IX ZOOLOGY 189 



and collected firewood. By this order, in half an hour everything 

 was ready for the night. A watch of two men and an officer 

 was always kept, whose duty it was to look after the boats, keep 

 up the fire, and guard against Indians. Each in the party had 

 his one hour every night. 



During this day we tracked but a short distance, for there 

 were many islets, covered by thorny bushes, and the channels 

 between them were shallow. 



April 20th. — We passed the islands and set to work. Our 

 regular day's march, although it was hard enough, carried us on 

 an average only ten miles in a straight line, and perhaps fifteen 

 or twenty altogether. Beyond the place where we slept last 

 night, the country is completely terra incognita, for it was there 

 that Captain Stokes turned back. We saw in the distance a 

 great smoke, and found the skeleton of a horse, so we knew that 

 Indians were in the neighbourhood. On the next morning (2 1 st) 

 tracks of a party of horse, and marks left by the trailing of the 

 chuzos, or long spears, were observed on the ground. It was 

 generally thought that the Indians had reconnoitred us during 

 the night. Shortly afterwards we came to a spot where, from 

 the fresh footsteps of men, children, and horses, it was evident 

 that the party had crossed the river. 



April 22nd. — The country remained the same, and was 

 extremely uninteresting. The complete similarity of the produc- 

 tions throughout Patagonia is one of its most striking characters. 

 The level plains of arid shingle support the same stunted and 

 dwarf plants ; and in the valleys the same thorn-bearing bushes 

 grow. Everywhere we see the same birds and insects. Even 

 the very banks of the river and of the clear streamlets which 

 entered it, were scarcely enlivened by a brighter tint of green. 

 The curse of sterility is on the land, and the water flowing over 

 a bed of pebbles partakes of the same curse. Hence the number 

 of waterfowl is very scanty ; for there is nothing to support 

 life in the stream of this barren river. 



Patagonia, poor as she is in some respects, can however boast 

 of a greater stock of small rodents^ than perhaps any other 

 country in the world. Several species of mice are externally 



^ The deserts of Syria are characterised, according to Volney (torn, i, p. 351), by 

 woody bushes, numerous rats, gazelles, and hares. In the landscape of Patagonia, 

 the guanaco replaces the gazelle, and the agouti the hare. 



