Dec. 1890.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 33 



with interest by many outside the circle of the writer's 

 friends. The region traversed by our adventurous Fellow is 

 one hitherto quite unknown to the civilised world, and pro- 

 mises to yield results of great value to all branches of science, 

 and not least to Botany. Mr Kerr, it may be remembered, 

 was appointed naturalist to the Pilcomayo Expedition, led by 

 Captain Page, to explore the river Pilcomayo with a view to 

 establishing a trade waterway from the Argentine Piepublic 

 to Bolivia, and sailed from this country in June of 1889. 

 Since his arrival in South America he has pursued his 

 biological incpiiries with great enthusiasm, and, considering 

 the difficulties encountered, with marked success. A letter 

 was received from him by Professor Bayley Balfour about a 

 year ago, and was published in "The Ibis" for July 1890. The 

 one from which extracts are now published forms a continua- 

 tion of his narrative. It will be a matter of congratulation 

 to all that the fears expressed by him regarding his collected 

 specimens, books, &c., may not be realised, as we learn, from 

 a later letter received by his father, that assistance had arrived, 

 and should the water in the river rise to a slight extent the 

 boats would be able to descend the river. 



" S.S. ' Bolivia,' Rio Pilcomayo, 



Lat. 24° 50' S. approx., 



Oct 26, 1890. 



" I take this chance of sending you just a line to tell you that I 

 am alive, and that we are all here comparatively safe. 



" I came here rather liaving the idea that in this ' Gran Chaco ' 

 I should find a garden of Eden, teeming with natural riches, animal 

 and vegetable. Instead I find Mdiat is to a great extent a desert, 

 not so much as regards quantity of vegetation, &c., as variety. All 

 nature, especially in its botanical aspect, presents that tameness, 

 that uniformity, so characteristic of many of the great grass-covered 

 plains of the earth — whether the pampas of Buenos Ayres, or the 

 llanos of the Orinoco. The typical scene in the Chaco is an 

 apparently limitless level plain, spread out in all directions into the 

 distance, clothed with a breast-high growth of thick and coarse 

 grasses, and thickly studded with fan palms averaging 20 to 30, 

 but occasionally reaching as much as 90 feet in height. Frequently 

 not another tree or bush is visible — nothing but on aU sides that 

 endless vista of palms, at first so weird and strange, and later so 

 monotonous. We are still in spring-time here, and although we 

 have had some warm days {e.g. while I write the thermometer 



TfiANS. EOT. see, VOL. XIX. C 



