29 
in the Chuput Valley, Patagonia. 
vegetation, with the exception of low stunted bushes, prin¬ 
cipally thorns, which find root everywhere and afford a 
plentiful supply of firewood, with here and there a cliff of 
tosca containing innumerable osseous remains of sharks, 
seals, small mammals, and fish, and which, if thoroughly 
examined, would certainly yield great results. At a higher 
elevation there are many extensive tracts of land clothed 
with coarse grass, the hushes only a foot or two in height 
and few in number; and these are the homes of large herds 
of Guanacos and Rheas. During my visit we made two 
hunting-excursionsone to a tract of elevated tableland 
about fifteen miles to the south of the village, named by 
the colonists, from the absence of bushes, “ Clear Land •” 
the other to Ninfas Point, some forty-five miles to the 
north-east of the colony. The latter is one of the prin¬ 
cipal hunting-grounds of the Tehuelche Indians; and here I 
saw for the first time a herd of about 200 Guanacos and 
numerous Rheas. The only bird which occurs here, and 
which I did not see at the colony, was Sarcorhamphus gry~ 
phus ; and though Vultures on a close acquaintance are cer¬ 
tainly not attractive, a Condor sitting nearly upright, partly 
supported by its tail, on the pinnacle of a lofty cliff over¬ 
looking the deep-blue waters of New Bay, was a picture to 
attract the eye of the most unobservant, and a fit accompani¬ 
ment of a scene of such grandeur as one witnesses there. 
The whole country (I speak from my own observation) 
within a twenty-mile radius of the village exhibits unmista¬ 
kable traces of the action of the sea. Banks evidently once 
shingle, little hills precisely like the present sandhills on the 
coast, only clothed with thick bushes and numerous deposits 
of marine shells, can be seen in every direction. About two 
miles to the north of the village is a large lagoon, the water 
of which is brackish, evidently a lingering remnant of the 
ocean, from which it is now distant at least seven miles; the 
shores of this lagoon in some places are literally paved with 
marine shells. 
With the exception of a few willows along the banks of the 
river, and some poplars which have been planted by one of 
