lofty included mountains, and
remarkably few islets have been formed by the heaping of
fragments and sand on the wall-like barrier-reef ; these facts,
and some analogous ones, led me to believe that this island
must lately have subsided and the reef growui upwards : here
again earthquakes are frequent and very severe. In the
Society Archipelago, on the other hand, where the lagoon-
channels are almost choked up, where much low' alluvial land
has accumulated, and whei'e in some cases long islets have
been formed on the ban-ier-reefs — facts all show'ing that the
islands have not very lately subsided — only feeble shocks are
most rarely felt. In these coral foraiations, where the land
and water seem struggling for mastery, it must be ever
difficult to decide betw'een the effects of a change in the
set of the tides and of a slight subsidence : that many of
these reefs and atolls are subject to changes of some kind
is certain ; on some atolls the islets appear to have increased
greatly within a late period ; on others they have been
partially or wholly w'ashed aw'ay. The inhabitants of parts
of the Maldiva Archipelago know the date of the first
formation of some islets ; in other parts, the corals are now
flourisliing on water-w'ashed reefs, w'here holes made for
graves attest the former existence of inhabited land. It
is difficult to believe in frequent changes in the tidal

2h

482

SUBSIDENCE OF CORAL-REEFS

cuiTcnts of an open ocean ; whereas, we have in the earth-
quakes recorded by the natives on some atolls, and in the
great fissin'es observed on other atolls, plain evidence of changes
and disturbances in progress in the subterranean regions.

It is evident, on our theory, that coasts merely fringed by
reefs cannot have subsided to any perceptible amount ; and
therefore they must, since the growth of their corals, either
have remained stationary or have been upheaved. Now it
is remarkable how generally it can be shown, by the presence
of upraised organic remains, that the fringed islands have
been elevated ; and so far, this is indirect evidence in favour
of our theory. I was particularly struck with this fact, when
I found, to my surprise, that the descriptions given by MM.
Quoy and Gaimard were applicable, not to reefs in general
as implied by them, but only to those of the fringing-class ;
my surprise, however, ceased when I afterwards loimd that,
by a strange chance, all the several i.slands visited by these
eminent naturalists could be showrr by their own statements
to have been elevated within a recent geological era.

Not only the grand featirres in the structure of barrier-
reefs and of atolls, and of their likeness to each other in
fonn, size, and other eharacters, are explained on the theory
of subsidence — which theory we are independently forced
to admit in the very areas in question, from the necessity
of finding bases for the corals within the requisite depth —
but many details in structure and exceptional cases can thus
also be simply explained. I will give only a few instances.

In barrier-reefs it has long been remai-ked with surprise that
the passages through the reefs exactly face valleys in the
included land, even in cases where the reef is separated from
the land by a lagoon-channel so Avide and so much deeper
than the actual passage itself, that it seems hardly possible
that the very small quantity of water or sediment brought i
down could injure the corals on the reef. Now, every reef
of the fringing-class is breached by a narrow gateway in
front of the smallest rivulet, even if diy during the greater
part of the year, for the mud, sand, or gravel occasionally
washed down kills the corals on which it is deposited. Con-
sequently, when an island thus fringed subsides, though most \
of the narrow gateways will probably become closed by the out-
ward and upward growth of the corals, yet any that are not

SUBSIDENCE OF CORAL-REEFS

4.8.1

closed (and some must always be kept open by the sediment
and impure water flowing out of the lagoon-channel) will still
continue to front exactly the upper parts of those valleys at the
mouths of which the original basal fringing-reef was breached.

We can easily see how an island fronted only on one side,
or on one side with one end or both ends encircled by bamer-
reefs, might after long- continued subsidence be converted
either into a single wall-like reef, or into an atoll with a
great straight spur projecting from it, or into two or three
atolls tied together by straight reefs — all of which excep-
tional cases actually occur. As the reef - building corals
require food, are preyed upon by other animals, are killed
by sediment, cannot adhere to a loose bottom, and may be
easily carried down to a depth whence they cannot spring
up again, we need feel no surprise at the reefs both of
atolls and barriers becoming in parts imperfect. The great
baiTier of New Caledonia is thus imperfect and broken in
many parts ; hence, after long subsidence, this great reef
M’ould not produce one great atoll four hundred miles in
length, but a chain or archipelago of atolls, of very nearly
the same dimensions with those in the Maldiva Archipelago.
Moreover, in an atoll once breached on opposite sides, from
the likelihood of the oceanic and tidal currents passing
straight through the breaches, it is extremely improbable
that the corals, especially during continued subsidence,
would ever be able again to unite the rim; if they did not,
as the whole sank downwards, one atoll would be divided
into two or more. In the Maldiva Archipelago there
are distinct atolls so related to each other in position, and
separated by channels either unfathomable or very deep (the
channel betw^een Ross and Ari atolls is 150 fathoms, and that
between the north and south Nillandoo atolls is 200 fathoms
in depth), that it is impossible to look at a map of them
without believing that they were once more intimately related.
And in this same archipelago, Mahlos-Mahdoo atoll is divided
by a bifurcating channel from 100 to 132 fathoms in dejith,
in such a manner that it is scarcely possible to say whether
it ought strictly to be called three separate atolls, or one
great atoll not yet finally divided.

I will not enter on many more details ; but I must remark
that the curious structure of the northern Maldiva atolls

484

SUBSIDENCE OF CORAL-REEFS

receives (taking into consideration the free entrance of the
sea through their broken margins) a simple explanation in
the upward and outward growth of the corals, originally
based both on small detached reefs in their lagoons, such
as occur in common atolls, and on broken portions of the
linear marginal reef, such as bounds every atoll of the ordin-
ary form. I cannot refrain from once again remarking on
'the singularity of these complex structures — a great sandy
and generally concave disc rises abruptly from the unfathom-
able ocean, with its central expanse studded, and its edge
symmetrically bordered with oval basins of coral rock just
lipping the surface of the sea, sometimes clothed with vege-
tation, and each containing a lake of clear water !

One more point in detail ; as in two neighbouring archi-
pelagoes corals flomash in one and not in the other, and
as so many conditions before enumerated must affect their
existence, it would be an inexplicable fact if, during the
changes to which earth, air, and water are subjected, the
reef-building corals were to keep alive for perpetuity on any
one spot or area. And as by our theory the areas including
atolls and barrier-reefs are subsiding, we ought occasionally
to find reefs both dead and submerged. In all reefs, owing
to the sediment being w^ashed out of the lagoon or lagoon-
channel to leeward, that side is least favourable to the long-
continued vigorous gi-owth of the corals; hence, dead portions
of reef not unfrequently occur on the leeward side ; and
these, though still retaining their proper wall-like form, are
now in several instances sunk several fathoms beneath the
surface. The Chagos group appears from some cause, pos-
sibly from the subsidence having been too rapid, at present
to be much less favourably circumstanced for the growth of
reefs than formerly: one atoll has a portion of its marginal
reef, nine miles in length, dead and submerged ; a second
has only a few quite small living points which rise to the
surface ; a thii’d and fourth ai-e entirely dead and submerged ;
a fifth is a mere wreck, with its structure almost obliterated.

It is remarkable that in all these cases the dead reefs and
portions of reef lie at nearly the same depth — namely, from
six to eight fathoms beneath the surface — as if they had
been carried down by one uniform movement. One of these
“ half - drowned atolls,” so called by Captiiin Moresby (to >

THEIR RELATION TO VOLCANOES

486

whom I am indebted for much invaluable information), is
of vast size — namely, ninety nautical miles across in one
direction, and seventy miles in another line; and is in many
respects eminently curious. As by our theory it follows
that new atolls will genei'ally be formed in each new area of
subsidence, two weighty objections might have been raised —
namely, that atolls must be increasing indefinitely in number;
and secondly, that in old areas of subsidence each separate
atoll must be increasing indefinitely in thickness, if proofs
of their occasional destruction could not have been adduced.
Thus have we traced the histoiy of these great rings of coral-
rock, from their first origin through their normal changes
and through occasional accidents of their existence to their
death and final obliteration.

In my volume on Coral Fonnalions I have published a map,
in w’hich I have coloured all the atolls dark blue, the barrier-
I’eefs ])ale blue, and the fringing-reefs red. These latter I'eefs
have been formed whilst the land has been stationary, or, as
appears from the frecpient presence of upraised organic re-
mains, whilst it has been slowly rising : atolls and bander-
reefs, on the other hand, have grown up during the directly
opposite movement of subsidence, which movement must
have been very gradual, and in the case of atolls so vast in
amount as to have buried every mountain-summit over wide
ocean spaces. Now', in this map we see that the reefs
tinted pale and dark blue, which have been produced by the
same oi-der of movement, as a general rule manifestly stand
near each other. Again, we see that the areas with the two
blue tints are of Avide extent ; and that they lie separate fi'om
extensive lines of coast coloured red, both of which circum-
stances might naturally have been inferred, on the theory of
the nature of the reefs having been governed by the nature
of the earth’s movement. It deserves notice, that in more
than one instance where single red and blue circles approach
near each other, I can show that there have been oscillations
of levels ; for in such cases the red or fringed circles consist
of atolls, originally by our theory formed during subsidence,
but subsequently upheaved ; and, on the other hand, some of
the pale blue or encircled islands are composed of coral-rock,
which must have been uplifted to its present height before

486

CHANGES IN CORAL-REEFS

that subsidence took place, during which the existing barrier-
reefs grew upwards.

Authors have noticed with surprise, that although atolls are
the commonest coral-structures throughout some enormous
oceanic tracts, they are entirely absent in other seas, as in
the West Indies: we can now at once perceive the cause,
for where there has not been subsidence, atolls cannot
have been formed ; and in the case of the West Indies and
parts of the East Indies, these tracts ai'e known to have been
rising within the recent period. The larger areas, coloured
red and blue, are all elongated ; and between the two colours
there is a degree of rude alternation, as if the rising of one
had balanced the sinking of the other. Taking* into con-
sideration the proofs of recent elevation both on the fringed
coasts and on some others (for instance, in South America)
where there are no reefs, we are led to conclude that the
great continents are for the most part rising areas ; and from
the nature of the coral-reefs, that the central parts of the
great oceans are sinking areas. The East Indian Archipelago,
the most broken land in the world, is in most parts an area of
elevation, but surrounded and penetrated, probably in more
lines than one, by narrow areas of subsidence.

I have marked with vermilion spots all the many known
active volcanoes within the limits of this same map. Their
entire absence from every one of the great subsiding areas,
coloured either pale or dark blue, is most striking ; and not
less so is the coincidence of the chief volcanic chains with the
parts coloured red, which we are led to conclude have either
long remained stationary, or more generally have been recently
upraised. Although a few of the vermilion spots occur with-
in no gi’eat distance of single circles tinted blue, yet not one
single active volcano is situated within several hundred miles
of an archipelago, or even small group of atolls. It is, there-
fore, a striking fact that in the Friendly Archipelago, which
consists of a group of atolls upheaved and since partially worn
down, two volcanoes, and perhaps more, are historically knowTi
to have been in action. On the other hand, although most
of the islands in the Pacific which are encircled by barrier-
reefs are of volcanic origin, often with the remnants of craters
still distinguishable, not one of them is known to have ever been
in eruption. Hence in these cases it would appear that vol-

THEIR RELATION TO VOLCANOES

4.87

canoes burst forth into action and become extinguished on the
same spots^ accordingly as elevatory or subsiding movements
prevail there. Numberless facts could be adduced to prove
that upraised organic remains are common wherever there are
active volcanoes ; but until it could be shown that in areas of
subsidence, volcanoes were either absent or inactive, the in-
ference, however probable in itself, that their distribution
depended on the rising or falling of the earth’s surface, would
have been hazardous. But now, I think, we may freely admit
this important deduction.

Taking a final view of the map, and bearing in mind the
statements made with respect to the upraised organic remains,
we must feel astonished at the vastness of the areas which
have suffered changes in level either downwards or upwards
within a peiiod not geologically remote. It would appear,
also, that the elevatory and subsiding movements follow
nearly the same laws. Throughout the spaces interspersed
with atolls, where not a single peak of high land has been
left above the level of the sea, the sinking must have been
immense in amount. The sinking, moreover, whether con-
tinuous or recurrent with intervals sufficiently long for the
corals again to bring up their living edifices to the surface,
must necessarily have been extremely slow. This conclusion is
probably the most important one which can be deduced from
the study of coral formations ; — and it is one which it is
difficult to imagine how otherwise could ever have been
arrived at. Nor can I quite pass over the probability of the
former existence of large archipelagoes of lofty islands, where
now only rings of coral-rocks scarcely break the open expanse
of the sea, throwing some light on the distribution of the in-
habitants of the other high islands, now left standing so
immensely remote from each other in the midst of the great
oceans. The reef-constructing corals have indeed reared and
preserved wonderful memorials of the subterranean oscilla-
tions of level ; we see in each barrier-reef a proof that the
land has there subsided, and in each atoll a monument over
an island now lost. We may thus, like unto a geologist who
had lived his ten thousand years and kept a record of the
passing changes, gain some insight into the great system by
which the surface of this globe has been broken up, and land
and water interchanged.

CHAPTER XXI

MAURITIUS TO ENGLAND

MAURITIUS, BEAUTIFUL APPEARANCE OF GREAT CRATERIFORM

RING OF MOUNTAINS HINDOOS ST HELENA HISTORY OF

THE CHANGES IN THE VEGETATION CAUSE OF THE EXTINC-
TION OF LAND-SHELLS ASCENSION VARIATION IN THE

IMPORTED RATS VOLCANIC BOMBS BEDS OF INFUSORIA

BAHIA BRAZIL SPLENDOUR OF TROPICAL SCENERY PER-
NAMBUCO SINGULAR REEF SLAVERY RETURN TO ENGLAND

RETROSPECT ON OUR VOYAGE.

RIL 2dth. — In the morning we passed round the
northern end of Mauritius, or the Isle of France.
From this point of view the aspect of the island
equalled the expectations raised by the many
well-known descriptions of its beautiful scenerj'.
The sloping plain of the Pamplemousses, interspersed with
houses, and coloured by the large fields of sugar-cane of a
bright green, composed the foreground. The brilliancy of
the green was the more remarkable, because it is a colour
which generally is conspicuous only from a very short dis-
tance. Towards the centre of the island groups of wooded
mountains rose out of this highly-cultivated plain ; their
summits, as so commonly happens with ancient volcanic rocks,
being jagged into the sharpest points. Masses of white
clouds were collected around these pinnacles, as if for the
sake of pleasing the stranger’s eye. The whole island, with
its sloping border and central mountains, was adorned with
an air of perfect elegance ; the scenery, if I may use such an
expression, appeared to the sight harmonious.

I spent the greater part of the next day in walking about
the town and visiting different people. The town is of
considerable size, and is said to contain 20,000 inhabitants ;
the streets are very clean and regular. Altliough the island
488

MAURITIUS

489

has been so many years under the English Government, the
general character of the place is quite French : Englishmen
speak to their servants in French, and the shops are all
French ; indeed, I should think that Calais or Boulogne was
much more Anglified. There is a very pretty little theatre,
in which operas are excellently performed. We were also sur-
prised at seeing kn-ge booksellers’ shops, with well-stored
shelves ; music and reading bespeak our approach to the old
world of civilisation ; for in truth both Australia and America
are new worlds.

The various races of men walking in the streets afford the
most interesting spectacle in Port Louis. Convicts from
India are banished here for life ; at present there are about
800, and they are employed in various public works. Before
seeing these people, I had no idea that the inhabitants of
India were such noble-looking figures. Their skin is ex-
tremely dark, and many of the older men had large mous-
taches and beards of a snow-white colour ; this, together
with the fire of their expression, gave them quite an imposing
aspect. The greater number had been banished for murder
and the worst crimes ; others for causes which can scarcely be
considered as moral faults, such as for not obeying, from
■supei’stitious motives, the English laws. These men are
generally quiet and well-conducted ; from their outward con-
duct, their cleanliness, and faithful observance of their strange
religious rites, it was impossible to look at them with the same
eyes as on our wretched convicts in New South Wales.

May \st. — Sunday. I took a quiet walk along the sea-
coast to the north of the town. The plain in this part is
quite uncultivated ; it consists of a field of black lava,
smoothed over with coarse grass and bushes, the latter
being chiefly Mimosas. The scenery may be described as
intermediate in character between that of the Galapagos and
of Tahiti ; but this will convey a definite idea to very few
persons. It is a very pleasant countiy, but it has not the
charms of Tahiti, or the grandeur of Brazil. The next day I
ascended La Pouce, a mountain so called from a thumb-like
projection, which rises close behind the town to a height of
2600 feet. The centre of the island consists of a great platform,
surrounded by old broken basaltic mountains, with their strata
dipping seawards. The central platform, formed of coinjiara-

♦90

MAURITIUS

lively recent streams of lava, is of an oval shape, thirteen
geographical miles across, in the line of its shorter axis. The
exterior hounding mountains come into that class of struc-
tures called Craters of Elevation, which are supposed to
have been formed, not like ordinary ci’aters, but by a great
and sudden upheaval. There appears to me to be insuper-
able objections to this view ; on the other hand, I can
hardly believe, in this and. in some other cases, that these
marginal crateriform mountains are merely the basal rem-
nants of immense volcanoes, of which the summits either
have been blown off, or swallowed up in subterranean abysses.

From our elevated position we enjoyed an excellent view
over the island. The country on this side appears pretty
well cultivated, being divided into fields and studded with
farm houses. I was, however, assured that of the whole
land not more than half is yet in a productive state ; if
such be the case, considering the present large export of
sugar, this island, at some future period, when thickly
peopled, will be of great value. Since England has taken
possession of it, a period of only twenty-five years, the
export of sugar is said to have increased seventy-five fold.
One great cause of its prosperity is the excellent state of
the roads. In the neighbouring Isle of Bourbon, which
remains under the French Government, the roads are still
in the same miserable state as they were here only a few
years ago. Although the French residents must have largely
profited by the increased prosperity of their island, yet the
English Government is far from popular.

May 3rd. — In the evening Captain Lloyd, the Surveyor-
General, so well known from his examination of the Isthmus
of Panama, invited Mr Stokes and myself to his country
house, which is situated on the edge of Wilheim Plains,
and about six miles from the Port. We stayed at this
delightful place two days ; standing nearly 800 feet above
the sea, the air was cool and fresh, and on every side there
were delightful walks. Close by, a grand ravine has been
worn to a depth of about 500 feet through the slightly
inclined streams of lava, which have flowed from the central
platform.

May 5th. — Captain Lloyd took us to the Riviere Noire,
which is several miles to the southward, that I might

ST HELENA

4.91

examine some rocks of elevated coral. We passed through
pleasant gardens, and fine fields of sugar - cane giwv-
injr amidst huge blocks of lava. The roads were
bordered by hedges of Mimosa, and near many of the
houses there were avenues of the mango. Some of the
views, M'here the peaked hills and the cultivated farms
were seen together, were exceedingly picturesque ; and we
were constantly tempted to exclaim, How pleasant it
would be to pass one’s life in such quiet abodes ! ” Captain
Lloyd possessed an elephant, and he sent it half-way with
us that we might enjoy a ride in true Indian fashion. The
circumstance which surprised me most was its quiet, noise-
less step. This elephant is the only one at present on the
island ; but it is said others will be sent for.

Mai/ Qth. — We sailed from Port Louis, and, calling at
the Cape of Good Hope, on the 8th of July we arrived off
St Helena. This island, the forbidding aspect of which
has been so often described, rises abruptly like a huge black
castle fi'om the ocean. Near the town, as if to complete
Nature’s defence, small forts and guns fill up eveiy gap in
the rugged rocks. The town runs up a flat and narrow
valley ; the houses look respectable, and are interspersed with
a very few green trees. When approaching the anchoi'age
there was one striking view ; an irregular castle perched on
the summit of a lofty hill, and surrounded by a few scattered
fir-trees, boldly projected against the sky.

The next day I obtained lodgings within a stone’s-throw
of Napoleon’s tomb * : it was a capital central situation,
whence I could make excursions in every direction. During
the four days I stayed here I wandered over the island from
morning to night, and examined its geological history. My
lodgings were situated at a height of about 2000 feet ; here
the weather was cold and boisterous, with constant showers
of rain ; and eveiy now and then the whole scene was veiled
in thick clouds.

* After the volumes of eloquence which have poured forth on this
subject, it is dangerous even to mention the tomb. A modern traveller,
in twelve lines, burdens the poor little island with the following titles —
it is a grave, tomb, pyramid, cemetery, sepulchre, catacomb, sarcophagus,
minaret, and mausoleum.

492

ST HELENA

Near the coast the rough lava is quite bare ; in the central
and higher parts, feldspathic rocks by their decomposition
have produced a clayey soil, which, where not covered by
vegetation, is stained in broad bands of many bright colours.
At this season the land, moistened by constant showers, pro-
duces a singularly bright green pasture, which, lower and
lower down, gi-adually fades away and at last disappears.
In latitude 16°, and at the trifling elevation of 1500 feet, it
is surpi’ising to behold a vegetation possessing a character
decidedly British. The hills are crowned with iri’egular
plantations of Scotch firs ; and the sloping banks are thickly
scattered over with thickets of gorse, covered with its bright
yellow flowers. Weeping willows are common on the banks
of the rivulets, and the hedges are made of the blackberry,
producing its well-known fruit. When we consider that the
number of plants now found on the island is 746, and that
out of these fifty-two alone are indigenous species, the rest
having been imported, and most of them from England, we
see the reason of the Bi’itish character of the vegetation.
Many of these English plants appear to flourish better than
in their native country ; some also from the opposite quarter
of Australia succeed remarkably well. The many imjjorted
species must have destroyed some of the native kinds ; and
it is only on the highest and steepest ridges that the
indigenous Flora is now predominant.

The English, or rather Welsh, character of the scenerj' is
kept up by the numerous cottages and small white houses ;
some buried at the bottom of the deepest valleys, and others
mounted on the crests of the lofty hills. Some of the views
are striking ; for instance, that from near Sir W. Doveton’s
house, where the bold peak called Lot is seen over a dark
wood of firs, the whole being backed by the red water-worn
mountains of the southern coast. On viewing the island
from an eminence, the first circumstance which strikes one
is the number of the roads and forts : the labour bestowed
on the public works, if one forgets its character as a prison,
seems out of all proportion to its extent or value. There
is so little level or useful land that it seems surprising how
so many people, about 5000, can subsist here. The lower
orders, or the emancipated slaves, are, I believe, extremely
poor ; they complain of the want of work. From the reduc-

CHANGES IN THE VEGETATION

493

tion in the niimbei' of public servants, owing to the island
having been given up by the East India Company, and the
consequent emigration of many of the richer people, the
poverty probably will increase. The chief food of the
working-class is rice with a little salt meat ; as neither of
these articles are the products of the island, but must be
purchased with money, the low wages tell heavily on the
poor people. Now that the people are blessed with freedom,
a right which I believe they value fully, it seems jirobable
that their numbers will quickly increase : if so, what is to
become of the little state of St Helena ?

My guide was an elderly man, who had been a goatherd
when a boy, and knew every step amongst the rocks. He
was of a race many times crossed, and although with a dusky
skin, he had not the disagreeable exj^ression of a mulatto.
He was a very civil, quiet old man, and such appears the
character of the greater number of the lower classes. It
was strange to my ears to hear a man, nearly white, and
respectably dressed, talking with indifference of the times
when he was a slave. With my companion, who earned our
dinners and a horn of water, which is quite necessary, as all the
water in the lower valley is saline, I every day took long walks.

Beneath the upper and central green circle, the wild
valleys are quite desolate and untenanted. Here, to the
geologist, there were scenes of high interest, showing suc-
cessive changes and complicated disturbances. According
to my views, St Helena has existed as an island from a
very remote epoch ; some obscure proofs, however, of the
elevation of the land are still extant. I believe that the
central and highest peaks form parts of the rim of a great
crater, the southern half of which has been entirely removed
by the waves of the sea : there is, moreover, an external
wall of black basaltic rocks, like the coast - mountains of
Mauritius, which are older than the central volcanic streams.
On the higher parts of the island, considerable numbers of
a shell, long thought a marine species, occur embedded in
the soil. It proves to be a Cochlogcna, or land-shell of a
very peculiar form * ; with it I found six other kinds ; and

* It deserves notice that all the many specimens of this shell found by
me in one spot, differ, as a marked variety, from another set of specimens
procured from a different spot.

494

CHANGES IN THE VEGETATION

in another spot an eighth species. It is remarkable that
none of them are now found living. Their extinction has
probably been caused by the entire destruction of the woods,
and the consequent loss of food and shelter, which occurred
during the early part of the last century.

The history of the changes which the elevated plains of
Longwood and Deadwood have undergone, in General
Beatson’s account of the island, is extremely curious. Both
plains, it is said, in former times were covered with wood,
and were therefore called the Great Wood. So late as the
year 1716 there were many trees, but in 1724 the old trees
had mostly fallen ; and as goats and hogs had been suffered
to range about, all the young trees had been killed. It
appears also from the official records, that the trees were
unexpectedly, some years afterwards, succeeded by a wire
grass, which spread over the whole surface.* General
Beatson adds that now this plain " is covered with fine
sward, and is become the finest piece of pasture on the
island.” The extent of surface, probably covered by wood
at a former period, is estimated at no less than two thousand
acres ; at the present day scarcely a single tree can be
found there. It is also said that in 1709 there were quan-
tities of dead trees in Sandy Bay ; this place is now so
utterly desert that nothing but so well-attested an account
could have made me believe that they could ever have
grown there. The foct that the goats and hogs destroyed
all the young trees as they sprang up, and that in the
course of time the old ones, which were safe from their
attacks, perished fi'om age, seems clearly made out. Goats
were introduced in the year 1502; eighty-six years after-
wards, in the time of Cavendish, it is known that they were
exceedingly numerous. More than a centur)' afterwards,
in 1731, when the evil was complete and irretrievable, an
order was issued that all stray animals should be destroyed.
It is very interesting thus to find that the arrival of animals
at St Helena in 1501 did not change the whole aspect of
tlie island luitil a period of two hundred and tAventy years
had elapsed; for the goats M^ere introduced in 1502, and in
1724 it is said “the old trees had mostly fallen.” There

Beatson’s Helena. Introductory chapter, p. 4.

BIRDS AND INSECTS

495

can be little doubt that this great change in the vegetation
affected not only the land -shells^ causing eight species to
become extinct, but likewise a multitude of insects.

St Helena, situated so remote from any continent, in the
midst of a great ocean, and possessing a unique Flora,
excites our curiosity. The eight land -shells, though now
extinct, and one living Siiccinea, are peculiar species found
nowhere else. Mr Cuming, however, informs me that an
English HelLv is common here, its eggs no doubt having
been imported in some of the many introduced plants. Mr
Cuming collected on the coast sixteen species of sea-shells,
of which seven, as far as he knows, are confined to this
island. Birds and insects,* as might have been expected,
are very few in number ; indeed, I believe all the birds have
been introduced within late yeai-s. Partridges and pheasants
are tolerably abundant ; the island is much too English not
to be subject to strict game-laws. I was told of a more
unjust sacrifice to such oi’dinances than I ever heai'd of even
in England. The poor people formerly used to burn a
plant, w'hich grows on the coast-rocks, and export the soda
from its ashes ; but a peremptoiy order came out jjrohibiting
this practice, and giving as a reason that the partridge
would have nowhere to build.

* Among these few insects I was surprised to find a small Aphodius
{nov. spec.) and an Oryctes, both extremely numerous under dung. When
the island was discovered it certainly possessed no quadruped, excepting,
perhaps, a mouse : it becomes, therefore, a difficult point to ascertain
whether these stercovorous insects have since been imported by accident,
or, if aborigines, on what food they formerly subsisted. On the banks of
the Plata, where, from the vast number of cattle and horses, the fine plains
of turf are richly manured, it is vain to seek the many kinds of dung-
feeding beetles, which occur so abundantly in Europe. I observed only an
Oryctes (the insects of this genus in Europe generally feed on decayed
vegetable matter) and two species of Phancnts, common in such situations.
On the opposite side of the Cordillera, in Chiloe, another species of
Phatuetts is exceedingly abundant, and it buries the dung of the cattle in
large earthen balls beneath the ground. There is reason to believe that
the genus Phameus, before the introduction of cattle, acted as scavengers to
man. In Europe, beetles, which find support in the matter which has
already contributed towards the life of other and larger animals, are so
numerous, that there must be considerably more than one hundred different
species. Considering this, and observing what a quantity of food of this
kind is lost on the plains of La Plata, I imagined I saw an instance where
man had disturbed that chain, by which so many animals are linked

496

ASCENSION

In my 'W'alks I passed more than once over the grassy plain,
bounded by deep valleys, on which Longwood stands. Viewed
from a short distance, it appears like a respectable gentleman’s
country-seat. In front there are a few cultivated fields, and
beyond them the smooth hill of coloured rocks called the
Flag.stafF, and the rugged square black mass of the Barn. On
the whole the view was rather bleak and uninteresting. The
only inconvenience I suffered during my walks was from the
impetuous winds. One day I noticed a curious circumstance :
standing on the edge of a jjlain, terminated by a great cliff of
about a thousand feet in depth, I saw at a distance of a few
yards right to windward, some tern struggling against a very
strong breeze, whilst, where I stood, the air was quite calm.
Approaching close to the brink, where the cun’ent seemed to
be deflected upwards from the face of the cliff, I stretched out
my arm, and immediately felt the full force of the wind : an
invisible bai-rier, two yards in width, separated perfectly calm
air from a strong blast.

I so much enjoyed my rambles among the rocks and moun-
tains of St Helena that I felt almost sorry on the morning of
the 14th to descend to the town. Before noon I was on
board, and the Beagle made sail.

On the 19th of July we reached Ascension. Those who
have beheld a volcanic island, situated under an arid climate,
will at once be able to picture to themselves the appearance
of Ascension. They will imagine smooth conical hills of a
bright red colour, with their summits genei'ally tiimcated,
rising separately out of a level surface of black rugged lava.
A principal mound in the centre of the island, seems the

together in their native country. In Van Diemen’s Land, however, I
found four species of Onthophagus, two of Aphodius, and one of a third
genus, very abundant under the dung of cows ; yet these latter animals had
been then introduced only thirty-three years. Previously to that time, the
kangaroo and some other small animals were the only quadrupeds; and
their dung is of a very different quality from that of their successors intro-
duced by man. In England the greater number of stercovorous beetles
are confined in their appetites — that is, they do not depend indifferently on
any quadruped for the means of subsistence. The change, therefore, in
habits which must have taken place in Van Diemen’s Land is highly
remarkable. I am indebted to the Rev. F. W. Hope, who, I hope, will
jiermit me to call him my master in entomology, for giving me the names
of the foregoing insects.

ASCENSION

497

father of the lesser cones. It is called Green Hill ; its name
being taken from the faintest tinge of that colour^ which at
this time of the year is barely perceptible from the anchorage.
To complete the desolate scene, the black rocks on the coast
are lashed by a wild and turbulent sea.

The settlement is near the beach ; it consists of several
houses and barracks placed irregularly, but well built of white
freestone. The only inhabitants are marines, and some negi-oes
liberated from slave-ships, who are paid and victualled by
government. There is not a private person on the island.
Many of the marines appeared well contented with their
situation ; they think it better to serve their one-and-twenty
years on shore, let it be what it may, than in a ship ; in this
choice, if I were a marine, I should most heartily agree.

The next morning I ascended Green Hill, 2840 feet high,
and thence walked across the island to the windward point.
A good cart-road leads from the coast-settlement to the
houses, gardens, and fields, placed near the summit of the
central mountain. On the roadside there are milestones, and
likewise cisterns, where each thirsty passer-by can drink
some good water. Similar care is displayed in each part of
the establishment, and especially in the management of the
springs, so that a single drop of water may not be lost:
indeed, the whole island may be compared to a huge ship
kept in first-rate order. I could not help, when admiring
the active industry which had created such effects out of
such means, at the same time regretting that it had been
wasted on so poor and trifling an end. M. Lesson has re-
marked with justice that the English nation alone would
have thought of making the island Ascension a productive
spot ; any other people would have held it as a mere fortress
in the ocean.

Near this coast nothing grows ; farther inland, an occa-
sional green castor -oil plant, and a few grasshoppers, true
friends of the desert, may be met with. Some grass is
scattered over the surface of the central elevated region,
and the whole much resembles the worse parts of the Welsh
mountains. But, scanty as the pasture appears, about six
hundred sheep, many goats, a few cows and horses, all
thrive well on it. Of native animals, land-crabs and rats
swarm in numbers. Whether the rat is really indigenous

2 r

49S

ASCENSION

may well be doubted : there are two varieties as described
by Mr Waterhouse ; one is of a black colour, with fine glossy
fur, and lives on the grassy summit ; the other is brown-
coloured and less glossy, with longer hairs, and lives near the
settlement on the coast. Both these varieties are one-third
smaller than the common black rat (iVf. rallus'), and they differ
from it both in the colour and character of their fur, but in
no other essential respect. I can hardly doubt that these
rats (like the common mouse, which has also run wild) have
been imported, and, as at the Galapagos, have varied from the
effect of the new conditions to which they have been exposed :
hence the variety on the summit of the island differs from
that on the coast. Of native birds there are none ; but the
guinea-fowl, imported from the Cape de Verd Islands, is
abundant, and the common fowl has likewise run wild.
Some cats, which were originally turned out to destroy the
rats and mice, have increased so as to become a great plague.
The island is entirely without trees, in which, and in every
other respect, it is very far inferior to St Helena,

One of my excursions took me towards the S.W. extremity
of the island. The day was clear and hot, and I saw the
island, not smiling with beauty, but staring with naked
hideousness. The lava streams are covered with hummocks,
and are rugged to a degree which, geologically speaking, is
not of easy explanation. The intervening spaces are con-
cealed with layers of pumice, ashes, and volcanic tuff.
Whilst passing this end of the island at sea, I could not
imagine what the white patches were with which the whole
plain was mottled ; I now found that they were seafowl,
sleeping in such full confidence that even in midday a man
could walk up and seize hold of them. These birds were
the only living creatures I saw during the whole day. On
the beach a great surf, although the breeze was light, came
tumbling over the broken lava rocks.

The geology of this island is in many respects interesting.
In several places I noticed volcanic bombs — that is, masses
of lava which have been shot through the air whilst fluid,
and have consequently assumed a spherical or pear-shape.
Not only their external form, but, in several cases, their
internal structure shows in a very curious manner that they
have revolved in their aerial course, The central part is

ASCENSION

499

coarsely cellular, the cells decreasing in size towards the
exterior ; where there is a shell-like case about the third of
an inch in thickness, of compact stone, which again is over-
laid by the outside crust of finely cellular lava. I think
there can be little doubt, first, that the external crust cooled
rapidly in the state in which we now see it ; secondly, that
the still fluid lava within was packed by the centrifugal
force, genei'ated by the revolving of the bomb, against the
external cooled crust, and so produced the solid shell of
stone ; and lastly, that the centrifugal force, by relieving the
pressure in the more central parts of the bomb, allowed the
heated vaj)ours to expand their cells, thus forming the coarsely
cellular mass of the centre.

A hill, formed of the older series of volcanic rocks, and
w'hich has been incorrectly considered as the crater of a
volcano, is remarkable from its broad, slightly-hollowed, and
circular summit having been filled up with many successive
layers of ashes and fine scoriae. These saucer-shaped layers
crop out on the margin, forming perfect rings of many
different colours, giving to the summit a most fantastic
appearance ; one of these rings is white and broad, and
resembles a course round which horses have been exercised ;
hence the hill has been called the Devil’s Riding School. I
brought away specimens of one of the tufaceous layers of a
pinkish colour ; and it is a most extraordinary fact that
Professor Ehrenberg * finds it almost wholly composed of
matter which has been organised : he detects in it some
siliceous-shielded, fresh-water infusoria, and no less than
twenty-five different kinds of the siliceous tissue of plants,
chiefly of grasses. From the absence of all carbonaceous
matter. Professor Ehrenberg believes that these organic
bodies have passed through the volcanic fire, and have been
erupted in the state in which we now see them. The appear-
ance of the layers induced me to believe that they had been
deposited under water, though from the extreme dryness of
the climate, I was forced to imagine that torrents of rain
had probably fallen during some great eruption, and that
thus a temporary lake had been formed, into which the
ashes fell. But it may now be suspected that the lake was

* Monats. der Konig. Akad. d. Wiss. zu Berlin. Vom April 1845.

500

BAHIA

ttot a temporary one. Anyhow, we may feel sure that at
some former epoch the climate and productions of Ascension
were very different from what they now are. Where on the
face of the earth can we find a spot on which close investiga-
tion will not discover signs of that endless cycle of change
to which this earth has been, is, and will be subjected }

On leaving Ascension we sailed for Bahia, on the coast of
Brazil, in order to complete the chronometrical measurement
of the world. We arrived there on August 1st, and stayed
four days, during which I took several long walks. I was
glad to find my enjoyment in tropical scenery had not de-
creased from the want of novelty, even in the slightest degree.
The elements of the scenery are so simple that they are worth
mentioning, as a proof on what trifling circumstances exquisite
natural beauty depends.

The country may be described as a level plain of about
three hundred feet in elevation, which in all parts has been
worn into flat-bottomed valleys. This structure is remarkable
in a granitic land, but is nearly universal in all those softer
formations of which plains are usually composed. The whole
surface is covered by various kinds of stately trees, interspersed
with patches of cultivated ground, out of which houses, con-
vents, and chapels arise. It must be remembered that within
the tropics the wild luxuriance of nature is not lost even in
the vicinity of large cities ; for the natural vegetation of the
hedges and hillsides overpowers in picturesque effect the
artificial labour of man. Hence, there are only a few spots
where the bright red soil affords a strong contrast with the
universal clothing of green. From the edges of the plain
there are distant views either of the ocean, or of the great
bay with its low-wooded shores, and on which numerous boats
and canoes show their white sails. Excepting from these
points, the scene is extremely limited ; following the level
pathways, on each hand, only glimpses into the wooded valleys
below can be obtained. The houses, I may add, and especi-
ally the sacred edifices, are built in a peculiar and rather
fantastic style of architecture. They are all whitewashed ; so
that when illumined by the brilliant sun of midday, and as
seen against the pale blue sky of the horizon, they stand out
more like shadows than real buildings.

Such are the elements of the scenei*y, but it is a hopeless

BAHIA

301

attempt to paint the general effect. Learned naturalists
describe these scenes of the tropics by naming a multitude of
objects, and mentioning some characteristic feature of each.
To a learned traveller this possibly may communicate some
definite ideas ; but who else, from seeing a plant in .an
herbarium, can imagine its appearance when growing in its
native soil ? Who, from seeing choice plants in a hot-house,
can magnify some into the dimensions of forest trees, and
crowd others into an entangled jungle ? Who, when ex-
amining in the cabinet of the entomologist the gay exotic
buttei*flies and singular cicadas, will associate with these
lifeless objects, the ceaseless harsh music of the latter, and
the lazy flight of the former, — the sure accompaniments of
the still, glowing noonday of the tropics ? It is when the
sun has attained its greatest height that such scenes should
be viewed : then the dense splendid foliage of the mango
hides the gi'ound with its darkest shade, whilst the upper
branehes are rendered from the profusion of light of the most
brilliant green. In the temperate zones the case is different
— the vegetation there is not so dark or so rich, and hence
the rays of the declining sun, tinged of a red, purple, or
bright yellow colour, add most to the beauties of those
climes.

When quietly walking along the shady pathways, and
admiring each successive view, I wished to find language to
express my ideas. Epithet after epithet was found too weak
to convey to those who have not visited the intertropical
regions the sensation of delight which the mind experiences.
I have said that the plants in a hot-house fail to communicate
a just idea of the vegetation, yet I must recur to it. The
land is one great wild, untidy, luxuriant hot-house, made by
Nature for herself, but taken possession of by man, who has
studded it with gay houses and formal gardens. How great
would be the desire in every admirer of nature to behold, if
such were possible, the scenery of another planet ! yet, to
every person in Europe, it may be truly said, that at the
distance of only a few degrees from his native soil, the glories
of another world are opened to him. In my last walk I
stopped again and again to gaze on these beauties, and
endeavoured to fix in my mind for ever an impression which
at the time I knew sooner or later must fail. The form of

PERNAMBUCO

M2

the orange-tree, the cocoa-nut, the palm, the mango, the
tree-fern, the banana, will remain clear and separate ; but the
thousand beauties which unite these into one perfect scene
must fade away ; yet they will leave, like a tale heard in
childhood, a picture full of indistinct, but most beautiful
figures.

August 6fh. — In the afternoon w'e stood out to sea, with the
intention of making a direct course to the Cape de Verd
Islands. Unfavourable winds, however, delayed us, and on
the 1 2th we ran into Pernambuco — a large city on the coast
of Brazil, in latitude 8° south. We anchored outside the
reef ; but in a short time a pilot came on board and took us
into the inner harbour, where we lay close to the town.

Pernambuco is built on some narrow and low sand-banks,
which are separated from each other by shoal channels of salt
water. The three parts of the town are connected together by
two long bridges built on wooden piles. The town is in all parts
disgusting, the streets being narrow, ill-paved, and filthy ; the
houses tall and gloomy. The season of heavy rains had hardly
come to an end, and hence the surrounding countiy, which is
scarcely raised above the level of the sea, was flooded with
water ; and I failed in all my attempts to take long walks.

The flat swampy land on which Pernambuco stands is sur-
rounded, at the distance of a few miles, by a semi-circle of low
hills, or rather by the edge of a country elevated perhaps two
hundred feet above the sea. The old city of Olinda stands on
one extremity of this range. One day I took a canoe, and
proceeded up one of the channels to visit it ; I found the old
town, from its situation, both sweeter and cleaner than that of
Pernambuco. I must here commemorate what happened for
the first time during our nearly five years’ wandering — namely,
having met with a want of politeness ; I was refused in a
sullen manner at two different houses, and obtained with
difficulty from a third permission to pass through their gardens
to an uncultivated hill, for the purpose of viewing the country.
I feel glad that this happened in the land of the Brazilians,
for I bear them no goodwill — a land also of slavery, and
therefore of moral debasement. A Spaniard would have felt
ashamed at the very thought of refusing such a request, or of
behaAdng to a stranger with rudeness. The channel by which
we went to and returned from Olinda was bordered on each

PERNAMBUCO

503

side by mangroves, which sprang like a miniature forest out
of the greasy mud-banks. The briglit gi'een colour of these
bushes always reminded me of the rank grass in a chui'ch-
yard ; both are nourished by putrid exhalations ; the one
speaks of death past, and the other too often of death to
come.

The most curious object which I saw in this neighbourhood
was the reef that forms the harbour. I doubt whether in the
whole world any other natural structure has so artificial an
appearance.* It runs for a length of several miles in an abso-
lutely straight line, parallel to, and not far distant from, the
shore. It varies in width fi’om thirty to sixty yards, and its
surface is level and smooth : it is composed of obscurely strati-
fied hard sandstone. At high water the waves break over it ;
at low water its summit is left dry, and it might then be mis-
taken for a breakwater erected by Cyclopean workmen. On
this coast the cuirents of the sea tend to throw up in front of
the land long spits and bars of loose sand, and on one of these
part of the town of Pernambuco stands. In former times a
long spit of this nature seems to have become consolidated
by the percolation of calcareous matter, and afterwards to
have been gradually upheaved : the outer and loose parts
during this process having been worn away by the action of
the sea, and the solid nucleus left as we now see it. Although
night and day the waves of the open Atlantic, turbid with
sediment, are driven against the steep outside edges of this
wall of stone, yet the oldest pilots knew of no tradition of any
change in its appearance. This durability is much the most
curious fact in its history ; it is due to a tough layer, a few
inches thick, of calcareous matter, wholly formed by the
successive growth and death of the small shells of Serpulce,
together with some few barnacles and nulliporae. These
nulliporae, which are hard, very simply-organised sea-plants,
play an analogous and important part in protecting the upper
surfaces of coral-reefs, behind and within the breakers, where
the true corals, during the outward growTh of the mass, become
killed by exposure to the sun and air. These insignificant
organic beings, especially the Serpulce, have done good service

* I have described this bar in detail in the London and, Edinburgh
Philosophical Magazine, vol. xix. (1841), p. 257.

504

SLAVERY IN PERNAMBUCO

to the people of Pernambuco : for without their protective
aid the bar of sandstone would inevitably have been long ago
worn away, and without the bar there would have been no
harbour.

On the 19th of August we finally left the shores of Brazil.
I thank God I shall never again visit a slave country. To this
day, if I hear a distant scream, it recalls with painful vividness
my feelings when, passing a house near Pernambuco, I heard
the most pitiable moans, and could not but suspect that some
poor slave was being tortured, yet knew that I was as power-
less as a child even to remonstrate. I suspected that these
moans were from a tortured slave, for I was told that this was
the case in another instance. Near Rio de Janeiro I lived
opposite to an old lady who kept screws to crush the fingers
of her female slaves. I have stayed in a house where a young
household mulatto daily and hourly was reviled, beaten, and
persecuted enough to break the spirit of the lowest animal.
I have seen a little boy, six or seven years old, struck thrice
with a horse-whip (before I could interfere) on his naked
head, for having handed me a glass of water not quite clean ;
I saw his father tremble at a mere glance from his master’s
eye. These latter cruelties were witnessed by me in a
Spanish colony, in which it has always been said that slaves
are better treated than by the Portuguese, English, or other
European nations. I have seen at Rio Janeiro a powerful
negro afraid to ward off a blow directed, as he thought, at his
face. I was present when a kind-hearted man was on the
point of separating for ever the men, women, and little children
of a large number of families who had long lived together. I
will not even allude to the many heart-sickening atrocities
which I authentically heard of : nor would I have mentioned
the above revolting details had I not met with several people,
so blinded by the constitutional gaiety of the negro, as to
speak of slavery as a tolerable evil. Such people have gener-
ally visited at the houses of the upper classes, where the
domestic slaves are usually well treated ; and they have not,
like myself, lived amongst the lower classes. Such inquirers
will ask slaves about their condition ; they forget that the
slave must indeed be dull who does not calculate on the
chance of his answer reaching his master’s ears.

It is argued that self-interest will prevent excessive cruelty ;

RETROSPECT

505

as if self-interest proteeted our domestic animals, •which are
far less likely than degi'aded slaves to stir up the rage of their
savage masters. It is an argument long since protested
against with noble feeling, and strikingly exemplified by the
ever illustrious Humboldt. It is often attempted to palliate
slavery by comparing the state of slaves with our poorer
countrymen : if the misery of our poor be caused, not by the
laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin ; but
how this bears on slavery, I cannot see ; as well might the use
of the thumb-screw be defended in one land, by showing that
men in another land suffered from some dreadful disease.
Those who look tenderly at the slave-owner, and with a cold
heart at the slave, never seem to put themselves into the
position of the latter; what a cheerless prospect, -with not
even a hope of change ! Picture to yourself the chance ever
hanging over you of your wife and your little children — those
objects which Nature urges even the slave to call his own —
being torn from you and sold like beasts to the first bidder !
And these deeds are done and palliated by men who profess
to love their neighbours as themselves, who believe in God,
and pray that His -will be done on earth ! It makes one’s
blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen
and our American descendants, with their boastful cry of
liberty, have been and are so guilty ; but it is a consolation to
reflect that we, at least, have made a greater sacrifice than
ever made by any nation to expiate our sin.

On the last day of A ugust we anchored for the second time
at Porto Praya in the Cape de Verd Archipelago ; thence we
proceeded to the Azores, where we stayed six days. On the
2nd of October we made for the shores of England, and at
Falmouth I left the Beagle, having lived on board the good
little vessel nearly five vears.

Our voyage having come to an end, I will take a short
retrospect of the advantages and disadvantages, the pains and
pleasures, of our circumnavigation of the world. If a person
asked my advice, before undertaking a long voyage, my
answer would depend upon his possessing a decided taste for
some branch of knowledge, which could by this means be
advanced. No doubt, it is a high .satisfaction to behold various

506

RETROSPECT

countries and the many races of mankind, but the pleasures
gained at the time do not counterbalance the evils. It is
necessary to look forward to a harvest, however distant that
may be, when some fruit will be reaped, some good effected.

Many of the losses which must be experienced are obvious ;
such as that of the society of every old friend, and of the sight
of those places with which every dearest remembrance is so
intimately connected. These losses, however, are at the time
partly relieved by the exhaUstless delight of anticipating the
long-wished-for day of return. If, as poets say, life is a dream,
I am sure in a voyage these are the visions which best serve
to pass away the long night. Other losses, although not at
first felt, tell heavily after a period : these are the want of
room, of seclusion, of rest, the jading feeling of constant
hurry, the privation of small luxuries, the loss of domestic
society, and even of music and the other pleasures of imagina-
tion. When such trifles are mentioned, it is evident that
the real grievances, excepting from accidents, of a sea-life
are at an end. The short space of sixty years has made an
astonishing difference in the facility of distant navigation.
Even in the time of Cook, a man who left his fireside for such
expeditions underwent severe privations. A yacht now, witli
every luxury of life, can circumnavigate the globe. Besides
the vast improvements in ships and naval resources, the
whole western shores of America are thrown open, and
Australia has become the capital of a rising continent. How'
different are the circumstances to a man shipwrecked at the
present day in the Pacific to what the}^ were in the time of
Cook ! Since his voyage a hemisphere has been added to the
civilised world.

If a person suffer much from sea-sickness, let him weigh it
heavily in the balance. I speak from experience : it is no
trifling evil cured in a week. If, on the other hand, he take
pleasure in naval tactics, he will assuredly have full scope for
his taste. But it must be borne in mind how large a propor-
tion of the time, during a long voyage, is spent on the water,
as compared with the days in harbour. And what are the
boasted glories of the illimitable ocean ? A tedious waste,
a desert of water, as the Arabian calls it. No doubt there are
some delightful scenes. A moonlight night, with the clear
heavens and the dark glittering sea, and the white sails filled

RETROSPECT

507

by the soft air of a gently-blowing trade-wind ; a dead calm,
with the heaving surface polished like a mirror, and all still
except the occasional flapping of the canvas. It is Avell once
to behold a squall with its rising arch and coming fury, or the
heavy gale of wind and mountainous waves. I confess, how-
ever, my imagination had painted something more grand,
more terrific in the full-grown storm. It is an incomparably
finer spectacle when beheld on shore, where the waving trees,
the wild flight of the birds, the dark shadows and bright
lights, the rushing of the torrents, all proclaim the strife of
the unloosed elements. At sea the albatross and little petrel
fly as if the storm were their proper sphere, the water rises
and sinks as if fulfilling its usual task, the ship alone and its
inhabitants seem the objects of wrath. On a forlorn and
weather-beaten coast the scene is indeed different, but the
feelings partake more of horror than of wild delight.

Let us now look at the brighter side of the past time.
The pleasui-e derived from beholding the sceneiy and the
general aspect of the various countries we have visited, has
decidedly been the most constant and highest source of
enjoyment. It is probable that the picturesque beauty of
many parts of Europe exceeds anything which we beheld.
But there is a growing pleasure in comparing the character of
the scenery in different countries, which to a certain degree
is distinct from merely admiring its beauty. It depends
chiefly on an acquaintance with the individual parts of each
view : I am strongly induced to believe that, as in music, the
person who understands every note will, if he also possesses a
proper taste, more thoroughly enjoy the whole, so he who
examines each part of a fine view may also thoroughly
comprehend the full and combined effect. Hence, a traveller
should be a botanist, for in all views plants form the chief
embellishment. Group masses of naked rock even in the
wildest forms, and they may for a time afford a sublime
spectacle, but they will soon grow monotonous. Paint them
with bright and varied colours as in Northern Chile, they will
become fantastic ; clothe them with vegetation, they must
form a decent, if not a beautiful picture.

When I say that the scenery of parts of Europe is prob-
ably superior to an5rthing which we beheld, I except, as a
class by itself, that of the intertropical zones. The two

508

RETROSPECT

classes cannot be compared together; but I have already
often enlarged on the grandeur of those regions. As the
force of impressions generally depends on preconceived ideas,
I may add that mine were taken from the vivid descriptions
in the Personal Narrative of Humboldt, which far exceed in
merit anything else which I have read. Y et, with these high-
wrought ideas, my feelings v/ere far from partaking of a tinge
of disappointment on my first and final landing on the shores
of Brazil.

Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my
mind, none exceed in sublimity the primeval forests un-
defaced by the hand of man ; whether those of Brazil, where
the powers of Life are predominant, or those of Tierra del
Fuego, where Death and Decay prevail. Both are temples
filled with the varied pi’oductions of the God of Nature : no
one can stand in these solitudes unmoved, and not feel that
there is more in man than the mere breath of his body. In
calling up images of the past, I find that the plains of
Patagonia frequently cross before my eyes ; yet these plains
are pronounced by all wretched and useless. They can be
described only by negative characters ; without habitations,
without water, without trees, without mountains, they support
merely a few dwarf plants. Why, then, and the case is not
peculiar to myself, have these arid wastes taken so firm a hold
on my memory.? Why have not the still more level, the
greener and more fertile Pampas, which are serviceable to
mankind, produced an equal impression .? I can scarcely
analyse these feelings ; but it must be partly owing to the
free scope given to the imagination. The plains of Patagonia
are boundless, for they are scai’cely passable, and hence
unknown ; they bear the stamp of having lasted, as they
are now, for ages, and there appears no limit to their
duration through future time. If, as the ancients supposed,
the flat earth was suiTounded by an impassable breadth of
water, or by deserts heated to an intolerable excess, who
would not look at these last boundaries to man’s knowledge
with deep but ill-defined sensations ?

Lastly, of natural scenery, the views from lofty mountains,
though certainly in one sense not beautiful, are very memor-
able. When looking down from the highest crest of the
Cordillera, the mind, undisturbed by minute details, was

RETROSPECT

509

filled with the stupendous dunensions of the surrounding
masses.

Of individual objects, perhaps nothing is more certain to
create astonishment than the first sight in his native haunt
of a barbarian, — of man in his lowest and most savage state.
One’s mind hurries back over past centuries, and then asks,
Could our progenitors have been men like these i' — men,
w'hose very signs and expressions are less intelligible to us
than those of the domesticated animals ; men, who do not
possess the instinct of those animals, nor yet appear to boast
of human reason, or at least of arts consequent on that
reason. I do not believe it is possible to describe or paint
the difference between savage and civilised man. It is the
difference between a wild and tame animal ; and part of the
interest in beholding a savage is the same which would lead
every one to desire to see the lion in his desert, the tiger tear-
ing his prey in the jungle, or the rhinoceros wandering over
the wild plains of Africa.

Among the other most remarkable spectacles which we
have beheld, may be ranked the Southern Cross, the Cloud
of Magellan, and the other constellations of the southern
hemisphere — the waterspout — the glacier leading its blue
stream of ice, overhanging the sea in a bold precipice — a
lagoon-island raised by the reef-building corals — an active
volcano — and the overwhelming effects of a violent earth-
quake. These latter phenomena, perhaps, possess for me a
peculiar interest, from their intimate comiection with the
geological structure of the world. The earthquake, however,
must be to every one a most impressive event ; the earth,
considered from our earliest childhood as the type of solidity,
has oscillated like a thin crust beneath our feet : and in see-
ing the laboured works of man in a moment overthrown, we
feel the insignificance of his boasted power.

It has been said that the love of the chase is an inherent
delight in man — a relic of an instinctive passion. If so, I
am sure the pleasure of living in the open air, with the sky
for a roof and the ground for a table, is part of the same
feeling ; it is the savage returning to his wild and native
habits. I always look back to our boat cruises, and my land
journeys, when through unfrequented countries, with an
extreme delight, which no scenes of civilisation could have

510

RETROSPECT

created. 1 do not doubt that every traveller must remember
the glowing sense of happiness which he experienced when
he first breathed in a foreign clime, where the civilised man
had seldom or never trod.

There are several other sources of enjoyment in a long
voyage which are of a more reasonable nature. The map
of the world ceases to be a blank : it becomes a picture full
of the most varied and animated figures. Each part assumes
its proper dimensions : continents are not looked at in the
light of islands, or islands considered as mere specks, which
are, in ti’uth, larger than many kingdoms of Europe. Africa,
or North and South America, are well-sounded names, and
easily pronounced ; but it is not until having sailed for weeks
along small portions of their shores that one is thoroughly
convinced what vast spaces on our immense world these
names imply.

From seeing the present state, it is impossible not to look
forward with high expectations to the future progress of
nearly an entire hemisphere. The march of improvement,
consequent on the introduction of Christianity throughout
the South Sea, probably stands by itself on the records of
history. It is the more striking w'hen we remember that
only sixty years since. Cook, whose excellent judgment none
will dispute, could foresee no prospect of a change. Yet these
changes have now been effected by the philanthropic spirit
of the British nation.

In the same quarter of the globe Australia is rising, or
indeed may be said to have risen, into a grand centre of
civilisation, which, at some not very remote period, will rule
as empress over the southern hemisphere. It is impossible
for an Englishman to behold these distant colonies without
a high pride and satisfaction. To hoist the British flag,
seems to draw with it, as a certain consequence, wealth,
prosperity, and civilisation.

In conclusion, it appears to me that nothing can be more
improving to a young naturalist than a journey in distant
countries. It both sharpens and partly allays that want and ,
craving, which, as Sir J. Herschel remarks, a man experi-
ences although every corporeal sense be fully satisfied. The y
excitement from the novelty of objects, and the chance of ^
success, stimulate him to increased activity. Moreover, as a '

RETROSPECT

511

number of isolated facts soon become uninteresting, the
habit of comparison leads to generalisation. On the other
hand, as the traveller stays but a short time in each place,
his descriptions must generally consist of mere sketches,
instead of detailed observations. Hence arises, as I have
found to my cost, a constant tendency to fill up the wide
gaps of knowledge by inaccurate and superfcial hypotheses.

But I have too deeply enjoyed the voyage, not to re-
commend any naturalist, although he must not expect to be
so fortunate in his companions as I have been, to take all
chances, and to start on travels by land if possible, if other-
wise on a long voyage. He may feel assured he will meet
with no difficulties or dangers, excepting in rare cases, nearly
so bad as he beforehand anticipates. In a moral point of
view, the effect ought to be to teach him good-humoured
patience, freedom from selfishness, the habit of acting for
himself, and of making the best of every occurrence. In
short, he ought to partake of the characteristic qualities of
most sailors. Travelling ought also to teach him distrust ;
but at the same time he will discover how many truly kind-
hearted people there are with whom he never before had, or
ever again will have, any further communication, who yet are
ready to offer him the most disinterested assistance.

INDEX

AbboTj Mr, on spiders, 34
Aborigines banished from
Van Diemen's Land, 451

of Australia, 437, 455

Abrolhos, 14.

Absence of trees in Pampas,
>)S

Aconcagua, volcano of, 246,
254. 294, 29s

Actinia, stinging species, 469
Africa, Southern part desert,
yet supports large animals,

87

Agouti, habits of, 69
Ague common in Peru, 370
Albemarle Island, 380
Allan, Dr, on Diodon, 14

on Holutburim, 470

Alluvium, saliferous, in Peru,
368

stratified, in Andes, 337

Amblyrhynchus, 389, 399
Anas, species of, 200
AnimalculEB. See Infusoria
Antarctic Islands, 249
Antipodes, 42r
Ants at Keeling Island, 461

in Brazil, 34

Apires, or miners, 344
Aplysia, 6, 469
Apple-trees, 301
Aptenodytes demersa, 199
Areas of alternate _ move-
ments in the Pacific and
Indian Oceans, 486
Armadilloes, habits of, 95

fossil animals allied to,

129, 154

Arrow-heads, ancient, 104
Ascension, 496
Aspalax, blindness of, 51
Athene, 69, 125
Atolls, 471, 480
Attagis, 93

Atwater, Mr, on the prairies,

117

Audubon, M., on smelling-
power of carrion-hawks,
184

Australia, 435
Australian barrier, 477
Azara on spiders, 35, 37

on a thunder-storm, 60

on bows and arrows,

104

on great droughts, 133

Azara on habits of carrion-
hawks, $6

on hydrophobia, 358

on new plants springing

up, 118

on ostrich-eggs, 90

on rain in La Plata, 46

on range of carrion-

hawks, 58

Bachman, Mr, on carrion-
hawks, 185
Bahia Blanca, 73-104
Bahia, Brazil, ii

scenery of, 500

Balbi on coral reefs, 475
Bald Head, Australia, 454
Ballenar, Chile, 353
Banda Oriental, 41, 141
Bank's Hill, 2ti
Barking-bird, 291
Basaltic platform of Santa
Cruz, 180

Bathurst, Australia, 436
Bats, vampire, 21
Bay of Islands, New
Zealand, 421
Beads, hill of, 148
Beagle Channel, Tierra del
Fiiego, 2x8
Beech-trees, 237, 283
Beetles alive in sea, 158

at St Julian, 169

dung-feeders, 495

in brackish water, 21

on a fungus, 32

Behring’s Straits, fossils of,
131

Bell of Quillota, 257
Benchuca, 334
Berkeley, Rev J., on Con-
fervae, X4

on Cyttaria, 237

Sound, 188

Bibron, M., 386, 389, 398
Bien-te-veo, 53
Birds of the Galapagos
Archipelago, 383, 399
Birds, tameness of, 403-405
Birgos latro, 468
Bizcacha, habits of, 12^
Blackwell, Mr, on spiders,
160

Blindness of tucutuco, 50
Body, frozen, 88, 250
Bolabola, 474, 479

Bolas, manner of using, 43,
no, 112

Bombs, volcanic, 498
Bones of the guanaco col-
lected in certain spots, 167

fire made of, 195

recent in Pampas, 154

fossil, 81, 126, 129, 154,

172

Bory St Vincent on frogs,
386

Boulders, 187, 248-253
Bramador, El, 365
Brazil, great area of granite,
r2

Breaches in coral reefs, 475
Breakwater of sea-weed, 241
Brewster, Sir D. ; on a cal-
careous deposit, 9
Bridge of hide, 264

of Incas, 339

Buckland, Dr, on fossils, 131
Buenos Ayres, 120
Buffon on American animals.

173

Bug of Pampas, 334
Buildings, Indian, 360, 361,
373

Bulimus on desert places,
351

Burchell, Mr, on food of
quadrupeds, 86

on ostrich eggs, 90

on perforated stones,

269

Butterflies, flocks of, 157
Butterfly producing clicking
sound, 33

Button, Jemmy, 208
Byron's account of fox of
Falklands, 194
— on an Indian killing his
child, 217

Cacti, 164, 263, 378
Cactornis, 383, 399
Calosoma on wing out at
sea, 157

Calcareous casts of branches
and roots of trees at King
George's Sound, 454
Calcareous incrustations on
rocks of Ascension, 9
Callao, 369, 372
Calodera, 124
Calomys bizcacha, 123

2 K

513

514

INDEX

Camarhynchus, 384, 399
Camelidae, fossil animal
allied to, 171
Canis antarcticus, 194
Canis fulvipis, 282
Capybara, or carpincho, 48,
290

fossil allied to, 81

Cape Horn, 212
Cape of Good Hope, 87
Caracara, or Carrancha, S4
Cardoon, beds of, 118, 147
Carmichael, Capt., 405
Carrion-hawks, 54, 119, 182
Casarita, 04
Castro, Chiloe, 280, 293
Casts of trees, 455
Casuchas, 339
Cathartes, 58, 185, 286
Cats good to eat, 116

rim wild, 119, 498

scratch trees, 135

cruelty to mice, 199

Cattle, effects of "their
grazing on the vegetation,
117 _

— killed by great
droughts, 132, 14s

know each other, 144

curious breed of, 144

■ waste of, i5r

wild at the Falkland

Islands, 189, 190
Cauquenes, hot springs of,
265

Causes of extinction of
species among mammalia,

174

of discoloured sea, 15

CaHa Patagonica, 69
Cervus campestris, 47
Ceryle Americana, 137
Chacao, Chiloe, 276
Chagos atolls, 484
Chalk-like mud, 470
Chamisso on drifted seeds
and trees, 460, 467

on coral reefs, 472

Changes in vegetation of
Pampas, it7

in vegetation of St

Helena, 494

Charles Island, Galapagos
Archipelago, 379
Cheese, salt required for, 65
Cheiicau, 281, 290
Chile, 254, 341

features of country, 256

Chiloe, 275, 204

forests of, and climate,

24s

roads of, 276, 295

inhabitants of, 276

Chionis, 93

Chonos Archipelago, 283

Chionis, climate of, 353

ornithology of, 290

Chupat, Rio, 106
Cladonia, 368

Clearness of atmosphere
within Andes, in Chile, 233
Climate of Tierra del Fuego
and Falkland Islands, 244

of Antarctic Islands, 249

Climate of Galapagos, 378,
382, 402

change of. In Chile, 361

Clouds of vapour after rain,

23 ^

on Corcovado, 28

hanging low, 366

at sea, 406

Coleoptera in Tropics, 33

out at sea, r58

of St J ulian, 169

Colias edusa, flocks of, 137
Colnett, Capt., on spawn in
sea, 16

on a marine lizard, 390

on transport of seeds.

^ 397 .

Coloniadel Sacramiento, 143
Colorado, Rio, 69
Compound animals 203
Concepcion, Chile, 306
Condor, habits of, 182-187
Confervae, pelagic, 14
Conglomerate on the
Ventana, 106

in Cordillera, 323

Conurus, 137

Convicts of Mauritius, 489
Convicts, condition of, in
New South Wales, 449
Cook, Capt., on kelp, 240
Copiapo, river and valley of,
353. 36s ,

— town of, 358
Coquimbo, 346

Coral formations, 406, 457*
487 . . . f ,

— stinging species of, 469
dead, 466, 484

Corallines, 202
Corcovado, clouds on, 28

— volcano, 294
Cordillera, appearance of,

246. 255. 320

different productions on

east and west side, 330
passage of, 318

— structure of valleys, 318
geology of, 323, 336

— rivers of, 320

— of Copiapo, 360
Cormorant catching fish, 199
Corral, where animals are

slaughtered at Buenos
Ayres, 120

Coseguiiia, eruption of, 293

Countries, unhealthy, 370
Couthouy, Mr, on coral
reefs, 480

Crabs, hermit species of, 462

at Keeling Island, 468

at St Paul's, 10

Craters, number of, in the
Galapagos Archipelago,
379

— ^ of Elevation, 490
Crisia, 201

Cruelty to animals, T31
Crustacea, pelagic, 161
Ctenomys Braziliensis, 49

fossil species of, 81

Cucao, Chiloe, 297
Cuckoo-like habits of Molo-
thrus, 3t

Cuentas, Sierra de, 148
Cumbre of Cordillera, 337
Cuming, Mr, on shells, 393,
495

Cuttle-fish, habits of, 6, 290
Cuvier on Diodon, 13
Cynara, 118
Cyttaria Darwinii, 237

Dacelo Jagoensis, 2
Dasypus, three species of.

iJeer, 47. ’32

Degradation of tertiary
formations, 348
Deinornis, 201, 432
Deserts, 331, 363
Desmodus, 21
Despoblado, valley of, 339
Dieffenbach on Auckland
Island, 246, 440
Diodon, habits of, 13
Discoloured sea, 14
Diseases from miasma, 370,
438 .

Distribution of mammalia m
Americaj 129

of animals on opposite

sides of Cordillera, 331

of frogs, 386

of fauna of Galapagos,

Dobrizhoffer on ostriches, 92

on .a hailstorm, 114

Docks, imported, 432
Do«, shepherd, 149
D’Orbigny, Travels in South
America, 77, 92, 118, 129,
149. 167

Doris, eggs of, 201
Doubleday, Mr, on a noise
made by a butterfly, 33
Drigg, lightning tubes at,
60

Droughts, great, in Pampas,
132

Dryness of St J ago, 2

INDEX

515

Dryiiess of winds in Tierra
del Ftiego, 332

of air in Cordillera, 330

Du Bois, 386, 403
Dung-feeding beetles, 495
Dust, falling from atmo-
sphere, 4

Eauthenware, Fossil, 375
Earthquake, accompanied by
elevation of the coast, 313
accompanied by rain,

at Callao, 373

at Concepcion, 306

at Coquimbo, 346

at Keeling and Vani-

kor o, and Society Islands,
481

at Valdivia, 305

causes of, 314

effect of, on springs, 266

on bottom of sea, 312

effects of, on roclU, 247,

306

effects of, on sea, 305-

310

effects of, on a river-
bed^ 363

line of vibration of, 310

on S.-W. coast, 247

tossing fragments from

the ground, 198
twisting movement of,

311

Eggs of Doris, 201
Ehrenberg, Professor, on
Atlantic dust, ^

on infusoria in Pampas,

82, 129 _

in the open sea, 162

in Patagonia, 170

in Fuegian paint,

222

in coral mud, 470

in tuff at Ascen-
sion, 499

on phosphorescence of

the sea, 162

on noises from a hill,

366

Eimeo, view of, 410
Elater, springing powers of,

3° . .

Electricity of atmosphere
within Andes, 330
Elephant, weight of, 86
Elevated shells, 82, 128, 170,
2561 30O1 313. 347i 362, 374
Elevation of coasts of Chile,

256, 259, 295. 313.336, 347.

36a

Bahia Blanca, 80

Patagonia, 170, 376

Pampas. 128

Elevation of mountain-
chains, 315

Cordillera, 317, 319

fringing reefs, 479

Peru, 370

within human period,

t- 373 ,

Entomology of the Gala-
pagos Archipelago, 396,
399

Brazil, 3a

Patagonia, 169, 333

Tierra del Fuego, 239

Keeling Island, 461

— ■ St Helena, 494
Entre Rios, geology of, 128
Epeira, habits of, 35
Erratic blocks, how trans-
ported, 248, 2^9

absent in intertropical

countries, 249

on plains of Santa Cruz,

187

Erratic blocks of Tierra del
Fuego, 248

Estancia, value of, 144
Extermination of species and
races^ 173, 438, 445, 451
Extinction of shells at St
Helena, 493

of species, causes of, 88,

173 ,

of man in Australia,

^438, 451

Eyes of tucutuco and mole,
5°

Falconer, Dr, on the Siva-
therium, 145

Jesuit, on the Indians,

^°3

on rivers in Pam-
pas, 106

on natural enclos-
ures, 1 15

Falkland Islands, 188

birds tame at, 403

absence of trees at, 47

carrion-hawks of, 54

wild cattle and horses

of, Ipl

climate of, 244

peat of, 289

Fat, quantity eaten, 116
Fear, an acquired instinct,
405

Februa, 33
Fennel, run wild, 118
Ferguson, Dr, on miasma,
^371

Fern-trees, 245, 380
Fernando Noronha, to, 163,
^.378

Fields of dead coral, 466
Fire, art of making, 195, 413

Fish, eating coral, 470

of Galapagos, 393

emitting harsh sound,

*35.

Flamingoes, 66
Fleas, 30a, 350
Floods after droughts, 133

clear after snow, 320

Flora of the Galapagos, 378,
397. 400

of Keeling Island, 459

of St Helena, 492

Flustraceae, 201
Forests, absence of, in La
Plata, 45

of Tierra del Fuego,

210, 245, 289

of Chiloe, 245, 277, 279,

296

of Valdivia, 301

of New Zealand, 431

— — of Australia, 437
Fossil mammalia, 80, 126

154. 172

earthenware, 375

Fox of the Falkland Islands,

194

— — of Chiloe, 282
Friendly Archipelago, 486
Frogs, noises of, 28
Frogs, bladders of, 388

and toads not found on

oceanic islands, 386
Frozen soil, 88, 249
Fruit-trees, southern limit
of, 245

Fucus giganteus, 241
Fuegians, 206-237
Fulgurites, 58
Fungus, edible, 237
Furnarius, 94

Galapagos Archipelago,
377 ; natural history of,
382

belongs to American

Zoology, 382, 395
Gale of wind, 218, 364
Gallegos River, fossil bones
^ *7*

Gallinazo, 57, 183
Gauchos, 42, 112, 150, 189-
196

character of, 153

live on meat^ 116

Gay, M., on floating islands,
267

on shells in brackish

water, 21

Geese at the Falkland
Islands, 200

Geographical distribution
of American animals, 130^
331

of frogs, 3S6

516

INDEX

Geographical distribution of
fauna of Galapagos, 392
Geology of St Jago, 5

of St Paul, 8

of Bahia Blanca, 80

of Pampas, 128

of Brazil, 12

of Cordillera, 322, 336

of Patagonia, 170, 180

Georgia, climate of, 249
Geospiza, 384, 399
Gill, Mr, on an upheaved
river-bed, 362

Gillies, Dr, on the Cor-
dillera, 327

Glaciers in Tierra del Fuego,
225, 247

in lat. 46° 40', 248

in Cordillera, 329

Glow-worms, 2p
Goats, destructive to vegeta-
tion at St Helena, 494

bones of, 167

Goitre, 318

Gold-mines of Yaquil, Chile,
267

Gold-washing, 268
Good Success Bay, 203
Gossamer spider, 159
Gould, Mr, on the calodera,
124

on birds of Galapagos,

3®3.

Granite mountains, Tres
Montes, 285

of Cordillera, 324

Graspus, 10

Gravel, how far transported,
107, 180

of Patagonia, 74, 170,

180

Greenstone, fragments of,
259

Gryllus migratonus, 333
Guanaco, habits of, 165

fossil allied genus, 172

Guantajaya, mines of, 368
Guardia del Monte, 117
Guasco, 351
Guasos of Chile, 260
Guava imported into Tahiti,

407 , ,

Guinea-fowl, 4, 498
Gunnera scabra, 282
Gypsum, great beds of, 323

in salt-lakej 65

in Patagonian tertiary-

beds, 170

at Iquique with salt,

367

at Lima with shells,

374

Hachette, M., on light-
ning-tubes, 59

Hailstorm, 114
Hall, Capt. Basil, on terraces
of Coquimbo, 347
Hare, varying, 45
Head, Capt., on thistle-beds,
ti8

Height of snow-line on Cor-
dillera, 246

Henslow, Prof., on potatoes,
288

on plants of Keeling

Island, 460
Hermit crabs, 462
Hill emitting a noise, 365
Himantopus, 113
Hogoleu barrier-reef, 475
Holes made by a bird, 89
Holman on drifted seeds,
459

Holuthuriae feeding on
coral, 470

Hooker, Sir J., on the car-
doon, ti8

Dr J. D., on the kelp,

240

on Galapageian plants,

396, 401

Homer, Mr, on a calcareous
deposit, 9
Horse-fly, 169
Horses difficult to drive,
109

drop excrement on

paths, 118

killed by great drought,

'33 ...

multiplication of, 234

broken in, 120, 150

Horse, powers of swimming
of, 142

wild at the Falkland

Islands, 191

fossil, 81, 130

Horsemanship of the
Gauchos, 120, 195
Hot springs of Cauquenes,
265

Huacas, 373

Humboldt on burnished
rocks, 12

on the atmosphere in

tropics, 31

on frozen soil, 88

on hybernation, 98

on potatoes, 288

on earthquakes and

rain, 353

on miasma, 370, 438

Humming-birds of Rio de
Janeiro, 31

of Chile, 273

Hybernation of animals, 98
Hydrochaerus c-apybara, 48
Hydrophobia, 357
Hyla, 28

Hymenophallus, 32

Ibis melanops, 163
Ice, prismatic structure of,

329

Icebergs, 187, 225, 248, 252
Incas’ bridge, 339
Incrustations on coast rocks,
6, 8

Indian fossil remains, 373
Indians, attacks of, 63, 76,

Patagonians, 233

Auracarians, 302

of the Pampas, 99

of Valdivia, 302

perforated stones used

by, 269

powers of tracking, 332

grave of, 168

ruins of houses of, in

Cordillera, 360, 373 _

antiquities of, in La

Plata, 45, 103

decrease in numbers,

103

Infection, 438

Infusoria in dust in the
Atlantic, 3, 14

in the sea, 161

in Pampas, 82, 129

Patagonia, 170

in white paint, 222

in coral mud, 470

in tuff at Ascension,

499 . , o

Insects first colonists of St
Paul’s Rocks, 10
Insects blown out to sea,
158

of Patagonia, 169, 331

of Tierra del Fuego, 239

of Galapagos, 383, 396,

402

of Keeling Island, 461

of St Helena, 493

Instincts of birds, 93, 403
Iodine with salt at Iquique,
367

Iquique, 366

Iron, oxide of, on rocks, 12
Islands, oceanic, volcanic, 8

floatingj 267

Antarctic, 249

low, 406, 474

Jackson, Col., on frozen
snow, 329

Jaguar, 49, 116, 134

Jajuel, mines of, 261
ames _ Island, Galapagos
Archipelago, 381
Juan Fernandez, volcano
of, 314

flora of, 396

INDEX

517

Kater s Peak, 213
Kauri pine, 431
Keeling Island, 457

subsidence of, 481

birds of, 462

entymology of, 461

flora of, 459

Kelp, or sea-weed, 240
Kendall, Lieut., on a frozen
body, 250
Kingfishers, 2, 137
King George's Sound, 454

Labourers, condition of, in
Chile, 267

Lagoon Islands, 406, 465*487
LagostomuSj 123
Lake, brackish, near Rio, 20
Lake with floating islands,
267

formed during earth-
quake, 375

Lamarck on acquired blind-
ness, 51
Lampyris, 20

Lancaster, Capt., on a sea-
tree, 09

Land shells, 351, 493
Lazo, 43, 120, 150, 152, 190,
191

Leaves, fall of, 236

fossil, 453

Leeks in New Zealand, im-
ported, 432

Lepus Magellanicus, 153
Le^on, M., on the scissor-
beak, 137

on rabbit of the Falk-

lands, 193

Lichen on loose sand, 368
Lichtenstein on ostriches, 91
Lightning storms, 60
— ; — tubes, 58
Lima, 369, 372
elevation of a river near,

363

Lime changed by lava into
crystalline rock, 6
Limnx in brackish water, 82
Lion-ant, 446
Lizard, 96

marine species of, 390

Lizards, transport of, 386
Llama or guanaco, habits of,

r

Locusts, 333

Longevity of species in
mollusca, 82 _

Lorenzo, San, island of, 373
Low archipelago, 406
Lund, M., on antiquity of
man, 362

Lund and Clausen on fossils
of Brazil, 130, 172
Ln-Yan, 333

Luxuriant vegetation not
necessary to support large
animals, 84
Lycosa, 35

Lyell, Mr, on longevity of
mollusca, 82

on change in vegeta-
tion, 117

on fossil horses' teeth,

129

on flocks of butterflies,

^58 .

on extinct mammals

and ice-period, 175

on stones twisted by

earthquakes, 31 1
on distribution of ani-
mals, 329

on frozen snow, 329

on terraces of Co-

quimbo, 34)1

on subsidence in the

Pacific, 474

MacCulloch on infection,
439 . .

Macquarie river, 447
Macrauchenia, 81, 172
Macrocystis, 248
Madrina, or godmother of a
troop of mules, 319
Magdalen Channel, 242
Magellan, Strait of, 232
Malcolmson, Dr, on hail,

Maldiva atolls, 472, 483
Maldonado, 38
Mammalia, fossil. So, 126,
iS4i 172 .

Man, antiquity of, 362

fossil remains of, 376

body frozen, 250

fear of, an accquired

instinct, 403

extinction of races, 438,

45' . . .

Mares killed for their hides,

'S3

Mare’s flesh eaten by troops,

lOI

Mastodon, 126, 129
Matter, granular, move-
ments in, 98
Mauritius, 488
Maypu river, 320
Megalonyx, 82, 130
Megatherium, 82, 130
Mendoza, climate of, 327,

335

Mexico, elevation of, 131

Miasmata, 370, 438

Mice inhabit sterile places,

364

number of, m America,

48

Mice, how transported, 290,

383 .

— - different on opposite
side of Andes, 331

of the Galapagos, 382

of Ascension, 498

Millepora, .J69
Mills for grinding ores, 268
Mimosae, 25
Mimus, S3, 399, 401
Miners, condition of, 262,
343. 35°. 369

Mines, 261, 321, 343, 350,

367

how discovered, 322

Missionaries at New
Zealand, 419

Mitchell, Sir T., on valleys
of Australia, 442
Mocking-bird, 53, 399, 401
Molina; omits description ol
certain birds, 273
Molothrus, habits of, 52
Monkeys with prehensile
tails, 2^

Monte Video, 39, 141
Moresby, Capt., on a great
crab, 469

on coral reefs, 484

Mount Sarmiento, 234, 242

Tam, 23s

Mountains, elevation of, 313
Movements in granular
matter, 98

Mud, chalk-like, 470

disturbed by earth

quake, 310
Mules, 319

Muniz, Signor, on niata
cattle, 144

Murray, Mr, on spiders, 160
Mylodon, 82, 130, 154
Myopotamus, Coypus, 290

Negress with goitre, 318
Negro, Rio, 62, 146

lieutenant, 75

New Caledonia, reef of, 477,

483

New Zealand, 421
Niata cattle, 144
Noises from a hill, 365
Noses, ceremony of pressing,
427

Nothura, 44

Notopod, crustacean, 161
Nulliporae, incrustations
like, 9

protecting reefs, 485

Octopus, habits of, 6
Oily coating on sea, 16
Olfersia, 10
Opetiorbynchus, 291
Opuntia Galapageia, 378

518

INDEX

Opuntia Darwinii, 164

Chilian, 263

Orange-trees, self-sown, 119
Ores, gold, 268
Ornithology of Galapagos,
383, 400

Ornithorhynchus, 446
Osorno, volcano of, 275, 277,
29^

Ostrich, habits of, 42, 88
Ostrich’s eggs, 112
Otaheite, 407
Otter, 290
Ova in sea, 16
Oven-bird, 94

Owen, Capt., on a drought
in Africa, 132

Professor, on the capy-

bara, 49

fossil quadrupeds, 82,

129

nostrils of the gallinazo,

185

Owl of Pampas, 69, 125
Oxyurus, 238, 292
Oysters, gigantic, 170

Pahs, fortresses of New
Zealand, 422
Paint, white, 222
Pallas on Siberia, 66
Palm-trees in La Plata, 45

■ in Chile, 258

south limit of, 245

Palms absent at Galapagos,
380

Pampas, number of em-
bedded remains in, 154

S. limit of, 74

changes in, 117

not quite level, 123,

126, 143

geology of, 128, 155

view of, from the

Andes, 332
Papilio feronia, 32
Parana, Rio, 125, 127, 134

islands in, 134

Parish, Sir W., on great
drought, 133

Park, Mungo, on eating
salt, 109

Parrots, 137, 244
Partridges, 44
Passes in Cordillera, 337
Pasture altered from grazing
of cattle, 117
Patagones, 65

Patagonia, geology of, 170,
i 187

zoology of, 164, 169,

' 179 . ,

Patagonian Indians, 234
Peach-trees, self-sown, 119
Peat, formation of, 289

Pebbles perforated, 148, 269

transported in roots of

trees, 466

Pelagic animals in southern
ocean, 161
Penas, Gulf of, 248
Penguin, habits of, 201
Pepsis, habits of, 35
Pernambuco, reef of, 503
Pernety on hill of ruins, 197

on tame birds, 404

Peru, 366-376

dry valleys of, 361, 366

Petrels, habits of, 292
Peuquenes, Pass of, 323
Phonolite at F. Noronha,

II

Phosphorescence of the sea,
162

of a coralline, 203

of land insects and sea

animals, 29
Phryniscus, 96
Pine of New Zealand, 431
Plains at foot of Andes in
Chile, 264, 321

almost horizontal near

St F6, 126

Planarias, terrestial

species of, 26

Plants of the Galapagos, 378,
396, 400

of Keeling Island, 459

of St Helena, 492

fossil in Australia, 454

Plata, R., 38

thunderstorms of, 61

Plover, long-legged, 113
Polished rocks, Brazil, 9
Polyborus chimango, 56

Novae Zelandiae, 56

Braziliensis, 57

Ponsonby Sound, 218, 222
Porpoises, 38
Port Desire, 163

river of, 106, 169

St Julian, 169

Famine, 164, 234

Portillo Pass, 324
Porto Praya, i
Potato, wild, 287
Potrero Seco, 354
Prairies, vegetation of, 117
Pr6vost, M., on cuckoos, 52
Priestly, Dr, on lightning-
tubes, 58

Procellaria, gigantea, habits
of, 292

Proctotretus, 96
Proteus, blindness of, 51
Protococcus nivalis, 32^
Pteroptochos, two species of,
272

species of, 281, 290

Puente del Incas, 339

Puflinus cinereos, 292
Puffinuria Berardii, 292
Puma, habits of, 135, 180,
271

flesh of, 1 15

Puna, or short respiration,
326

Punta Alta, Bahia Blanca, 79

Gorda, 128, 136

Pyrophorus luminosus, 30

Quadrupeds, fossil, 80, 126,
130, 154, 172

large, do not require

luxuriant vegetation, 84

weight of, 86

Quartz of the Ventana, 107

of Tapalguen, 115

of Falkland Islands, 196

Quedius, 10

Quillota, valley of, 247, 256
Quintero, 255
Quiriquina Island, 306
Quoy and Gaimard on sting-
ing corals, 469
on coral reefs, 482

Rabbit, wild at the Falk-
land Islands, 193
Rain at Coquimbo, 34a, 356

at Rio, 28

and earthquakes, 356

in Peru, 366, 369

in Chile, formerly more

abundant, 361

effects on vegetation,

„ 343 , . .

Rana Mascanensis, 386
Rat, only aboriginal animal
of New Zealand, 432
Rats at Galapagos, 382

at Ascension, 497

at Keeling Island, 461

Rattle-snake, species with
allied habit, 95
Red snow, 327
Reduvius, 334

Reef at Pernambuco of
sandstone, 503
Reefs of coral, 406, 457-487

Barrier, 465-487

Fringing, 465-487

Reeks, Mr, analysis of salt,

65

bones, 154

analysis of salt and

shells, 374

Remains, human, elevated,
375 .

Remedies of the Gauchos,
127

Rengger, on the horse, 234
Reptiles absent in Tierra del
Fuego, 239

at Galapagos, 386, 398

INDEX

519

Respiration difficult in

Andes, 326
Retrospect, 251
Revolutions at Buenos

Ayres, 139

Rhinoceroses live in desert
countries, 85

frozen, 88, 250

Rhynchops nigra, 136
Richardson, Dr, on mice of
North America, 383

on polished rocks, 253

■ on frozen soil, 87, 253

on eating fat, 116

on geographical dis-
tribution, 130
Rimsky atoll, 472
Rio de Janeiro, 18-37

Plata, 38

Negro, 62, 147

Colorado, 69

S. Cruz, 177

Sauce, 105

Salado, 117

Rivers, power of, in wearing
channels, 180, 323
River-bed, arched, 363
River-courses dry in
America, 107

Rocks burnished with fer-
ruginous matter, 12
Rodents, number of, in
America, 48, 179

fossil, species of, 81

Rosas, General, 70, 72, 139
Ruins of Callao, 373

of Indian buildings in

Cordillera, 360, 373

Sakta Cruz, 177
Salado, Rio, 117
Salinas at the Galapagos
Archipelago, 381

in Patagonia, 64, i6g

Saline efflorescences, 76
Salt with vegetable food,
109

superficial crust of, 368

with elevated shells,

374

Salt-lakes, 64, 169, 381
Sandwich Archipelago, no
frogs at, 386

Land, 249

San Pedro, forests of, 283
Sand-dunes, 74
Sand, hot from sun's rays, at
Galapagos Archipelago,

382 . ,

noise from friction of,

365

Sandstone of New South
Wales, 441

reef of, 503

Santa Cruz, river of, 177

Santiago, Chile, 263
Sarmiento, Mount, 234,
242

Sauce, Rio, 105
Saurophagus sulphureus, 53
Scarus eating corals, 470
Scelidotherium, 81
Scenery of Andes, 321
Scissor-tail, 138
Scissor-beak, habit of, 136
Scorpions, cannibals, 165
Scoresby, Mr, on effects of
snow on rocks, 322
Scrope, Mr, on earthquakes,

356

Scytalopus fuscus, 238, 292
Sea, open, inhabitants of,

t6i

phosphorescence of, 162

distant noise of, 299

Sea-pen, habits of, 98, 203
Sea-weed, growth of, 241
Seals, number of, 286
Seeds transported by sea,
397> 459

Serpulte, protecting reef,
503

Shark killed by Diodon, 14
Shaw, Dr, on lion's flesh,
”5

Sheep, infected, 440

Shelley, lines on Mont

Blanc, 168

Shells, land, in great

numbers, 351

at St Helena, 495

fossil of Cordillera, 324

of Galapagos, 395

elevated, 82, 128, 170,

256, 36?. 374

tropical forms of, far

south, 244

decomposition of, with

salt, 374

Shepherd’s dogs, 149
Shingle-bed of Patagonia,

Siberia, compared with

Patagonia, 66

zoology of, related to

North America, 131
Siberian animals, how pre*
served in ice, 251

food necessary during

their existence, 88
Silicihed trees, ^36, 357
Silurian formations at Falk*
land Islands, 196
Silurus, habits of, T35
Silver-mines, 321, 350, 355,

367

Skunks, 79
Slavery, 22, 445, 504
Smelling-power of carrion-
hawks, 184

Smith, Dr Andrew, on the
support of large quad-
rupeds, 84

on perforated pebbles,

148

Snake, venomous, 95
Snow-line on Cordillera, 246,
326, 328

Snow, effects of, on rocks,
322

prismatic structure of,

329

red, 327

Society, state of, in La
Plata, 39, 15s

in Australia, 448

Society Archipelago, 406

volcanic phenomena at,

481, 486

Soda, nitrate of, 369

sulphate of, 77

Soil, frozen, 88, 249
Spawn on surface of sea, 15
Species, distribution of, 129,
33L 364, 386, 392

extinction of, 173, 438,

^ 445, 451, 493

Spiders, habits of, 33, 35,

159

gossamer, 159

killed by and killing

wasps, 35

on Keeling Island, 461

on St Paul's, 10

Springs, hot, 265
Stevenson, Mr, on growth
of sea-weed, 241
Stinging animals, 469
St Helena, 491

introduction of spirits

into, 416

Fd, 127

Jago, C. Verds, i

unhealthiness of, 370

Lucia, 264

Maria, elevated, 313

Paul’s Rocks, 8

Stones perforated, 148, 269

transported in roots,

466

Storm, 218, 283

in Cordillera, 328, 364

Streams of stones at Falk-
land Islands, 197
Strongylus, 32
Struthio Rhea, 42, 92

Darwinii, 92

Strzelecki, Count, 452
Suadiva, atoll, 472
Subsidence of coral reefs,
474-487

of Keeling Island, 481

of Patagonia, 171

of coast of Peru, 373

of Cordillera, 325, 337

520

INDEX

Subsidence of coasts of
Chile, 349

of Vanikoro, 481

of coral reefs great in

amount, 485

cause of distinctness in

tertiary epochs, 348
Sulphate of lime, 65, 170,
374

soda mcrusting the

ground, 76

of soda with common

salt, 65, 374

Swainson, Mr, on cuckoos,

52

Sydney, 435

Tabanus, i6g
Tahiti (Otaheite), 407

three zones of fertility,

410

Talcahuano, 306
Tambillos, Ruinas de, 360
Tameness of birds, 403
Tapacolo and Turco, 272
Tapalguen, Sierra, flat hills
of quartz, 115
Tarn, Mount, 235
Tasmania, 451
Tattooing, 408, 425, 430
Temperance of the Tahitians,

41S

Temperature of Tierra del
Fuego and Falkland
Islands, 244

of Galapagos, 378, 382

Tercero, Rio, fossils in
banks of, 126

Terraces in valleys of Cor-
dillera, 319

of Coquimbo, 347

of Patagonia, 171, 180

Tertiary formations of the
Pampas, 80, 126, 155

of Patagonia, 170, 332

in Chile, epochs of, 348

Teru-tero, habits of, 113
Testudo, habits of, 387, 398
Theory of lagoon islands, 478
Theristicus, 165
Thistle-beds, 123, 132, T47
Thunderstorms, 6r
Tierra del Fuego, 205, 244

climate and vegetation

of, 244

zoology of, 237

entymology of, 239

Tinamus rufescens, 112
Tinochorus eschscholtzii. 93
Toad, habits of, 96

not found in oceanic

islands, 386

Torrents in Cordillera, 320
Tortoise, habits of, 387, 398
Toxodon, 126, 129, 154, 172

Transparency of air in
Andes, 330

in St Jago, 4

Transport of seeds, 397, 459

of boulders, 180, 187,

248-253

Transport of stones in roots
of trees, 466

of fragments of rock on

banks of the St Cruz river,
180

Travertin with leaves of
trees. Van Diemen’s Land,
453

Tree-ferns, southern limits
of, 24s

Trees, absence of, in Pam-
pas, 45 _

floating, transport

stones, 466

silicified, vertical

336.

357 .

size of, 357, 431

time required, to rot,

3°4

Tres Montes, 284
Trichodesmium, 14
Trigonocepbalus, 95
Tristan d'Acunha, 405, 461
Trochilus, 273
Tropical scenery, 500
Tschudi, M., on subsidence,
373 . .

Tubes, siliceous, formed by
lightning, 58_

Tucutuco, habits of, 49
— — fossil species of, 8i
Tuff, craters of, 380
— — infusoria in, 499
Tupungato, volcano of, 329
Turco, El, 272
Turkey buzzard, 57, 185, 286
Turtle, manner of catching,
464

Typeof organisation in Gala-
pagos islands, American,
395

Types of - organisation in
different countries, con-
stant, 174
Tyrannus, 137

Ulloa, on hydrophobia,
358

on Indian buildings,

360

Unanue, Dr, on hydro-
phobia, ^8

Uruguay, Rio, 135, 146

not crossed by the biz-

cacha, 123,

Uspallata range and pass,
335

Vacas, Rio, 337

Valdivia, 300

forests of, 3O1

Valley of St Cruz, how ex-
cavated, 181

dry, at Copiapo, 359

Valleys, excavation of, in
Chile, 319, 356

in Cordillera, 318

of Tahiti, 411, 416

of New South Wales,

444

Valparaiso, 254 317
Vampire bat, 21
Vapour from forests, 23
Van Diemen’s Land, 450
Vanellus Cayanus, 113
Vanessa, flocks of, 158
Vanikoro, 475, 481
Vegetation of St Helena,
changes of, 494

on opposite sides of

Cordillera, 330

luxuriant, not necessary

to support largeanimals, 84
Ventana, Sierra, 106
Verbena melindres, 40
Villa Vicencio, 336
Virgularia Patagonica, 98,
201

Volcanic bombs, 498

islands, 8

phenomena, 314

Volcanoes near Chiloe, 277,
294. 3^4

their presence deter-
mined by elevation or
subsidence, 486
Vultur aura, 57, 185, 286

Waders, first colonists of
distant islands, 385
Waimate, New Zealand, 425
Waickenaer, on spiders, 37
Walleechu tree, 67
Wasps preying on spiders
and killed by, 34
Water-hog, 48
Water, sold at Iquique, 367

fresh, floating on salt, 39

Waterhouse, Mr,on Rodents,
48, 382

on the niata ox, 145

on the insects of Tierra

del Fuego, 239

of Galapagos, 385, 396

Waves caused by fall of ice,
226, 247

from earthquakes, 309,

312 1 .

Weather, connection with
earthquakes, 355
Weather-board, N.S. Wales,

441

Weeds in New Zealand, im-
ported, 422, 43a

INDEX

521

Weight of large quadrupeds,
86

WellingtoUj Mount, 259
Wells, ebbing and flowing.

West Indies, banks of, 444

coral reefs of, 478, 486

zoology of, 131

Whales, oil from, 17

leaping out of water,

225

White, Mr, on spiders, 34
Wigwams of Fuegians, 213

Williams, Rev., on infectious
disorders, 459

Winds, dry, in Tierra del
Fuego, 232

at the Cape Verds, 3

cold, on Cordillera, 364

on Cordillera, 327

Winter’s bark, 237, 283
Wolf at the Falklands, 194
Wood, Capt., on the agouti,
69

Woollya, 229
Yaqoil, 267

Yeso, Valle del, 323
York Minster, 208

ZoNOTRICHIA, 51
Zoological provinces of N.

and S. America, 130
Zoology of Galapagos, 382

of Keeling Island, 461

of Tierra del Fuego, 237

of Chonos Islands, 290

of St Helena, 492

Zoophytes, 98

at Falkland Islands, 201

Zorillo, or skunk, 79

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that in size and appearance look worth at least three times the
money — books that every lover of good literature ought to buy and
read.” — The Reader.

“ Many as inexpensive series are nowadays we know few, if
any, cheap books which offer such good value for money as the
half-crown reprints of Mr. John Murray.” — Birmingham Post.

“Amongst other publishers who have turned their attention to
new editions is the firm of John Murray, and several of the books
re-issued by this well-known house are now before us. The crown
octavo volumes in which they appear are attractive in appearance
and pleasant to handle, and make an excellent and substantial library
edition.” — Inverness Courier.

DOG BREAKING. The most Expeditious, Certain, and Easy
Method. With Odds and Ends for those who love the Dog and Gun.
By General W. N. Hutchinson. With numerous Illustrations.

THE VOYAGE OF THE “FOX” IN THE

ARCTIC SEAS IN SEARCH OF FRANKLIN AND HIS
COMPANIONS. By the late Admiral Sir F. Leopold
M^Clintock, R.N. a Cheap Edition. With Portraits and other
Illustrations and Maps.

THE STORY of the BATTLE of WATERLOO.

By the Rev. G. R. Gleig. With Map and Illustrations.

LIFE OF LORD ROBERT CLIVE, By the Rev.

G. R. Gleig. Illustrated.

THE WILD SPORTS and NATURAL HISTORY

OF THE HIGHLANDS. By Charles St. John. With
Illustrations.

Mr. Murray’s Standard Works.

Each 2/6 net.

Works of George Borrow.

THE BIBLE IN SPAIN; or, The Journeys, Adventures and
Imprisonments of an Englishman in an Attempt to Circulate the
Scriptures in the Peninsula. With the Notes and Glossary of Ulick
Burke. With Photogravure Frontispiece.

LAVENGRO: The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest. A New
Edition, containing the Unaltered Text of the original issue ; some
Suppressed Episodes now printed for the first time ; MS. Variorum,
Vocabulary, and Notes by Professor W. I. Knapp. With Photo-
gravure Portrait, 2 Half-tone Illustrations, and 8 Pen and Ink Sketches
by Percy Wadham.

ROMANY RYE. a sequel to Lavengro. A New Edition.
Collated and revised in the same manner as ' ‘ Lavengro, ’ ’ by Professor
W. I. Knapp. With Photogravure and 7 Pen and Ink Sketches by
F. G. Kitton.

WILD WALES: Its People, Language and Scenery. New Edition,
With Photogravure and 12 Illustrations by A. S. Hartrick.

THE GYPSIES OF SPAIN. Their Manners, Customs,

Religion and Language. With Photogravure Frontispiece and
7 Illustrations by A. Wallis Mills.

ROMANO LA VO LIL: The Word Book of the Romany or
English Gypsy Language, with Specimens of Gypsy Poetry and an
account of certain Gypsyries, or places inhabited by them, and of
various things relating to Gypsy Life in England.

Works of the late Dean Stanley.
CHRISTIAN INSTITUTIONS. Essays on Ecclesiastical

Subjects.

LECTURES on the HISTORY of the JEWISH

CHURCH from Abraham to the Christian Era. With Portraits,
Maps and Plans. 3 Vols.

LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF THE

EASTERN CHURCH. With an Introduction on the Study of
Ecclesiastical History. With Map.

HISTORICAL MEMORIALS of CANTERBURY.

With Plans and Illustrations.

LIFE OF THOMAS ARNOLD, D.D., Head Master

of Rugby. With Preface by the late SiR Joshua Fitch. With
Portrait and Illustrations.

Mr. Murray’s Standard Works.

Each

net.

Works of the late Mrs. Bishop

(Isabella L. Bird).

HAWAIIAN ARCHIPELAGO, six Months among the

Palm Groves and Coral Reefs and Volcanoes of the Sandwich
Islands. With Illustrations.

UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN, including visits to

the Aborigines of Yezo, and the Shrines of Nikh6 and Isd. Map
and Illustrations.

Darwin’s Life and Works

INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS. With Illustrations.

CHARLES DARWIN. His Life told in an Autobiographical
Chapter. Edited by his Son, Francis Darwin. With a Photo-
gravure Portrait.

THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. By means of Natural Selection.

Tht only aiilhorixid and complete Edition (The Sixth) of which the copyright dots not
expire for several years to come.

THE DESCENT OF MAN. And Selection in Relation to

Sex. With Illustrations.

A NATURALIST’S VOYAGE, journal of Researches into

the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited during
the Voyage of H.M.S. “Beagle” Round the World, under the
Command of Capt. Fitzroy, R.N. With many Illustrations.

THE FORMATION OF VEGETABLE MOULD

THROUGH THE ACTION OF WORMS: With observations
on their Habits. With Illustrations.

THE VAPvIOUS CONTRIVANCES BY WHICH

ORCHIDS ARE FERTILIZED BY INSECTS. With Illustra-
tions.

THE EXPRESSION OF THE EMOTIONS IN

MAN AND ANIMALS. Edited by Francis Darwin. With
Photographic and other Illustrations.

THE VARIATION of ANIMALS and PLANTS

UNDER DOMESTICATION. With Illustrations. Large Cr. 8vo.
2 Vols. 5s. net.

MOVEMENTS AND HABITS OF CLIMBING

PLANTS. With Woodcuts.

Mr. Murray’s Standard Works.

Each 2/6 net.

ROUND THE HORN BEFORE THE MAST.

By A. Basil Lubbock. With Illustrations.

FIELD PATHS and GREEN LANES in SURREY

AND SUSSEX. By Louis J. Jennings. Illustrated.

LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. Being some

Account of a Voyage in 1856, in the Schooner Yacht Foam, to
Iceland, Jan Meyen, and Spitzbergen. By the late Marquess of
Dufferin. With Portrait and Illustrations.

THE LION HUNTER OF SOUTH AFRICA.

Five Years’ Adventure in the Far Interior of South Africa. With Notices
of the Native Tribes and Savages. By R. Gordon Gumming.
With 16 Woodcuts.

THE ROB ROY ON THE JORDAN. A Canoe

Cruise in Palestine, Egypt, and the Waters of Damascus. By John
MACGREGOR, M.A., Captain of the Royal Canoe Club. With
Maps and Illustrations.

THE PERSONAL LIFE OF DAVID LIVING-
STONE. Chiefly from his Unpublished Journals and Correspondence
in the possession of his Family. By William Garden Blaikie, D.D.,
LL.D. With Portrait and Map.

ENGLISH BATTLES AND SIEGES IN THE

PENINSULA. By Lieut. -Gen. Sir William Napier, K.C.B.
With Portrait.

A HISTORY OF THE SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR,

1779-1783. With a Description and Account of that Garrison from
the Earliest Times. By John Drinkwater, Captain in the Seventy-
second Regiment of Royal Manchester Volunteers. With Plans.

THE LIFE OF JOHN NICHOLSON, Soldier and

Administrator. By Captain Lionel J. Trotter. With Portrait
and 3 Maps.

SIR WM. SMITH’S SMALLER DICTIONARY

OF THE BIBLE. With Maps and Illustrations.

A POPULAR HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

OF ENGLAND. From the Earliest Times to the Present Day.
By William Boyd Carpenter, Bishop of Ripon, Hon. D.C.L.
Oxon. With 16 Illustrations.