THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 



59 



only one now left of any size, which is common, is the Cervus 

 campestris. This deer is exceedingly abundant, often in 

 small herds, throughout the countries bordering the Plata 

 and in Northern Patagonia. If a person crawling close along 

 the ground, slowly advances towards a herd, the deer fre- 

 quently, out of curiosity, approach to reconnoitre him. I 

 have by this means, killed from one spot, three out of the 

 same herd. Although so tame and inquisitive, yet when ap- 

 proached 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 Blanca, a recent establishment in Northern Pata- 

 gonia, 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 

 get up (to my shame as a sportsman be it spoken, though 

 well able to kill birds on the wing) and halloo till the deer 

 ran away. 



The most curious fact with respect to this animal, is the 

 overpoweringly strong and offensive odour which proceeds 

 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 con- 

 tinually used, and it was of course as repeatedly washed; yet 

 every time, for a space of one year and seven months, when 

 first unfolded, I distinctly perceived the odour. This ap- 

 pears an astonishing instance of the permanence of some 

 matter, which nevertheless in its nature must be most subtile 

 and volatile. Frequently, when passing at the distance of 

 half a mile to leeward 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 per- 

 fect, 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 re- 

 moved. I have somewhere read that the islanders in the 



