in common to the two countries but with respect to the trees of Tierra
del Fuego, even attempts made to transplant them have failed.
During our stay at Maldonado I collected several quadrupeds, eighty
kinds of birds, and many reptiles, including nine species of snakes. Of
the indigenous mammalia, the only one now left of any size, which is
common, is the Cervus campestris. This deer is exceedingly abundant,
often in small herds, throughout the countries bordering the Plata and
in Northern Patagonia. If a person crawling close along the ground,
slowly advances towards a herd, the deer frequently, out of curiosity,
approach to reconnoitre him. I have by this means, killed from one
spot, three out of the same herd. Although so tame and inquisitive,
yet when approached on horseback, they are exceedingly wary. In this
country nobody goes on foot, and the deer knows man as its enemy only
when he is mounted and armed with the bolas. At Bahia Blanca, a recent
establishment in Northern Patagonia, I was surprised to find how little
the deer cared for the noise of a gun: one day I fired ten times from
within eighty yards at one animal; and it was much more startled at the
ball cutting up the ground than at the report of the rifle. My powder
being exhausted, I was obliged to get up (to my shame as a sportsman be
it spoken, though well able to kill birds on the wing) and halloo till
the deer ran away.
The most curious fact with respect to this animal, is the
overpoweringly strong and offensive odour which proceeds from the buck.
It is quite indescribable: several times whilst skinning the specimen
which is now mounted at the Zoological Museum, I was almost overcome by
nausea. I tied up the skin in a silk pocket-handkerchief, and so
carried it home: this handkerchief, after being well washed, I
continually used, and it was of course as repeatedly washed; yet every
time, for a space of one year and seven months, when first unfolded, I
distinctly perceived the odour. This appears an astonishing instance
of the permanence of some matter, which nevertheless in its nature must
be most subtile and volatile. Frequently, when passing at the distance
of half a mile to leeward of a herd, I have perceived the whole air
tainted with the effluvium. I believe the smell from the buck is most
powerful at the period when its horns are perfect, or free from the
hairy skin. When in this state the meat is, of course, quite
uneatable; but the Gauchos assert, that if buried for some time in
fresh earth, the taint is removed. I have somewhere read that the
47