24 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS I NARRATIVE. 



Hill, on the south side of the river, directly in front of a precipitous cliff, 

 which rises to a height of three hundred and fifty feet above the water's 

 level. This was the identical cliff mentioned by Darwin and from which 

 he made his section of the Patagonian beds, published in his "Geology 

 of South America." As I sat on the deck of our little steamer, with this 

 volume before me, and carefully compared his description and section 

 with the actual one as it stood plainly visible, I was struck with the 

 remarkable lucidity and accuracy of that great mind, and wondered 

 whether it would be possible for me to add anything of importance to 

 the observations made and materials collected by him. Each succeeding 

 layer of light or dark colored sandstone, or clay was plainly discernible in 

 the exact sequence detailed by Darwin. Moreover, on going on shore an 

 hour or two later with Captain Calderon, we found the different strata to 

 contain the same fossils mentioned by Darwin. For three long days we 

 lay here at the mouth of the Santa Cruz River, under the pretense of 

 erecting a signal tower on the north shore, which for several miles inland 

 is low and flat. Each day officers and men were sent ashore for the pur- 

 pose of prosecuting this work. Each day we accompanied them, and 

 each day they returned, having neither accomplished nor attempted any- 

 thing. It was a weary wait for us, as the weather was all the time disagree- 

 able. We had now been nearly two months on our journey, and here we 

 were at last within ninety miles of our destination, burning with anxiety 

 to be at work, but detained day after day for no apparent reason. Finally, 

 shortly after midnight on the morning of our fourth day, I was awakened 

 by the familiar noise of the ship's engines and realized much to my satis- 

 faction that we were once more under way and headed for Gallegos. 

 We were up and dressed bright and early in the morning and as soon as 

 we came on deck, the same weather conditions greeted us as had pre- 

 vailed ever since leaving Port Desire, save that the temperature had 

 fallen somewhat and the wind had increased considerably in force. We 

 were scarcely on deck, when on looking about us, we detected the backs 

 of some huge black objects in the water, and suddenly discovered that 

 we were right in the midst of a school of whales, probably Balcena 

 australis, for this species is known to frequent this coast and to be gre- 

 garious. I counted no less than fourteen of these great monsters as 

 they disported in the water about the ship. Frequently they would come 

 to the surface and glide along with their great dorsal regions protruding 



