38 IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA 



(Ctenomys magellanica), a small rodent with the 

 habits of the mole. 



A most interesting fact was that the arrow- 

 heads I picked up in different villages were of 

 two widely different kinds the large and rudely 

 fashioned, resembling the Palaeolithic arrow-heads 

 of Europe, and the highly-finished, or Neolithic, 

 arrow-heads of various forms and sizes, but in 

 most specimens an inch and a half to two inches 

 long. Here there were the remains of the two 

 great periods of the Stone Age, the last of which 

 continued down till the discovery and colonization 

 of the country by Europeans. The weapons and 

 other objects of the latter period were the most 

 abundant, and occurred in the valley: the ruder 

 more ancient weapons were found on the hill-sides, 

 in places where the river cuts into the plateau. 

 The site where I picked up the largest number 

 had been buried to a depth of seven or eight feet ; 

 only where the water after heavy rains had washed 

 great masses of sand and gravel away, the arrow- 

 heads, with other weapons and implements, had 

 been exposed. These deeply-buried settlements 

 were doubtless very ancient. 



Coming back to the more modern work, I was 

 delighted to find traces of a something like division 

 of labor in different villages ; of the individuality 

 of the worker, and a distinct artistic or esthetic 

 taste. I was led to this conclusion by the dis- 

 covery of a village site where no large round 

 stones, knives and scrapers were found, and no 



