Animal Life. 133 



a proportion of 1 8 per cent. When used in the furnace, it formed 

 large caky masses of a hard tenacious clinker, which adhered to 

 the fire-bars, and so clogged the fires that it was found impossible 

 to raise steam to more than thirty pounds' pressure. In an open 

 grate it burnt freely enough, but without giving out much heat. 

 It was, therefore, unsuited for engines using high pressure steam 

 such as ours. 



We were much disappointed on learning that game was now 

 very scarce in the immediate vicinity of the settlement, and that 

 as a matter of fact the miners were victualled on salt and pre- 

 served meats. Beyond a range of five miles, deer, guanacoes, 

 ostriches, and wild cattle might be had, but could not be taken 

 without the aid of horses, with which useful animals the settlers 

 were at present (apparently through pecuniary embarrassments) 

 unprovided. Foxes were abundant in the forest, and at night 

 time prowled about the settlement, while recently a puma had 

 paid it a nocturnal visit, to the great alarm of the pigs and other 

 domestic animals. We walked into the " camp," to a distance of 

 about five miles from the settlement, and were surprised at the 

 scarcity of birds. We saw, however, a flock of black-necked swans, 

 numbering about sixty, in the water near the seashore, but found 

 them too wary for us. A paroquet, a few starlings, a finch, a 

 wren, a buzzard, and the ubiquitous cinclodes were the only land- 

 birds seen. On subsequently penetrating into the forest in the 

 rear of the settlement, I saw many examples of a bird of the 

 "tree-creeper" family, which the Chilians call H carpintero," from 

 its habit of making a "tap-tap" sound when digging its bill against 

 the bark of trees, in pursuit of the insect-larva on which it feeds. 

 These birds behave in many respects like wood-peckers, producing 

 a similar noise, using the same food, travelling over the boles of 

 the trees in a spiral fashion, and creeping with ease along the 

 under surface of horizontal branches. I shot two of them when 

 in the position last-mentioned, and noticed that for some seconds 

 after they had been shot they remained suspended by the legs, 



