56 



CHARLES DARWIN 



great numbers of partridges (Nothura major). These birds 

 do not go in coveys, nor do they conceal themselves like 

 the English kind. It appears a very silly bird. A man on 

 horseback by "riding round and round in a circle, or rather 

 in a spire, so as to approach closer each time, may knock 

 on the head as many as he pleases. The more common 

 method is to catch them with a running noose, or little lazo, 

 made of the stem of an ostrich's feather, fastened to the 

 end of a long stick. A boy on a quiet old horse will fre- 

 quently thus catch thirty or forty in a day. In Arctic North 

 America 1 the Indians catch the Varying Hare by walking 

 spirally round and round it, when on its form: the middle 

 of the day is reckoned the best time, when the sun is high, 

 and the shadow of the hunter not very long. 



On our return to Maldonado, we followed rather a differ- 

 ent line of road. Near Pan de xAzucar, a landmark well 

 known to all those who have sailed up the Plata, I stayed 

 a day at the house of a most hospitable old Spaniard. Early 

 in the morning we ascended the Sierra de las Animas. By 

 the aid of the rising sun the scenery was almost picturesque. 

 To the westward the view extended over an immense level 

 plain as far as the Mount, at Monte Video, and to the east- 

 ward, over the mammillated country of Maldonado. On 

 the summit of the mountain there were several small heaps 

 of stones, which evidently had lain there for many years. 

 My companion assured me that they were the work of the 

 Indians in the old time. The heaps were similar, but on 

 a much smaller scale, to those so commonly found on the 

 mountains of Wales. The desire to signalize any event, on 

 the highest point of the neighbouring land, seems an uni- 

 versal passion with mankind. At the present day, not a 

 single Indian, either civilized or wild, exists in this part 

 of the province ; nor am I aware that the former inhabitants 

 have left behind them any more permanent records than 

 these insignificant piles on the summit of the Sierra de las 

 Animas. 



The general, and almost entire absence of trees in Banda 

 Oriental is remarkable. Some of the rocky hills are partly 



1 Hearne's Journey, p. 383. 



