132 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA 



on the westward of the lake, while, singularly enough, the conti- 

 nental divide appears to be to the eastward of it. On our trips we 

 took with us merely a horse apiece, and carried provisions on our 

 saddles. Meantime the remainder of the troop, which had suffered 

 somewhat on our journey from Bahia Camerones, were turned out 

 to rest and luxuriate upon the marsh grass, that extended in a 

 broad strip for a couple of miles under the ridge, while downhill 

 from the camp towards the south this rich pantano spread still 

 farther. 



Around the lake lay piled the skulls and bones of dead game, 

 guanaco and a few huemules. These animals come down to live 

 on the lower ground and near unfrozen water during the cold 

 season, and there, when the weather is particularly severe, they die 

 in crowds. We saw their skeletons, in one or two places literally 

 heaped one upon the other. 



During our stay in this neighbourhood I took the opportunity 

 of examining most thoroughly the shores of the lake. The ground 

 which descended to them was cut and intersected hy pantanos of 

 wet or drying mud and sand. Upon the eastern shore rose dunes, 

 covered with dense low strips of scrub. In the pantanos the 

 tracks made in the end of the winter, when the snow has melted 

 and the ground is soft, remain visible for five or six months. 

 And thus these hardened marshes offer a study of considerable 

 interest. 



Although the Indians declared that guanaco rarely visited the 

 lake, this proved to be incorrect. In the winter a considerable 

 number must live upon and about the shores, for their unmistak- 

 able tracks were always to be found. Towards Mount Pyramide on 

 the western side, the number of these tracks was distinctly less 

 — rheas, pumas, the animal known locally as the red fox or 

 Cordillera wolf (Canis magellanicus). 



A few huemules {Xenelapkus bisulcus) exist upon the northern 

 shore. In the winter upland geese seem also to favour this spot 

 in large numbers. So strongly does the mud retain the impres- 

 sion of tracks that I was able to follow the trail of a horse, which 

 must have been ridden by one of Mr. Waag's party six months 

 before, for a distance of a couple of miles. 



