48 MALDONADO. [chap. hi. 



central Chile and the provinces of La Plata, where the rain- 

 bringing winds have not to pass over lofty mountains, and where 

 the land is neither a desert nor covered by forests. But even 

 the rule, if confined to South America, of trees flourishing only 

 in a climate rendered humid by rain-bearing winds, has a 

 strongly marked exception in the case of the Falkland Islands. 

 These islands, situated in the same latitude with Tierra del 

 Fuego and only between two and three hundred miles distant 

 from it, having a nearly similar climate, with a geological 

 formation almost identical, with favourable situations and the 

 same kind of peaty soil, yet can boast of few plants deserving 

 even the title of bushes ; whilst in Tierra del Fuego it is impos- 

 sible to find an acre of land not covered by the densest forest. 

 In this case, both the direction of the heavy gales of wind and 

 of the currents of the sea are favourable to the transport of 

 seeds from Tierra del Fuego, as is shown by the canoes and 

 trunks of trees drifted from that country, and frequently thrown 

 on the shores of the Western Falkland. Hence perhaps it is, 

 that there are many plants in common to the two countries : but 

 with respect to the trees of Tierra del Fuego, even attempts made 

 to transplant them have failed. 



During our stay at Maldonado I collected several quadru- 

 peds, eighty kinds of birds, and many reptiles, including nine 

 species of snakes. Of the indigenous mammalia, the only one 

 now left of any size, which is common, is the Cervus campestris. 

 This deer is exceedingly abundant, often in small herds, through- 

 out the countries bordering the Plata and in Northern Pata- 

 gonia. If a person crawling close along the ground, slowly 

 advances towards a herd, the deer frequently, out of curiosity, 

 approach to reconnoitre him. I have by this means killed, from 

 one spot, three out of the same herd. Although so tame and 

 inquisitive, yet when approached on horseback, they are exceed- 

 ingly wary. In this country nobody goes on foot, and the deer 

 knows man as its enemy only when he is mounted and armed 

 with the bolas. At Bahia Blanca, a recent establishment in 

 Northern Patagonia, I was surpiised to find how little the deer 

 cared for the noise of a gun : one day I fired ten times from 

 within eighty yards at one animal ; and it was much more 

 startled at the ball cutting up the ground than at the report of 



