132 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



tend the dredging on board; later in the day he will 

 draw the seine once more on the beach, and this after- 

 noon we hope to be on our way again. Had we time 

 to stay here I think we might get some specimens of 

 the larger land animals, for yesterday the gentlemen 

 found tracks of guanacos, wolves, foxes and ostriches, 

 not more than a mile or two from the beach, and as we 

 came up the Gulf we saw the guanacos from the 

 deck. Pourtales was near being caught "in a tight 

 place," as he said himself, yesterday. When they 

 landed near that steep cliff where the fossils were so 

 thick, you know, he went alone to the top of the cliff 

 which was very abrupt and high, I believe two or 

 three hundred feet. While on the summit he heard 

 the signal guns for the party to go off to the ship, 

 as the Captain wished to leave the anchorage at a 

 favorable moment for the tide. Pourtales wanted to 

 reach the boat as quickly as possible and found a 

 gully in which he thought he could descend by a short 

 cut to the beach. It consisted of long steps formed by 

 the successive strata. Down these he found little 

 difficulty in jumping or letting himself down; but 

 after making half the descent he came to a place 

 where the step was a vertical wall, altogether too 

 high for a jump and no crevices for hands or feet. 

 Impossible to return as he came, for though he could 

 jump or let himself down, he could neither jump nor 

 drag himself up, and the face of the cliff was too 

 steep for climbing. Happily he had with him a hatchet 

 for taking off geological specimens, and with that 

 he cut steps in the wall up the whole height of the 



