ANIMALS iNim FlEDEKiC B. La)MlS A' I HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS IN THE PATAGONIAN PAMPAS !n; Hunting Extinct Animals In the Patagonian Pampas Frederic Brewster Loomis, Ph.D. Professor of Comparative Anatomy Amherst College EIGHTH AMHERST EXPEDITION 1911 NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1913 Copyright. 1913 By Frederic Brewster Loomis THI RUMrORD PRESS CONCORD • K • H • TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Chapter I. Brazil and Argentine Republic 13 Reasons for the expedition — embarkation — flying fish — Neptune cere- monies— Bahia — Rio Janeiro — Santos — Buenos Aires — La Plata — equipment — coasting along Patagonia. Chapter II. Patagonia and the Pampa 31 Puerto Madryn — finding an Indian camp site — marine fossils — Trelew and the Welsh — North American bandits — horses — the start — the pampa vegetation — climate. Chapter III. Life on the Arid Plains 46 Patagonian hospitality — mati custom — Dos Posos — the great rain — a German estancia — stuck in the canyon — getting out-^Patagonian fisheries — Shumway's fall — guanaco — collecting plants, etc. — Camerones. Chapter IV. Difficulties of Wagon Travel 60 Lost road — at the mud house — no trail — fossil shells — ostriches and eggs — long leagues — Port Visser — snow — one hundred miles for mail — Patagonian nights — banking difficulties. Chapter V. A Fossil Forest 71 Boys find petrified trees — their appearance — collecting — packing and shipping — provisioning — the pampa again — the Boer colony — " man- with- the-bone " — finding of petrified bones — new camp. Chapter VI. Collecting Extinct Animals 78 A typical day's hunt — a find — preparing the specimen — collecting it — getting together — the oyster bed — camp work — some fossils — the martineta — Pyrotherium skull — trip to Port Visser — lost horses — armadilloes — Boer colony — David Venter's — Indian grave — snow — packing up and shipping — a. lost supper — the mules — ^race with the tide — stolen horses — a record trip. Chapter VII. Comodoro Rivadavia and Town Life 94 Water supplies — discovery of oil — distilled water — wool — freighters — sheep business — Sarmiento trail — boliche hospitality — cross coun- try and wrong trail — no water — Frau Romberg's piano — no water — Mazaredo — fossil shells — more bones. vil via CONTENTS PAGE Chapter VIII. On to the Rio Deseado io6 Scotch colonists — sheep shearing — sheep — prospecting — camp by the sea — divide party — Tom Hall — Rio Deseado — ducks and geese — the lava flow — Billy thrown — journey northward — sale of outfit — Christmas at Buenos Aires — London. Chapter IX. Billy's Experiences 123 Holidays on the pampa — Lake Colhue-Huapi — bogged — visit school — reptile bones — no provisions — Lake Musters — persistent bull — more good localities — ride to Trelew. Chapter X. Results of Expedition 129 Age of the rocks — rise and fall of Patagonia — deposition of bone beds — origin of shingle — ancient geography of Patagonia — our collections — Pyrotherium — Rhinoceros-like forms — Litopternas — Pachyruckos — Marsupials — rodents. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE The Patagonian Pampa Frontispiece Neptune Ceremony opposite 17 Avenida de Mayo, Buenos Aires " 23 The Docks, Buenos Aires " 23 The La Plata Museum " 26 Map of Patagonia 32 An Indian Anvil 33 A BoLA Ball 33 An Indian Hand Hammer 34 Bluffs back of Puerto Madryn opposite 35 Puerto Madryn, Chief Port of Patagonia " 35 Trail on to the Pampa " 35 Professor Loomis Securing Firewood from the Malaspina Bush opposite 42 The Calefate Bush " 42 Mr. Turner Prospecting a Chaco Colorada or Redwood Bush FOR Fuel opposite 42 A Government Office, Dos Posos " 48 Abandoned Hotel in the Canyon " 48 A Typical Herder's House on the Pampa " 61 Young Rhea or " Ostrich " 63 Bluffs with Guanaco Trails opposite 66 GuANAcos ON the Pampa " 66 The Site of the Fossil Forest " 71 A Petrified Tree Trunk " 71 Camp near Puerto Visser " 73 A Boer Family and Homestead " 76 The Fossil Hill Showing the Cross-bedding " 76 " Roll Out" 4.45 a. m " 78 Shumway Working on the Pyrotherium Skull " 82 Searching for Sharks' Teeth in the Oyster Bed " 82 The Indian Grave Just After Opening " 88 Hauling out a Load of Bones " 88 Pete and His Mules " 9^ Racing with the Tide between Puerto Visser and Comodoro RiVADAViA opposite 91 Comodoro RivAD A via Seen FROM the Bluff behind the Town " 94 Unloading Wool on the Beach at Comodoro Rivadavia " 94 A Boer Freighter Passed on the Road " 98 iz LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE A Spanish Freighter opposite 98 A Drink after Twenty-four Hours of Waterless Trailing " loi Billy and the Team " lOi A Young Guanaco at the Romberg House " 102 Mazaredo, the Most Forlorn Town on the Coast " 104 A Typical Estancia Built of Sheet Iron " 114 The Boliche at Mazaredo " 114 Loading the Lighters with Wool at Comodoro Rivadavia. Last OF Patagonia opposite 1 19 Diagram to show the rise and fall of Patagonia 130 Skull of Pyrotherium 136 Skull of Pachyruckos 137 PREFACE When the Amherst Expedition to Patagonia had proved successful, the question arose as to the best manner of pre- senting its results to the two groups of people who are naturally interested ; the alumni and public whose interest is primarily in the general features of the country and in the broad summary of conclusions, and to the smaller num- ber who are interested in the technical details of the struc- ture, relations and origins of the animals the bones of which were found. This volume is written for the former class, and omits the details and discussions of the arguments for one or the other position. The preparation of the fossils which were found is pro- gressing rapidly and will be complete at an early date, after which a detailed study of these will be made and those descriptions and results will appear next year in a separate and independent volume. F. B. LooMis. March i, 1913. 1 i "HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS IN THE PATAGONIAN PAMPAS CHAPTER I Brazil and the Argentine Republic The Patagonia of our childhood geography was a no man's land, with big men, vast prairies, and much confusion. The big men are almost gone, but the great prairies or pampas remain, likewise the confusion; which applies not only to the natives, the settlers, the government, and trade, but also to the geology. From the writings of the earliest geologists, especially from that of Florentino Ameghino, have come reports of peculiar and numerous fossil animals buried in the sands and clays along the coast of Patagonia. The bones, jaws, etc., were described and figured. To the rocks in which they were bedded were assigned ages ; and it then appeared that such families of -animals as horses, elephants, monkeys, and even man, all .appeared earlier in South America than anywhere else in vthe world. This was so at variance with the conceptions already formed, that a vast deal of skepticism was expressed as to the correctness of the ages assigned to the various layers of rocks, and curiosity aroused as to the real rela- tionships of the contained bones. Every family of animals originated somewhere, and if it was successful, spread over the world, as far as the natural pathways of that time would permit. For in- stance, the horse originated in the region of what is now .Behring Strait during the early Eocene (two and a half jnillion years ago). There were then land connections, Jinking North America to Asia, northern Europe, and pos- :sibly South America: and these first horses spread at least southerly into the United States and southeasterly into 14 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS Europe. Did they and their contemporaries also pass on into South America? If not, where did the numerous kinds of South American animals come from? Africa via the Antartic continent or by the way of a trans-Atlantic land bridge has been suggested. The presence of mar- supial bones has suggested Australia as a partial source of these animals. One point is agreed upon. South America was isolated from Eocene times until about the ice age, when the present Isthmus of Panama rose and made a pathway by which the recent forms like the puma, wild cats, dogs, foxes, skunks, etc., the guanaco, deer, tapir, etc., entered that continent, and came into competition with those hosts of strange and gigantic creatures of which the sloths, armadilloes, and ant-eaters are the diminutive representatives. But the origin of these typical South American forms is still unknown. Darwin in his famous voyage around the world found and called attention to their bones in Argentine Republic^ both in the north about Buenos Aires and to the south near the Straits of Magellan. Later Carl Ameghino traveled through Patagonia and found more. It was from his notes and collections that his brother Florentino described more than a hundred different sorts of peculiar and typical South American animals ancestral to the above mentioned types. He went further and found that the more distant ancestors of his South American types were related to the more primitive ancestral animals of North America, Europe, and Africa. The beds in which these ancestors were found were "earlier" than those in which similar forms were found anywhere else; there- fore, he concluded. South America was the original home of most families of animals. This of course drew attention to Patagonia where the more primitive types were found. In 1896 Princeton University sent an expedition to the Straits of Magellan, which worked from there northward for about 400 miles as far as the Deseado (Desire) River. EMBARKATION 15 They found a wealth of specimens of the earlier typical South American kinds, enriched greatly our knowledge of this fauna, and established the fact that the age of the containing beds was Miocene, which is about a million years later than the date first assigned to them by Ame- ghino. These explorations while of great value left un- touched the lower beds, somewhat further to the north, in which the answer to the sources of the South American animals is buried; so the interest remained unabated, or was rather intensified because the wealth of animal life was further emphasized, and the skepticism as to the ages originally given the various beds was increased. In the early part of 191 1 when the Class of '96, Amherst College, was planning their fifteenth reunion, having taken a previous interest in geological exploration in western United States, they decided to extend their field and take a hand in solving the problems connected with the Pata- gonian deposits. To this end they organized and equipped the expedition of which the following pages give a narrative for the purpose of studying the geology, and collecting the fossils (especially vertebrate) of Patagonia, in order to get as many data as possible for answering the above questions. Mr. Frederic B. Loomis of the Biological Department was made chief and directed to prepare plans, select assist- ants, and get the necessary equipment. Mr. Waldo Shum- way was chosen from the Senior and Mr. Philip L. Turner from the Junior Class to represent the undergraduates; and Mr. William Stein of St. Joe, Wyoming, was added to the party to have charge of the horses and cooking ; making a party of four ; which number, experience has shown, was as many as could conveniently travel with one wagon. Before starting we purchased a 2 3/4-inch standard wagon with 3-inch wheels, a 10 by 12-foot wall tent, a double harness, four saddles, a camera, and excavating tools, so as to have such an outfit as we were accustomed to while working in western United States. I6 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS The class held its reunion June 25 to 28, and on July 3 the party started from New York on the steamship Byron to take its chance of finding the extinct animals which should be the key to solving the above problems. New York was boiling hot, but once outside the harbor, none of the excessive heat prevalent all over the northern United States and Europe was encountered. Day after day the^ quiet, found only on a small boat, contrasted with the excitement of the Commencement reunion and the hurry of preparation. We studied Spanish a little every morning and swam in- the canvas tank an hour or more every afternoon. When five or six days out we began to see the small flying fishes and spent hours watching them; trying to form an opinion as to whether they actually flew using the large front fins as wings, or simply glided, the fins acting as a monoplane and the start from the water furnishing the propelling force. Sitting on the bow, one could readily see them dart about with quick movements not unlike those of a trout. For two days the sea was oily smooth, and gave a fine opportunity to study their movements. On the approach of the boat they would dart aside, swim- ming five or ten feet before leaving the water, then rise above the surface and skim along just above the water, rising to go over a swell or sinking when passing over a trough in the waves. The flights were from a few feet up to over one hundred, and the speed very uniform from beginning to end, 15 to 20 feet per second as timed by our watches. Many a time we located a fish while stationary in the water, saw it start, and within three feet leave the water and travel perhaps fifty feet in the air. From this small start it did not seem possible it could glide so fan Then too the speed was not sufficient to maintain the fish so long in the air. But what was most convincing and easily noted in the still water was a series of ripples begin- ning at the point where the fish left the water and extending^ § s £i c 5 a weighing 450 to 500 pounds each, while that from the smaller places which had no presses was sewed in oval burlap bundles of 150 to 200 pounds each. Their wool discharged, these wagons were drawn up near some store, where during the next three or four days they were reloaded with a miscellaneous cargo of groceries, liquors, corrugated sheet iron, furniture, tools, etc. Groups of horses and oxen were driven through the streets, going to or coming from the watering place. Before the numerous blacksmith shops stood six or eight wagons, waiting for their repairs, and lines of horses to be re -shod. The stores were all rushed, and we could see why trading is so profit- able, for one of these freight wagons will often take from a single store (they are all general stores) a thousand or more dollars worth of goods. Most of the wagons belonged ta professional freighters, and, when loaded, were to go to points all the way up to two hundred or more miles inland. This is one of the most profitable lines of business in Pat- agonia, for their rates run from two to ten cents a pound, and there is always plenty of wool to be hauled out from the interior. Some of these freighters have regular cara- vans of wagons, one of our acquaintances, for instance, having eighteen wagons and 900 mules ; for he always drove nine mules to a wagon and averaged four tons to a load. This was an especially well-appointed outfit and usually went on long trips, a round trip often taking from two to three months; but the owner told us that he could make one hundred per cent, of his investment per year, when he traveled with his wagons. Most of the freighters, however, did a smaller business, running one, two, or four wagons, and about twenty- five horses to a wagon. It is a business in which a man with but little capital can start and work up. The same is true of the sheep business where many of the men started, and do still, as herders on shares (usu- FREIGHTERS 97 ally one half of the increase). After two or three years this will amount to around i ,200 sheep and the man takes his wages and starts in for himself. In this way after ten years a man if at all thrifty will be worth in the neigh- borhood of $10,000 with which he can start in business al- most anywhere. The commercial lines, on the other hand, take a large capital, for credit has to be given to most of the customers until their wool is sold, and the goods, which come mostly from Europe, have to be ordered and paid for three or four months in advance. We stayed here but a day, having all our horses re-shod, getting fresh supplies, and some more money (for during the month since my previous visit my account had been transferred to the Comodoro bank). At this time the bank was open from 7.00 a. m. to 12.00 m. in order to accommo- date the people, most of whom start from town on their journeys during the forenoon. This time we received our box of saddles which had gone astray over four months before in Rio Janeiro; and mounted on our western type of saddle with its pommel in front and cantel behind, we felt like new men. While in the town I broke the bridge of my glasses, and there being no jeweler or watchmaker in the place, had to take them to a tin- smith who soldered them together, charging me $2 for the job, and assuring me it would have cost five in Buenos Aires. On the morning of November 11 we got our provisions into the wagon and started off southward for Mazaredo, a road to which place seemed very difficult to find. An old teamster finally started us inland on the Sarmiento trail, which took us all day up a wide canyon, in which there remained but little grass as the road is much used. As we traveled along this road, from time to time we would meet the freighters, either Boers with series of three to six yokes of oxen, or Spaniards with their horses, all going to or coming from Sarmiento. This is a small but active town about one hundred miles inland, which, when 98 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS the government gets to it, will be a railroad center, but is now reached by four or five days of wagon travel. As everything is carried in by this means, hay is $5 a bale, corn (or maize as it is always called in South America) five cents a pound, and everything to correspond. Toward six we found water and camped a few rods from the trail. Next morning just as we were pulling on to the trail, a Spanish freighter yelling at the top of his lungs, and cracking his long whip over the twelve horses spread out like a fan in front of his wagon, got in just ahead of us. Though it was half-past five in the morning, he was trav- eling at a slow trot while we felt that at that time of day we could not go faster than a walk. Inside of half an hour some one of the poorly made and loosely adjusted harnesses got out of order and we with our two-horse outfit took the lead. This was too much and we soon heard our rival coming on at a gallop, so that he soon passed us again, and as he forged ahead his wagon grew small in the distance but never got out of sight. At nine we came up with him again and found that he was unhitching, having completed his forenoon's drive of about twelve miles. His horses had to pick up their entire living along the trail and required five or six hours in the middle of the day to feed. We never saw that outfit again, as we went on three more hours before stopping for our hour's nooning. Doubtless, as is the custom, he made eight or nine miles during the afternoon. At noon we came upon a roadhouse, and it being Sun- day, we celebrated by buying our dinner and turning our horses into the man's pasture to get a full stomach. About three we came to the head of that canyon and put on all five horses to pull up the steep pitch on to the pampa. As we came out on top we met a fierce gale of wind howling over the great plain, and accompanied by* a drop in the temperature nearly down to freezing. Soon it began to rain on top of all the rest; so keeping all the horses on the wagon A Boer Freighter Passed on the Road A Spanish Freighter BOLICHE HOSPITALITY 99 we made a dash for a couple of houses just visible in the distance, traveling along at the rate of eight miles an hour for the next two hours. By the time we arrived the rain had changed to sleet, and we were thoroughly wet and chilled. The houses proved to be the railroad station of Colonel Holditch and the Boliche de la Pampa. There was little grass, no shelter, and no apparent drinking water for the horses. However, I found the station agent, Sefior Grandiole, who, on reading my letter of introduction, became the soul of hospitality, arranging so that we could get supper at the boliche, sending a man two miles with me to show me where to water the horses. We soon got them watered and fed and were very glad to get inside of a building. That evening I felt the paucity of my Spanish keenly, for the tendency was for the conversation to range widely. However, we spent the evening very sociably, drinking coffee in the boliche, and went through more con per mis so and permitte mes, with stately bows and other Spanish courtesies than at any other time during the trip. We slept in the telegraph office, our beds practically covering the floor. In the night a train (engine and one car) arrived and the conductor, coming in to hunt for the sleeping agent and stumbling over our beds, enriched our vocabulary with a series of words we have rather hesitated about using. However, the agent finally woke up, and when he explained over whose august feet the conductor had fallen, that officer became as courteous as the agent had been. When we rose, though it was midsummer, the ground was frozen hard and the wind still blowing though the rain had ceased. During the evening we had learned of a short cut down to the coast road, about which nothing seemed to be known in Comodoro Rivadavia, except that it was impassable, and judging from its condition when we went over it later, I guess that going south it would have 100 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS been impossible. However, by striking it now we were to save thirty miles, so we got our coffee as soon as the holiche opened, photographed the Senor Grandiole on duty at the station, also the holiche, picked up a guide who was to start us on the right trail, and started. First we trailed a couple of miles back, then dropped down a steep hillside into a new canyon, and after four or five miles came to the postoffice and former site of the town of Colonel Holditch, where we found the Sefiora Grandiole and took a photograph of the office, then of the Sefiora and the ninos. From here we had a trail down one of the best grassed canyons we saw anywhere in the country. For twenty miles we passed bunches of horses and sheep grazing along a series of pools of water on which there were numerous duck. We made our noon stop on this water, but at about three we struck the coast road, so called, and entered an extremely dry and barren country, through which we traveled until nearly dark looking for water. Finally we made a false turn and finding ourselves off the trail gave up and camped for the night without water for either our horses or ourselves. To be sure of finding them in the morning we picketed them during the night. In the morning it did not take long to get under way and we were soon on the trail again, which brought us about nine o'clock to a house and watering place, where we all got refreshed and learned about the road ahead. By ten we came to the telegraph line, which we followed for the next four or five days. During the afternoon we went through a narrow pass between two high mesa-like hills, the appearance of which drew me to explore the larger one. It yielded no fossils, however, though there were Indian graves along the edge of the cliff, but they had been opened and not enough of interest left behind to pay for stopping to dig them out further. About three we came to the house of a Basque, where we got water again. He advised us that there was a German estancia only four A Drink After Twenty-four Hours of Waterless Trailing Billy and the Team NO WATER 10 1 leagues ahead. Wishing to keep going as long as possible we decided to make on for the German's. All five of the horses were hitched to the wagon, and we Went along fly- ing. At two places a side trail led off but we stuck to the telegraph line, until we concluded that we had surely gone fifteen miles, and the estancia was to be only twelve: so we picked out a place with fair grass and made another dry camp. On starting out next morning we met the German on his horse, and he pointed out his tiny hut under the hill not over half a mile ahead. On seeing the place we con- cluded that the Basque's object had been to pass us along. All through this section there had been less than two inches of rain during the past twelve months, and even if a man had water he hated to see it used. In such a country saving water gets to be a regular mania. About ten this morn- ing we came to a pool by the roadside where we un- hitched and spent half an hour letting the horses drink, soak their noses and drink again, an example we were not loath to follow. Continuing we came about two in the afternoon to the sea again at Calleta Olivia, a small Ger- man settlement from which wool is shipped and to which provisions for the neighborhood are brought. We got some feed for the horses, then hitched the five in again and started for the water, three leagues away. The first part of the road was on the hard beach and went finely. Then we struck inland again, and finally came to the desired sheep-shearing sheds and the water. It was a good camp site. We found a couple of young Germans there and as their provisions were short, invited them to supper with us. They turned out to be new arrivals in the country and working for Herr Romberg. We had a very pleasant evening over the camp fire, ranging through comparisons between student life in Germany and America. I was much surprised in this section to see how readily all the Germans spoke English, and asking about it, found 102 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS it was simply what they had learned in their public schools at home. Trailing next morning brought us at once into the sand hills where the going was very slow, but after twenty-two or twenty-three miles we reached the Romberg house about four in the afternoon. They invited us to come up and have some tea, which we were doubly glad to do, as we could go no further, the next water being fifteen miles ahead; and as it was beginning to rain again, the prospect of seeing the inside of a dwelling house was very attractive. It was one of the typical sheet-iron houses as far as the outside went, but inside we were at once attracted to a grand piano filling up half of the living room. Of course we asked Mrs. Romberg to play it, but she hesitated and asked if any of us could. This was just what Turner was itching to do, and he was soon seated and playing the piano with all the gusto of an unexpected pleasure. Mrs. Rom- berg soon volunteered to sing, and in a few minutes a genuine concert was under way which continued with only momentary interruptions for supper until midnight. Mrs. Romberg was a trained opera singer when, five years be- fore, she had married and come to Patagonia, bringing with her the grand piano (how they got it through the surf and to the house is still a mystery to me) , since which time she had never had the opportunity of hearing it played except by herself. That evening will always be a memorable one, the pleasure being especially heightened by its unexpected- ness, and by the contrast to the lack of culture in the barren country which we had been traversing. Like so many others we found the Rombergs planning just how soon they would be far enough ahead to sell out and return to the fatherland. We made plans to repeat this evening on our return trip, and were invited to celebrate Christ- mas there, which, however, we could not plan. Five o'clock came all too soon, but by this time routine had drilled us so that we were on the road at the usual A Young Guanaco at the Romberg House NO WATER 103 hour, coming about ten to the next water, which was on the edge of the Romberg place. Here we saw a brood of young ostriches which had been hatched by the people and were running about among the hens. They seemed very easy to domesticate, but whether it will pay to tame them is a question. It would seem profitable, from their rapid growth and the fact that they are general feeders, to raise them for meat, though their feathers are of little value. Thence we went upon the pampa again and had fine roads the rest of the day. We were to find water just beyond the first fence on the left of the road. About half-past six we found the fence all right and began looking for the water. After perhaps two miles we spied a lake of good size (ten acres or so) on the left. Thinking this undoubtedly the place, and also finding a good slough of grass, we stopped and made camp. On going down to the lake we found all along the shore a rime of white, which proved to be salt crystals four or five inches deep, and the water was bitterer than that of the ocean. We had stopped on one of the numerous Salinas scattered all through this section of northern Santa Cruz. The country is nearly level, and the wind has blown out shallow depressions in the plain, in which all the surface water of the adjacent country accumulates. There being no outlet the water gradually evaporates, leaving a more or less concentrated solution of salts, until it is saturated and begins to deposit beds of the contained salt. Some of these are of nearly pure sodium chloride, and from such the salt is gathered by the wagon load and given to the sheep. In others there are various salts, in which cases the deposits are as yet not used for anything. These salinas are quite destitute of life, for they are too strong for aquatic animals, and as no plants can grow in them, there is nothing to attract the water fowl. We were in for another dry night, but as the grass was good I- i 104 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS and we had a couple of ostrich eggs for ourselves, we did not mind so much. After a couple of hours* traveling next day we found the place where the sheep watered and got our supply. It was easy going and at about half-past three we came to the Kelly place, where two Anglo -Argentine brothers had a large mob of sheep. It began to rain again (we seemed to bring the rain wherever we went), so we made a camp. I went over to the house to ask permission to camp and see how the land lay. Talking was uphill work, but finally Kelly said, ''Why don't you bring the others over and have a cup of tea or something?" I did; and we were soon congregated around his stove. The "tea" proved to be Scotch, and ''something" developed into a good supper, so that it was about nine before we got back to the wagon, but we were richer by a good set of Indian implements which the Kellys had given us. Half a day's run brought us to the town of Mazaredo, which I am confident is the most forlorn place on the map. It consists of six buildings in a row along the beach, behind which there is a great basin, three or four miles across, which appears like a dried up lake-bottom. While we were there (and the people said at all times) it was simply a plain of parched clay from which continuously rose clouds of yellow dust. After lunch Billy and I began to look for a camping place and finally decided to stop near the postofifice, which is about four miles inland on the telegraph line, and near the water supply. For years, ever since the port has been used, the people have agitated moving the postofifice down to the beach, and three years before, the government went so far as to land the wire for extending the telgraph line, but had not then gotten to sending the poles. We found this part of the country mostly settled by Scotch and colonial English who had come here by way of Aus- tralia. The same is true of all the territory of Santa Cruz. :!'' FOSSIL SHELLS IO5 According to Ameghino's notes we were in the midst of a highly fossiliferous area, so next morning we went out with high hopes. Night, however, brought us together again without any fossil bones, though we had found con- siderable quantities of marine shells in the rocks. In one spot in particular the rocks were simply peppered with petrified sea urchin shells, mostly of the type commonly known as "sea dollars." Finding the upper beds to be purely marine, we were further disappointed in finding that the lower beds showed unmistakable signs of having been greatly altered by the action of heat, the clays be- ing baked until almost like porcelain, and the heat having brought out a series of yellow, pink, and brown colors which were highly picturesque, but showed that we could expect little or nothing in the fossil line. The next day Shumway and Turner went to the shore to hunt up some shell heaps reported to us, while Stein and I made a careful section of the series of rocks exposed here. The boys found the reported shell heaps, but these were very thin and of dubious origin, yielding only a few seal bones and one arrow point. We had hoped they would show something about the early Indians. November 22 being my birthday, was declared a holi- day, which the boys put in developing our accumulation of photographic films, while Billy and I rode up the beach in search of Ameghino's Notostylopus beds, which he said extended from the town nine miles along the beach to Point Casamajor. We went the whole distance examin- ing the cliflf all the way, but not finding a trace of them. However, coming back we blundered into a small pocket in one of the canyons, where we found a few fragmentary bones. This I believe is Karl Ameghino's locality, but in a couple of hours we went over all the exposures of that horizon, and had picked up about all the bones which could occur there; so we had to ride back once more disappointed. k CHAPTER VIII On to the Rio Deseado On the morning of the twenty- third, camp was again struck, the horses hitched in and driven to Mazaredo, where a two weeks' supply of provisions was loaded in, and ten o'clock found us on the road for the estancia Madrugada (rising sun, so called from their brand y^). The distance was only six leagues and the road fair, so at about three we came to the house, a commodious sheet-iron structure with wide porches in Australian style. Inside it was fitted with paper on the walls, rugs on the floors, and bookcases of books all about, clearly the home of culture. The full owners were out among the sheep, but we were invited in and soon seated around Miss Whitaker's wicker tea- table where we were shortly joined by the men, O'Mahoney, Grant, and Bailey, from Ireland, Wales, and Scotland respectively, though all by way of the various English colonies, mostly Australia, while Miss Whitaker had lived a considerable part of her life in the Falkland Islands. It was a jolly place and we had a royal evening. They were in the midst of shearing their 30,000 sheep, and that summer, on account of the Italian-Turkish War, everyone was very short of help and the shearing conse- quently much prolonged. As the shearing season requires many extra men, gangs are usually formed going from ranch to ranch, ten to twelve of them in a body. These gangs are mostly Italians who have come over expressly for the shearing season. Their fares to Buenos Aires amount to only about $15 each, and they arrive in time to begin the shearing about October first, starting in the north and working southward, ending the season in February in the neighborhood of the Straits of Magellan, after which be- SHEEP SHEARING 107 cause of the high cost of living in Argentine they return to Italy until the next season. Experienced shearers shear from eighty to one hundred and twenty sheep a day, according to their size and the wrinkled character of the skin of the various breeds; and receive from ten to twenty cents of our money per head for the shearing. The price is agreed upon by a padron before- hand, and again regulated largely by the wrinkled skin. Thus the shearers make from $7 to $10 a day. The same sort of migration takes place in connection with the harvesting of the wheat in northern Argentine. These movements explain the curiously large immigration and emigration figures for Argentine Republic, of which usually only the former are published. However, it is true that a large number of Italians settle in Argentine, and become laborers, especially in the building of railroads, streets, bridges, and houses. To return to the sheep: they were originally mostly Merinos, brought from Australia, and the pure Merino of course yields the finest fleeces of wool, but the fiber is neither long nor the fleece heavy, so that on the progressive ranches the original stock has been crossed with various larger longer-haired varieties, like Lincolns and Shropshires, which yield a longer haired and heavier fleece, though it brings less per pound. The problem confronting them all is to get the grade which will net the most money per head, and it has been found that the fairly fine medium-weight fleece brings more money than either the finer light-weight high-priced fleece, or the coarse heavy-weight low-priced fleece. The nearer a pure Merino, the cheaper it is to get the sheep sheared. The wool is hauled to the coast and sold either to the local buyers, or by the larger ranchmen who can afford to wait for their money, in Buenos Aires or Europe, where it brings considerably more, as the local men have to make a living and a good one, on the difi^er- ences in prices between the local and the central markets. I08 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS One of the sheepman's greatest problems is to dispose of his meat, and at present that is practically lost, except what he can save by selling locally or by eating. The ewes are much more valuable as they yield both wool and young, the former paying the expenses and the latter being profit roughly. The wethers can not be made to yield much more than enough to pay for their keep, and then there is no sale for them in the end, as the older they get the less wool they yield. At present the wethers bring less than $2 a head , and are chiefly used to feed the owners and their help. With the present transportation facilities it is not pos- sible to ship them anywhere, for the arrivals of the boats are indefinite and when a man drives a herd of sheep into a town he is pretty sure not to find his boat. Then as there is no feed close to the town, they must be driven out again, and meantime the boat may come and go. The only solution seems to be in the way of establishing refrigeration plants in the coast towns; which has not yet been done, though at two points there are canning and rendering plants which take care of the wethers within a hundred miles of the plant. Coming back to our hosts, it was planned next day while Shumway and Turner remained to help among the sheep, that Mr. O'Mahoney should ride out with Billy and me to look over the country. Right after a five o'clock breakfast (in this section the Englishmen get up about this hour, prepare themselves coffee, buns or sweetened bread, and then go out to work, coming in for breakfast about eight; if they do not expect to get in by eight they add cold meat to their coffee and make the best of it) we started off toward the coast to look over the exposures there and find a camp where Ameghino had lived and worked some weeks, and presumably had found fossils. The seashore was soon reached and we rode through some of the roughest country imaginable, where the sea had undermined the cliffs and DIVIDE PARTY IO9 caused one landslide after another, which had piled up on each other below the great cliff in the wildest confusion. Ameghino's camp site was found, and the exposures looked so good, we determined to give the locality a good try out anyway. Then we circled back toward the house, bringing up at a Spanish estancia some three miles from La Madrugada, the foreman of which had seen some gigantic bones and offered to show us the place. First, we had lunch; and then all four set out at a pace set by his fresh horse. After «ix or seven miles we came to a large salina, the margin of which was made of that curious mud which dries on the top remaining like jelly below, and which mires so many horses and sheep. Our leader had tested out a path over this and was soon pointing triumphantly at two large con- cretions which were roughly the shape of vertebrae, and by imagination had been converted into a buried whale. He was much chagrined when we told him as tactfully as we could that they were not and never had been bone. But he said he knew where there was one bone he was sure of, which he had seen three years before. So we started on again, and after two miles he stopped in the midst of a great nearly level plain, and said that he had dropped the bone about there. Inside of twenty feet we found it in the grass. Then he led us to the place where he had found it. It was the Patagonian layer, and marine, and therefore of minor interest to us, and of still less when we could find no further fragments. However, from us who, when we leave a specimen for even a day or two, build near by a monument a couple of feet high to mark the place, this exhibition of locality memory drew forth great admiration ; for in the meantime this rider had been scouring miles of country in every direction. We found that these men who are constantly riding often do such feats and take great pride in the ability to do them, often having contests and betting on their ability to ex- no HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS actly locate places and objects. Lastly we rode to a small exposure, also Patagonian, where we found a few fragments of dolphin ribs. These men who ride after sheep are very keen about seeing petrified objects, so that in a new country they may be very helpful in getting one started in finding specimens if there are any about. When we got in it was about six and we were ready for supper. In the morning we brought our wagon across country to the head of a long canyon, down which we went across bushes and gullies until we came to the water hole located the day before. A camp site was finally picked in the very bottom of the narrow gully where for once we were fully protected against the wind. By noon we were fully located and spent the rest of the day exploring the nearer breaks. No bones turned up, though there were hosts of marine shells in the best state of preservation of any we had yet encountered. Of these we made a goodly collection. But we were hunting bones. Next day the story was the same except that we got a considerable distance from camp. While the tide was out, going along the beach was easy and we rather lost track of the distance. When we came to return the beach was covered, which forced us to climb over the breaks and boulders. Billy and I got in a little after six, but the boys were further out and starting back later had worse troubles, finally coming in with their tongues hanging out just after dark. We had really be- come worried about them. It was a country in which one is easily lost, for the mouths of the multitude of canyons all look much alike. We had all been equally unsuccess- ful, so after spending the first half of the next day bringing in some finds of shells which we had made, we broke up the camp, did some fancy driving in turning around and getting out of the gully, and returned to the estancia. There was still some country which we had not seen be- tween us and the Deseado River. So we arranged that the boys should stay at the ranch and help with the sheep^ THE LAVA FLOW III while Billy and I took two of the saddle horses and explored as far as the river or until we found something. Saddling Blackie and Colorado we started to "ride the chuck line" as they say in the West, when one starts out expecting to live on his neighbors as he travels. Our first day brought us to nothing new and we stopped at a small estancia, where we did not meet a very cordial reception from the owner. Next morning about ten we rode up to Tom Hall's, who averaged up by the heartiness of his welcome, and soon proved to us that he knew more of the natural history, geology, and Indian lore of the country than any one else we had met. When we told him what we wanted to see, he replied, "that is just the sort of a trip I have wanted to take." We said, "come on." He replied, "all right." Then he caught up two horses, one to ride and the other to carry the pack, which he furnished, consisting of blank- ets, grub for three days, and a few cooking utensils. After lunch we rode five or six leagues across country, until we came to the mile-wide valley of the Deseado River, the stream itself being about three feet wide and a foot deep, and entirely dry in the summer time. Here we turned up the valley until we came to the first of the steep white barrancas which make the walls of the valley here. There we camped for the night. It was one of those gorgeous nights made perfect by the contrast with what one usually gets. Soon a roast of lamb was sizzling before our camp fire, after eating which we sat until well into the night while Billy matched tales of the sea and the cow camp against those of Hall's of the mining and sheep camps all over Australia. He had put in twenty years of his life roaming all over that continent. Cheap land (he was squatting) brought him to Patagonia, but he had already made his plans and could see that in two years he would return to Australia with money enough to make 112 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS a start there, and educate the series of little Halls whose physiques Patagonia had already made as hard as nails. Next day we worked up and down the barrancas looking for the ever-elusive bones, but found that like the clays by Mazaredo, these were also baked. As we gradually worked down the stream we came into lower and lower layers which were more and more baked, until about noon we landed on the top of the lava sheet which had done the baking. Just before lunch we spied a goose acting suspiciously, and soon found her nest with five eggs in it. They were nearly fresh and we gathered them all. For lunch we had bread and tea in which while hot we each stirred a goose egg, which made an unexpectedly good combination. We saved the remaining eggs and the egg shells, which were tied up in a handkerchief and I carried them for the next three days slung around my neck, getting four of them safely back home. During the afternoon we came down ta the "Eye of Waters," a wide lagoon-like expansion of the river, where the water was shallow and full of reedy islands, and where hundreds of ducks, geese, and flamingoes were paddling about. They were wise, however, and kept well out from the shores or over the lagoon, where they were safe, as we could not come out into the water on ac- count of the deep mud about the margin. Here we saw the finest contact possible between two formations. The lava had welled up from some throat or seam, and coming to the light clay formation had lifted it on its molten surface as if it were floating : then the lava had pushed its way for miles under the clay layer, baking the lower layers completely and the upper ones gradually less, but afifecting them for fully 250 feet up. The basal layers of the clay, where they came in direct contact with the lava, were broken, crumpled, and twisted in every shape. It was a geological phenomenon worth coming all the way to see, but of course the sort of thing we could only BILLY THROWN I13 see. We spent the entire afternoon exploring the contact, and studying the effects of the combination of hot lava and gigantic force. At dusk we sat down to another roast and another evening of stories. The morning brought us to the first of December, and we saddled up to begin our return journey. Billy was riding one of Hall's horses which had tried the previous day to buck some; but this morning as he mounted, the horse went at it with such earnestness, that after tearing one boot to pieces, he pitched Billy off; then proceeded to buck off the saddle, and run away. However, he was easily caught again; for he had worked so hard that he was tired out. After this we put the pack on his back, and he tried to buck this off, but it was wrapped around his belly and as he had used up his best energy, he gave it up and went along like a lamb the rest of the day. We struck off across the pampa, and a little after noon reached Hall's house, where we had lunch and then went out to see some localities he had to show us, finally spending the night at his house. While here he gave me the skins of three Patagonian hares which we had seen several times but could not get close enough to shoot. These hares, so called, are really cavies, closely related to the Guinea pig, but in adapting themselves to the open and barren prairie they have de- veloped long legs (especially the hind ones), with the general appearance of a jack rabbit, though the ears are not so long. In every way they take the place of our prairie jack rabbit, and for a long time I thought they were really members of the rabbit family. In one respect they are quite peculiar, traveling in groups of from two to ten (sometimes more) and following one behind the other, so that as they leap they give the appearance of being parts of one long animal. I further arranged for some skulls and skins to be shipped to me the next winter. The children had collected birds' 114 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS eggs of several sorts, many of which they gave me, but I had to buy Paddy's (three years old), promising him a can of pears for them. In the morning we had some difficulty finding our horses, which had strayed some eight miles from the house, but about noon we mounted and rode straight across country for the estancia. About two miles from our destination Billy started to teach Blackie to open and shut gates without the rider dismounting. The opening went all right, but when the gate was coming shut, the horse bolted and jammed Billy's foot against the post, giving it a bad wrench which took over two weeks to cure. We got in soon after, in time for supper. While we were away the boys had spent half of each day in the saddle on a fresh horse every morning, to bring in sheep for the shearers, and in the afternoon had worked in the pens and sheds, until they had learned to muster, drive, draft, dip, mark, and cut sheep, and had become so enthusi- astic that they were willing to continue the job indefinitely. Our team had had a week's rest in good pasturage. Our plan had been to start next morning on the long drive of over 230 miles to Comodoro Rivadavia, but we found a big muster of sheep planned for and the extra men needed to hunt out the sheep; so we put the start over until Monday morning and all got out about four in the morning to gather the 3,000 sheep wanted. We had good luck and before nine had the mob of sheep in the corral, and before noon they had all been through the drafting runways, and three or four hundred wethers were picked out to be sold to the railroad camp. The remainder of the day we spent simply loafing around the ranch or reading at the house. Next morning it was with many regrets that we said good-by to our very generous friends, making plans to hear from them, and if possible to see them when they made one of their pilgrimages to England. First, we pulled into Mazaredo to ship our accumulated A Typical Estancia Built of Sheet Iron The Holiclic at Alazarcdo JOURNEY NORTHWARD II5 collections and extra baggage, and to get supplies for the journey. Here we found the Hall family, Mrs. Hall and the children having come in for three or four days to enjoy the sea beach and the people of the town. We found the custom of bringing the women and children in to town for a week or more each year for an outing to be quite general. It certainly is appreciated by those who are from five to twenty miles from a neighbor. I paid Paddy his can of pears. Here we sold the shotgun, our stove and two of the saddle horses, Colorado and Paddy, losing a little on the one but making it up on the other. I hated to leave Colorado, the horse which had carried me over 1500 miles, and while not smooth gaited, was strong and willing, and especially good when working on the cinch helping to pull the wagon. Shumway regretted as much to part with Paddy, his practical teacher and companion. It took until ten the next morning to get all the papers for the horse sales made out and recorded. Then while Billy and Turner packed the collections, greased and loaded the wagon, etc., Shumway and I borrowed a couple of horses and rode eight or nine miles up the beach to make a section across the Notostylopus beds, and if possible to find an extension of their exposure. The first job we did, but the latter proved impossible, and we only found a few more teeth and then abandoned the search for more bones in this bed. Wednesday morning we left Mazaredo with a gale of wind and dust in our faces, with but one saddle horse and three men on the wagon or walking to vary the monotony of the journey. Thus lightly loaded we passed Kelly's about noon, and kept on as far as Bain's. We hoped to camp at this house, but found the yard full of the camps of shearers and freighters, and the grass and feed all cleaned up by them, so we went on around the corner of the fence and camped on a spring which he had there. The day had netted fully forty miles. On the next day the wind again continued from the north, the first strong north wind we Il6 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS had had during our trip, but we had pampa going and knew that Romberg's was at the end of the day's march; so we pushed ahead as fast as possible, reaching the estancia about four in the afternoon. Mr. Romberg was away buying rams, but our welcome was no less cordial. Before supper Turner photographed the Romberg twins, and also the young guanaco illustrated opposite page 102. Then after an early supper a second sdngerfest began, with Mrs. Romberg and Turner as leading actors. In the morning we stopped for coffee at the house, not getting away until eight, after which we covered the eight leagues of sand and hills to Calleta Olivia, reaching the little town in time for supper. Here we had to buy water for the horses at ten cents a drink, but they were thirsty enough so they got their money's worth. It is a town with but one well in it and the water from that is only used for horses, the people hauling their drinking water from four miles out. It was Saturday morning as we pulled up the long hill from Calleta, passing near the top one of the Boer freighters who had started about an hour earlier. Soon after this we came to a point where the road forked iiito three branches, and here for some reason we took the wrong fork, and in an hour or so brought up in a man's dooryard at the end of the road. He told us we could strike the other trail by going half a league across country to the south. Either his unit of measure differed from ours or he had never tried the crossing; for we went fully five miles across the worst kinds of brush and up and down all sorts of bad hills before we found our trail again. At noon we came to that German place we had missed on the down journey. This time our friend was vastly less cordial, and had developed a rheuma- tism which prevented his leaving the house. However, he pointed to the southeast to a place where he said we would find water for our horses within half a mile. We tried and failed to find the place. Coming back he pointed to SALE OF OUTFIT 1 17 the east and was astonished we could not find the spot. The new direction yielded the same result, and it dawned on us he did not want to give us water; so we swallowed what of our wrath we did not express, and went back to our wagon, shaking the dust of his hospitality from our feet as we went on without water. About six we got to the house of the Basque and found a watering trough full of the most refreshing water ; a wel- come find, for on this trip we had planned to get drinks at two points, missing the first by our detour, and the second by a trick. Here we got out our last two ostrich eggs, and I sat down to drill holes in the ends of the shells, through which we blew the contents out. The first one needed no blowing, for of a sudden it blew first, sending a jet square into my face, and showing how highly charged it was. We saved the shell, however, for the museum. The second egg proved all right, and with it, to which he added maca- roni, and a pound of raisins, Billy made a gallon of what we called "powerful feed." It certainly was the best meal we had on the trip. The first half of the next day was over good roads, but all the water holes had dried up, and in the afternoon, we struck that part of the road which made people say it was impassable, for there were steep hills where the rains had torn out eight-to ten-foot-deep gulches in the trail, and other places where on the steep slopes the sand had drifted in, in banks many feet deep. Our horses were trained to it, however, and we got through, finally coming down a steep hillside into a narrow valley where there was good grass, though no water. Here we stopped. For our- selves we had some water in the canteen, but it was tough on the horses. But next morning about an hour after starting we came to a good spring, after which we all felt better. The road improved and we coasted along down a long canyon toward the ocean, reaching the town of Comodoro Rivadavia Il8 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS about noon, having covered over 200 miles from Mazaredo in four and a half days, and this with the two wagon horses which it had been prophesied would not be able to last more than ten days from the beginning of the trip. The balance of the day we gave to rest and the reading of our accumulated mail. Among the letters was one from Mr. Potts who was to buy our wagon, indicating that he would not be in town. So next morning at six I mounted Blackie and started the forty-mile ride along the shore and beach to Port Visser. Reaching there about four I found him in bed with in- flammation of the bowels. In the morning feeling better and desiring to see a doctor, he decided to come into Comodoro, so consulting the tide we hitched one of his horses and mine into a sulky and started, but we were too early for the tide and had to wait an hour for it to go out; after which we pushed along the beach until five, when both Mr. Potts and the horses were tired and we had to take an hour's rest. Hitching in at six we traveled the final twenty miles up hill and down as if the "Old Boy" were after us, reaching the hospital at the railroad camp about nine. Here I left Mr. Potts and went on into town. Next morning having had his first food in five days and feeling better, Mr. Potts came over to the town and bought our wagon and two horses. During that day we also sold our three saddles, all of our sales netting us as much as we had originally paid for the equipment. It took all day to arrange these matters and get the transfers registered. While making bills of sale, as Billy was to stay another month, I transferred Blackie to him, and made out various legal papers authorizing him to act for Amherst College. Next morning we started Mr. Potts off on his road with our fine team and American wagon (wagons from the United States are in great demand in Patagonia, being so much lighter and stronger than the high-wheeled Spanish type). .2- > o I o U 1 SALE OF OUTFIT XI9 Then we packed up all our personal effects and were ready for a boat to come in. On Sunday morning (two days later) the Camerones put in and began to load the hundred or more tons of wool on the beach. It was not until four o'clock that we were allowed to walk the plank into the lighter, and thence on to a small tug which plowed through waves out to the ship, during which voyage all the passen- gers were thoroughly soaked by the flying water. We had covered over 1,000 miles with the wagon and half as much more on the saddle horses, had prospected 500 miles of bluffs and with a good collection and data for geological work, we were fully ready to turn our faces toward home. The boat stopped at three or four more ports for more wool, and brought us on Christmas Eve into Buenos Aires, too late to go to the banks, so we could not take advantage of sailing on the Cap Finisterre next day on its maiden voyage. This was the biggest boat then in the South American trade, displacing about 17,000 tons and built with especial reference to going up the La Plata River, which permits only about seventy feet of draught. Thus we had to wait four more days. Christmas in Argentine is not the holiday it is in the United States; and next morning we found only the larger stores and offices and the banks closed. There was not as much notice taken of it as of a regular Sunday. Only one feature seemed to be peculiarly striking, and that was the pan dulce (a sweetened bread with raisins in it) with which every bakery window was piled high, and which was sold by the kilo in loaves of from two to twelve pounds in weight. The eating of this and the use of some simple candies seemed to be the only celebration among the Argen- tines. The presence of great numbers of English and Germans in the city was, however, indicated by signs in the store windows, calling attention in these two languages for presents for the Natividad. In the matter of candies 120 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS it was noticeable that there were neither our great quanti- ties, variety, nor the predominance of chocolates as here. The lack of a Christmas celebration is largely explained by the big festival celebrated on New Year's Day. We bought our pan duke and candies and made an attempt at a Christmas celebration, then went out on the Avenida at this midsummer season, and especially on this day, to find the cafes crowded, but neither on this day nor on any of the others, either during the summer or winter, did we see indications of the gay street life for which many of the tropical cities are celebrated. By eleven the streets looked deserted, and what little stir there was earlier was over. We found the cafes serving helado, which equals "frozen," and it is about as near to ice cream as the article comes, for the great predomi- nance of water and the shortage of cream in the original mixture make it pretty thin food. But as we had had nothing of the sort for six months we enjoyed it just the same. Sunday followed Christmas and it was not until Monday that we were able to get our passage moneys out of the Bank of London, cash our drafts on a wool merchant, arrange for the transportation of our freight yet to come, and finally book a passage in the Highland Glen for London, as there was no boat for New York for nearly two weeks, and the cost of the trip via London, though 4,000 miles longer, is the same as if one goes direct. And in time it takes but three days longer, not to mention the more fre- quent sailings via Europe ; for there are three English lines, two German, a French and an Italian line, three of them sailing weekly, and the others fortnightly or monthly. Our business done, we still had a couple of days in which to write a letter of thanks to the various officials who had been so kind to us, to visit our friends and to do a little shopping. In general the stores are very uninteresting considering that it is a foreign country, for the same articles CHRISTMAS AT BUENOS AIRES 121 will be found in any New York or American store, their goods being nearly all made in Europe or the United States. The element of being quaint, appropriate, or tasty is en- tirely lacking. Even souvenir spoons were wanting. The jewelry stores were of all most disappointing, for Argen- tine has no native gold, silver, or precious stones. There were no pretty little objects. The silver was heavy and overwrought, the gems were showy and merely big (prices also). After a thorough search we found as characteristic some handsome rugs made of the baby guanaco skins, and sold for 100 pesos each, the duplicates of what we had seen everywhere on the Patagonian coast for 30 pesos. We only bought a few maU cups and the hombilloes which were really native. But Buenos Aires is a good place to buy the fine hand-made lace which the Paraguay Indians make, and there are attractive baskets made from the shell of the armadillo with the tail caught in the mouth for a handle. These were also made in Paraguay. On the twenty-ninth we left Buenos Aires by a special train for La Plata, where some of the boats dock to avoid the heavy harbor charges of the capital city. Though we went on board at once it was nearly a full day before the boat pulled away from the dock; for Argentine was then in the sway of a great dockmen's strike. These Highland boats are engaged in the business of transporting refrig- erated beef and mutton to England, and we were not en- tirely loaded ; so all the afternoon and evening we sat and watched the carcasses of mutton and quarters of beef come sliding along the overhead trolleys out of the great refrig- erator houses, move across the dock and down into the hold, each one sewed up in a nicely fitted cheese-cloth jacket, and protected by awnings all the way from the buildings until in the hold. The people were not so care- fully protected against the sun (presumably because they were still alive). Fortunately being lightly loaded on the trip out from England these boats carry their coal for both 122 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS trips (which must be a big saving) ; so we were not held up for that, which would have meant several days. Some boats at the time were held weeks before they could get their coal on board. These boats sail direct to London, except sometimes to put in at the Cape Verde Islands, if they need any extra coal, making the run in twenty-one days. If it takes more than twenty-two days, their contracts require them to pay a daily forfeit for overtime. In this manner ten thousand tons of meat come weekly to John Bull. In due time we reached London, and from there crossed to New York, arriving the day before College opened for its second semester. CHAPTER IX Billy's Experiences We left Billy standing on the beach at Comodoro Rivadavia. As he could not begin collecting in North America until May, he was willing to stay an extra month in Patagonia and look over some of the formations which as a party we had not had time to explore, thereby find- ing out just where any succeeding party should start in work without the considerable loss of time to which we had been subjected through lack of knowledge of where to begin. Next morning he mounted Blackie with about thirty pounds of luggage, i. e., a little clothing, a blanket, some small tools, compass, map, and about ten pounds of food for man and beast ; and was soon wending his way back upon the pampa, and across to Ventner's ranch which he reached in two days. Here he made his headquarters for some days while he rode north and west, prospecting the bluffs down the Chico River, where we had not been able to explore while camping in this section. Unfortunately they proved as barren as most of what we had seen, and it appeared that the pocket we had worked was the only one in that neighborhood. After the holidays, on the second of January, Billy left this hospitable homestead and started to work up to- wards Lake Musters. From his diary we get such entries as this of January 2, "Camped out near the Rio Chico, grass pretty poor, strong west wind, night cold and stormy;" which means that with the horse tied to the longest rope he had to get all the grass possible, Billy had made a small fire, burrowed into a thorn bush, and wrapping his blanket around him, got what sleep he could, rising two or three times to warm himself, and to move the horse where it 124 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS could pick up a little more feed. Such prospecting is lonesome work, especially where even the few people one meets cannot speak one's language. On the fourth of this month, a few miles south of the beginning of the river, and a little above the basal layer of lava he found the first traces of dinosaur bones, over the presence of which there has been in the past so much discussion. In the northern hemisphere this group of gigantic reptiles died out by the end of the Cretaceous epoch, but in South America Ameghino found some of their bones commingled with the bones of mammals of the Eocene types. This could, if true, be interpreted in two ways; either that in South America the dinosaurs lived to a later period than elsewhere, or that there the mammals arose earlier. The latter was the interpretation Ameghino put on his finds; while the former is the one more recently advocated. But the fact of the contemporaneous occur- rence of these two types of animals was doubted, especially by Hatcher. Since then Roth has confirmed that the bones of the two groups do occur in the same strata, and it was a point on which we were especially anxious to get some first-hand data. Next day Billy continued his work along this stratum, coming to the south of Lake Colhue-Huapi, and in beds either of the same age or older than those in which he had found dinosaur bones, he found a small collection of bones of the Notostylopus types. In getting to these bluffs he started across the bottom of a dry lake. The surface proved treacherous and as he expresses it he "got stuck sev- eral times and almost lost Blackie." He worked here all day and that night "camped near lake shore, the coun- try barren, no feed for horse, some ostriches and guanaca about, ate some berries to satisfy hunger." From here he proceeded toward the Pueblo Sarmiento which is the small town in the midst of the mixed colony of the same name. When the Boers came to Patagonia VISIT SCHOOL 125 they more than filled the land assigned to them, so a second colony was started on the level stretch between lakes Colhue-Huapi and Musters, and this was opened to settle- ment without any national restrictions, being now occupied by Boers, Welch, Spanish, Russians, etc. In this case the land being considered better, each settler only obtained a quarter of a league either near the lakes or along the River Senguerr leading into Lake Musters. It is expected that they will be able to irrigate this land. On the way to the town a night was spent with Mr. Castro, "a good fellow, but can't speak English," with whom next morning Billy rode over much of the country south of the lake (Colhue-Huapi). Here they saw enor- mous flocks of waterfowl, ducks, geese, and flamingoes, which as they are not much hunted showed little fear. Passing on from here to Sarmiento he met a Mr. Jones (Welch like nearly everyone of that name in South Amer- ica), who showed him his considerable collection of Indian relics and fossil bones. About the localities where they were found, he was, however, unwilling to give any informa- tion. Next day Stein visited the public school, where, as he could not make an address to the pupils in Spanish, he stood as the subject of a talk by the master. It was notice- able that in all these rural schools most if not all the teachers were men. In the afternoon he went on, skirting along the south of Lake Musters to the Herzog ranch occupied by a Russian German, where Billy's knowledge of the Russian language won him a hearty welcome. Here, again, there was a col- lection of fossil bones, and again the owner was unwilling to disclose the localities where they were found. It was only in this section that we found this feeling about telling us all about fossils; and it was probably due to the fact that two or three years before there had been found near Sarmiento the remains of a very large dinosaur, of which the government had at once taken possession. The sped- 126 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS men has not yet been excavated. Its value is largely speculative, and will depend mostly on the skill with which it is collected, as is so largely the case with all these ancient remains. However, this has led the people to try and capitalize the finds which they may make. From here Stein went to the southeast into the San Bernado hills, a very broken piece of country, made up partly of volcanic lavas and partly of the Patagonian sand- stones with their marine shells, with here and there ex- posures of the reddish beds in which dinosaur bones are found. On the tenth he reached a second member of the Herzog family, and all the succeeding day was confined to the house by the "terrific winds" which made riding impossible. Though this was in the middle of January and the hottest time of the year, all through the diary run such entries as "night cold and windy, " or "night freezing." In the valleys among these hills the grass was better than near Sarmiento. On the night of the fourteenth Billy had worked up to the northwest corner of Lake Musters and camped near the shore at the foot of a headland known as Cabo Pastel, for variety the weather being warm and the lake covered with thousands of ducks and geese. After picketing out his horse he rolled into his blanket, only to be awakened after about an hour by the bellowing of an approaching wild bull which seemed to threaten his horse especially. He got up and by waving his coat and running and shouting at the animal drove it off. A couple of hours later it came back and this time was much harder to turn. The third time the bull approached Billy was tempted to shoot at it, but as it was dark and knowing the irresponsibility of a wounded bull, he got ready to drive him out again or vacate the camp hastily, when from the opposite direction he heard a faint answering bellow, and realized that it was not him or his horse the bull was after, but to get at an adversary. LAKE MUSTERS I27 So he sat down and the bull passed quietly by and disap- peared in the direction of the challenger. Next day Stein continued around to the north of the lake and fell in with an Indian who gave him shelter in his hut, where they were weather-bound for the ensuing day by wind. When they could get out, Billy found an ancient Indian burial corral, where some twenty Indians had been buried in a circle, all with their heads toward the center. Unfortunately the place had been desecrated and all the skulls taken away, together with such imple- ments as had been buried with the bodies. Only the skel- etal portions remained and they were badly scattered. The next camp was by the lake, and under January 18 the diary reads ''breakfasted four a.m., meal and water;" after which he worked his way down, reaching another Russian ranch about seven in the evening, where "after hearty supper felt better." On the 22d while prospecting the low hills to the east of the lake, Billy happened on to the government's dinosaur. But a small amount of it was exposed, and of course our interest in it lay only in that it showed us in which of the beds to expect good dinosaur bones. Having completed the circuit of the lake, and having found three good localities for fossil bones, to which we or another museum could come in case it proves desirable to continue the work in Patagonia, Stein started back to- wards Ventner's reaching that ranch on the 27th. From here he rode over to Comodoro Rivadavia and back in six days for the purpose of picking up any mail which might have been forwarded to him there. At Ventner's he sold Blackie, a most faithful horse which had shown good en- durance both when well fed and when half starved. Thence he joined a party of Boers who had to go to Rawson, the capital of the territory, to take the oath of allegiance to Argentine Republic; and they on relays of horses rode down the Chico valley considerably over 300 128 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS miles in four days to Gaimen, whence they could take a train to Trelew and Puerto Madryn. Fortunately a steamer came in the next day, and Stein left on it for Buenos Aires, and thence via London to New York, arriv- ing home the latter part of March. I do not want to close this narrative without a word of appreciation of Stein, whose expert knowledge in hand- ling horses and of plains' life was a great factor in our success; and whose previous training in collecting made it possible for him to add materially to what the Amherst Expedition had accomplished. CHAPTER X Results of Expedition After the preceding running narrative I should like to sum up the general results of the expedition as they appear after a preliminary survey of the material, now that it is all together. It is to be understood, however, that these are not final, such conclusions being only possible after a more complete study of the details of the collection. Such final results together with the bases for arriving at them are to be published later as the second volume of the report of this expedition. First, as to the age of the beds in which most of our work was done. The difficulties in the way of determining this easily are mostly in the fact that all the numerous remains of mammals, birds, fishes, and shells belong to species and genera known from no other part of the world. The stra- tum best suited for comparisons is the one which carried the large oysters and to which I have always referred as Patagonian. From it we collected some 3,000 shells be- longing to over fifty species. By Ameghino this bed was first called Patagonian, and later divided into "Supra- Patagonian, Juliene and Leonense" and assigned to the first part of the Eocene (3,000,000 years ago). Ortmann after a very careful study of the shells collected from it by the Princeton Expedition concluded that there was but one layer, the Patagonian, and that the other names repre- sented only local phases of the bed; and that its age was Lower Miocene, a whole geological age later. Von Ihering and Scharff have adopted Ameghino's conclusion as to the age, but in spite of the difficulties of the shell evidence Ortmann's determination seems to me correct. Then in addition to that evidence there have been found in it 130 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS numerous shark's teeth, which though not conclusive, are also of Miocene character; and finally and to my mind conclusively, the cetacean remains of which there are a good many, and which do occur in both the northern and southern hemisphere, have been assigned all of them to Miocene or later types. This study of the age was of great importance to the Princeton Expedition, as their chief collections were found just above this Patagonian layer. To us it is equally important, as our collections all come from below this layer and must therefore be older than the Patagonian. To get at the conditions during the deposit of the Pyro- therium beds in which we are chiefly interested, let us begin K I I c:retA.ceou5 Eocen* pi To- PleJjto- ccoe cen« Diagram to Show the Rising and Fall of Patagonia as Indicated by the Rocks at the lower horizons and survey the series. At sea level we found a thick layer of shales carrying marine shells of shallow water types, especially various sorts of oysters. Higher up the beds became sandy or clay with occasion- ally a bed in which occurred marine shells and shark's teeth. The major part of these beds, some 600 feet in thickness, were barren, except as they had occasionally some fossil wood in them. They are what Ameghino calls RISE AND FALL OF PATAGONIA I3I "Guarantic," and considered to be Middle to Upper Cre- taceous. He seems to consider them mostly land deposits because in them have been found dinosaur bones, and because they so generally have fossil wood; in describing which last Ameghino even goes so far as to state that in these petrified forests the trees are often standing where they grew. We never saw any wood in such a position that it could be standing where it grew, and indeed its very position and distribution seemed to mark it for drift wood, while the occasional beds with marine shells confirmed my belief that the beds were all marine, and apparently of Upper Cretaceous age. Toward the end of the Cretaceous or during the early Eocene these beds were raised to low-lying land, and the Eocene epoch is only represented by the break or uncon- formity between these beds and the overlying Patagonian ones. During this time of elevation such rivers as coursed over or through these low lands, made small deposits in their beds or on the adjacent flood plains, in which natu- rally were buried the bones of such animals as died in or near the stream. These deposits therefore form pockets in the upper part of the Guarantic though of later age. It is these which have been termed Notostylopus and Pyrotherium beds, always limited in extent and of but in- frequent occurrence. Their age may be anything from Early Eocene to late Oligocene, its exact time only to be determined by the contents- of the beds, and as these are totally unique the determination is largely a matter of judgment. Our pocket on the Chico River is in this class. It is clearly later than the Notostylopus beds as the ani- mals are much more specialized. The animals of the Pyrotherium beds have many affinities with those of the Santa Cruz above the Patagonian. The time necessary to lay down the 600 to 1,000 feet of the Patagonian beds would fully account for such changes as we find, and there- fore I feel confident that these Pyrotherium beds should 132 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS be considered as but little older than the directly overlying Patagonian; that is, I would consider them as belonging in the Oligocene epoch instead of in the Cretaceous as Ame- ghino has put them. In fact, from the Cretaceous we know of only the most primitive and smallest of mammals, and placing these beds with their representatives of typically tertiary animals in them, would only be permissible as the result of overwhelming evidence to that effect. Following this period of land deposits the country sank again and the inrolling waters deposited over them first the sands with their shallow- water oysters, etc., of the base of the Patagonian. This submergence continued for a long time until the 600 and more feet of Patagonian sands and clays were accumulated. During this time the climate in this section seems to have been much warmer than now, for all the genera and families are typically those adapted to tropical seas. Again, the coast rose during the period when the Santa Cruz beds were deposited, a time when there was much volcanic action, for the large part of those beds are com- posed of volcanic dust and ashes. During this time the rivers began cutting away and dissecting the land, and only in favorable places were there any land deposits. In other places it was wholly a story of cutting river valleys and removal of land. This is the second half of the Miocene, and during it the general outlines of the present topography were carved out, the great valleys like those of the Chubut, Chico, Deseado, etc., rivers being then formed, occupied now only by tiny streams all out of pro- portion to the positions they occupy. During this time also the land must have extended considerably farther to the East than the present seacoast. This period of elevation was followed during the Pliocene by another sinking, during which the Cape Fairweather and contemporaneous beds, carrying their fauna of shal- low water marine shells, were formed. This submergence ORIGIN OF SHINGLE 133 extended inland up to the present foothills of the Cordil- leras. During a part of this time the climate seems to have been even colder than at present, and according to Hatcher, in the central mountain area, ice sheets and glaciers formed extensively, which, as in their flow they came to the sea, brought great quantities of debris. When the ice broke away and floated as icebergs out to sea, the debris (stones and gravel) dropped to the bottom as the ice melted, strew- ing the whole sea floor with several feet of this material. In the latter part of the Pliocene and during the Pleis- tocene the final elevation (still going on) of the land took place. Then the action of the tides and waves destroyed much of the former marine deposits, and in particular, worked over the stones and gravel dropped by the ice, making them into a layer of rounded pebbles, which forms the shingle mentioned on page 57, and covers the whole of the Patagonian pampa as far as the foothills of the mountains. This formation of shingle is still going on, as is readily seen anywhere along the beach. Almost every- where the beach is made of rounded pebbles to the depth of ten to fifteen feet, and the material is not from the adjacent bluffs, but consists of all sorts of trap rocks, which occur in abundance far in the interior. No other cause except the ice previously mentioned will explain their presence here on the beach. The rising of the land going on today is clearly indicated at numerous points by the series of beaches one behind the other extending far inland. At Solano Bay, for instance, we counted eight such beaches. The animals represented by our collections of bones represent a very advanced and specialized fauna comparable to none found on any other continent. It is from the relationships of the land animals that conclusions as to whether they have migrated from one continent to another are formed, and thus as to what connections a continent had. The geography of South America during the time when 134 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS our animals lived is another much discussed problem with almost as many conclusions as there are writers on the subject. There are no faunas which arose independ- ently and have not received some contribution from other continents. The mammals arose apparently on the north- ern hemisphere or were at least spread over it from their earlier beginnings. Their presence in South America indi- cates that they came from some other region, though their peculiarities may be due to isolation. The fresh water fishes of South America have more affinities with those of Africa than with other continents. The fresh water mussels and snails also show a striking resemblance between the two continents. This is true of some of the fossils of the Cretaceous, like the dinosaurs. In general there is an agreement that Africa and South America were united across the South Atlantic in the early Cretaceous, but the usual opinion has been that these two continents were separated early in this period. This was too early to ac- count for the mammals, etc. By several authors there has been a tendency to continue this connection to later times, in which case we should expect to find resemblances be- tween the land animals of the Eocene at least. Such resemblances have in many cases been asserted but mostly on incomplete material. For instance, Ameghino consid- ered that the Pyrotherium belonged in the elephant family and was closely related to remains of elephants found in the Fayum desert in northern Africa. The nearly com- plete skull which we found, however, shows no resemblance to the early elephants except in the shape of the grinding teeth, but in the important structural points it approaches to Toxodonts, which are a purely South American group. Of the evidence for an African migration very little if anything remains. There are forms which Ameghino interpreted as Primates and which would point to a con- nection with North America, but these with fuller material prove to be marsupials and that connection fades. The ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF PATAGONIA 135 most Striking feature of the group of forms we found is their entire isolation in relationships, from any of the Eocene or later forms on any continent. It looks as though, from the beginning of the Eocene at least, South America was an island continent, as it remained until in the Pliocene when the Isthmus of Panama connected it with North America. However, during the Cretaceous and probably during the upper half of this period South America must have received its original mammals from somewhere. The most primitive members of this fauna seem to resemble the primitive stock from which the mammals of North America arose; and, as it now seems, these two continents must have received their original stock from the same source, possibly then from Africa, more probably from the north over Greenland, etc., from northern Europe, whence it spread into South America, and then the two continents were separated and the animals of each continent developed each in its own way, adapting themselves to similar circum- stances often in more or less parallel manners. Our collections contain bones representing over 300 in- dividuals, some represented only by a fragment of a jaw or by a limb bone, but most by at least a jaw, a skull, or in four cases by more or less complete skeletons. The most striking specimen is the complete skull of Pyrotherium, a form previously known only by the teeth. The skull, thirty-eight inches in length, is greatly elongated, with the nostril openings nearly half way back from the front of the snout, indicating a flexible proboscis, though not a pendant one. In the front of the upper jaw are four heavy tusks, which is double the number that was expected. Each of them projects some ten inches to the front, and they are matched with two similar ones in the lower jaws. The back teeth are very large, each with two high ridges across it, and the two rows so broadened that almost the whole palate is covered with the dental armor. It looks as if the food required very efi^ective crushing and grind- 136 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS ing, such molars being associated with the eating of twigs and branches of trees, where the amount of woody material is great in comparison with the available food. The neck vertebrae with this specimen are very short and stout, the leg bones excessively heavy and short, Skull of Pyrotherium One-fifth natural size with the hind leg bones the longer. Roughly, the build of the animals would suggest such a form as the rhinoceros except that it would be considerably more clumsy. The form is one which has caused much difference of opinion. As stated it has been assigned to elephants, marsupials and now is relegated to the Toxodonts. It is usually considered the test of the Pyrotherium beds, though others of the associated animals have been found without any Pyrotherium. The discussion with the most bitterness, however, has been as to whether it occurred in the Guar- antic formation with the dinosaurs. Ameghino has per- sisted that the two were associated. Several collectors have tried to find the two associated, and failed. I be- I PACHYRUCKOS 137 lieve that the confusion has arisen from the fact that these Pyrotherium beds are set into the Guarantic, though of much later age ; and from this fact, aggravated by the find- ing of these two forms at about the same horizon, the mistake of associating them has arisen. Also from failing to recognize the time element in the separation Ameghino put these beds in the Cretaceous instead of later, with all the host of wrong conclusions, which followed from an untrue assumption at the beginning of the argument; Skull of Pachyruckos Three-fourths natural size for if Ameghino's few assumptions as to age of the beds and certain affinities are granted the rest follows, especially that almost every group of animals finds its origin in South America; and we have a very unusual genealogy. There are also numerous other toxodonts, not so strik- ingly strange as the above, but all very heavy, clumsy animals with the front teeth specialized somewhat similar to those of rodents and the back teeth developed into pow- erful grinders. These grinding teeth are striking, in that they are adapted to grow throughout life, which gave their owner the opportunity to eat a very resistant type of food. Then there are numerous typotheres, which are little animals about the size and build of a jack rabbit, except that they have absolutely no affinities with the rabbits, 138 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS nor even with rodents, but are tiny hoofed animals, which seem to have taken to eating either bark or twigs of the bushes and trees; for they have developed the front teeth until the upper ones are reduced to two having edges like blades, while in the lower jaw there are but four so arranged as to work against those in the upper jaw. In front, then, these teeth look greatly like those of a rodent, and the back teeth have been modified into permanently growing grinders, like those of some of the advanced ro- dents; so that the conclusion seems fair that these changes are due to a change to food something like that of rodents, and the result a development of this style of teeth. In all other features, however, that is, the feet with their hoofs, the arrangements of the bones even in the skull, etc., the animal shows that it was descended from herbivors. Then there are litopternas, which are roughly like the early horses in build with three toes on each foot, and simi- lar teeth, but again it is a case of the surrounding having impressed on a form the general shape which adapts it to a given type of country, and not a case of relationship. There are small species the size of a sheep, and others as large as the modern horse. Our finest specimen consists of a lower jaw, twelve vertebrae, and the two hind legs, which, as this is the earliest member of this group, will add greatly to our knowledge of the history of this group. It is in many ways a fascinating group, for the later members have completely paralleled the history of the horse, reducing their toes through three to one on each foot, and develop- ing the long slender limbs and long head of the horses. All these are herbivors or ungulates, and numerically over half of our collection is made up of them. How- ever, if the tiny rodents which occur in considerable num- bers, though they really make up but a very small part of the life of the area, are omitted, fully three fourths of all the finds belong to the ungulates or hoofed animals. In the number of different kinds the same seventy-five per cent. MARSUPIALS 139 ratio holds; and this is very striking, for in the Santa Cruz beds, the next later land deposits in this same region, more than half of all the animals found are edentates belonging to the armadillo, sloth, etc., families, while in the Pyro- therium beds there are scarcely fifteen specimens of these typical South American forms; though from the large num- ber of plates in the covering of an armadillo it is always probable that one or two will come to light, there being thus over twice as many probabilities of an armadillo find as of any other group, for they have over twice as many bones to an individual. There are over one hundred rodent jaws, of some eight different species, all belonging to typical South American families. They are not far different from the Santa Cruz forms, and these all belong to families still confined to South America; or, in the case of the porcupine, migrants from that continent in comparatively recent times. We have ancestral members of the porcupine family, the Guinea pig, and the cane rats, which offer no connections with any other group which would explain whence they came. Carnivorous forms are rare, but there are a few forms which lived by preying on other animals, and these all belong to the extinct group of Sparsodont marsupials. This presence of marsupials has caused a theoretic con- nection with Australia, by way of the Antarctic continent; but the relationship is so distant and the difficulties in the way of that connection so great, that it seems much simpler to look in some other direction for the origin of these forms, especially as during the Cretaceous this ancient group was already spread over North America and Europe, the members of the group being on these two continents even as early as in the Jurassic; so that it would be more natural to feel that the same migration which introduced the earliest ungulates brought also the marsupials. As suggested above, this may have been from Africa during 140 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS the Cretaceous, but to my mind even more probably from North America in the Cretaceous. What Ameghino con- sidered Primates have been assigned to these marsupials, and the few specimens which we found, belonging to the type known as "Primates," clearly fall into this group of marsupials. This leaves as an unsettled problem the or- igin of the South American monkeys. The fossil woods which we found have not been studied, and when this is done they should throw some light on the age of the beds in which they occur, and especially on the type of climate under which they grew. The abundance of this wood is striking and would indicate a heavily forested region for its source. Considering the peculiar character of the dentition of so large a proportion of the animals which have come from these early South American beds, two features are striking : the tendency to develop gnawing types of front teeth, similar to rodent types, and the tendency to develop teeth which grow permanently. Both these features are different from grass feeders, or feeders on soft vegetation. The Pat- agonian pampa today is covered with bushes, and the wild animals have to eat largely the twigs and ends of the branches. It seems to me that the chief food of the above forms must also have been woody. It is this line of thought which we apply to the rodent to explain its type of denti- tion, and it seems proper to carry it over to these other groups which have in so many respects similar structures. If this be a fair deduction we must think of the ancient country as covered with a scrub brush which, while pro- viding plenty of food, gave it in the least usable form, requiring for mastication powerful dental development. One other feature is notable in the animals of this fauna, and that is the presence of large numbers of birds' bones. The largest of these is a femur four inches in diameter, which must have belonged to a running bird equal in size to the extinct monsters of New Zealand and Madagascar,. RODENTS 141 that is, the bird would have stood ten feet or over in height. Similar monsters among the birds occur in the Santa Cruz. With these are also smaller running birds, and also flying ^ forms, some no larger than a robin. But it is very unusual to find many bird bones in a land deposit; so that from the presence of over twenty finds of birds we must conclude that they were very abundant among the creatures of that time. The large numbers of shells will offer little new, but are of primary importance in determining the ages of the rest of the material. The collection of Indian implements, while not large and picked up as a side matter, offers several features which are of general interest, like the novel types of hammers, and the similarity in the workmanship of the North Ameri- can types of Indians. It will require a year of work on the part of several in- dividuals to complete the study of the material, and as soon as it is done the final results and descriptions of new forms will be brought out as the second volume of this report. I 4 ^ 1 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ^ c s aS © LIBRARY :^^ b^ CO vt •-^ \ ^ X : 5 Do not ^ 3) o CM jj re move // H • H il the card o ^ 5^ \i •1 1 §1 from this \ 1 < IX. ^i « Pocket. \ «» ^ ) ^>>^ «l ^ ^N^ •r^: •r-« ^ & -H m « m rf ^ :=:i . Acme Library Card Pocket £ ii 3 -^ Under Pat. " Ref. Index File."