212 To the River Plate and Hack 



guachos, as they sat and guzzled mate, or smoked the 

 weed, men talked about the Yemisch. 



In the month of January, 1895, a party of gentlemen 

 who were taking an outing near Consuelo Cove on Last 

 Hope Inlet discovered a cave about six kilometers 

 distant from Consuelo. In a little mound near the 

 entrance they found a remarkable piece of skin. It 

 was between four and five feet long and about three 

 feet wide. The skin of the head and legs of the animal 

 had apparently been trimmed off. The hide in places 

 was over half an inch thick. Its outer surface was 

 covered more or less densely with coarse yellowish 

 brown hairs, varying in length from an inch and a half 

 to three inches. On the inner side were multitudes of 

 little ossicles, or bonelets, firmly imbedded in the tissue. 

 These bonelets had the size and shape of small white 

 beans, some being larger, others smaller. The excur- 

 sionists took the skin away with them, but though a 

 number of pieces were cut off from it, and became scat- 

 tered among different members of the party, the greater 

 portion remained in the possession of Captain Eber- 

 hard, the owner of an estate in the vicinity, who had 

 been the leader of the company. The next year Dr. 

 Otto Nordenskjold, the commander of a Swedish expedi- 

 tion, which had gone out for the purpose of making a 

 scientific exploration of the regions about the Straits 

 of Magellan, visited the cave, and he too found a piece 

 of the same kind of skin, some bones, and tufts of hair, 

 which he took home with him to Stockholm. These 

 things were subsequently described and figured by 

 Dr. Lonnberg in the second volume of the report 

 which was published by the Swedish Expedition. In 

 November, 1897, Dr. F. P. Moreno, the Director of the 

 Museum in La Plata, Dr. Racowitza, the Zoologist of 



