GUER AIKE. 37 



lines very like those seen on the surface of a great bed of shingle now 

 forming on the north shore at the mouth of the Gallegos River near Cape 

 Fainveather, a photograph of which is reproduced in Fig. i. 



From my point of vantage I had a commanding view to the east and 

 south. The surface of the low, level plain which lay at my feet stretched 

 away to the eastward for a distance of twenty-five miles, interrupted only 

 by the Rio Chico, and became finally lost in the deep blue of the Atlantic, 

 while on my right the dull brown covering of withered grass met and 

 blended at the southeastern horizon with the sombre gray of the low- 

 hanging clouds. Far away to the south extended the same plain, inter- 

 sected by the Rio Chico, while beyond this stream could be seen the 

 black and broken surface of several lava streams, that had at no very 

 remote time been poured out over this plain from a number of extinct 

 craters, still visible in the distance. To the northward the field of vision 

 was limited by the magnificent sea wall which rose abruptly to a height 

 of four hundred and fifty feet from the bed of the stream and stretched 

 almost uninterruptedly to the mouth of the river. Each stratum of clay, 

 sandstone, conglomerate, or volcanic ash, was distinct and well defined, 

 and as I looked from a distance upon this specimen of nature's handi- 

 work, I could not avoid speculating as to what prizes in the way of 

 skulls or skeletons of prehistoric animals were held for us locked in its 

 stony embrace. I well knew that it was from the rocks of these same 

 cliffs that Captain Sullivan had seventy years before collected the bones 

 of certain fossil mammals, upon the scanty evidence of which Darwin 

 had concluded, and rightly too, that the beds containing them were of 

 more recent origin than the marine deposits forming the bluff's at the 

 mouth of the Santa Cruz River. While sanguine of success, it must be 

 confessed that we were not prepared for the almost embarrassing riches 

 contained in the deposits which formed this line of cliffs. 



The study of nature is always instructive and interesting, even inspiring 

 and impressive, if the student be a real lover of nature seeking for truth at 

 first hand and for truth's sake, and not merely a fireside naturalist, who 

 seldom, goes beyond his private study or dooryard, and either contents 

 himself, like other parasites, with what is brought to him, or like a bird 

 of prey forcibly seizes upon the choicest morsels of his confreres, with little 

 or no consideration for the rights or wishes of those who have brought 

 together the material at so great an expense of time and labor. 



