VALLEY OF PAYPOTE. 121 



neighbouring plain must have lost its fertilizing 

 stream, and become a desert. 



June 21th. — We set out early in the morning, 

 and by midday reached the ravine of Paypote, 

 where there is a tiny rill of water, with a little vege- 

 tation, and even a few algarroba trees, a kind of 

 mimosa. From having firewood, a smelting-fur- 

 nace had foraierly been built here : we found a 

 solitary man in charge of it, whose sole employ- 

 ment was hunting guanacos. At night it froze 

 sharply ; but, having plenty of wood for our fire, 

 we kept ourselves warm. 



2'Sth. — We continued gradually ascending, and 

 the valley now changed into a ravine. During the 

 day we saw several guanacos, and the track of the 

 closely-allied species, the Vicuna : this latter ani- 

 mal is pre-eminently alpine in its habits ; it seldom 

 descends much below the limit of perpetual snow, 

 and therefore haunts even a more lofty and sterile 

 situation than the guanaco. The only other ani- 

 mal which we saw in any number was a small fox : 

 I suppose this animal preys on the mice and other 

 small I'odents, which, as long as there is the least 

 vegetation, subsist in considerable numbers in very 

 desert places. In Patagonia, even on the borders 

 of the Salinas, where a drop of fresh water can 

 never be found, excepting dew, these little ani- 

 mals swarm. Next to lizards, mice appear to be 

 able to support existence on the smallest and driest 

 portions of the earth, even on islets in the midst of 

 great oceans. 



The scene on all sides showed desolation, bright- 

 ened and made palpable by a clear, unclouded sky. 

 For a time such scenery is sublime, but this feeling 

 cannot last, and then it becomes uninteresting. 

 We bivouacked at the foot of the " primera linea," 

 II.— L 



