I20 ■ PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: NARRATIVE. 



of the escarpment beneath. At intervals, throughout each day during our 

 journey up this canon, we would halt for a few moments, or hours perhaps, 

 to examine an exposure of sedimentary rocks projecting from the debris- 

 covered slope beneath the basaltic platform, to collect specimens of each 

 new plant as it appeared along our route, to take a new or rare species 

 of bird or mammal, or to search the various springs and small brooks, that 

 in certain localities were abundant throughout the valley, for fresh-water 

 Mollusca, Crustacea, Planaria, and other forms of animal life, as well as 

 such species of mosses, Hepaticae, and other plants as are known to be 

 partial to similiar habitats. 



As night drew near, we would select a favorable locality by the bank 

 of the river or some spring where there was an abundance of excellent 

 grass for our horses and where dead calafate bushes were scattered about 

 sufficient for fuel. Here we w^ould encamp for the night and, after a 

 splendid meal, prepared from our well selected stock of provisions and 

 supplemented with the body of a duck, a brace of plover or other birds, 

 or mammals, taken during the day, and carefully grilled over a bed of 

 glowing embers, we would give such attention as was necessary to our 

 collections and retire for the night. 



For some time after entering this canon we were thoroughly in har- 

 mony with and interested by our surroundings. The very novelty of the 

 situation was pleasing. The valley of the river itself, by reason of its 

 abundant food supply and the protection it affords from the frequent 

 storms and almost constant winds of the high and level pampas, supports 

 an animal life surpassing. in diversity and numbers anything we had seen 

 during our previous travels. Great herds of guanaco and flocks of 

 ostriches appeared at frequent intervals. A variety of water-fowl fre- 

 quented, not only the river, but the smaller springs and marshes along its 

 borders. Among the reeds that grew in dense thickets in the shallow 

 swamps, or fringed the borders of the smaller brooks, lived various 

 wrens and other small birds including the delicate little flycatcher, 

 Cyanotis rubrigaster, with orange-colored feet and a plumage presenting 

 many shades of yellow, red and blue, blended in such perfect harmony as 

 to rival in beauty and variety of colors those of the more tropical species 

 of humming birds. From every bush and thicket the chestnut-crowned 

 song sparrow, Zonotrichia canicapilla, could be heard from early morn 

 until late at night, while, perched upon the highest branch of some par- 



