60 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS I NARRATIVE. 



entirely new world, the like of which we had never seen before. Not 

 only were the genera and species distinct from any with which we were 

 previously acquainted, but the families and orders were also, for the most 

 part, quite different from those with which we had become familiar in the 

 North. It was like being transferred suddenly to a new world peopled 

 with a new fauna entirely different from that of our earth. Little wonder 

 therefore that we put forth every energy to make the most of our oppor- 

 tunity in the midst of such a wealth of material and surrounded by such 

 exceptional incentives. The work began in the early morning, was car- 

 ried on until long after sundown, interrupted only for a few moments at 

 midday while we ate our frugal lunch. Then, as twilight began to dis- 

 appear, giving way to the greater obscurity of night, laden with the treas- 

 ures rescued during the day safely packed in our collecting bags, we 

 would dismiss from our minds those subjects with which we had been so 

 intently occupied and find time to realize that such work is not only 

 exciting, but exhausting, as we dragged ourselves wearily into camp, 

 where, after a hearty meal, we would retire for the night and give our- 

 selves up to that deep, restful and refreshing sleep, which to myself is 

 unknown when living under more artificial, though some might say less 

 savage conditions. It was the sleep of my childhood returned to me 

 and it brought with it pleasant dreams of those happy days when, as a 

 child, I roamed over our own western plains with a freedom almost equal 

 to that of the birds and animals about me. 



We continued our work at Killik Aike uninterruptedly until June igth, 

 when we carefully packed the ton and a half of fossils we had collected 

 and shipped them by the "Bootle," a British schooner which had come 

 to Killik Aike to load wool for London and was then lying at the mole. 

 It was rather a remarkable sight to see this ocean-going schooner come 

 up the river at high tide, sailing over what had but a few hours previously 

 been mud flats and take its position at the end of this little mole where, 

 twice every day, while receiving cargo, it would be left high and dry by 

 the receding tide. After loading our boxes on the "Bootle," we moved 

 camp farther down the river to the estancia of Mr. William Halliday, at 

 North Gallegos, directly across the river from Gallegos. We remained 

 here a week working up the river to the point to which we had worked 

 down from Killik Aike. At this place we packed a large box of good 

 material and as the "Bootle" came down and was beached here to com- 



