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
(21st) 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 productions 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
water-fowls 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 characterized by
large thin ears and a very fine fur. These little animals swarm
amongst the thickets in the valleys, where they cannot for months
together taste a drop of water excepting the dew. They all seem to be
cannibals for no sooner was a mouse caught in one of my traps that it
was devoured by others. A small and delicately shaped fox, which is
likewise very abundant, probably derives its entire support from these
small animals. The guanaco is also in his proper district, herds of
fifty or a hundred were common; and, as I have stated, we saw one which
must have contained at least five hundred. The puma, with the condor
and other carrion-hawks in its train, follows and preys upon these
animals. The footsteps of the puma were to be seen almost everywhere
on the banks of the river; and the remains of several guanacos, with
their necks dislocated and bones broken, showed how they had met their
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