FLAMINGOES. 371 



mountains which stretch along its northern seaboard. 

 So also in the Pampas region of South America, near 

 similar waters, we have seen immense flocks of these 

 curious and beautiful birds, the moral to be drawn 

 from whose presence was we believe first pointed 

 out by the late Mr. Charles Darwin, in his "Voyage 

 of a Naturalist. " 



" I met (he tells us) these birds wherever there were lakes 

 of brine" (in South America near the Patagonian frontier). 

 " In these lakes the mud in many places was full of worms. 

 I saw them (the flamingoes) wading about in search of food, 

 probably for the worms that burrow in the mud. Thus, we 

 have a little living world, within itself, adapted to these lakes 

 of brine. Well may we affirm that every part of the world 

 is habitable; whether lakes of brine, or those subterranean 

 ones, warm mineral springs; the wide expanse and depths of 

 the ocean; the upper regions of the atmosphere, and even 

 the surface of perpetual snow; all support organic beings." * 



It is generally supposed by persons who have never 

 thought of looking into these matters, that these briny 

 waters (of which the Dead Sea affords a good ex- 

 ample) are incapable of supporting life. Here there- 

 fore we have a direct refutation of this error; and 

 not only so, but scientific researches show that the 

 most concentrated saline solutions contain myriads 

 of minute organisms which there live and flourish. 

 Thus in the brine pans of the salt works at Lymington 

 (England) a minute crustaceous animal lives in count- 

 less numbers, but this creature is found in those waters, 

 only when the fluid has been evaporated to a con- 



* A Naturalist's Voyage Round the World, in H.M.S. Beagle, during 

 the years 1832 to 1836, by Charles Darwin, I4th Edit. 1879, p. 67. 



