IMPRESSIONS OF PATAGONIA. 



209 



custom and has placed her gallery in the cellar, as it were, though as 

 usual the walls are hung with many a striking piece, executed with a 

 boldness of design and in such harmonious colors as are the envy and 

 aspiration of every painter of landscapes. 



That would be a dull mind, indeed, which could contemplate without 

 interest these vast, almost limitless plains, unsurpassed elsewhere in the 

 world, covered with a bed of shingle that is nowhere else equalled in extent, 

 and the origin of which has yet to be satisfactorily explained, underlaid 

 by several thousand feet of sedimentary rocks, certain strata of which are 

 literally filled with the remains of an animal life which has so completely 

 and entirely disappeared from our earth, that to-day not only genera and 

 species, but whole families and entire orders are no longer represented in 

 the living fauna of this or any other part of its surface. I cannot con- 

 ceive that it were possible for Mr. Hudson to have avoided an interest 

 in some of these phenomena, or an attempt at an explanation of them. 

 Concerning my own impressions of Patagonia, unlike Mr. Hudson, I 

 cannot complain of feeling the want of any stimulus to either mental 

 or physical activity. During the three years passed in that region I 

 was incessantly, and, I think, profitably employed, and at present my 

 chief regrets are that I had to leave so many interesting problems un- 

 solved and that I am so deficient in the literary talents possessed by Mr. 

 Hudson, which would have enabled me to place before my readers the 

 results of my work and observations in the delightful style employed by 

 that author in "The Naturalist in La Plata," "Idle Days in Patagonia," 

 and a number of other equally interesting and charming books. Perhaps 

 on account of a life-long familiarity with our own western plains, quite as 

 extensive and frequently as barren as those of Patagonia, the latter did 

 not impress me as they evidently have impressed other travellers. Though 

 I suffered much from the inhospitable nature of the climate of Patagonia, 

 I am forced to confess to a certain very warm attachment to that country, 

 and I know of no other one thing that would cause me more pain than 

 to be forced to abandon all hope of ever again visiting the region for the 

 purpose of continuing and, if possible, completing my investigations. 



J. B. Hatcher. 



Carnegie Museum, February i, 1902. 



