234 SANTA CRUZ, PATAGONIA. 



here ran at the rate of six knots an hour. From 

 this cause, and from the many great angular frao-- 

 ments, tracking the boats became both dangerous 

 and laborious. 



This day I shot a condor. It measured from tip 

 to tip of the wings eight and a half feet, and from 

 beak to tail four feet. This bird is known to have 

 a wide geographical range, being found on the 

 west coast of South America, from the Strait of 

 Magellan along the Cordillera as far as eight de- 

 gi'ees N. of the equator. The steep cliff near the 

 mouth of the Rio Negro is its northern limit on the 

 Patagonian coast ; and they have there wandered 

 about four hundred miles from the great central 

 line of their habitation in the Andes. Further 

 south, among the bold precipices at the head of 

 Port Desire, the condor is not uncommon ; yet 

 only a few stragglers occasionally visit the sea- 

 coast. A line of cliff near the mouth of the Santa 

 Cruz is frequented by these birds, and about eighty 

 miles up the river, where the sides of the valley 

 are formed by steep basaltic precipices, the condor 

 reappears. From these facts, it seems that the 

 condors require perpendicular cliffs. In Chile, 

 they haunt, during the greater part of the year, the 

 lower country near the shores of the Pacific, and 

 at night several roost together in one ti'ee ; but in 

 the early part of summer, they retire to the most 

 inaccessible parts of the inner Cordillera, there to 

 breed in peace. 



With respect to their propagation, I was told by 

 the country people in Chile that the condor makes 

 no sort of nest, but in the months of November and 

 December lays two large white eggs on a shelf of 

 bare rock. It is said that the young condors can- 

 not fly for an entire year ; and long after they are 



