WRECK OF THE "VILLARINO." 201 



out at the best speed which I could reasonably hope to maintain for any 

 considerable time, and at a distance of some twelve miles I succeeded in 

 overtaking them. Returning I packed and saddled, and started at once 

 on my journey down the Rio Chico to the Santa Cruz. 



I arrived at the Santa Cruz some two weeks ahead of Messrs. Peterson 

 and Brown, whom I passed on the way. Crossing over to the south side 

 of the Santa Cruz River, pending their arrival, I passed the time in col- 

 lecting invertebrate fossils from the locality in the Patagonian beds, at 

 the mouth of the river made classic by Darwin. My work here was not 

 only interesting, but very successful, and resulted in the discovery of 

 several new species. 



After the arrival of Messrs. Peterson and Brown I turned over to the 

 latter such of my outfit as he desired to use in continuing his work, and 

 he and Mr. Peterson went on south to work in the Santa Cruz beds 

 along the coast, while I recrossed the Santa Cruz River and returned to 

 San Julian. Here and at Darwin Station, some miles farther south, I spent 

 two weeks collecting both vertebrates and invertebrates from the Pata- 

 gonian and Cape Fairweather beds. 



After a couple of weeks passed in the vicinity of San Julian the 

 "Primero de Mayo," a small steamer belonging to the Argentine Trans- 

 port Service, arrived from Buenos Aires, and on her I took passage for 

 Gallegos. At Gallegos I stopped while the "Primero de Mayo" com- 

 pleted her voyage around Tierra del Fuego. By the time of her return 

 I had completed all my arrangements for leaving Patagonia and with her 

 I took passage for Buenos Aires, leaving Mr. Peterson to continue the work 

 of collecting fossils in the Santa Cruz beds along the coast and to return 

 by the next steamer arriving at Sandy Point and bound for New York. 



We stopped at the usual ports of call between Gallegos and Buenos 

 Aires, including Camerones. Here on a ledge of red porphyry, similar 

 to that I have already mentioned as occurring at Port Desire and various 

 localities throughout the interior, I saw the remains of the wreck of the 

 "Villarino," the good ship that on our first expedition had safely carried 

 us from Buenos Aires throughout the entire extent of the Patagonian coast 

 and around Tierra del Fuego. Through sheer carelessness on the part 

 of her officers, who, instead of attending to their duties while entering the 

 harbor, had been attending the christening of an infant, born aboard the 

 ship, the vessel had been driven at full speed hard on the sunken reef, 



