 Chapter 5 Part 1 of THE VOYAGE OF THE BEGLE. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Roger Turnau. THE VOYAGE OF THE BEGLE by Charles Darwin. Chapter 5 Part 1. Bayer Blanca. The Beagle arrived here on the 24th of August and a week afterwards sailed for the Plata. With Captain Fitzroy's consent I was left behind to travel by land to Buenos Aires. 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 harbor. The plain, at the distance of a few miles from the coast, belongs to the Great Pampian Formation, which consists in part of a reddish clay and in part of a highly calcarius marley rock. Near 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 of rounded pebbles of pumice scattered over the country. At Punta Alta we have a section of one of these latter formed little plains, which is highly interesting from the number and extraordinary character of the remains of gigantic land animals embedded in it. These have been fully described by Professor Owen in the zoology of the voyage of the Beagle and are deposited in the College of Surgeons. I will here give only a brief outline of their nature. First, parts of three heads and other bones of the Megatherium, the huge dimensions of which are expressed by its name. Secondly, the megalonics, a great allied animal. Thirdly, the Skeletatherium, also an allied animal, of which I obtained a nearly perfect skeleton. It must have been as large as a rhinoceros. In the nature of its head it comes, according to Mr. Owen, nearest to the cape and eater, but in some other respects it approaches to the armadillos. Fourthly, the Myladon Darwinii, a closely related genus of little inferior size. Fifthly, another gigantic edental quadruped. Sixthly, a large animal with an osseous coat in compartments, very like that of an armadillo. Seventhly, an extinct kind of horse, to which I shall have again to refer. Eighthly, a tooth of a Pachydermisus animal, probably the same with the Macrachena, a huge beast with a long neck like a camel, which I shall also refer to again. Lastly, the Toxodon, probably one of the strangest animals ever discovered. In size it equalled an elephant or megatherium, but the structure of its teeth, as Mr. Owen states, proves indisputably that it was intimately related to the gnares, the order which, at the present day, includes most of the smallest quadrupeds. In many details it is allied to the Pachydermata. Judging from the position of its eyes, ears, and nostrils, it was probably aquatic, like the dugong and manatee, to which it is also allied. How wonderfully are the different orders, at the present time so well separated, blended together in different points of the structure of the Toxodon. The remains of these nine great quadrupeds, and many detached bones, were found embedded on the beach, within the space of about 200 yards square. It is a remarkable circumstance that so many different species should be found together, and it proves how numerous in kind the ancient inhabitants of this country must have been. At the distance of about 30 miles from Punta Alta, in a cliff of red earth, I found several fragments of bones, some of large size. Among them were the teeth of a gnar, equalling size and closely resembling those of the Capybara, whose habits have been described, and therefore probably an aquatic animal. There was also part of the head of a tenomus, the species being different from the Tukutuko, but with a close general resemblance. The red earth, like that of the pompous, in which these remains were embedded, contains, according to Professor Ehrenberg, eight freshwater and one saltwater, infusorial animalcule. Therefore probably it was an estuary deposit. The remains at Punta Alta were embedded in stratified gravel and reddish mud, just such as the sea might now wash up on a shallow bank. They were associated with 23 species of shells, of which 13 are recent and four others very closely related to recent forms. From the bones of the Skella d'Aetherium, including even the kneecap, being entombed in their proper relative positions, and from the osseous armor of the great armadillo-like animal being so well preserved, together with the bones of one of its legs, we may feel assured that these remains were fresh and united by their ligaments, when deposited in the gravel together with the shells. In a footnote here it says, Monsieur August Brevard has described in a Spanish work, Observaciones Geologicas, 1857, this district, and he believes that the bones of the extinct mammals were washed out of the underlying Pampian deposit and subsequently became embedded with the still existing shells. But I am not convinced by his remarks. Monsieur Brevard believes that the whole enormous Pampian deposit is a sub-aerial formation like sand dunes. This seems to me to be an untenable doctrine. End of footnote. Hence we have good evidence that the above enumerated gigantic quadrupeds, more different from those of the present day than the oldest of the tertiary quadrupeds of Europe, lived whilst the sea was peopled with most of its present inhabitants. And we've confirmed that remarkable loss so often insisted on by Mr. Lyell, namely that, quote, the longevity of species in the mammalia is upon the whole inferior to that of the testacea, unquote. The great size of the bones of the megatheroid animals, including the megatherium, the megalonics, the skeletoetherium, and the myelodon, is truly wonderful. The habits of life in these animals were complete puzzled to naturalists until Professor Owen solved the problem with remarkable ingenuity. The teeth indicate, by their simple structure, that these megatheroid animals lived on vegetable food and probably on the leaves and small twigs of trees. Their ponderous forms and great strong curved claws seemed so little adapted for locomotion that some eminent naturalists have actually believed that, like the sloths, to which they are intimately related, they subsisted by climbing back downwards on the trees and feeding on the leaves. It was a bold, not to say preposterous, idea to conceive even antediluvian trees with branches strong enough to bear animals as large as elephants. Professor Owen, with far more probability, believes that instead of climbing on the trees, they pulled the branches down to them and tore up the smaller ones by the roots and so fed on the leaves. The colossal breadth and weight of their hindercarters, which can hardly be imagined without having been seen, become, on this view, a obvious service. Instead of being an encumbrance, their apparent clumsiness disappears. With their great tails and their huge heels firmly fixed like a tripod on the ground, they could freely exert the full force of their most powerful arms and great claws. Strongly rooted indeed must that tree have been which could have resisted such force. The myelodon, moreover, was furnished with a long, extensile tongue like that of the giraffe, which, by one of those beautiful provisions of nature, thus reaches with the aid of its long neck its leafy food. I may remark that in Abyssinia, the elephant, according to Bruce, when it cannot reach with its proboscis the branches, deeply scores with its tusks the trunk of the tree up and down and all around till it is sufficiently weakened to be broken down. The beds, including the above fossil remains, stand only 15 to 20 feet above the level of high water. And hence the elevation of the land has been small. Without there's been an intercalated period of subsidence, of which we have no evidence, since the great quadrupeds wandered over the surrounding plains. And the external features of the country must have been very nearly the same as now. What, it may naturally be asked, was the character of the vegetation of that period. Was the country as wretchedly sterile as it now is? As so many of the co-embedded shells are the same with those now living in the bay, I was at first inclined to think that the former vegetation was probably similar to the existing one. But this would have been an erroneous inference. For some of those same shells live on the luxuriant coast of Brazil. And generally the characters of the inhabitants of the sea are useless as guides to judge of those on the land. Nevertheless, from the following considerations I do not believe that the simple fact of many gigantic quadrupeds having lived on the plains round by Iblanca is any sure guide that they formerly were clothed with a luxuriant vegetation. I have no doubt that the sterile country a little southward near the Rio Negro with its scattered thorny trees would support many and large quadrupeds. That large animals require a luxuriant vegetation has been a general assumption which has passed from one work to another. But I do not hesitate to say that it is completely false and that it has vitiated the reasoning of geologists on some points of great interest in the ancient history of the world. The prejudice has probably been derived from India and the Indian Islands, where troops of elephants, noble forests, and impenetrable jungles are associated together in everyone's mind. If, however, we refer to any work of travels through the southern parts of Africa, we shall find allusions in almost every page either to the desert character of the country or to the numbers of large animals inhabiting it. The same thing is rendered evident by the many engravings which have been published of various parts of the interior. When the Beagle was at Cape Town, I made an excursion of some day's length into the country which at least was sufficient to render that which I had read more fully intelligible. Dr. Andrew Smith, who, at the head of his adventurous party, has lately succeeded in passing the Tropic of Capricorn, informs me that, taking into consideration the whole of the southern part of Africa, there can be no doubt of its being a sterile country. On the southern and southeastern coast there are some fine forests, but with these exceptions, the traveller may pass for days together through open plains covered by poor and scanty vegetation. It is difficult to convey any accurate idea of degrees of comparative fertility, but it may be safely said that the amount of vegetation supported at any one time by Great Britain exceeds, perhaps even tenfold, the quantity of an equal area in the interior parts of southern Africa. In a footnote, I mean by this to exclude the total amount which may have been successively produced and consumed during a given period. End footnote. The fact that bullock wagons can travel in any direction excepting near the coast without more than occasionally half an hour's delay in cutting down bushes gives, perhaps, a more definite notion of the scantiness of the vegetation. Now, if we look to the animals inhabiting these wide plains, we shall find their numbers extraordinarily great and their bulk immense. We must enumerate the elephant, three species of rhinoceros and, probably, according to Dr. Smith, two others, the hippopotamus, the giraffe, the boss caffir, as large as a full-grown bull, and the elan. But little less, two zebras and the quatcha, tube news and several antelopes even larger than these latter animals. It may be supposed that although these species are numerous, the individuals of each kind are few. By the kindness of Dr. Smith, I am able to show that the case is very different. He informs me that, in latitude twenty-four degrees, in one day's march with the bullock wagons, he saw, without wandering to any great distance on either side, between one hundred and one hundred and fifty rhinoceroses, which belong to three species. The same day he saw several herds of giraffes amounting together to nearly a hundred, and that, although no elephant was observed, yet they are found in this district. In the absence of a little more than one hour's march from their place of encampment on the previous night, his party actually killed at one spot eight hippopotamuses and saw many more. In the same river there were likewise crocodiles. Of course it was a case quite extraordinary to see so many great animals crowded together, but it evidently proves that they must exist in great numbers. Dr. Smith describes the country passed through that day as, quote, being thinly covered with grass and bushes about four feet high and still more thinly with mimosa trees. The wagons were not prevented travelling in a nearly straight line. Besides these large animals, everyone the least acquainted with the natural history of the Cape has read of the herds of antelopes, which can be compared only with the flocks of migratory birds. The numbers indeed of the lion, panther, and hyena, and the multitude of birds of prey plainly speak of the abundance of the smaller quadrupeds. One evening several lions were counted at the same time prowling round Dr. Smith's encampment. As this able naturalist remarked to me, the carnage each day in southern Africa must indeed be terrific. I confess it is truly surprising how such a number of animals can find support in a country producing so little food. The larger quadrupeds no doubt roam over wide tracts in search of it, and their food chiefly consists of underwood, which probably contains much nutriment in a small bulk. Dr. Smith also informs me that the vegetation has a rapid growth. No sooner is a part consumed than its place is supplied by a fresh stock. There can be no doubt, however, that our ideas respecting the apparent amount of food necessary for the support of large quadrupeds are much exaggerated. It should have been remembered that the camel, an animal of no mean bulk, has always been considered as the emblem of the desert. The belief that where large quadrupeds exist, the vegetation must necessarily be luxuriant is the more remarkable, because the converse is far from true. Mr. Burchell observed to me that, when entering Brazil, nothing struck him more forcibly than the splendor of the South American vegetation contrasted with that of South Africa, together with the absence of all large quadrupeds. In his travels he suggested that the comparison of the respective weights, if there were sufficient data, of an equal number of the largest herbivorous quadrupeds of each country, would be extremely curious. If we take on one side the elephant, hippopotamus, giraffe, boss, caver, alon, certainly three and probably five species of rhinoceros, and on the American side two tapirs, the guanaco, three deer, the vicuna, peccari, capybara, after which we must choose from the monkeys to complete the number, and then place these two groups alongside each other, it is not easy to conceive ranks more disproportionate in size. After the above facts, we are compelled to conclude against anterior probability that among the mammalia there exists no close relation between the bulk of the species and the quantity of the vegetation in the countries which they inhabit. In a footnote, the elephant which was killed at Exeter Change was estimated, being partly weighed, at five tons and a half. The elephant actress, as I was informed, weighed one ton less, so that we may take five as the average of a full-grown elephant. I was told at the Suri Gardens that a hippopotamus which was sent to England cut up into pieces was estimated at three tons and a half. We will call it three. From these premises we may give three tons and a half to each of the five rhinoceroses, perhaps a ton to the giraffe, and half to the boss caver as well as to the alon. Large ox weighs from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred pounds. This will give an average from the above estimates of 2.7 of a ton for the ten largest herbivorous animals of southern Africa. In South America, allowing twelve hundred pounds for the two tapirs together, five hundred and fifty for the guinaco and the vicuna, five hundred for the three deer, three hundred for the capybara, picari, and a monkey, we shall have an average of two hundred and fifty pounds, which I believe is overstating the result. The ratio will therefore be as six thousand forty-eight to two hundred and fifty or twenty-four to one for the ten largest animals from the two continents. And, in another footnote, if we suppose the case of the discovery of a skeleton of a greenland whale in a fossil state, not a single cetaceous animal being known to exist, what naturalist would have ventured to conjecture on the possibility of a carcass so gigantic, being supported on the minute crustacea and molusca living in the frozen seas of the extreme north? End footnote. With regard to the number of large quadrupeds, there certainly exists no quarter of the globe which will bear comparison with southern Africa. After the different statements which have been given, the extremely desert character of that region will not be disputed. In the European division of the world, we must look back to the tertiary epics to find a condition of things among the mammalia resembling that now existing at the Cape of Good Hope. Those tertiary epics which we are apt to consider are astounding to an astonishing degree with large animals, because we find the remains of many ages accumulated at certain spots could hardly boast of more large quadrupeds than southern Africa does at present. If we speculate on the condition of the vegetation during those epics, we are at least bound so far to consider existing analogies, as not to urge as absolutely necessary a luxuriant vegetation when we see a state of things so totally different at the Cape of Good Hope. In the extreme regions of North America, many degrees beyond the limit where the ground at the depth of a few feet remains perpetually congealed are covered by forests of large and tall trees. In a footnote, see zoological remarks to Captain Bax expedition by Dr. Richardson. He says, quote, the subsoil north of latitude 56 degrees is perpetually frozen, the thaw on the coast not penetrating above three feet and at Bear Lake in latitude 64 degrees, more than 20 inches. The frozen substratum does not of itself destroy vegetation for forests flourish on the surface at a distance from the coast. In a like manner, in Siberia we have woods of birch, fir, aspen, and larch growing in a latitude 64 degrees, where the mean temperature of the air falls below the freezing point and where the earth is so completely frozen that the carcass of an animal embedded in it is perfectly preserved. With these facts we must grant, as far as the quantity alone of vegetation is concerned, that the great quadrupeds of the later tertiary epics might, in most parts of northern Europe and Asia, have lived on the spots where their remains are now found. I do not here speak of the kind of vegetation necessary for their support, because, as there is evidence of physical changes and as the animals have become extinct, so may we suppose that the species of plants have likewise been changed. These remarks, I may be permitted to add, directly bear on the case of the Siberian animals preserved in ice. The firm conviction of the necessity of a vegetation possessing a character of tropical luxuriance to support such large animals and the impossibility of reconciling this with the proximity of perpetual congliation was one chief cause of the several theories of sudden revolutions of climate and of overwhelming catastrophes to account for their entombment. I am far from supposing that the climate has not changed since the period when those animals lived, which now lie buried in the ice. At present, I only wish to show that as far as the quantity of food alone is concerned, the ancient rhinoceroses might have roamed over the steps of central Siberia, the northern parts probably being underwater, even in their present condition, as well as the living rhinoceroses and elephants over the caros of southern Africa. I will now give an account of the habits of some of the more interesting birds which are common on the wild plains of northern Patagonia, and first for the largest or South American ostrich. The ordinary habits of the ostrich are familiar to everyone. They live on vegetable matter, such as roots and grass, but at Baia Blanca I have repeatedly seen three or four come down at low water to the extensive mud banks which are then dry for the sake, as the Gauchos say, of feeding on small fish. Although the ostrich in its habits is so shy, wary, and solitary, and although so fleet in its pace, it is caught without much difficulty by the Indian or Gaucho armed with the bolas. When several horsemen appear in a semi-circle, it becomes confounded and does not know which way to escape. They generally prefer running against the wind, yet at first start they expand their wings and like a vessel make all sail. On one fine hot day I saw several ostriches enter a bed of tall rushes where they squatted concealed till quite closely approached. It is not generally known that ostriches readily take to the water. Mr. King informs me at the Bay of St. Blas, and at Port Valdes in Patagonia he saw these birds swimming several times from island to island. They ran into the water both when driven down to a point forward when not frightened. The distance crossed was about two hundred yards. When swimming very little of their bodies appear above water. Their necks are extended a little forward and their progress is slow. On two occasions I saw some ostriches swimming across the Santa Cruz River where its course was about four hundred yards wide and the stream rapid. Captain Sturt, when descending the Morum Bidji in Australia, saw two emus in the act of swimming. The evidence of the country readily distinguish even at a distance the cockbird from the hen. The former is larger and darker colored and has a bigger head. In a footnote a gaucho assured me that he'd once seen a snowy white or albino variety and that it was a most beautiful bird. The ostrich, I believe the cock, emits a singular deep-toned hissing note. When I first heard it standing in the midst of some sand helix I thought it was made out of some wild beast for it is a sound that one cannot tell whence it comes or from how far distant. When we were at Baia Blanca in the months of September and October the eggs in extraordinary numbers were found all over the country. They lie either scattered and single in which case they are never hatched and are called by the Spaniards huachos or they are collected together into a shallow excavation which forms the nest. Out of the four nests which I saw three contained twenty-two eggs each and the fourth twenty-seven. In one day's hunting on horseback sixty-four eggs were found forty-four of these were in two nests and the remaining twenty scattered huachos. The gauchos unanimously affirm and there is no reason to doubt their statement that the male bird alone hatches the eggs and for some time afterwards accompanies the young. The gauch when on the nest lies very close. I have myself almost ridden over one. It is asserted that at such times they are occasionally fierce and even dangerous and that they have been known to attack a man on horseback trying to kick and leap on him. My former pointed out to me an old man whom he had seen much terrified by one chasing him. I observe in Burcell's travels in South Africa that he remarks quote having killed a male ostrich and the feathers being dirty it was said by the hotentots to be a nest bird unquote. I understand that the male emu in the zoological gardens takes charge of the nest. This habit therefore is common to the family. The gauchos unanimously affirm that several females lay in one nest. I have been positively told that four or five hen birds have been watched to go in the middle of the day one after the other to the same nest. I may add also that it is believed in Africa that two or more females lay in one nest. Although this habit at first appears very strange I think the cause may be explained in a simple manner. The number of eggs in the nest varies from 20 to 40 and even to 50 and according to Azara sometimes to 70 or 80. Now although it is most probable from the number of eggs found in one district being so extraordinarily great in proportion to the parent birds and likewise from the state of the ovarium of the hen that she may in the course of the season lay a large number. Yet the time required must be very long. Azara states that a female in the state of domestication laid 17 eggs each at the interval of three days one from another. If the hen was obliged to hatch her own eggs before the last was laid the first probably would be addled. But if each laid a few eggs at successive periods in different nests and several hens as is stated to be the case combined together then the eggs in one collection would be nearly of the same age. If the number of eggs in one of these nests is as I believe not greater on an average than the number laid by one female in the season then there must be as many nests as females and each cockbird will have its fair share of the labor of incubation. And that during a period when the females probably could not sit from not having finished laying. In a footnote Lichtenstein however asserts that the hens begin sitting when they have laid ten or twelve eggs and that they continue laying I presume in another nest. This appears to me very improbable. He asserts that four or five hens associate for incubation with one cock who sits only at night. End footnote I have before mentioned the great numbers of huachos or deserted eggs so that in one day's hunting twenty were found in this state. It appears odd that so many should be wasted. Does it not arise from the difficulty of several females associating together and finding a male ready to undertake the office of incubation? It is evidence that there must at first be some degree of association between at least two females. Otherwise the eggs would remain scattered over the wide plains at distances far too great to allow of the male collecting them into one nest. Some authors have believed that the scattered eggs were deposited for the young birds to feed on. This can hardly be the case in America because the huachos, although often found addled and putrid are generally whole. When at the Rio Negro in northern Patagonia I repeatedly heard the gauchos talking of a very rare bird which they called the asvestrus petis. They described it as being less than the common ostrich which is their abundant but with a very close general resemblance. They said its color was dark and mottled and that its legs were shorter and feathered lower down than those of the common ostrich. It is more easily caught by the bolas than the other species. The few inhabitants who had seen both kinds affirmed they could distinguish them apart from a long distance. The eggs of the small species appeared, however, more generally known. And it was remarked with surprise that they were very little less than those of the ria but of a slightly different form and with a tinge of pale blue. This species occurs most rarely on the plains bordering the Rio Negro but about a degree and a half farther south they are tolerably abundant. When at Port Desire in Patagonia, latitude 48 degrees Mr. Martens shot an ostrich and I looked at it forgetting at the moment in the most unaccountable manner the whole subject of the patices and thought it was a not full-grown bird of the common sort. It was cooked and eaten before my memory returned. Fortunately the head, neck, legs, wings, many of the larger feathers and a large part of the skin had been preserved. And from these a very nearly perfect specimen has been put together and is now exhibited in the museum of the Zoological Society. Mr. Gould, in describing this new species has done me the honour of calling it after my name. Among the Patagonian Indians in the Strait of Magellan we found a half Indian who had lived some years with the tribe but had been born in the northern provinces. I asked him if he had ever heard of the Avestru's patice. He answered by saying quote, why there are none others in these southern countries unquote. He informed me that the number of eggs of these is considerably less than in that of the other kind, namely not more than fifteen on an average. But he asserted that more than one female deposited them. At Santa Cruz we saw several of these birds. They were excessively wary. I think they could see a person approaching when too far off to be distinguished themselves. In ascending the river few were seen but in our quiet and rapid descent many, in pairs and by fours or fives were observed. But this bird did not expand its wings when first starting at full speed after the manner of the northern kind. In conclusion I may observe that the Struthioria inhabits the country of La Plata as far as a little south of the Rio Negro in latitude forty-one degrees and that the Struthiodar Winii takes its place in southern Patagonia the part about the Rio Negro being neutral territory. Monsieur A. Durbinye when at the Rio Negro had great exertions to procure this bird but never had the good fortune to succeed. In a footnote when at the Rio Negro we heard much of the indefatigable hours of this naturalist. Monsieur A. Durbinye during the years 1825 to 1833 traversed several large portions of South America and has made a collection and is now publishing the results on a scale of magnificence which at once places himself in the list of American travelers in the list. Dubbertofer long ago was aware of there being two kinds of ostriches. He says, quote, you must know moreover that emus differ in size and habits in different tracts of land. For those that inhabit the plains of Buenos Aires and Tucumán are larger and have black, white and gray feathers. Those near to the Strait of Magellan are smaller and more beautiful for their white feathers are tipped with black at the extremity end of Chapter 5 Part 1 Recording by Roger Turneau Chapter 5 Part 2 of The Voyage of the Beagle This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Roger Turneau The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin Chapter 5 Part 2 Chapter 6 A very singular little bird. Tinnocorus rhamicivorus is here common. In its habits and general appearance it nearly equally partakes of the characters different as they are of the quail and snipe. The tinnocorus is found in the whole of southern South America wherever there are sterile plains are open, dry pasture land. It frequents in pairs or small flocks the most desolate places where scarcely another living creature can exist. When approached they squat close and then are very difficult to be distinguished from the ground. When feeding they walk rather slowly with their legs wide apart. They dust themselves in roads and sandy places and frequent particular spots where they may be found day after day. Like partridges they take wing in a flock. In all these respects in the muscular gizzard adapted for vegetable food in the arched beak and fleshy nostrils short legs and form of foot close affinity with quails. But as soon as the bird is seen flying its whole appearance changes the long pointed wings so different from those in the galinatious order the irregular manner of flight and plaintive cry uttered at the moment of rising recall the idea of a snipe. The sportsman of the beagle unanimously called it the short-billed snipe. To this genus or rather to the family of the waiters its skeleton shows that it is really closely related. The tinnocorus is closely related to some other South American birds. The species of the genus atages are in almost every aspect tarmigans in their habits. One lives in Tierra del Fuego above the limits of the forest land and the other just beneath the snow line on the cordillera of central Chile. A bird of another closely allied genus Chionis alba is an inhabitant of the Antarctic regions. It feeds on seaweed and shells on the tidal rocks. Although not webfooted from some unaccountable habit it is frequently met with far out at sea. This small family of birds is one of those which from its varied relations to other families although at present offering only difficulties to the systematic naturalist ultimately may assist in revealing the grand scheme common to the present and past ages on which organized beings have been created. Genus Funarius contains several species all small birds living on the ground and inhabiting open dry countries. In structure they cannot be compared to any European form. Ornthologists have generally included them among the creepers although opposed to that family in every habit. The best known species is the common oven bird of La Plata the casada or housemaker of the Spaniards. The nest, once it takes its name is placed in the most exposed situations as on the top of a post, a bear, rock or on a cactus. It is composed of mud and bits of straw and has strong thick walls. In shape it precisely resembles an oven or depressed beehive. The opening is large and arched and directly in front within the nest there is a partition which reaches nearly to the roof thus forming a passage or antichamber to the true nest. Another and smaller species of Funarius Funarius Cunecalarius resembles the oven bird in the general reddish tint of its plumage and in a peculiar shrill reiterated cry and in an odd manner of running by starts. From its affinity the Spaniards call it Casarita or little house builder although its nitification is quite different. The Casarita builds its nest at the bottom of a narrow cylindrical hole which is said to extend horizontally to nearly six feet underground. Several of the country people told me that, when boys, they had attempted to dig out the nest but it scarcely ever succeeded in getting to the end of the passage. The bird chooses any low bank of firm sandy soil by the side of a road or stream. Here, at Bahia Blanca, the walls round the houses are built of hardened mud and I noticed that one which enclosed a courtyard where I lodged was bored through by round holes in a score of places. On asking the owner the cause of this he bitterly complained of the little Casarita, several of which I afterwards observed at work. It is rather curious to find how incapable these birds must be of acquiring any notion of thickness for although they were constantly flitting over the low wall they continued vainly to bore through it thinking it an excellent bank for their nests. I do not doubt that each bird as often as it came to daylight on the opposite side was greatly affected. I've already mentioned nearly all the mammalia common in this country. Of armadillos, three species occur, namely the Decipus minutus, or peachy, the D. villosis, or peludo, and the apar. The first extends ten degrees farther south than any other kind. A fourth species, the mulita does not come as far south as Bahia Blanca. The fourth species have nearly similar habits. The peludo, however, is nocturnal while the others wander by day over the open plains feeding on beetles, larvae, roots, and even small snakes. The apar, commonly called mataco, is remarkable by having only three movable bands, the rest of its tessellated covering being nearly inflexible. It has the power of rolling itself into a perfect sphere, like one kind of English woodlouse. In this state it is safe from the attack of dogs. For the dog not being able to take the hole in its mouth tries to bite one side and the ball slips away. The smooth hard covering of the mataco offers a better defense than the sharp spines of the hedgehog. The pishi prefers a very dry soil and the sand dunes near the coast where for many months it can ever taste water is its favorite resort. It often tries to escape notice by squatting close to the ground. In the course of a day's ride near Bahia Blanca several were generally met with. The instant one was perceived it was necessary in order to catch it almost to tumble off one's horse. For in the soft soil the animal burrowed so quickly that its hindercorders would almost disappear before one could alight. It seems almost a pity to kill such nice little animals, for, as a gaucho said while sharpening his knife on the back of one, son tan mansos they are so quiet. Of reptiles there are many kinds. One snake, a trigoniscephalus or cofius, subsequently called by M.B.Bran T. Crepetans from the size of the poison channel in its fangs must be very deadly. Cuvier, in opposition to some other naturalists, makes this a subgenus of the rattlesnake and intermediate between it and the viper. In confirmation of this opinion I observed a fact which appears to be very curious and instructive as showing how every character even though it may be in some degree independent of structure has a tendency to vary by slow degrees. The extremity of the tail of this snake is terminated by a point which is very slightly enlarged and as the animal glides along it constantly vibrates the last inch. And this part, striking against the dry grass and brushwood produces a rattling noise which can be distinctly heard at the distance of six feet. As often as the animal was irritated or surprised its tail was shaken and the vibrations were extremely rapid. Even as long as the body retained its irritability, a tendency to this habitual movement was evident. This trigonosephalus has, therefore, in some respects the structure of a viper with the habits of a rattlesnake. The noise, however, being produced by a simpler device. The expression of this snake's face was hideous and fierce. The pupil consisted of a vertical slit in a modelled and coppery iris. The jaws were broad at the base and the nose terminated in a circular projection. I do not think I ever saw anything more ugly, accepting, perhaps, some of the vampire bats. I imagine this repulsive aspect originates from the features being placed in positions with respect to each other somewhat proportional to those of the human face, and thus we obtain a scale of hideousness. Amongst the Batrakean reptiles I found only one little toad, Freniscus nigricans which was most singular from its colour. If we imagine, first, that it had been steeped in the blackest ink, and then when dry allowed to crawl over a board freshly painted with the brightest vermilion so as to colour the soles of its feet and parts of its stomach a good idea of its appearance will be gained. If it had been an unnamed species surely it ought to have been called diabolicus, for it is a fit toad preach in the ear of Eve. Instead of being nocturnal in its habits, as other toads are and living in damp obscure recesses, it crawls during the heat of the day about the dry sand helix and arid plains where not a single drop of water can be found. It must necessarily depend on the dew for its moisture. And this probably is absorbed by the skin, for it is known that these reptiles possess great powers of cutaneous absorption. At Maldonado I found one in a situation nearly as dry as at Baye Blanca, and thinking to give it a great treat carried it to a pool of water. Not only was the little animal unable to swim, but I think without help it would soon have been drowned. Of lizards there were many kinds, but only one proctotratus multimaculatus remarkable from its habits. It lives on the bare sand near the sea coast, and from its mottled colour the brownish scales being speckled with yellowish red and dirty blue can hardly be distinguished from the surrounding surface. When frightened it attempts to avoid discovery by feigning death without stretched legs, depressed body and closed eyes. If further molested it buries itself with great quickness in the loose sand. This lizard from its flattened body and short legs cannot run quickly. I will here add a few remarks on the hibernation of animals in this part of South America. When we first arrived at Baye Blanca on September 7th, 1832, we thought nature had granted scarcely a living creature to this sandy and dry country. By digging however in the ground several insects, large spiders and lizards were found in a half-torped state. On the 15th a few animals began to appear, and by the 18th three days from the equinox everything announced the commencement of spring. The plants were ornamented by the flowers of a pink wood-sorrow, wild peas on a therai and geraniums, and the birds began to lay their eggs. Numerous lamellicorn and heteromerous insects, the latter remarkable for their deeply sculptured bodies, were slowly crawling about, while the lizard tribe, the constant inhabitants of a sandy soil, darted about in every direction. During the first eleven days, while nature was dormant, the mean temperature taken from observations made every two hours on board the degrees, and in the middle of the day the thermometer seldom ranged above fifty-five. On the eleven succeeding days in which all living things became so animated, the mean was fifty-eight degrees, and the range in the middle of the day between sixty and seventy. Here then an increase of seven degrees in mean temperature, but a greater one of extreme heat was sufficient to awake the functions of life. At Montevideo, from which we have just before sailed, in the twenty-three days included between the twenty-sixth of July and the nineteenth of August, the mean temperature from two hundred and seventy-six observations was fifty-eight point four degrees, the mean hottest day being sixty-five point five degrees, and the coldest forty-six degrees. The lowest point to which the thermometer fell was forty-one point five degrees, and occasionally in the middle of the day it rose to sixty-nine or seventy degrees. Yet with this high temperature almost every beetle, several genera of spiders, snails, and land shells, toads, and lizards, were all lying torpid beneath stones. But we have seen that at Bahia Blanca, which is four degrees southward, and therefore with the climate only a very little colder, this same temperature, with a rather less extreme heat, was sufficient to awake all orders of animated beings. This shows how nicely the stimulus required to arouse hibernating animals is governed by the usual climate of the district, and not by the absolute heat. It is well known that within the tropics the hibernation, or more properly estivation of animals, is determined not by the temperature, but by the times of drought. Near Rio de Janeiro I was at first surprised to observe that a few days after some little depressions had been filled with water they were peopled by numerous full-grown shells and beetles, which must have been lying dormant. Humboldt has related the strange accident of a hovel having been erected over a spot where a young crocodile lay buried in the hardened mud. He adds, quote, the Indians often find enormous boas which they call Uji or water serpents in the same lethargic state. To reanimate them they must be irritated or wedded with water. I will only mention one other animal, a zoophyte, I believe Virgillaria Patagonica, a kind of sea-pen. It consists of a thin, straight, fleshy stem with alternate rows of polypy on either side and surrounding an elastic stony axis, varying in length from 8 inches to 2 feet. The stem at one extremity is truncate, but at the other is terminated by a veriform fleshy appendage. The stony axis, which gives strength to the stem may be traced at this extremity into a mere vessel filled with granular matter. At low water hundreds of these zoophytes might be seen, projecting like stubble with the truncate end upwards, a few inches above the surface of the muddy sand. When touched or pulled they suddenly drew themselves in with force so as nearly or quite to disappear. By this action the highly elastic axis must be bent at the lower extremity where it is naturally slightly curved and I imagine it is by this elasticity alone that the zoophyte is enabled to rise again through the mud. Each polypus though closely united to its brethren has a distinct mouth, body and tentacular. Of these polypy in a large specimen there must be many thousands yet we see that they act by one movement. They have also one central axis connected with a system of obscure circulation and the ova are produced in an organ distinct from the separate individuals. In a footnote the cavities leading from the fleshy compartments of the extremity were filled with a yellow pulpy matter which, examined under a microscope presented an extraordinary appearance. The mass consisted of rounded semi-transparent irregular grains aggregated together into particles of various sizes. All such particles in the separate grains possessed the power of rapid movement generally revolving around different axes but sometimes progressive. The movement was visible with a very weak power but even with the highest its cause could not be perceived. It was very different from the circulation of the fluid in the elastic bag containing the thin extremity of the axis. On other occasions when dissecting small marine animals beneath the microscope I have seen particles of pulpy matter some of large size as soon as they were disengaged commence revolving. I've imagined I know not with how much truth that this granular pulpy matter was being converted into ova. Certainly in this zoophyte such appeared to be the case. End footnote Well may one be allowed to ask what is an individual? It is always interesting to discover the foundation of the strange tales of the old voyagers and I have no doubt but that the habits of this virgularia explain one such case. Captain Lancaster in his voyage in 1601 narrates that on the sea sands of the island of Sombrero in the East Indies he found a small twig growing up like a young tree and on offering to pluck it up it shrinks down to the ground and sinks unless held very hard. On being plucked up a great worm is found to be its root and as the tree groweth in greatness so doth the worm diminish and as soon as the worm is entirely turned into a tree it rudeth in the earth and so becomes great. This transformation is one of the strangest wonders that I saw in all my travels for if this tree is plucked up while young and the leaves and bark stripped off it becomes a hard stone when dry much like white coral thus is this worm twice transformed into different natures. Of course we gathered and brought home many end quote. During my stay at Baye Blanca while waiting for the beagle the place was in a constant state of excitement between the rumors of wars and victories between the troops of Rosas and the wild Indians. One day an account came that a small party forming one of the postas on the line to Buenos Aires had been found all murdered. The next day three hundred men arrived from the Colorado under the command of Comandante Miranda. A large portion of these men were Indians, Mansos or Tame, belonging to the tribe of the Cacique of the Coal. They passed the night here, and it was impossible to conceive anything more wild and savage than the scene of their Bivouac. Some drank till they were intoxicated. Others swallowed the steaming blood of the cattle slaughtered for their suppers and then, being sick from drunkenness, they cast it up again and were besmeared with filth and gore. Namsimil, expletus, dapibus, vinocue, sepultus, servissum inflexum, posuit, jequitque per antrum, imensus sanium irructans, acfrusta cruenta, persomum comista marrow. In the morning they started for the scene of the murder with orders to follow the rastros or track, even if it led them to Chile. We subsequently heard that the wild Indians had escaped into the great Pampas, and from some cause the track had been missed. One glance at the rastro tells these people a whole history. Supposing they examine the track of a thousand horses, they will soon guess the number of mounted ones by seeing how many have cantered. By the depth of the other impressions, whether any horses were loaded with cargoes. By the irregularity of the footsteps, how far tired. By the manner in which the food has been cooked, whether the pursuit traveled in haste. By the general appearance, how long it has been since they passed. They consider a rastro of ten days or fortnight quite recent enough to be hunted out. We also heard that Miranda struck from the west end of the Sierra Ventana in a direct line to the island of Cholechel, situated seventy leagues up the Rio Negro. This is a distance of between two and three hundred miles through a country completely unknown. What other troops in the world are so independent? With the sun for their guide, mare's flesh for food, their saddle-cloths for beds, as long as there is a little water, these men would penetrate to the end of the world. A few days afterwards, I saw another troop of these banditi-like soldiers start on an expedition against a tribe of Indians at the small Salinas, who had been betrayed by a prisoner, Cacique. The Spaniard who had brought the orders for this expedition was a very intelligent man. He gave me an account of the last engagement at which he was present. Some Indians, who had been taken prisoners, gave information of a tribe living north of the Colorado. Two hundred soldiers were sent, and they first discovered the Indians by a cloud of dust from their horses' feet as they chanced to be travelling. The country was mountainous and wild, and it must have been far in the interior, for the Cordillera were in sight. The Indians, men, women, and children were about one hundred and ten in number, and they were nearly all taken or killed for the soldiers' sabre every man. The Indians are now so terrified that they offered no resistance in a body, but each flies neglecting even his wife and children. But when overtaken, like wild animals, they fight against any number to the last moment. One dying Indian seized with his teeth the thumb of his adversary, and allowed his own eye to be forced out sooner than relinquish his hold. Another, who was wounded, feigned death, keeping a knife ready to strike one more fatal blow. My informer said when he was doing an Indian, the man cried out for mercy at the same time that he was covertly losing the bolus from his waist, meaning to whirl it round his head and so strike his pursuer. Quote, I however struck him with my sabre to the ground and then got off my horse and cut his throat with my knife. This is a dark picture. But how much more shocking is the unquestionable fact of an Indian who appear above twenty years old or massacred in cold blood? When I exclaimed that this appeared rather inhuman, he answered, quote, why, what can be done, they breed so. Everyone here is fully convinced that this is the most just war because it is against barbarians. Who would believe in this age that such atrocities could be a civilized country? The children of the Indians are saved to be sold or given away as servants or rather slaves for as long a time as the owners can make them believe themselves slaves. But I believe in their treatment there is little to complain of. In the battle four men ran away together. They were pursued, one was killed and the other three were taken alive. They turned out to be messengers or ambassadors from a large body of Indians united in the common cause of defense near the Corriera. The tribe to which they had been sent was on the point of holding a grand council. The feast of mare's flesh was ready and the dance prepared. In the morning the ambassadors were to have returned to the Corriera. They were remarkably fine men, very fair, above six feet high and all under three years of age. The three survivors of course possessed very valuable information and to extort this they were placed in a line. The two first being questioned answered, no say, I do not know and were one after the other shot. The third also said no say adding, quote, fire, I am a man and can die. Not one syllable would they breathe to injure the united cause of their country. The conduct of the above mentioned Cacique was very different. He saved his life by betraying the intended plan of warfare and the point of union in the Andes. It was believed that they were already six or seven hundred Indians together and that in summer their numbers would be doubled. Ambassadors were to have been sent to the Indians at the small Salinas near Baye Blanca whom I have mentioned that the same Cacique had betrayed. The communication therefore between the Indians extends from the Corriera to the coast of the Atlantic. General Rosas' plan is to kill all stragglers and having driven the remainder to a common point to attack them in a body in the summer with the assistance of the Chilenos. This operation is to be repeated for three successive years. I imagine the summer is chosen as the time for the main attack because the plains are then without water and the Indians can only travel in particular directions. The escape of the Indians to the south of the Rio Negro where in such a vast unknown country they would be safe is prevented by a treaty with the Tuelches to this effect that Rosas pays them so much to slaughter every Indian who passes to the south of the river. But if they fail in so doing they themselves are to be exterminated. The wars waged chiefly against the Indians near the Corriera for many of the tribes on this eastern side are fighting with Rosas. The general however like Lord Chesterfield thinking that his friends may in a future day become his enemies always places them in the front ranks so that their numbers may be thinned. Since leaving South America we have heard that this war of extermination completely failed. Among the captive girls taken in the same engagement there were two very pretty Spanish ones who had been carried away by the Indians when young and could now only speak the Indian tongue. From their account they must have come from Salta a distance in a straight line of nearly one thousand miles. This gives one a grand idea of the immense territory over which the Indians roam. Yet, great as it is I think there will not in another half century be a wild Indian northward of the Rio Negro. The warfare is too bloody to last. The Christians killing every Indian and the Indians doing the same by the Christians. It is melancholy to trace how the Indians have given way before the Spanish invaders. Sherville says that in 1535 when Buenos Aires was founded there were villages containing two and three thousand inhabitants. Even in Falconer's time 1750 the Indians made inroads as far as Luxan, Areco and Arecife but now they are driven beyond the Salado. Not only have whole tribes been exterminated but the remaining Indians have become more barbarous. Instead of living in large villages and being employed in the arts of fishing as well as of the chase they now wander about the open plains without home or fixed occupation. I heard also some account of an engagement which took place a few weeks previously to the one mentioned at Cholechel. This is a very important station on account of being a pass for horses and it was in consequence for some time the headquarters of a division of the army. When the troops first arrived there they found a tribe of Indians of whom they killed twenty or thirty. The casique escaped in a manner which astonished everyone. The chief Indians always have one or two picked horses which they keep ready for any urgent occasion. On one of these an old white horse the casique sprung taking with him his little son. The horse had neither saddle nor bridle. To avoid the shots the Indian rode in the peculiar method of his nation namely with an arm round the horse's neck and one leg only on its back. Thus hanging on one side he was seen patting the horse's head and talking to him. The pursuers urged every effort in the chase. The commandant three times changed his horse but all in vain. The old Indian father and his son were free. What a fine picture one can form in one's mind. The naked bronze-like figure of the old man with his little boy riding like a misépa on a white horse thus leaving far behind him the host of his pursuers. I saw one day a soldier striking fire with a piece of flint which I immediately recognized as having been part of the head of an arrow. He told me it was found near the island of Cholechel and that they are frequently picked up there. It was between two and three inches long and therefore twice as large as those now used in Tierra del Fuego. It was made of an opaque cream-coloured flint but the point and barbs had been intentionally broken off. It is well known that no pompous Indians now use bows and arrows. I believe a small tribe in Banda Oriental must be accepted but they are widely separated from the pompous Indians and border close on those tribes that inhabit the forest and live on foot. It appears therefore that these arrowheads are antiquarian relics of the Indians before the great change in habits consequent on the introduction of the horse into South America. And in a footnote here Azara has even doubted whether the pompous Indians ever used bows and it's followed by a note from the editor. Several similar agate arrowheads have since been dug up at Chupat and two were given to me on the occasion of my first visit there by the Governor. R. T. Pritchett, 1880 End of Chapter 5 Part 2 Recording by Roger Turnow Chapter 6 Part 1 of The Voyage of the Beagle This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Gilles Leou The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin Chapter 6 Part 1 Set out for Paris Real Sauce Sierra Ventana Third Posta Driving Horses Bolas Partridges and Foxes Features of the Country Long Legged Plover Teru Tero Hellstorm Natural Enclosures in the Sierra Tepalguan Flesh of Puma Meat Diet Guardia del Monte Effects of cattle on the vegetation Cardoom Buenos Aires Corral where cattle are slaughtered September 18 I hired a Gaucho to accompany me on my ride to Buenos Aires though with some difficulty as the father of one man was afraid to let him go and another who seemed willing was described to me as so fearful that I was afraid to take him for I was told that even if he saw an ostrich at a distance he would mistake it for an Indian and would fly like the wind away The distance to Buenos Aires is about 400 miles and nearly the whole way through an uninhabited country We started early in the morning ascending a few hundred feet from the basin of Green Turf on which Baya Blanca stands We entered on a wide desolate plain It consists of a crumbling argiliceo calcareous rock which, from the dry nature of the climate supports only scattered tufts of withered uniformity The weather was fine but the atmosphere remarkably hazy I thought the appearance foreboded a gale but the gauchos said it was owing to the plain at some great distance in the interior being on fire After a long gallop having changed horses twice we reached the Rio Sos It is a deep rapid little stream not above 25 feet wide The second poster on the road to Buenos Aires stands on its banks A little above there is a ford for horses where the water does not reach to the horses belly but from that point in its course to the sea it is quite impassable and hence makes a most useful barrier against the Indians Insignificant as this stream is the Jesuit falconer whose information is generally so very correct figures it as a considerable river rising at the foot of the Cordillera With respect to its source I do not doubt that this is the case for the gauchos assured me that in the middle of the dry summer this stream at the same time with the Colorado has periodical floods which can only originate in the snow melting on the Andes It is extremely improbable that a stream so small as the sauce then was should traverse the entire width of the continent and indeed if it were the residue of a large river its waters as in other ascertain cases would be saline During the winter we must look to the springs around the Sierra Ventana as the source of its pure rapid stream I suspect the plains of Patagonia like those of Australia are traversed by many water courses which only perform their proper parts at certain periods Probably this is the case with the water which flows into the head of Port Desire and likewise with the Rio Chupat on the banks of which masses of highly cellular scoriae were found by the officers deployed in the survey As it was early in the afternoon when we arrived we took fresh horses and a soldier for a guide and started for the Sierra de la Ventana This mountain is visible from the anchorage at Bahia Blanca and Captain Fitzroy calculates its height to be 3,340 feet an altitude very remarkable on this eastern side of the continent I am not aware that any foreigner previous to my visit had ascended this mountain and indeed very few of the soldiers at Bahia Blanca knew anything about it Hence we heard of beds of coal of gold and silver of caves and of forests all of which inflamed my curiosity only to disappoint it The distance from the poster was about six leagues over a level plane of the same character as before The ride was, however interesting as the mountain began to show its true form When we reached the foot of the main ridge we had much difficulty in finding any water and we thought we should have been obliged to have passed the night without any At last we discovered some by looking close to the mountain or at the distance even of a few hundred yards the streamlets were buried and entirely lost in the freeable calcareous stone and loose detritus I do not think nature ever made a more solitary desolate pile of rock It well deserves its name of Huartado or separated The mountain is steep extremely rugged and broken and so entirely destitute of trees and even bushes that we actually could not make a skewer to stretch out our meat over the fire of tissel stocks I call these tissel stocks for the want of a more correct name I believe it is a species of irringium The strange aspect of this mountain is contrasted by the sea-like plane which not only abuts against its steep sides but likewise separates the parallel ranges The uniformity of the coloring gives an extreme quietness to the view The whitish gray of the quartz rock and the light brown of the withered grass of the plane being unrivaled by any brighter tint From custom one expects to see in the neighborhood of a lofty and bold mountain a broken country strewed over with huge fragments Here nature shows that the last movement before the bed of the sea is changed into dry land may sometimes be one of tranquility Under these circumstances I was curious to observe how far from the parent rock any pebbles could be found On the shores of Baja Blanca and near the settlement there were some of quartz which certainly must have come from this source The distance is 45 miles The dew which in the early part of the night whetted the saddle cloth under which we slept was in the morning frozen The plane though appearing horizontal had insensibly sloped up to a height of between 800 and 900 feet above the sea In the morning 9th of September the guide told me to ascend the nearest ridge which he thought would lead me to the four peaks that crown the summit The climbing up such rough rocks was very fatiguing The sides were so indented that what was gained in one five minutes was often lost in the next At last when I reached the ridge my disappointment was extreme in finding a precipitous valley as deep as the plane which cut the chain traversely in two and separated me from the four points This valley is very narrow but flat bottomed and it forms a fine horse pass for the Indians As it connects the planes on the northern and southern sides of the range having descended and while crossing it I saw two horses grazing I immediately hit myself in the long grass and began to reconnoiter But as I could see no signs of Indians I proceeded cautiously on my second ascent It was late in the day and this part of the mountain like the other was steep and rugged I was on top of the second peak by two o'clock but got there with extreme difficulty Every twenty yards I had the cramp in the upper part of both thighs so that I was afraid I should not have been able to have got down again It was also necessary to return by another road as it was out of the question to pass over the saddle-back I was therefore obliged to give up the two higher peaks Their altitude was but little greater and every purpose of geology had been answered so that the attempt was not worth the hazard of any further exertion I presume the cause of the cramp was the great change in the kind of muscular action from that of hard riding to that of still harder climbing It is a lesson worth remembering as in some cases it might cause much difficulty I have already said the mountain is composed of white quartz rock and with it a little glossy clay slate is associated at the height of a few hundred feet above the plain patches of conglomerate adhered in several places to the solid rock they resembled in hardness and in the nature of the cement the masses which may be seen daily forming on some coasts I do not doubt these pebbles were in a similar manner aggregated at a period when the great calcareous formation was depositing beneath the surrounding sea we may believe that the jagged and battered forms of the hard quartz yet show the effects of the waves of an open ocean I was on the whole disappointed with this ascent even the view was insignificant a plain like the sea but without its beautiful color and defined outline the scene however was novel and a little danger like salt to meet gave it a relish that the danger was very little was certain for my two companions made a good fire a thing which is never done when it is suspected that Indians are near I reached the place of our bivouac by sunset and drinking much mate and smoking several cigarritos soon made up my bed for the night the wind was very strong and cold but I never slept more comfortably September 10th in the morning having fairly scutted before the gale we arrived by the middle of the day at the sauce-posta in the road we saw great numbers of deer and near the mountain the plain which abuts against the Sierra is traversed by some curious gullies of which one was about 20 feet wide and at least 30 deep we were obliged in consequence to make a considerable circuit before we could find a pass we stayed the night at the poster the conversation as was generally the case being about the Indians the Sierra Ventana was formerly a great place of resort and three or four years ago there was much fighting here my guide had been present when many Indians were killed the women escaped to the top of the ridge and fought most desperately with great stones many thus saving themselves September 11th proceeded to the third poster in company with the lieutenant who commanded it the distance is called 15 leagues but it is only guesswork and is generally overstated the road was uninteresting over a dry grassy plain and on our left end at a greater or less distance there were some low hills a continuation of which we crossed close to the poster before our arrival we met a large herd of cattle and horses guarded by 15 soldiers but we were told many had been lost it is very difficult to drive animals across the plains for if in the night a puma or even a fox approaches nothing can prevent the horses dispersing in every direction and a storm will have the same effect a short time since the officer left Buenos Aires with 500 horses and when he arrived at the army he had under 20 soon afterwards we perceived by the cloud of dust that a party of horsemen were coming towards us when far distant my companions knew them to be Indians by their long hair streaming behind their backs the Indians generally have a fillet round their heads and their black hair blowing across their swarthy faces heightens to an uncommon degree the wildness of their appearance they turned out to be a party of Bernantio's friendly tribe going to a Selena for salt the Indians eat much salt their children sucking it like sugar this habit is very different from that of the Spanish Gauchos who, leading the same kind of life eat scarcely any according to Mungo Park it is people who live on vegetable food who have an unconquerable desire for salt the Indians gave us good humored nods as they passed at full Gallup driving before them a troop of horses and followed by a train of lanky dogs September 12th and 13th I stayed at this poster two days waiting for a troop of soldiers which General Rosas had the kindness to send to inform me would shortly travel to Buenos Aires and he advised me to take the opportunity of the escort in the morning we rode to some neighboring hills to view the country and to examine the geology after dinner the soldiers divided themselves into two parties for a trial of skill with the bolas two spears were stuck in the ground 25 yards apart but they were struck and entangled only once in four or five times the balls can be thrown 50 or 60 yards but with little certainty this, however does not apply to a man on horseback for when the speed of the horse is added to the force of the arm it is said that they can be whirled with effect to the distance of 80 yards as a proof of their force I may mention that at the Falkland Islands when the Spaniards murdered some of their own countrymen and all the Englishmen a young friendly Spaniard was running away when a great tall man by name Luciano came at full gallop after him shouting to him to stop and saying that he only wanted to speak to him just as the Spaniard was on the point of reaching the boat Luciano threw the balls they struck him on the legs with such a jerk as to throw him down and to render him for some time insensible the man after Luciano had had his talk was allowed to escape he told us that his legs were marked to great wheels where the thong had won round as if he had been flogged with a whip and in the middle of the day two men arrived who brought a parcel from the next poster to be forwarded to the general so that besides these two our party consisted this evening of my guide and self the lieutenant and his four soldiers the latter were strange beings the first a fine young Negro the second half Indian and Negro and the two others non-descripts the third party an old Chilean minor the color of mahogany and another partly a mulatto but two such mangroves with such detestable expressions I never saw before at night when they were sitting round the fire and playing at cards I retired to view such a Salvatore rosa scene they were seated under a low cliff so that I could look down upon them around the party were lying dogs arms, remnants of deer and ostriches and their long spears were stuck in the turf further in the dark background their horses were tied up ready for any sudden danger if the stillness of the desolate plain was broken by one of the dogs barking a soldier leaving the fire would place his head close to the ground and the slowly scan the horizon even if the noisy teru-teru uttered its scream there would be a pause in the conversation and every head for a moment a little inclined what a life of misery these men appear to us to lead they were at least ten leagues from the sosposta and since the murder committed by the Indians twenty from another the Indians are supposed to have made their attack in the middle of the night for very early in the morning after the murder they were luckily seen approaching this sosposta the whole party here however escaped together with the troops of horses each one taking a line for himself and driving with him as many animals as he was able to manage the little hovel in which they slept neither kept out the wind nor rain indeed in the latter case the only effect the roof had was to condense it into larger drops they had nothing to eat except what they could catch such as ostriches, deer armadillos etc and their only fuel was the dry stalks of a small plant somewhat resembling an aloe the sole luxury which these men enjoyed was smoking the little paper cigars and sucking mate I used to think that the carry-on vultures man's constant attendance on these dreary plains while seated on the little neighbouring cliffs seemed by their very patience to say ah, when the Indians come we shall have a feast in the morning we all sallied forth to hunt and although we had not much success there were some animated chases soon after starting the party separated and so arranged their plans that at certain time of the day in guessing which they show much skill they should all meet from different points of the compass on a plain piece of ground and thus drive together one day I went out hunting at Baia Blanca but the men there merely rode in a crescent each being about a quarter of a mile apart from the other a fine male ostrich being turned by the headmost riders tried to escape on one side the Gauchos pursued a reckless pace twisting their horses about with the most admirable command and each man whirling the balls round his head at length the foremost through them revolving through the air in an instant the ostrich rolled over and over its legs fairly lashed together by the thong the planes abound with three kinds of partridge two of which are as large as hen pheasants their destroyer a small and pretty fox was also singularly numerous in the course of the day they could not have seen less than 40 or 50 they were generally near their earths but the dogs killed one when we returned to the posta we found two of the party returned who had been hunting by themselves they had killed a puma and had found an ostrich's nest with 27 eggs in it each of these is said to equal in weight 11 hen's eggs contained from this one nest as much food as 297 hen's eggs would have given End of Chapter 6 Part 1 Recording by Gilles Leou Montréal, Canada January, 2007 Chapter 6 Part 2 of The Voyage of the Beagle This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Catherine Eastman The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin Chapter 6 Part 2 Bahia Blanca to Buenos Aires September, 14th As the soldiers belonging to the next posta meant to return to make a party of five and all armed I determined not to wait for the expected troops my host, the lieutenant pressed me much to stop as he had been very obliging not only providing me with food but lending me his private horses I wanted to make him some remuneration I asked my guide whether I might do so but he told me certainly not that the only answer I should receive would be we have meat for the dogs in our country and therefore do not grudge it to a Christian it must not be supposed that the rank of lieutenant in such an army would at all prevent the acceptance of payment it was only the high sense of hospitality which every traveller is bound to acknowledge as nearly universal throughout these provinces after galloping some leagues we came to a low swampy country which extends for nearly 80 miles northward as far as the Sierra Tapalguen in some parts there were fine damp plains covered with grass while others had a soft black and peaty soil there were also many extensive but shallow lakes and large beds of reeds the country on the whole resembled the better parts of the Cambridgeshire Fens at night we had some difficulty in finding amidst the swamps a dry place for a bivouac September 15th rose very early in the morning and shortly after passed the posta where the Indians had murdered the five soldiers the officer had 18 cuzzo wounds in his body by the middle of the day after a hard gallop we reached the fifth posta on account of some difficulty in procuring horses we stayed there the night most exposed on the whole line 21 soldiers were stationed here at sunset they returned from hunting bringing with them seven deer three ostriches and many armadillos and partridges when riding through the country it is a common practice to set fire to the plain and hence at night as on this occasion the horizon was illuminated in several places by brilliant conflagrations this is done partly for the sake of puzzling any stray Indians but chiefly for improving the pasture in grassy plains unoccupied by the larger ruminating quadrupeds it seems necessary to remove the superfluous vegetation by fire so as to render the new year's growth serviceable the rancho at this place did not boast even of a roof but merely consisted of a ring of thistle stalks to break the force of the wind was situated on the borders of an extensive but shallow lake swarming with wild fowl among which the black-necked swan was conspicuous the kind of plover which appears as if mounted on stilts hemantopus nigger collies is here common in flocks of considerable size it has been wrongfully accused of inelegance when wading about in shallow water which is its favorite resort its gait is far from awkward these birds in a flock utter a noise that singularly resembles the cry of a pack of small dogs in full chase waking in the night I have more than once been for a moment startled at the distant sound the teru-teru vanilla's caanus is another bird which often disturbs the stillness of the night in appearance and habits it resembles in many respects are pee-wits its wings however are armed with sharp spurs like those on the legs of the common cock as our pee-wit takes its name from the sound of its voice so does the teru-teru while riding over the grassy plains one is constantly pursued by these birds which appear to hate mankind and I am sure deserve to be hated for their never ceasing unvaried harsh screams to the sportsman they are most annoying by telling every other bird an animal of his approach to the traveler in the country they may possibly, as Molina says do good by warning him of the midnight robber during the breeding season they attempt, like our pee-wits by feigning to be wounded to draw away from their nests dogs and other enemies the eggs of this bird it's delicacy September 16th to the seventh pasta at the foot of the Sierra Tabalguen the country was quite level with a coarse herbage and a soft peaty soil the hovel was here remarkably neat the posts and rafters being made of about a dozen dry thistle stalks bound together with thongs of hide and by the support of these ionic like columns the roof and sides were thatched with reeds we were here told a fact which I would not have credited if I had not had partly ocular proof of it, namely that during the previous night hail as large as small apples and extremely hard had fallen with such violence as to kill the greater number of the wild animals one of the men had already found thirteen deer service-compestress, lying dead and I saw their fresh hides another of the party a few minutes after my arrival brought in seven more now I well know that one man without dogs could hardly have killed seven deer in a week the men believed they had seen about fifteen ostriches part of one of which we had for dinner and they said that several were running about evidently blind in one eye numbers of smaller birds as ducks, hawks and partridges were killed I saw one of the latter with a black mark on its back as if it had been struck with a paving-stone a fence of thistle stocks round the hovel was nearly broken down and my informer putting his head out to see what was the matter received a severe cut and now wore a bandage the storm was said to have been of limited extent we certainly saw from our last night's bivouac a dense cloud and lightning in this direction it is marvellous how such strong animals as deer could thus have been killed but I have no doubt from the evidence I have given that the story is not in the least exaggerated I am glad however to have its credibility supported by the Jesuit Dobrijofen who speaking of a country much to the northward says hail fell of an enormous size and killed vast numbers of cattle the Indians hence called the place Lalagraikavaka meaning the little white things footnote history of the Abhuponis volume 2 page 6 Dr. Malcomson also informs me that he witnessed in 1831 in India a hail storm which killed numbers of large birds and much injured the cattle these hail stones were flat and one was 10 inches in circumference and another weighed 2 ounces they plowed up a gravel walk like musket balls and passed through glass windows making round holes but not cracking them having finished our dinner of hail-stricken meat we crossed the Sierra Tapalguen a low range of hills a few hundred feet in height which commences at Cape Corientes the rock in this part is pure quartz further eastward I understand it is granitic the hills are of a remarkable form they consist of flat patches of table-land surrounded by low perpendicular cliffs like the outliers of a sedimentary deposit the hill which I ascended was very small not above a couple of hundred yards in diameter but I saw others larger one which goes by the name of the corral is said to be two or three miles in diameter and encompassed by perpendicular cliffs between 30 and 40 feet high accepting at one spot where the entrance lies Falconer gives a curious account of the Indians driving troops of wild horses into it and then by guarding the entrance keeping them secure footnote Falconer's Patagonia page 70 I have never heard of any other instance of table-land in a formation of quartz and which in the hill I examined had neither cleavage nor stratification I was told that the rock of the corral was white and would strike fire we did not reach the poster on the Rio top Alguén till after it was dark at supper from something which was said I was suddenly struck with horror at thinking that I was eating one of the favorite dishes of the country namely a half-formed calf long before its proper time of birth it turned out to be puma the meat is very white and remarkably like veal in taste Dr. Shaw was laughed at for stating that the flesh of the lion is in great esteem having no small affinity with veal both in color taste and flavor such certainly is the case with the puma the gauchos differ in their opinion whether the jaguar is good eating but are unanimous in saying that cat is excellent September 17th we followed the course of the Rio top Alguén through a very fertile country to the ninth poster top Alguén itself or the town of top Alguén if it may be so called consists of a perfectly level plane studded over as far as the eye can reach with the toldos or oven-shaped huts of the Indians the families of the friendly Indians who were fighting on the side of the roses resided here we met and passed many young Indian women riding by two or three together on the same horse they as well as many of the young men were strikingly handsome their fine ruddy complexions being the picture of health besides the toldos there were three ranchos one inhabited by the commandant two others by Spaniards with small shops we were here able to buy some biscuit I had now been several days without tasting anything besides meat I did not at all dislike this new regimen but I felt as if it would only have agreed with me with hard exercise I have heard that patients in England when desired to confine themselves exclusively to an animal diet even with the hope of life before their eyes have hardly been able to endure it yet the gaucho in the pompous for months together touches nothing but beef but they eat I observe a very large proportion of fat which is of a less animalized nature and they particularly dislike dry meat such as that of the aguti Dr. Richardson also has remarked that when people have fed for a long time solely upon lean animal food the desire for fat becomes so insatiable that they can consume a large quantity of unmixed and even oily fat without nausea this appears to me a curious physiological fact footnote fauna boreali americana volume 1 page 35 it is perhaps from their meat regimen that the gauchos like other carnivorous animals can abstain long from food I was told that at Tandil some troops voluntarily pursued a party of Indians for three days without eating or drinking we saw in the shops many articles such as horse cloths, belts and garters woven by the Indian women the patterns were very pretty and the colors brilliant the workmanship of the garters was so good that an English merchant at Buenos Aires maintained they must have been manufactured in England till he found the tassels had been fastened by split sinew September 18th we had a very long ride this day at the 12th poster which is seven leagues south of the Rio Salado we came to the first Estancia with cattle and white women afterwards we had to ride for many miles through a country flooded with water above our horses knees by crossing the stirrups riding Arab-like with our legs bent up we contrived to keep tolerably dry it was nearly dark when we arrived at the salado the stream was deep and about forty yards wide in summer however its bed becomes almost dry and the little remaining water nearly as salt as that of the sea we slept at one of the great Estancias of General Rosas it was fortified and of such an extent that arriving in the dark I thought it was a town and fortress in the morning we saw immense herds of cattle the general here having seventy four square leagues of land formerly nearly three hundred men were employed about this estate and they defied all the attacks of the Indians September 19th past the Guardia del Monte this is a nice scattered little town with many gardens full of peach and quince trees the plain here looked like that around Buenos Aires the turf being short and bright green with beds of clover and thistles and with bizcacha holes I was very much struck with a marked change in the aspect of the country after having crossed the salado from a coarse herbage we passed on to a carpet of fine green verger in the nature of the soil but the inhabitants assured me that here as well as in Banda Oriental where there is as great a difference between the country round Montevideo and the thinly inhabited savernas of Colonia the whole was to be attributed to the manoring and grazing of the cattle exactly the same fact has been observed in the prairies of North America where coarse grass between five and six feet high cattle changes into common pasture land footnote see Mr. Atwater's account of the prairies in Cilliman's NA Journal Volume 1 page 117 I am not botanist enough to say whether the change here is owing to the introduction of new species to the altered growth of the same or to a difference in their proportional numbers Azara has also observed with much, much, much he is likewise much perplexed by the immediate appearance of plants not occurring in the neighborhood on the borders of any track that leads to a newly constructed in another part he says footnote Azara's voyages Volume 1 page 373 does this not partly explain the circumstance we thus have lines of richly manured land serving as channels of communication across wide districts near the Guardia we find the southern limit of two European plants now become extraordinarily common the fennel in great profusion covers the ditch banks in the neighborhood of Buenos Aires Montevideo and other towns but the cartoon Sinara Cardunculus has a far wider range it occurs in these latitudes on both sides of the Cordillera across the continent footnote volume 1 page 474 says that the cartoon and artichoke are both found wild Dr. Hooker botanical magazine volume 4 page 2862 has described a variety of the Sinara from this part of South America under the name of Inermas he states that botanists are now generally agreed that the cartoon and the artichoke are varieties of one plant I may add that an intelligent farmer assured me that he had observed in a deserted garden some artichokes changing into the common cartoon Dr. Hooker believes that Hed's vivid description of the thistle of the pompous applies to the cartoon take Captain Hed referred to the plant which I have mentioned a few lines lower down under the title of giant thistle whether it is a true thistle I do not know but it is quite different from the cartoon and more like a thistle properly so called and footnote I saw it in unfrequented spots in Chile, Entre Rios and Banda Oriental in the latter country alone very many several hundred square miles are covered by one mass of these prickly plants and are impenetrable by man or beast over the undulating plains where these great beds occur nothing else can now live before their introduction however the surface must have supported as in other parts a rank herbage I doubt whether any case is on record of an invasion on so grand a scale of one plant or the aborigines as I have already said I know where saw the cartoon south of the salado but it is probable that in proportion as that country becomes inhabited the cartoon will extend its limits the case is different with the giant thistle with variegated leaves of the pompous for I met with it in the valley of the sauce according to the principles so well laid down by Mr. Lyell few countries have undergone more remarkable changes since the year 1535 when the first colonists of La Plata landed with seventy-two horses the countless herds of horses, cattle, and sheep not only have altered the whole aspect of the vegetation but they have almost banished the guanaco, deer, and ostrich numberless other changes must likewise have taken place the wild pig in some parts probably replaces the peccary packs of wild dogs may be heard howling on the wooded banks of the less frequented streams and the common cat altered into a large and fierce animal inhabits rocky hills as Mr. Dorbigny has remarked the increase in numbers of the carrion vulture since the introduction of the domestic animals must have been infinitely great and we have given reasons for believing that they have extended their southern range no doubt many plants besides the cardoon and fennel are naturalized thus the islands near the mouth of the piranha are thickly clothed with peach and orange trees springing from seeds carried there by the waters of the river while changing horses at the Guardia several people questioned us much about the army I never saw anything like the enthusiasm for Rosas and for the success of the most just of all wars because against barbarians this expression it must be confessed is very natural for till lately neither man woman nor horse was safe from the attacks of the Indians we had a long days ride over the same rich green plane abounding with various flocks and with here and there a solitary estancia and its one ombu tree in the evening it rained heavily on arriving at a post house we were told by the owner that if we had not a regular passport we must pass on for there were so many robbers he would trust no one when he read however my passport which began with El naturalista Don Carlos his respect and civility were as unbounded as his suspicions had been before what a naturalist might be neither he nor his countrymen had no idea but probably my title lost nothing of its value from that cause September 20th we arrived by the middle of the day at Buenos Aires the outskirts of the city looked quite pretty with the agave hedges and groves of olive, peach, and willow trees all just throwing out their fresh green leaves I rode to the house of Mr. Lum an English merchant to whose kindness and hospitality during my stay in the country I was greatly indebted the city of Buenos Aires is large and I should think one of the most regular in the world footnote it is said to contain 60,000 inhabitants Montevideo the second town of importance on the banks of the plata has 15,000 every street is at right angles to the one it crosses and the parallel ones being equidistant the houses are collected into solid squares of equal dimensions which are called quadras on the other hand, the houses themselves are hollow squares all the rooms opening into a neat little courtyard they are generally only one story high with flat roofs which are fitted with seats and are much frequented by the inhabitants in summer in the center of the town is the plaza where the public offices, fortress, cathedral etc. stand here also the old viceroys before the revolution had their palaces the general assemblage of buildings possesses considerable architectural beauty although none individually can boast of any the great corral where the animals are kept for slaughter to supply food to this beef eating population is one of the spectacles best worth seeing the strength of the horse that of the bullock is quite astonishing a man on horseback having thrown his lazo around the horns of a beast can drag it anywhere he chooses the animal plowing up the ground with outstretched legs in vain efforts to resist the force generally dashes at full speed to one side but the horse immediately turning to receive the shock stands so firmly that the bullock is almost thrown down or not broken the struggle is not however one of fair strength the horse's girth being matched against the bullock's extended neck in a similar manner a man can hold the wildest horse if caught with the lazo just behind the ears when the bullock has been dragged to the spot where it is to be slaughtered the matador with great caution cuts the hamstrings then is given the death bellow of fierce agony than any I know I have often distinguished it from a long distance and have always known that the struggle was then drawing to a close the whole sight is horrible and revolting the ground is almost made of bones and the horses and riders are drenched with gore End of Chapter 6 Part 2