IX 
ZOOLOGY 
189 
and collected firewood. By this order, in half an hour everything 
was ready for the night. A watch of two men and an officer 
was always kept, whose duty it was to look after the boats, keep 
up the fire, and guard against Indians. Each in the party had 
his one hour every night. 
During this day we tracked but a short distance, for there 
were many islets, covered by thorny bushes, and the channels 
between them were shallow. 
April 20 th .—We passed the islands and set to work. Our 
regular day’s march, although it w r as hard enough, carried us on 
an average only ten miles in a straight line, and perhaps fifteen 
or twenty altogether. Beyond the place where we slept last 
night, the country is completely terra incognita , for it was there 
that Captain Stokes turned back. We saw in the distance a 
great smoke, and found the skeleton of a horse, so we knew that 
Indians were in the neighbourhood. On the next morning (2 1 st) 
tracks of a party of horse, and marks left by the trailing of the 
chuzos, or long spears, were observed on the ground. It was 
generally thought that the Indians had reconnoitred us during 
the night. Shortly afterwards we came to a spot where, from 
the fresh footsteps of men, children, and horses, it was evident 
that the party had crossed the river. 
April 22nd .—The country remained the same, and was 
extremely uninteresting. The complete similarity of the produc¬ 
tions throughout Patagonia is one of its most striking characters. 
The level plains of arid shingle support the same stunted and 
dwarf plants ; and in the valleys the same thorn-bearing bushes 
grow. Everywhere we see the same birds and insects. Even 
the very banks of the river and of the clear streamlets which 
entered it, were scarcely enlivened by a brighter tint of green. 
The curse of sterility is on the land, and the water flowing over 
a bed of pebbles partakes of the same curse. Hence the number 
of waterfowl is very scanty ;■ for there is nothing to support 
life in the stream of this barren river. 
Patagonia, poor as she is in some respects, can however boast 
of a greater stock of small rodents 1 than perhaps any other 
country in the world. Several species of mice are externally 
1 The deserts of Syria are characterised, according to Volney (tom. i. p. 351), by 
woody bushes, numerous rats, gazelles, and hares. In the landscape of Patagonia, 
the guanaco replaces the gazelle, and the agouti the hare. 
