56 



MALDONADO. 



1832-3. 



the same herd. Although so tame and inquisitive^ yet 

 when approached on horseback^ they are exceedingly wary. 

 In this country nobody goes on foot^ and the deer knows 

 man as its enemy^ only when he is mounted and armed with 

 the bolas. At Bahia Bianca^ a recent establishment in 

 Northern Patagonia^ I was surprised to find how little the 

 deer cared for the noise of a gun : one day I fired ten times^ 

 from within eighty yards^ at one animal ; and it was much 

 more startled at the ball cutting up the ground than at the 

 report of the rifle. My powder being exhausted^ I was 

 obliged (to my shame as a sportsman be it spoken), to get 

 up and halloo till the deer ran away. 



The most curious fact with respect to this animal, is 

 the overpoweringly strong and offensive odour which pro- 

 ceeds from the buck. It is quite indescribable : several 

 times whilst skinning the specimen which is now mounted 

 at the Zoological Museum, I was almost overcome by 

 nausea. I tied up the skin in a silk pocket-handkerchief, 

 and so carried it home : this handkerchief, after being well 

 washed, I continually used, and it was, of course, as re- 

 peatedly washed; yet every time, for a space of one year 

 and seven months, when first unfolded, I distinctly per- 

 ceived the odour. This appears an astonishing instance 

 of the permanence of some matter, which in its nature, 

 nevertheless, must be most subtile and volatile. Fre- 

 quently, when passing at the distance of half a mile to lee- 

 ward of a herd, I have perceived the whole air tainted with 

 the effluvium. I believe the smell from the buck is most 

 powerful at the period when its horns are perfect, or free 

 from the hairy skin. When in this state the meat is, of 

 course, quite uneatable ; but the Gauchos assert, that if 

 buried for some time in fresh earth, the taint is removed. I 

 have somewhere read that the islanders in the north of Scot- 

 land treat the rank carcasses of the fish-eating birds in the 

 same manner. 



The order Rodentia is here very numerous in species : of 



