322 



NA TURE 



[February 5, 190; 



time, found round the margin of the country. Mr. 

 Prichard says : " Although not giants, the Tehuelches 

 are certainly one of the finest races in the world. Most of 

 them average six feet, some attain to six feet four inches, 

 or even more ; and in all cases they are well built and 

 well developed." . . . " Progress, the white man's shibbo- 

 leth, has no meaning for the Patagonian. He is losing 

 ground day by day in the wild, onward rush of mankind. 

 Our ideas do not appeal to him. He has neither part 

 nor lot in the feverish desires and ambitions that move 

 us so strongly. As his forefathers were, so is he — content 



vast emptiness weighs on you and overwhelms you. . . . 

 Out there, in the heart of the country, you seem to stand 

 alone with nothing nearer or more palpable than the 

 wind, the fierce mirages and the limitless distances. A 

 man accustomed to cities would here feel forlorn indeed. 

 . . . Nature, with her large, loose grasp, enfolds you. 

 There is no possibility of being mentally propped up by 

 one's fellow man." 



On reaching Lake Buenos Ayres, he found it " measured 

 seventy-five miles in length ; vast masses of milk-white 

 timber, blanched by the influences of sun and water, and 



to live and die a human item with a moving home. . . . eloquent of the mountain land and forest whence they 

 He is far too single-minded and too dignified to stoop to \ have been washed down, lie at the lip of the flood-level, 

 a cheap imitation." ■ ■ • Around the lake lay piled the skulls and bones of 



Like many other travellers, Mr. Prichard appears to ' dead game, guanaco and a few huemuels." 



" There are many 

 thousands of square 

 miles of unexplored 

 forest in Patagonia. 

 It is a region un- 

 known and mysteri- 

 ous, which has never 

 been deeply pene- 

 trated by man owing 

 to the practical ab- 

 sence of game on 

 which he might sub- 

 sist." 



Mr. Prichard's book 

 is replete with interest, 

 and shows that he put 

 himself into close 

 touch with the region 

 which he examined. 

 His final chapter 

 treats of the future 

 of Patagonia, a large 

 portion of which he 

 believes suited to pas- 

 toral purposes. It is 

 evident that the emi- 

 grant will soon destroy 

 the varied and beauti- 

 ful forms of animal 

 life which nature has 

 placed there, and 

 substitute lor them 

 horses, sheep and 

 be civilised. 

 G. E. Church. 



-Cariadon of the River rCatarina. (From Pri chard s " Through the Heart of Patagonia. ') 



have initiated his explorations with much impedimenta, 

 the care of which, for weeks, entailed a life of misery — 

 eight men, sixty horses, two wagons with luxuries, and 

 "drafts on Cook and Son" (not easily cashed at a 

 Tehuelche bank) might have provoked some criticism 

 from the army which San Martin marched across the 

 Andes. But our author, be it said to his credit, soon 

 redeemed himself and put his expedition into light 

 marching order. In time, he might have got down to 

 gaucho methods of travel, five horses to a man, a herd 

 of horned cattle for food and nothing more, for months 

 together. 



A sportsman's veins must throb as he reads Mr. 

 Prichard's volume, for it is one long tale of hunting 

 exploits ; but one must applaud the author for killing 

 for food alone, and not for gratification of the love 

 of slaughter. Of large game, the guanaco proved to be 

 most abundant, but bird life was myriad. Altitude seems 

 to make no difference to that representative of the camel 

 species, the guanaco ; he thrives equally at sea-level 

 and, in great herds, at an elevation of from 10,000 to 

 13,000 feet among the Bolivian and Peruvian Andes, 

 almost rivalling the condor in this respect. 



Here and there, the author makes an interesting 

 remark upon the effect of his surroundings on the mind : 

 "The farther you penetrate into Patagonia, the more its 



NO. 1736, VOL. 67] 



other cattle — then Patagonia wi] 



THE GEOGRAPHY OF NORTH-WEST 

 EUROPE. 1 



IN this second volume on Europe in the new issue of 

 Stanford's ' Compendium," the chief place is given 

 to the British Isles. Chapters on Belgium, the Nether- 

 lands, the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, Scandinavia, 

 Denmark and Iceland occupy about a quarter of the 

 volume, and contain descriptions of the physical features 

 of these countries, with brief references to the geology, 

 and accounts of the climate, the agricultural, mining and 

 other industries, the ethnology, and of the changes in- 

 troduced by man, notably in the Netherlands. These 

 subjects are necessarily dealt with far less fully than in 

 the case of the British Isles. 



The chief aim of the work is to show "how geo- 

 graphical conditions have affected the cours.e of history." 

 Hence it is needful to gather the lessons which geology 

 teaches, and in dealing with our country the author 



1 " Stanford's 

 Europe. Vol. 



Pp. x.wiii 4- 742 



Compendium of Geography and Travel" (new issue)— 

 ii. The North-west. By G. G. Chisholm, M.A. 

 (London: Edward Stanford, 1902.) Price 15s. 



