SALT-LAKES OR SALINAS. 85 



layer of salt ? Flamingoes in considerable num- 

 bers inhabit this lake, and breed here ; throughout 

 Patagonia, in Northern Chile, and at the Galapa- 

 gos Islands, I met with these birds wherever there 

 were lakes of brine. I saw them here wading 

 about in search of food — probably for the worms 

 which burrow in the mud ; and these latter prob- 

 ably feed on infusoria or confervas. Thus we have 

 a little living world within itself, adapted to these 

 inland lakes of brine. A minute crustaceous ani- 

 mal (Cancer salinus) is said* to live in countless 

 numbers in the brine-pans at Lymington ; but only 

 in those in which the fluid has attained, from evap- 

 oration, considerable strength — namely, about a 

 quarter of a pound of salt to a pint of water. Well 

 may we affirm that eveiy part of the world is hab- 

 itable ! Whether lakes of brine, or those subter- 

 ranean ones hidden beneath volcanic mountains 

 — warm mineral springs — the wide expanse and 

 depths of the ocean — the upper regions of the at- 

 mosphere, and even the surface of perpetual snow, 

 all support organic beings. 



To the northward of the Rio Negro, between it 

 and the inhabited country near Buenos Ayres, the 

 Spaniards have only one small settlement, recently 



* Linnaean Trans., vol. xi., p. 205. It is remarkable how all 

 the circumstances connected with the salt-lakes in Siberia and 

 Patagonia are similar. Siberia, like Patagonia, appears to have 

 been recently elevated above the waters of the sea. In both 

 countries the salt-lakes occupy shallow depressions in the plains ; 

 in both the mud on the borders is black and fetid ; beneath the 

 crust of common salt, sulphate of soda or of magnesia occurs, 

 imperfectly crystallized ; and in both, the muddy sand is mixed 

 with lentils of gypsum. The Siberian salt-lakes are inhabited by 

 small crustaceous animals ; and flamingoes (Edin. New Philos. 

 Jour., Jan., 1830) likewise frequent them. As these circumstan- 

 ces, apparently so trifling, occur in two distant continents, we may- 

 feel sure that thev are the necessary results of common causes, — 

 See Fallas's Travels, 1793 to 1794, p. 129-134. 



H 



