xiv INTRODUCTION 



idea of the survival of the Mylodon. I hoped to have found the 

 Indian legends of some interest in this connection, and I took the 

 utmost pains to sift most thoroughly all stories and rumours that 

 could by any means be supposed to refer to any unknown animal. 

 Of this part of the subject I have given a full account elsewhere. 

 There then remained to us but one thing more to do, and 

 that was to examine as far as we could — I will not say the forests 

 of the Andes, for they are primeval forests, dense and heavily 

 grown, and, moreover, cover hundreds of square miles of unexplored 

 country — but the nature of these forests, so as to be able to come 

 to some conclusion on the point under discussion. This we did, 

 with the result that I personally became convinced — and my 

 opinion was shared by my companions — that the Mylodon does 

 not survive in the depths of the Andean forests. For there is a 

 singular absence of animal life in the forests. The deeper we 

 penetrated, the less we found. It is a well-known fact that, where 

 the larger forms of animal life exist, a number ot the lesser 

 creatures are to be found co-existing with them, the conditions 

 favouring the life of the former equally conducing to the welfare 

 of the latter. Our observation of the forests therefore led us to 

 conclude that no animal such as the Mylodon is at all likely to be 

 existing among them. This is presumptive evidence, but it is 

 strong, being based on deductions not drawn from a sing-le instance 

 but from general experience. 



Still I would not offer my opinion as an ultimate answer to 

 the problem. In addition to the regions visited by our Expedition, 

 there are, as I have said, hundreds and hundreds of square miles 

 about, and on both sides of the Andes, still unpenetrated by man. 

 A large portion of this country is forested, and it would be pre- 

 sumptuous to say that in some hidden valley far beyond the 

 present ken of man some prehistoric animal may not still exist. 

 Patagonia is, however, not only vast, but so full of natural 

 difficulties, that I believe the exhaustive penetration of its recesses 

 will be the work not of one man or of one party of men, but the 

 result of the slow progress of human advance into these regions. 



I have recorded some of my observations upon the habits of 

 Patagonian game, and have written somewhat fully upon that most 



