128 



CHARLES DARWIN 



were killed. I saw one of the latter with a black mark on 

 its back, as if it had been struck with a paving-stone. A 

 fence of thistle-stalks round the hovel was nearly broken 

 down, and my informer, putting his head out to see what was 

 the matter, received a severe cut, and now wore a bandage. 

 The storm was said to have been of limited extent: we 

 certainly saw from our last night's bivouac a dense cloud 

 and lightning in this direction. It is marvellous how such 

 strong animals as deer could thus have been killed; but I 

 have no doubt, from the evidence I have given, that the 

 story is not in the least exaggerated. I am glad, however, 

 to have its credibility supported by the Jesuit Dobrizhoffen, 4 

 who, speaking of a country much to the northward, says, 

 hail fell of an enormous size and killed vast numbers of cattle : 

 the Indians hence called the place Lalegraicavalca, meaning 

 " the little white things." Dr. Malcolmson, also, informs me 

 that he witnessed in 1831 in India, a hail-storm, which 

 killed numbers of large birds and much injured the cattle. 

 These hailstones were flat, and one was ten inches in cir- 

 cumference, and another weighed two ounces. They 

 ploughed up a gravel-walk like musket-balls, and passed 

 through glass-windows, making round holes, but not crack- 

 ing them. 



Having finished our dinner, of hail-stricken meat, we 

 crossed the Sierra Tapalguen; a low range of hills, a few 

 hundred feet in height, which commences at Cape Corrientes. 

 The rock in this part is pure quartz; further eastward I 

 understand it is granitic. The hills are of a remarkable 

 form; they consist of flat patches of table-land, surrounded 

 by low perpendicular cliffs, like the outliers of a sedimentary 

 deposit. The hill which I ascended was very small, not 

 above a couple of hundred yards in diameter; but I saw 

 others larger. One which goes by the name of the " Corral," 

 is said to be two or three miles in diameter, and encompassed 

 by perpendicular cliffs, between thirty and forty feet high, 

 excepting at one spot, where the entrance lies. Falconer 6 

 gives a curious account of the Indians driving troops of 

 wild horses into it, and then by guarding the entrance, keep- 



4 History of the Abipones, vol. ii. p. 6. 

 6 Falconer's Patagonia, p. 70. 



