cause--See Pallas's Travels, 1793 to 1794, pp. 129 - 134.
[5] I am bound to express in the strongest terms, my obligation to the
government of Buenos Ayres for the obliging manner in which passports
to all parts of the country were given me, as naturalist of the Beagle.
[6] This prophecy has turned out entirely and miserably wrong. 1845.
[7] Voyage dans l'Amerique Merid. par M. A. d'Orbigny. Part. Hist. tom.
i. p. 664.
CHAPTER V
BAHIA BLANCA
Bahia Blanca--Geology--Numerous gigantic Quadrupeds--Recent
Extinction--Longevity of species--Large Animals do not require a
luxuriant vegetation--Southern Africa--Siberian Fossils--Two Species of
Ostrich--Habits of Oven-bird--Armadilloes--Venomous Snake, Toad,
Lizard--Hybernation of Animal--Habits of Sea-Pen--Indian Wars and
Massacres--Arrow-head, antiquarian Relic.
The Beagle arrived here on the 24th of August, and a week afterwards
sailed for the Plata. With Captain Fitz Roy's consent I was left
behind, to travel by land to Buenos Ayres. I will here add some
observations, which were made during this visit and on a previous
occasion, when the Beagle was employed in surveying the harbour.
The plain, at the distance of a few miles from the coast, belongs to
the great Pampean formation, which consists in part of a reddish clay,
and in part of a highly calcareous marly rock. Nearer the coast there
are some plains formed from the wreck of the upper plain, and from mud,
gravel, and sand thrown up by the sea during the slow elevation of the
land, of which elevation we have evidence in upraised beds of recent
shells, and in rounded pebbles of pumice scattered over the country. At
Punta Alta we have a section of one of these later-formed little
plains, which is highly interesting from the number and extraordinary
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