NATURAL HISTORY. 61 



TieiTa del Fuego, and only between two and three 

 hundred miles distant from it, having a nearly 

 similar climate, with a geological fonnation almost 

 identical, with favourable situations and the same 

 kind of peaty soil, yet can boast of few plants de- 

 serving even the title of bushes ; whilst in TieiTa 

 del Fuego it is impossible to find an acre of land 

 not covered by the densest forest. In this case, 

 both the direction of the heavy gales of wind and 

 of the currents of the sea are favourable to the 

 transport of seeds from Tierra del Fuego, as is 

 shown by the canoes and trunks of trees drifted 

 from that country, and frequently thrown on the 

 shores of the Western Falkland. Hence perhaps 

 it is that there are many plants in common to the 

 two countries : but with respect to the ti'ees of 

 TieiTa del Fuego, even attempts made to trans- 

 plant them have failed. 



During our stay at Maldonado I collected sev- 

 eral quadrupeds, eighty kinds of birds, and many 

 reptiles, including nine species of snakes. Of the 

 indigenous mammalia, the only one now left of any 

 size, which is common, is the Cervus campestris. 

 This deer is exceedingly abundant, often in small 

 herds, throughout the countries bordering the Plata 

 and in Northera Patagonia. If a person crawling 

 close along the ground, slowly advances towards a 

 herd, the deer frequently, out of curiosity, approach 

 to reconnoitre him. I have by this means killed, 

 fi"om one spot, three out of the same herd. Al- 

 though so tame and inquisitive, yet when ap- 

 proached on horseback they are exceedingly wary. 

 In this country nobody goes on foot, and the deer 

 knows man as its enemy only when he is mounted 

 and armed with the bolas. At Bahia Blanca, a 

 recent establishment in Northern Patagonia, I was 

 surprised to find how little the deer cared for the 

 F 



