CHAPTER VIII. 



An outlier of the forests ; Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks at the foot of the 

 Andes; Abundance of petrified wood ; Cariacus chilensis ; Cross the 

 continental divide ; Enter the Andean forests ; IVesteni portion of Mayer 

 Basin; Discover Mayer River ; Mud streams, Dinosaur bones and Alpine 

 plants on high bluffs south of Mayer Basin ; Numerous glaciers ; Search- 

 ing the Dinosaur beds for mammalian remains ; Life about and in the 

 forests ; The gray-banded woodpecker ; Habits of the little green parra- 

 keet ; Avian life in the depths of tJie forest ; Grebe in the small mountain 

 lakes ; Fearlessness exhibited by the deer of this region; The barking 

 bird; Bald Mountain; Glaciers in Mayer Basin; Outskirts of the 

 Andean forests ; A trip to the Glaciers ; Characters of the forests. 



ON the following morning I set out at an early hour to examine a 

 bad-land exposure, which lay at a distance of some two miles in 

 a southwesterly direction from camp, Mr. Peterson remaining in 

 camp to attend to the rodents that had been taken in our traps during the 

 previous night. Between our tent and the exposure mentioned above, 

 a level valley extended to the edge of a small, wooded tract, which lay in 

 front and at the foot of the bad-lands. With much impatience I trudged 

 along through the grass, which was thoroughly soaked with moisture and 

 reached half way to my hips. At every step I sank nearly to my knees 

 in the half decayed vegetation, which had been accumulating for years on 

 the surface. The latter was extremely uneven, owing to the numerous 

 burrows and paths that had been made by the thousands of small rodents 

 inhabiting the region. I have seldom experienced more difficult walking 

 and was quite disgusted, when, thoroughly saturated quite to my waist, I 

 arrived at the edge of the little forest. However, I soon forgot my dis- 

 comforts and became lost in the interest and novelty attending this my first 

 experience in a primeval Patagonian forest, for, during my enforced stop 

 at Sandy Point, the short excursions made into the woods back of the 

 town hardly brought me without the influence of human habitations, and 



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