212 PORT DESIRE. 



of several Imnclrecl wretched people, of whom one 

 alone survived to relate thsir misfortunes. At St. 

 Joseph's Bay, on the coast of Patagonia, a small 

 settlement was made ; but during one Sunday the 

 Indians made an attack and massacred the whole 

 party, excepting two men, who remained captives 

 during many years. At the Rio Negro I conversed 

 with one of these men, now in extreme old age. 



The zoology of Patagonia is as limited as its 

 Flora.* On the arid j)lains a few black beetles 

 (Heteromera) might be seen slowly crawling about, 

 and occasionally a lizard darted from side to side. 

 Of birds we have three carrion hawks, and in the 

 valleys a few finches and insect-feeders. An ibis 

 (Theristicus melanops — a species said to be found 

 in central Africa) is not uncommon on the most 

 desert parts : in their stomachs I found grasshop- 

 pers, cicadae, small lizards, and even scorpions.! 

 At one time of the year these birds go in flocks, at 

 another in pairs ; their cry is very loud and singu- 

 lar, like the neighing of the guanaco. 



The guanaco, or wild llama, is the characteristic 

 quadruped of the plains of Patagonia ; it is the 

 South American representative of the camel of the 

 East. It is an elegant animal in a state of nature, 

 with a long, slender neck and fine legs. It is very 

 common over the whole of the temperate parts of 

 the continent, as far south as the islands near Cape 

 Horn. It generally lives in small herds of from 



* I found here a species of cactus, described by Professor Hen- 

 slow under the name of Opimtia Darwinii (Magazine of Zoology 

 and Botany, vol. i., p. 466), which was remarkable by the irrita- 

 bility of the stamens, when I inserted either a piece of stick or 

 the end of my finger in the flower. The segments of the peri- 

 anth also closed on the pistil, but more slowly than the stamens. 

 Plants of this family, generally considered as tropical, occur in 

 North America (Lewis and Clarke's Travels, p. 221), ill the same 

 high latitude as here, namely, in both cases, in 47°. 



t These insects were not uncommon beneath stones. I found 

 one cannibal scorpion quietly devouring another. 



