6o Charles Darwin. 



and Siberians regarding the mammoth. At Santa 

 F6 Darwin was much impressed with the great cH- 

 matic differences which resulted from a change of 

 merely three degrees of latitude. Everything sug- 

 gested it : the costumes of the people, the cacti, and 

 the superior size of certain trees. 



At this place the naturalist was taken ill, and was 

 attended by an old woman, who, if she did not 

 succeed in curing him, added largely to his store of 

 information on native remedies. He was troubled 

 with severe headache, to cure which his nurse sug- 

 gested that he bind a.i orange leaf on his temple, or 

 split a bean and place one half on each side of the 

 head. He also found that it was the custom to 

 allow these medicines to cling upon the skin until 

 they dropped off ; so that if a man or woman was 

 seen with a bit of plaster or a leaf adhering to the 

 temple, the inference was that they either were suf- 

 fering with a headache or had had one a few days 

 previous. Another curative was to kill two small 

 dogs and bind them to an injured limb, while the 

 common little hairless dogs he found were ih no 

 little demand to warm the feet of invalids — an ani- 

 mated plaster. 



Darwin included the Governor of Santa F6, one 

 Lopez, among the natural curiosities of the place. 

 He learned that his favourite sport was hunting In- 

 dians, he having recently destroyed forty or more, 

 the adults being killed outright, while the children 

 were sold at a rate of ten or twelve dollars apiece ! 



Across the Parana River, at Santa F6 Bajada, 

 Darwin found one of the richest geological collect- 



