INTRODUCTION 



Patagonia is a country about which Httle is known to the world 

 in general, books dealing with it being few and far between, while 

 the aspect of that quaint tail of South America and its wild denizens 

 has practically never before been pictorially brought under the 

 eye of the public. The following pages have been written with 

 the idea of familiarising my readers with the conditions of life 

 in Patagonia, and of reproducing as strongly as possible the 

 impressions we gathered during our journey through regions most 

 interesting and varied, and, as regards a certain portion of them, 

 hitherto unvisited and unexplored. 



The original motive with which these travels were undertaken 

 lay in a suggestion that a couple of years ago created a con- 

 siderable stir amongst many besides scientific people, namely, that 

 the prehistoric Mylodon might possibly still survive hidden in the 

 depths of the forests of the Southern Andes. In a lecture delivered 

 on June 21, 1900, before the Zoological Society, Professor E. Ray 

 Lancaster, the Director of the P)ritish Museum of Natural 

 History, said : " It is quite possible — I don't want to say more 

 llian that — that he (the Mylodon) still exists in some of the 

 mountainous regions of Patagonia." Mr. Pearson, the proprietor 

 of the Daily Expi'css, most generously financed the Expedition 

 in the interests of science, and entrusted me with the task of 

 siftin*'- all the evidence for or asfainst the chances of survixal 

 obtainable on the spot. 



During the whole time I spent in i'atagonia I came upon no 

 single scrap of evidence of any kind which would support the 



