AT LAST, PATAGONIA! 11 



found it hard to break one up. I have also stood 

 upright on the dome and stamped on it with my 

 boots without injuring it at all. During my stay 

 in Patagonia I found about a dozen of these pa- 

 latial nests ; and my opinion is that like our own 

 houses, or, rather, our public buildings, and some 

 ant-hills, and the vizcacha's village burrows, and 

 the beaver 's dam, it is made to last for ever. 



The only mammal we saw was a small arma- 

 dillo, Dasypus minutus ; it was quite common, and 

 early in the day, when we were still fresh and 

 full of spirits, we amused ourselves by chasing 

 them. We captured several, and one of my com- 

 panions, an Italian, killed two and slung them 

 over his shoulder, remarking that we could cook 

 and eat them if we grew hungry before reaching 

 our destination. We were not much troubled with 

 hunger, but towards noon we began to suffer some- 

 what from thirst. At midday we saw before us 

 a low level plain, covered with long coarse grass 

 of a dull yellowish-green color. Here we hoped 

 to find water, and before long we descried the 

 white gleam of a lagoon, as we imagined, but on 

 a nearer inspection the whiteness or appearance 

 of water turned out to be only a salt efflorescence 

 on a barren patch of ground. On this low plain it 

 was excessively sultry ; not a bush could be found 

 to shelter us from the sun : all was a monotonous 

 desert of coarse yellowish grass, out of which 

 rose, as we advanced, multitudes of mosquitoes, 

 trumpeting a shrill derisive welcome. The glory 



