THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 145 



we are led to look to the north-western side of North Amer- 

 ica as the former point of communication between the Old 

 and so-called New World. And as so many species, both 

 living and extinct, of these same genera inhabit and have 

 inhabited the Old World, it seems most probable that the 

 North American elephants, mastodons, horse, and hollow- 

 horned ruminants migrated, on land since submerged near 

 Behring's Straits, from Siberia into North America, and 

 thence, on land since submerged in the West Indies, into 

 South America, where for a time they mingled with the 

 forms characteristic of that southern continent, and have 

 since become extinct. 



While travelling through the country, I received several 

 vivid descriptions of the effects of a late great drought ; and 

 the account of this may throw some light on the cases where 

 vast numbers of animals of all kinds have been embedded 

 together. The period included between the years 1827 and 

 1830 is called the " gran seco," or the great drought. During 

 this time so little rain fell, that the vegetation, even to the 

 thistles, failed; the brooks were dried up, and the whole 

 country assumed the appearance of a dusty high road. This 

 was especially the case in the northern part of the province 

 of Buenos Ayres and the southern part of St. Fe. Very 

 great numbers of birds, wild animals, cattle, and horses 

 perished from the want of food and water. A man told me 

 that the deer 8 used to come into his courtyard to the well, 

 which he had been obliged to dig to supply his own family 

 with water; and that the partridges had hardly strength to 

 fly away when pursued. The lowest estimation of the loss 

 of cattle in the province of Buenos Ayres alone, was taken 

 at one million head. A proprietor at San Pedro had pre- 

 viously to these years 20,000 cattle ; at the end not one re- 



s In Captain Owen's Surveying Voyage (vol. ii. p. 274) there is a curious 

 account of the effects of a drought on the elephants, at Benguela (west 

 coast of Africa). " A number of these animals had some time since entered 

 the town, in a body, to possess themselves of the wells, not being able to 

 procure any water in the country. The inhabitants mustered, when a des- 

 nerate conflict ensued, which terminated in the ultimate discomfiture of the 

 invaders, but not until they had killed one man, and wounded severa 

 others." The town is said to have a population of nearly three thousand! 

 Dr. Malcolmson informs me that, during a great drought in India, the wild 

 animals entered the tents of some troops at Ellore, and that a hare drank 

 out of a vessel held by the adjutant of the regiment. 



