72 Cordova's Voyage of Discoveri^ 



large rivers, and other interruptions, which they have not been 

 able to overcome. 



The first animal that presented itself to our view, was the 

 goanaco lamas or lama, of which we might have given a cir- 

 cumstantial description, were it not that such accounts are 

 already common, in all treatises on natural history. We shall 

 therefore confine ourselves to some remarks on the peculiarities 

 of those animals which are found in the neighbourhood of the 

 strait. 



The celebrated naturalist, M. de Buffon, is of opinion, that 

 the lama only inhabits the coldest regions of the Cordilleras of the 

 i^ndes but this supposition cannot be reconciled with what is 

 related of them by D. A. de Ulloa, in the Account of his Jour- 

 ney to Peru, nor with the great numbers of them to be found 

 along the Patagonian coast and the plain part of the Strait of 

 Magellan, where they constitute the chief article of the food, 

 and the wealth of the inhabitants. In ail the different occasions 

 of our intercourse with the Patagonians, the lama was the only 

 article they presented to us, their abundance of these animals 

 exciting our wonder ; but, although we saw them so frequently 

 on the shore, we had no opportunity of killing any of them. 



It is not to be wondered at, that they should inhabit a tract of 

 country so destitute of water as this is, since it is well known, 

 that they consume but a very small quantity of either food or 

 drink, and frequently quench their thirst by keeping their 

 mouths moist with their own saliva, with which they are fur- 

 nished in much greater abundance than any other kind of ani- 

 mals. 



The lama has often been carried to Spain, but has never 

 propagated, and has lived but a very short time ; showing that 

 that animal thrives only in the country from which it originally 

 comes. 



The plains abound no less w^itb zorillos (called izqurepatly), 

 whose fur is as pleasant to the eye and the touch, as the smell 

 of its urine is pestiferous, which may be perceived at a 

 very great distance. Our officers shot some of them, but 

 were obliged to throw them into the sea, to prevent the 

 vessel from being poisoned with their abominable smell. Great 

 care is requisite in depriving their fur of this most offensive 

 odour, which would render them totally unserviceable ; and, 

 even after they are properly prepared, they must be kept per- 

 fectly dry ; for, on the least communication with water, they 

 again revive their loathsome smell. 



All naturalists agree, that this animal (the zorillo) is found 

 only in the New World ; and M. de Buffon has very properly 

 remarked a difference which subsists between those of the south 



