July 31, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



147 



was accorded to Mr. Hatcher, and substantial 

 financial aid was extended by friends and 

 alumni of the university. The publication of 

 the results in the sumptuous and elegant form 

 in which they appear is made possible through 

 the generosity of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan; 

 while acknowledgments are also due to South 

 American officials, as well as to Dr. Florentino 

 Ameghino and other naturalists of the region 

 under consideration. 



From March, 1896, to July, 1S97, and from 

 December, 1S9S, to September, 1899, Mr. 

 Hatcher was in the field assisted by Mr. 0. 

 A. Peterson, and during the year following 

 November, 1897, by Mr. A. E. Colburn. Much 

 of the work was done on horseback, with a 

 light wagon for transporting supplies and col- 

 lections. The character of the Patagonian 

 plains is such as rendered this method prac- 

 ticable even if frequently difficult. About 

 half the total area of the region consists of 

 vast terraced plains intersected by river 

 canons and of a subarid character, which, in 

 the central portion, have been overflowed by 

 lava beds covering hundreds of square miles. 

 To the westward, out of a very mountainous 

 region, rises the Andean range, cut here and 

 there by rivers which rise in lakes on its 

 eastern side. 



At the base of the Andean mountains the 

 Patagonian plains have an altitude of 3,000 

 feet, and slope very gently to the eastward. 

 About fifty miles from the Atlantic coast they 

 descend more rapidly by a series of terraces 

 or escarpments which face to the eastward. 

 The lowest of these has an average altitude 

 of 350 feet and terminates in abrupt cliffs 

 which, for a thousand miles, constitute the 

 margin of the land, except for a narrow beach 

 at the base, which, at high water, is covered 

 by the sea or drenched with the spray of a 

 perpetual and tremendous surf. 



Scanty grasses with stunted shrubbery in 

 occasional patches are characteristic of these 

 vast and silent stretches, redolent of a loneli- 

 ness which grips the imagination. 



In the narrow canons, or by the rivers in 

 broad valleys of erosion, the traveler may 

 come upon green spaces where the vegetation 



breaks into a joyous luxuriance, where birds 

 abound, and deer and other animals meet 

 man with fearless curiosity. Here the eye 

 may search in vain for a limit to a basaltic 

 desert extending in flat and stern monotony 

 for leagues beyond the visible horizon. There 

 some broad salt pan with deceptive mirage 

 mimics the prehistoric lake of which it forms 

 the dregs. At times wrapped in gloomy fogs 

 or swept by tempests of incredible violence; 

 fronting the towering Atlantic surges with 

 unshaken cliffs and serrate talus, looking out 

 to shifting bars of sand, the terror of the 

 navigator; a vast cemetery for ghostly herds 

 upon the like of which alive no man has ever 

 gazed; it is a strange, silent, bitter, lonely 

 land. 



How our author went out into it, what he 

 met, and how he fared, are told in modest yet 

 most interesting fashion in this stately quarto. 

 His story is so interesting and the unpreten- 

 tious courage of the narrator so evident, the 

 spirit of the land and its mysterious fascina- 

 tion so fully expressed, that few will close the 

 book without a regret that it can not reach a 

 wider audience. It is really too good to be 

 reserved for the readers of quartos. 



The volume is so full of scientific meat that 

 it is difficult to make a satisfactory abstract, 

 and impossible to condense it within the limits 

 of such a review as this. There is something 

 for every taste. The life of bird and beast; 

 the phases and contrasts of vegetation; the 

 life of the Tehuelche Indians and the waifs 

 who have cast civilization aside like a gar- 

 ment, at the call of the wild; the topography 

 and geology; and mingled with it all a flavor 

 of real North American character to which 

 something in each reader's soul will leap with 

 sympathy and admiration. 



It is pleasant to add that the adventurous 

 undertaking proved a success, and its hardy 

 leader may be congratulated, not only on the 

 accomplishment of his project, the clearing 

 up of geologic doubt and the gathering of 

 long-buried scientific treasure, but also on the 

 way he has told the story and the attractive 

 manner in which it is illustrated and pub- 

 lished. \V. II. D.XLL. 



