56 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS : NARRATIVE. 



comfortable night on much the best bed I came upon during my travels 

 in Patagonia. I arose greatly refreshed the following morning, resolved 

 on rejoining Mr. Peterson at Guer Aike, in order to proceed with our en- 

 tire outfit at once to Killik Aike, provided the river had fallen sufficiently 

 to permit our crossing it with the cart. Taking with me the skull of 

 Icochilus and one or two of the other smaller specimens, after coffee I 

 caught and saddled my horse and set out for Guer Aike by a route by 

 way of which I had been assured by my host that it would be feasible to 

 return with the cart. On my arrival at the crossing of the river I found 

 the water still high, but falling rapidly and with every prospect of our 

 being able to ford it safely on the following morning. I immediately 

 crossed over and proceeded to our camp, where I found Mr. Peterson 

 busily engaged in preparing the skins of a number of birds and small 

 mammals taken the previous evening. When I laid before him the few 

 fossils I had brought as "samples " and detailed to him the remarkable 

 richness in fossil remains of the exposures I had visited, his anxiety was 

 no less than my own to be off at once and establish a comfortable camp 

 somewhere within easy working distance of this newly discovered El 

 Dorado. We immediately set about putting things in shape for moving 

 the following morning, by which time it appeared that the water in 

 the river would have subsided sufficiently to permit of our crossing. As 

 to this we were not disappointed, and, after an early breakfast, on the next 

 morning we were off. The river was crossed without accident, and, as 

 we pursued our course across the low valley on the other side, winding 

 in and out between the numerous bog-holes and small marshes that 

 dotted its surface, our curious equipage caused no little commotion among 

 the upland geese, Chloephaga magellanica, which at this particular season 

 flocked here in such numbers as literally to cover the margins of the 

 swamps and small pools, where they feed on the tender shoots of grass 

 which appear above the surface of the cold but humid soil. These birds 

 were not especially shy, though always removing to a respectful distance 

 when approached. Quite different were the carranchas, or carrion hawks, 

 which, as we approached the estancia of Woodman and Redman, located 

 at a distance of about a mile from the crossing, were to be seen in great 

 numbers, eagerly devouring the carcasses of the dead or dying sheep, as 

 they lay scattered about in considerable numbers over the valley. These 

 birds seemed as absolutely fearless or regardless of our presence as are 



