168 



CHARLES DARWIN 



which pricks the skin, it would be impossible to break in a 

 horse after the South American fashion. 



At an estancia near Las Vacas large numbers of mares 

 are weekly slaughtered for the sake of their hides, although 

 worth only five paper dollars, or about half a crown apiece. 

 It seems at first strange that it can answer to kill mares 

 for such a trifle ; but as it is thought ridiculous in this coun- 

 try ever to break in or ride a mare, they are of no value 

 except for breeding. The only thing for which I ever saw 

 mares used, was to tread out wheat from the ear ; for which 

 purpose they were driven round a circular enclosure, where 

 the wheat-sheaves were strewed. The man employed for 

 slaughtering the mares happened to be celebrated for his 

 dexterity with the lazo. Standing at the distance of twelve 

 yards from the mouth of the corral, he has laid a wager 

 that he would catch by the legs every animal, without miss- 

 ing one, as it rushed past him. There was another man 

 who said he would enter the corral on foot, catch a mare, 

 fasten her front legs together, drive her out, throw her down, 

 kill, skin, and stake the hide for drying (which latter is a 

 tedious job) ; and he engaged that he would perform this 

 whole operation on twenty-two animals in one day. Or he 

 would kill and take the skin off fifty in the same time. This 

 would have been a prodigious task, for it is considered a 

 good day's work to skin and stake the hides of fifteen or 

 sixteen animals. 



November 26th. — I set out on my return in a direct line 

 for Monte Video. Having heard of some giant's bones at 

 a neighbouring farm-house on the Sarandis, a small stream 

 entering the Rio Negro, I rode there accompanied by my 

 host, and purchased for the value of eighteen pence the head 

 of the Toxodon.* When found it was quite perfect; but 

 the boys knocked out some of the teeth with stones, and then 

 set up the head as a mark to throw at. By a most fortunate 

 chance I found a perfect tooth, which exactly fitted one of 

 the sockets in this skull, embedded by itself on the banks 

 of the Rio Tercero, at the distance of about 180 miles from 

 this place. I found remains of this extraordinary animal 



* I must express my obligation to Mr. Keane, at whose house I was stay- 

 ing on the Berquelo, and to Mr. Lumb at Buenos Ayres, for without their 

 assistance these valuable remains would never have reached England. 



