44 WHAT MR. DARWIN SAW. 



PATAGONIA. 



at Port Valdes they were seen swimming from island to 

 island. Byron, in his voyage, says he saw them drinking 

 salt water. Some of our officers likewise saw a herd ap- 

 parently drinking the briny fluid from a salina (salt-marsh) 

 near Cape Blanco. I imagine that, in several parts of the 

 country, if they do not drink salt water they drink none 

 at all. In the middle of the day they frequently roll in 

 the dust, in saucer-shaped hollows. Herds sometimes seem 

 to set out on exploring parties. At Bahia Blanca, where, 

 within thirty miles of the coast, these animals are extremely 

 infrequent, I one day saw the track of thirty or forty, which 

 had come in a direct line to a muddy salt-water creek. They 

 then must have perceived that they were approaching the 

 sea, for they had wheeled with the regularity of cavalry, 

 and had returned back in as straight a line as they had 

 advanced. The guanacos, like sheep, always follow the same 

 line. 



The puma, with the condor and other carrion-hawks in 

 its train, follows and preys upon these animals. On the 

 banks of the Santa Cruz the footsteps of the purna were to 

 be seen almost everywhere; and the remains of several gua- 

 nacos, with their necks dislocated and bones broken, showed 

 how they had met their death. 



THE PUMA. 



THE puma, or South American lion (Felis concolor), 

 is not uncommon in Chile. This animal has a wide geo- 

 graphical range, being found from the equatorial forests, 



