Jan. 1828. 



LAREDO BAY PORT FAMINE. 



117 



Indians, furnished us with many additions to our zoological 

 collection ; among them was a tiger-cat, which seemed, from 

 the description, to be the Felis pajaros of the Encyclopedie 

 Methodique (the " Chat de Pampa"' of D'Azara). Maria gave 

 me a very large bezoar stone, that was taken from the stomach 

 of a guanaco. It is used medicinally by the Indians, as a 

 remedy for bowel complaints.^ 



Whilst we were at the anchorage before Cape Negro, Mr. 

 Tarn and Mr. Wickham visited the lake at the back of Laredo 

 Bay, and saw two swans, which, from the colour of their 

 plumage, seemed to be the black-necked swan of the River 

 Plata and of the Falkland Islands-[- (Dom Pernettey, ii. p. 148). 

 They brought on board with them a new species of duck, 

 w^hich is described in the proceedings of the Zoological Society 

 as Jnas specularis (Nob.), and a small burrowing animal, of 

 the rat tribe, that, from the character of its teeth, is probably 

 of a genus not hitherto noted : it approaches nearest to F. 

 Cuvier"*s Helamys. 



We next anchored in Port Famine, where the tents, &c. 

 were replaced in their former positions, the ship was unrigged 

 and secured for the winter, and all hands set to work, prepar- 

 ing the Adelaide for service. 



* The medicinal property of this intestinal concretion is well known 

 wherever the animal is found. Marcgrave, in his " Tractatus topog-ra- 

 phicus et meteorolog-icus Brasilia?," folio, p. 36, says : — " Hsec animalia 

 (gaanacoes) generant lapides Bezoares in sinu quodam ventriculi, qui 

 maximi sestimantur contra venena et febres malignos ad roborandum et 

 refocillandum cor, aliosque afFectus. Materia ^ qua generantur sunt herbse 

 insignis virtutis,quibus vescuntur naturae instinctu ad sanitatem tuendum, 

 aut morbos et venena superandum. Hi lapides inveniuntur in adultioribus 

 hisce animalibus atque interdum tarn grandes, ut unum in Italiam attu- 

 lerim qui pendet uncias duas supra triginta." — Mr. Thompson, on Intes- 

 tinal Concretions. See his Syn. of Chemistry, iv. 576. 



t Anser nigrocollis. Encyc. Method., art. Ornithol, 108. 



