THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 179 



is indistinct from the trembling mirage which seems to rise 

 from the heated surface. 



In such a country the fate of the Spanish settlement was 

 soon decided; the dryness of the climate during the greater 

 part of the year, and the occasional hostile attacks of the 

 wandering Indians, compelled the colonists to desert their 

 half-finished buildings. The style, however, in which they 

 were commenced shows the strong and liberal hand of Spain 

 in the old time. The result of all the attempts to colonize this 

 side of America south of 41, has been miserable. Port 

 Famine expresses by its name the lingering and extreme 

 sufferings of several hundred wretched people, of whom one 

 alone survived to relate their 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 mas- 

 sacred 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 plains 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 cen- 

 tral Africa) is not uncommon on the most desert parts: in 

 their stomachs I found grasshoppers, cicadas, small lizards, 

 and even scorpions. 10 At one time of the year these birds 

 go in flocks, at another in pairs; their cry is very loud and 

 singular, like the neighing of the guanaco. 



The guanaco, or wild llama, is the characteristic quadru- 

 ped 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 



* I found here a species of cactus, described by Professor Henslow, under 

 the name of Opuntta Darwinii (Magazine of Zoology and Botany, vol. i. 

 p. 466), which was remarkable for the irritability of the stamens, when I 

 inserted either a piece of stick or the end of my_ finger in the flower. The 

 segments of the perianth 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), in the same high 

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



10 These insects were not uncommon beneath stones. I found one can- 

 nibal scorpion quietly devouring another. 



