 Chapter 3 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 Roger Turnow. The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin. Chapter 3 Part 1. Mal Donato. Chapter subheadings are Montevideo. Mal Donato. Excursion to R. Polanco. Lazo and Bolas. Partridges. Absence of Trees. Deer. Capybara, or river hog. Tukutuko. Malothrus, caculike habits. Pirant flycatcher. Mockingbird, carrion hawks. Tubes formed by lightning. House struck. July 5th, 1832. In the morning we got under way, and stood out of the splendid harbor of Rio de Janeiro. In our passage to the Plata we saw nothing particular, excepting on one day a great shoal of porpoises, many hundreds in number. The whole sea was in places furrowed by them, and a most extraordinary spectacle was presented, as hundreds, proceeding together by jumps in which their whole bodies were exposed, thus cut the water. When the ship was running nine knots an hour, these animals could cross and recross the boughs with the greatest ease, and then dash away right ahead. As soon as we entered the estuary of the Plata, the weather was very unsettled. One dark night we were surrounded by numerous seals and penguins which made such strange noises that the officer on watch reported that he could hear the cattle bellowing on shore. On the second night we witnessed a splendid scene of natural fireworks, the mast head and yard arm ends shown with St. Elmo's light, and the form of the vein could almost be traced, as if it had been rubbed with phosphorus. The sea was so highly luminous that the tracks of the penguins were marked by a fiery wake, and the darkness of the sky was momentarily illuminated by the most vivid lightning. When within the mouth of the river, I was interested by observing how slowly the waters of the sea and river mixed. The latter, muddy and discolored, from its less specific gravity, floated on the surface of the salt water. This was curiously exhibited in the wake of the vessel, where a line of blue water was seen mingling in little eddies with the adjoining fluid. 1832 We anchored at Montevideo. The beagle was employed in surveying the extreme southern and eastern coasts of America, south of the Plata, during the two succeeding years. To prevent useless repetitions, I will extract those parts of my journal which refer to the same districts, without always attending to the order in which we visited them. Maldonado is situated on the southern bank of the Plata, and not very far from the mouth of the estuary. It is a most quiet forlorn little town, built, as is universally the case in these countries, with the streets running at right angles to each other, and having in the middle a large plaza or square, which, from its size, renders the scantiness of the population more evident. It possesses scarcely any trade, the exports being confined to a few hides and living cattle. The inhabitants are chiefly landowners, together with a few shopkeepers and the necessary tradesmen, blacksmiths and carpenters, who do nearly all the business for a circuit of 50 miles round. The town is separated from the river by a band of sand hillocks, about a mile broad. It is surrounded on all other sides by an open, slightly undulating country, covered by one uniform layer of fine green turf, on which countless herds of cattle, sheep, and horses graze. There's very little land cultivated even close to the town. A few hedges made of cacti and agave mark out where some wheat or Indian corn has been planted. The features of the country are very similar along the whole northern bank of the plata. The only difference is that here the granitic hills are a little bolder. The scenery is very uninteresting. There's scarcely a house, an enclosed piece of ground, or even a tree to give it an air of cheerfulness. Yet after being imprisoned for some time in a ship, there is a charm in the unconfined feeling of walking over boundless plains of turf. Moreover, if your view is limited to a small space, many objects possess beauty. Some of the smaller birds are brilliantly colored, and the bright green suede, browsed short by the cattle, is ornamented by dwarf flowers, among which a plant, looking like the daisy, claimed the place of an old friend. What would a florist say to whole tracts so thickly covered by the Verbena Melindris as even at a distance to appear of the most gaudy scarlet? I stayed ten weeks at Maldonado, in which time a nearly perfect collection of the animals, birds, and reptiles was procured. Before making any observations respecting them, I will give an account of a little excursion I made as far as the river Polanco, which was about 70 miles distant in a northerly direction. I may mention, as a proof how cheap everything is in this country, that I paid only two dollars a day, or eight shillings, for two men, together with a troop of about a dozen riding-horses. My companions were well armed with pistols and sabers, a precaution which I thought rather unnecessary. But the first piece of news we heard was that the day before a traveller from Montevideo had been found dead on the road with his throat cut. This happened close to a cross, the record of a former murder. On the first night we slept at a retired little country house. And there I soon found out that I possessed two or three articles, especially a pocket compass, which created unbounded astonishment. In every house I was asked to show the compass, and by its aid, together with a map, to point out the direction of various places. It excited the liveliest admiration that I, a perfect stranger, should know the road, for direction and road are synonymous in this open country, to places where I had never been. At one house a young woman, who was ill in bed, sent to entreat me to come and show her the compass. If their surprise was great, mine was greater to find such ignorance among people who possessed their thousands of cattle and Estancias of greatest extent. It can only be accounted for by the circumstance that this retired part of the country is seldom visited by foreigners. I was asked whether the earth or sun moved, whether it was hotter or colder to the north, where Spain was, and many other such questions. The greater number of the inhabitants had an indistinct idea that England, London, and North America were different names for the same place. But the better informed well knew that London and North America were separate countries close together, and that England was a large town in London. I carried with me some Promethean matches, which I ignited by biting. It was thought so wonderful that a man should strike fire with his teeth that it was usual to collect the whole family to see it. I was once offered a dollar for a single one. Washing my face in the morning caused much speculation at the village of Las Menas. A superior tradesman closely cross-questioned me about so singular a practice, and likewise why on board we wore our beards, for he had heard from a guide that we did so. He guided me with much suspicion. Perhaps he had heard of ablutions in the Mohammedan religion, and knowing me to be a heretic, probably he came to the conclusion that all heretics were Turks. It is the general custom in this country to ask for a night's lodging at the first convenient house. The astonishment at the compass and my other feats of jugglery was to a certain degree advantageous. As with that and the long stories my guides told of my breaking stones knowing venomous snakes, collecting insects, etc., I repaid them for their hospitality. I'm writing as if I had been among the inhabitants of Central Africa. Banda Oriental would not be flattered by the comparison, but such were my feelings at the time. The next day we rode to the village of Las Menas. The country was rather more hilly, but otherwise continued the same. An inhabitant of the pompous no doubt would have considered it as truly alpine. The country so thinly inhabited that during the whole day we scarcely met a single person. Las Menas is much smaller even than Maldonado. It is seated on a whole plain and is surrounded by low rocky mountains. It is of the usual symmetrical form, and with its whitewash church standing in the center had rather a pretty appearance. The outskirting houses rose out of the plain like isolated beings without the accompaniment of gardens or courtyards. This is generally the case in the country, and all the houses have in consequence an uncomfortable aspect. At night we stopped at a pulporia or drinking shop. During the evening a great number of gauchos came in to drink spirits and smoked cigars. Their appearance is very striking. They're generally tall and handsome, but with a proud and disillute expression of countenance. They frequently wear their mustaches and long black hair curling down their backs. With their brightly colored garments great spurs clanking about their heels and knives stuck as daggers, and often so used at their wastes, they look a very different race of men from what might be expected from their name of gauchos or simple countrymen. Their politeness is excessive. They never drink their spirits without expecting you to taste it. But whilst making their exceedingly graceful bow they seem quite as ready, if occasion offered, to cut your throat. On the third day we pursued rather an irregular course as I was employed in examining some beds of marble. On the fine plains of Turf we saw many ostriches, Struthio rea. Some of the flocks contained as many as twenty or thirty birds. These, when standing on any little eminence and seen against the clear sky, presented a very noble appearance. I never met with such tame ostriches in any other part of the country. It was easy to gallop up within a short distance of them, but then, expanding their wings, they made all sail right before the wind, and soon left the horse astern. At night we came to the house of Don Juan Fuentes, a rich-landed proprietor, but not personally known to either of my companions. On approaching the house of a stranger it is usual to follow several little points of etiquette. Riding up slowly to the door, the salutation of Ave Maria is given. And until somebody comes out and asks you to alight, it is not customary even to get off your horse. The formal answer of the owner is Sin picado con sabida, that is, conceived without sin. Having entered the house some general conversation is kept up for a few minutes till permission is asked to pass the night there. This is granted as a matter, of course. The stranger then takes his meals with the family, and a room is assigned to him, where, with the horse-cloth belonging to his riccato, or saddle of the pompous, he makes his bed. It is curious how similar circumstances produce such similar results in manners. At the Cape of Good Hope the same hospitality and very nearly the same points of etiquette are universally observed. The difference, however, between the character of the Spaniard and that of the Dutch boar is shown by the former never asking his guest a single question beyond the strictest rule of politeness. Whilst the honest Dutchman demands where he has been, where he is going, what is his business, and even how many brothers, sisters, or children he may happen to have. Shortly after our arrival at Don Wands one of the largest herds of cattle was driven in toward the house. And three beasts were picked out to be slaughtered for the supply of the establishment. These half-wild cattle are very active. And knowing full well the fatal lazo, they led the horses a long and laborious chase. After witnessing the rude wealth displayed in the number of cattle, men, and horses, Don Wands' miserable house was quite curious. The floor consisted of hardened mud, and the windows were without glass. The sitting-room boasted only of a few of the roughest chairs and stools with a couple of tables. The supper, although several strangers were present, consisted of two large piles. One of roast beef, the other of boiled, with some pieces of pumpkin. Besides this ladder there was no other vegetable, not even a morsel of bread. For drinking a large earthenware jug of water served the whole party. Yet this man was the owner of several square miles of land, of which nearly every acre would produce corn, and, with little trouble, all the common vegetables. The evening was spent in smoking, with a little impromptu singing accompanied by the guitar. The sinuretas all sat together in one corner of the room and did not sup with the men. So many works have been written about these countries that it is almost a perfluous to describe either the lasso or the bolas. The lasso consists of a very strong but thin well-plated rope made of raw hide. One end is attached to the broad sursinkle which fastens together the complicated gear of the ricotta or saddle used in the pompous. The other is terminated by a small ring of iron or brass by which a noose can be formed. The gaucho, when he's going to use the lasso, has a small coil in his bridle hand, and in the other holds the running noose which is made very large, generally having a diameter of about eight feet. This he twirls round his head and by the dexterous movement of his wrist keeps the noose open. Then, throwing it, he causes it to fall on any particular spot he chooses. The lasso, when not used, is tied up in a small coil to the after part of the ricotta. The bolas, or balls, are of two kinds. The simplest, which is chiefly used for catching ostriches, consists of two round stones covered with leather and united by a thin-plated thong, about eight feet long. The other kind differs only in having three balls united by the thongs to a common center. The gaucho holds the smallest of the three in his hand and whirls the other two round and round his head, then, taking aim, sends them like a chain-shot revolving through the air. The balls no sooner strike any object than, winding round it, they cross each other and become firmly hitched. The size and weight of the balls varies, according to the purpose for which they are made. When of stone, although not larger than an apple, they are sent with such force as sometimes to break the leg even of a horse. I've seen the balls made of wood and as large as a turnip for the sake of catching these animals without injuring them. The balls are sometimes made of iron and these can be hurled to the greatest distance. The main difficulty in using either lasso or bolas is to ride so well as to be able at full speed and while suddenly turning about to whirl them so steadily round the head as to take aim. On foot, any person would soon learn the art. One day, as I was amusing myself by galloping and whirling the balls around my head, by accident the free one struck a bush and its revolving motion, being thus destroyed and immediately fell to the ground. And, like magic, cut one hind leg of my horse. The other ball was then jerked out of my hand and the horse fairly secured. Luckily he was an old practiced animal and knew what it meant. Otherwise he would probably have kicked till he had thrown himself down. The gouchas roared with laughter. They cried out that they had seen every sort of animal caught, but had never before seen a man caught by himself. During the last two succeeding days I reached the farthest point which I was anxious to examine. The country wore the same aspect till at last the fine green turf became more wearisome than a dusty turnpike road. We everywhere saw great numbers of partridges, no thorough major. These birds do not go in cubbies, nor do they conceal themselves like the English kind. It appears a very silly bird. A man on horseback by riding around and round in a circle or rather in a spire so as to approach closer each time may knock on the head as many as he pleases. The more common method is to catch them with a running noose or little lasso made of the stem of an ostrich's feather fastened to the end of a long stick. A boy on a quiet old horse will frequently thus catch thirty or forty in a day. In Arctic North America the Indians catch the varying hair by walking spirally round and round it when on its form. The middle of the day is reckoned the best time when the sun is high and the shadow of the hunter not very long. On our return to Maldonado we followed a rather different line of road. Near Pan de Azucar a landmark well known to all those who sailed up the Plata I stayed a day at the house of a most hospitable old Spaniard. Early in the morning we ascended to the Sierra de las Anemas. By the aid of the rising sun the scenery was almost picturesque. To the westward the view extended over an immense level plain as far as the mount at Montevideo and to the eastward over the mammalated country of Maldonado. On the summit of the mountain there were several small heaps of stones which evidently had lain there for many years. My companion assured me that they were the work of the Indians in the old time. The heaps were similar but on a much smaller scale to those commonly found on the mountains of Wales. The desire to signalize any event on the highest point of the neighboring land seems a universal passion with mankind. At the present day not a single Indian either civilized or wild exists in this part of the province. Nor am I aware that the former inhabitants have left behind them any more permanent records than these insignificant piles on the summit of the Sierra de las Animas. The general and almost entire absence of trees in the Banda Oriental is remarkable. Some of the rocky hills are partly covered by the thickets and on the banks of the larger streams especially to the north of Las Minas willow trees are not uncommon. Near the Arroyo Tapes I heard of a wood of palms and one of these trees of considerable size I saw near the Pan de Azucar in latitude 35 degrees. These and the trees planted by the Spaniards offer the only exceptions to the general scarcity of wood. Among the introduced kinds may be enumerated poplars, olives, peach, and other fruit trees. The peaches succeeded so well that they afford the main supply of firewood to the city of Buenos Aires. Extremely level countries such as the Pampas seldom appear favorable to the growth of trees. This may possibly be attributed either to the force of winds or the kind of drainage. In the nature of the land however around Maldonado no such reason is apparent. The Rocky Mountains afford protected situations enjoying various kinds of soil. Streamlets of water are common at the bottoms of nearly every valley and the clayy nature of the earth seems adapted to retain moisture. It has been inferred with much probability that the presence of woodland is generally determined by the annual amount of moisture. Yet in this province abundant and heavy rains fall during the winter and the summer though dry is not so in any excessive degree. We see nearly the whole of Australia covered by lofty trees yet that country possesses a far more arid climate. Hence we must look to some other and unknown cause. Confining our view to South America we should certainly be tempted to believe the trees flourished only under a very humid climate. For the limit of the forest land follows in a most remarkable manner that of the damp winds. In the southern part of the continent where the western gales charge with moisture from the Pacific prevail every island on the broken west coast from latitude 38 degrees to the extreme point of Tierra del Fuego is densely covered by impenetrable forests. On the eastern side of the Cordillera over the same extent of latitude where a blue sky and a fine climate prove that the atmosphere has been deprived of its moisture by passing over the mountains the arid plains of Patagonia support a most scanty vegetation. In the more northern parts of the continent within the limits of the constant southeastern trade wind the eastern sky is ornamented by magnificent forests. Whilst the western coast from latitude 4 degrees south to 32 degrees south may be described as a desert. On this western coast northward of latitude 4 degrees south where the trade wind loses its regularity and heavy tarns of rain fall periodically the shores of the Pacific so utterly desert in Peru assume near Cape Blanco the character of luxuriance so celebrated at Guayanquil and Panama. Hence in the southern and northern parts of the continent the forest and desert lands occupy reversed positions with respect to the Cordillera and these positions are apparently determined by the direction of the prevalent winds. In the middle of the continent there's a broad intermediate band including Central Chile and the provinces of La Plata where the rain bringing winds have not to pass over lofty mountains and where the land is neither a desert nor covered by forests. But even the rule if confined to South America of trees flourishing only in a climate rendered humid by rain bearing winds has a strongly marked exception in the case of the Falkland Islands. These islands situated in the same latitude with Tierra del Fuego and only between 2 and 300 miles distant from it having a nearly similar climate with a geological formation almost identical with favorable situations and the same kind of peaty soil that can boast a few plants deserving even the title of bushes. Whilst in Tierra del Fuego it is impossible to find an acre of land not covered by the densest forest. In this case both the direction of the heavy gales of wind and of the currents of the sea are favorable to the transport of seeds from Tierra del Fuego as is shown by canoes and trunks of trees drifted from that country and frequently thrown on the shores of the western Falkland. Hence perhaps it is that there are many plants common to the two countries but with respect to the trees of Tierra del Fuego even attempts made to transplant them have failed. During our stay at Maldonado I collected several quadrupeds 80 kinds of birds and many reptiles including 9 species of snakes. Of the indigenous mammalia the only one now left of any size which is common is the service compestress. This deer is exceedingly abundant often in small herds throughout the country's bordering the Plata and in northern Patagonia. If a person crawling close along the ground slowly advances toward a herd the deer frequently out of curiosity approached to reconnoiter him. I have by this means killed from one spot three out of the same herd. Although so tame and inquisitive yet when approached on horseback they are exceedingly wary. In this country nobody goes on foot and the deer knows man as its enemy only when he is mounted and armed with the bolas. At Baia Blanca a recent establishment in northern Patagonia I was surprised to find how little the deer cared for the noise of a gun. One day I fired 10 times from within 80 yards at one animal and it was much more startled at the ball cutting up the ground than at the report of the rifle. My powder being exhausted I was obliged to get up to my shame as a sportsman be it spoken though well able to kill birds on the wing and halloo till the deer ran away. The most curious fact with respect to this animal is the overpoweringly strong and offensive odor which proceeds from the buck. It is quite indescribable. Several times while skinning the specimen which is now mounted at the Zoological Museum I was almost overcome by nausea. I tied up the skin in a silk pocket handkerchief and so carried it home. This handkerchief after being well washed I continually used and it was of course repeatedly washed. Yet every time for a space of one year and seven months when first unfolded I distinctly perceived the odor. This appears an astonishing instance of the permeance of some matter which nevertheless in its nature must be most subtle and volatile. Frequently when passing at the distance of half a mile leeward of a herd I have perceived the whole air tainted with the effluvium. I believe the smell from the buck is most powerful at the period when its horns are perfect or free from the hairy skin. When in this state the meat is, of course, quite unedible. But the gauchos assert that if buried for some time the meat is removed. I have somewhere read that the islanders in the north of Scotland treat the rank carcasses of the fish eating birds in the same manner. The order Rodentia is here very numerous in species. Of mice alone I obtained no less than eight kinds. In a footnote in South America I collected altogether twenty-seven species of mice and thirteen more are known from the works of Azara and other authors. Those collected by myself have been named and described by Mr. Waterhouse at the meetings of the Zoological Society. I must be allowed to take this opportunity of returning my cordial thanks to Mr. Waterhouse and to the other gentlemen attached to that society for their kind and liberal assistance on all occasions. End of footnote The largest gnawing animal in the world the hydrocarous capybara the water hog is here also common. One which I shot at Montevideo weighed ninety-eight pounds. Its length from the end of the stout to the stump-like tail was three feet two inches and its girth three feet eight. These great rodents occasionally frequent the islands in the mouth of the plata where the water is quite salt but are far more abundant on the borders of fresh water lakes and rivers. Near Maldonado three or four generally live together. In the daytime they either lie among the aquatic plants or openly feed on the turf plain. Footnote In the stomach and duodenum of a capybara which I opened I found a very large quantity of a thin yellowish fluid in which scarcely a fiber could be distinguished. Mr. Owen informs me that a part of the esophagus is so constructed that nothing much larger than a crowquill can be passed down. Certainly the broad teeth and strong jaws of this animal are well fitted to grind into pulp the aquatic plants on which it feeds. End of footnote When viewed at a distance from their manner of walking and color they resemble pigs but when seated on their haunches and attentively watching any object with one eye they re-assume the appearance of their congeners. Caves and rabbits Both the front and side view of the head has quite a ludicrous aspect from the great depth of their jaw. These animals at Mal Donato were very tame. By cautiously walking I approached within three yards of four old ones. This tameness may probably be accounted for by the jaguar having been banished for some years and by the gaucho not thinking it worth his while to hunt them. As I approached nearer and nearer they frequently made their peculiar noise which is a low abrupt grunt not having much actual sound but rather rising from the sudden expulsion of air. The only noise I know at all like it is the first horse bark of a large dog. Having watched the four from almost within arms length and they may for several minutes they rushed into the water at full gallop with the greatest impetuosity and emitted at the same time their bark. After diving a short distance they came again to the surface but only just showed the upper part of their heads. When the female is swimming in the water and has the young ones they are afraid to sit on her back. These animals are easily killed in numbers but their skins are of trifling value and the meat is very indifferent. On the islands in the Rio Piranha they are exceedingly abundant and afford the ordinary prey to the jaguar. End of Chapter 3 Part 1 Recording by Roger Turnow Chapter 3 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 Turnow The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin Chapter 3 Part 2 Maldonado The Tukutuko is a curious small animal which may be briefly described as a gnar with the habits of a mole. It is extremely numerous in some parts of the country but it is difficult to be procured and never I believe comes out of the ground. It throws up at the mouth of its burrows helix of earth like those of the mole but smaller. The terrible tracts of the country are so completely undermined by these animals that horses in passing over sink above their fetlocks. The Tukutukos appear to a certain degree to be gregarious. The man who procured the specimens for me had caught six together and he said this was a common occurrence. They are nocturnal in their habits and their principal food is the roots of plants which are the object of their extensive and superficial burrows. This animal is universally known by a very peculiar noise which it makes when beneath the ground. A person, the first time he hears it is much surprised. For it is not easy to tell whence it comes nor is it possible to guess what kind of creature utters it. The noise consists in a short but not rough nasal grunt which is monotonously repeated about four times in quick succession. A footnote here says at the Rio Negro in Northern Patagonia there's an animal of the same habits and probably a closely allied species but which I never saw. Its noise is different from that of the Maldenado kind. It is repeated only twice instead of three or four times and is more distinct and sonorous. When heard from a distance it so closely resembles the sounds made in cutting down a small tree with an axe that I've sometimes remained in doubt concerning it. End of footnote. The name tukotuko is given in imitation of the sound. Where this animal is abundant it may be heard at all times of the day and sometimes directly beneath one's feet. When kept in a room the tukotukos move both slowly and clumsily which appears owing to the outward action of their hind legs and they are quite incapable from the socket of the thighbow not having a certain ligament or height. They are very stupid in making any attempt to escape. When angry or frightened they utter the tukotuko. Of those I kept alive several even the first day became quite tame not attempting to bite or to run away. Others were a little wilder. The man who caught them asserted that very many are invariably found blind. A specimen which I preserved in spirits was in this state. He considers it to be the effect of inflammation in the nictitating membrane. When the animal was alive I placed my finger within half an inch of its head and not the slightest notice was taken. It made its way, however, about the room nearly as well as the others. Considering the strictly subterranean habits of the tukotuko the blindness, though so common cannot be a very serious evil. Yet it appears strange that any animal should possess an organ frequently subject to be injured. Lamarck would have been delighted with this fact had he known it when speculating, probably with more truth than usual with him, on the gradually acquired blindness of the aspelax, a nor living under the ground and of the Proteus a reptile living in dark caverns filled with water. In both of which animals the eye is in an almost rudimentary state and is covered by a tendinous membrane and skin. In the common mole the eye is extraordinarily small but perfect, though many anatomists doubt whether it is connected with the true optic nerve. Its vision must certainly be imperfect though, probably useful to the animal when it leaves its burrow. In the tukotuko, which I believe never comes to the surface of the ground, the eye is rather larger, but often rendered blind and useless, though without apparently causing any inconvenience to the animal. No doubt Lamarck would have said that he was passing into the state of the aspelax and Proteus. Birds of many kinds are extremely abundant on the undulating grassy plains around Maldonado. There are several species of a family allied in structure and manners to our starling. One of these, Melothorus Niger, is remarkable from its habits. Several may often be seen standing together on the back of a cow or horse, and while perched on a hedge, pluming themselves in the sun, or rather to hiss, the noise being very peculiar, resembling that of bubbles of air passing rapidly from a small orifice under water, so as to produce an acute sound. According to Azara, this bird, like the cuckoo, deposits its eggs in other bird's nests. I was several times told by the country people that there certainly is some bird having this habit. And my assistant in collecting, who is a very accurate person, found a nest of the sparrow of this country, Zonatricia matutina, with one egg in it larger than the others, and of a different color and shape. In North America there is another species of Melothorus Melothorus bachoris, which has a similar cuckoo-like habit and which is most closely allied in every respect to the species from the Plata, even in such trifling peculiarities as standing on the backs of cattle. It differs only in being a little smaller and in its plumage and eggs being a slightly different shade of color. This close agreement in structure and habits in representative species coming from opposite quarters of great continent always strikes one as interesting, though of common occurrence. Mr. Swainson has well remarked that with the exception of the Melothorus bachoris, to which must be added the Melothorus Niger, the cuckoos are the only birds which can be truly called parasitical, namely such as, quote, fasten themselves, as it were, a living animal whose animal heat brings their young into life, whose food they live upon, and whose death would cause theirs during the period of infancy. It is remarkable that some of the species, but not all, both of the cuckoo and the Melothorus should agree in this one strange habit of their parasitical propagation, whilst opposed to each other in almost every other habit. The Melothorus, like our Starling, is eminently sociable The cuckoo, as everyone knows, is a singularly shy bird. It frequents the most retired thickets and feeds on fruit and caterpillars. In structure also, these two genera are widely removed from each other. Many theories, even phrenological theories, have been advanced to explain the origin of the cuckoo laying its eggs in other bird's nest. Monsieur Provost alone, I think, has thrown light by his observations on this puzzle. Which, according to most observers, lays at least from four to six eggs must pair with the male each time after laying only one or two eggs. Now, if the cuckoo was obliged to sit on our own eggs, she would either have to sit on all together and therefore leave those first laid so long that they probably would become addled, or she would have to hatch separately each egg or two eggs as soon as laid. But as the cuckoo stays a shorter time in this country than any other migratory bird, she certainly would not have time enough for the success of hatchings. Hence we can perceive in the fact of the cuckoo pairing several times and laying her eggs at intervals the cause of her depositing her eggs in other bird's nests, and leaving them to the care of foster parents. I'm strongly inclined to believe that this view is correct, from having been independently led, as we shall hear after see, to an analogous conclusion with regard to the South American ostrich, so express it on each other. Each female laying several eggs in the nests of several other females and the male ostrich undertaking all the cares of incubation, like the strange foster parents with the cuckoo. I will mention only two other birds which are very common and render themselves prominent from their habits. The serophagus sulferatus is typical of the great American tribe of tyrant flycatchers. In its structure it closely approaches the true shrikes, but in its habits may be compared to many birds. I have frequently observed it hunting a field, hovering over one spot like a hawk and then proceeding on to another. When seen thus suspended in the air it might very readily at a short distance be mistaken for one of the rapacious order. Its stoop, however, is very inferior in force and rapidity to that of a hawk. At other times the serophagus haunts the neighborhood of water and there, like a kingfisher, it catches any small fish which may come near the margin. These birds are not unfrequently kept either in cages or in courtyards with their wings cut. They soon become tame and are very amusing from their cunning odd manners which were described to me as being similar to those of the common magpie. Their flight is undilatory for the weight of the head and bill appears too great for the body. In the evening the serophagus takes its stand on a bush, often by the roadside, and continually repeats without change a shrill and rather agreeable cry which somewhat resembles articulate words. The Spaniards say it is like the words bien te veo, I see you well and accordingly have given it this name. A mockingbird, Mimas Orpheus, called by the inhabitants Calandria, is remarkable from possessing a song far superior to that of any other bird in the country. Indeed it is nearly the only bird in South America which I have observed to take its stand for the purpose of singing. The song may be compared to that of the Sedge Warbler, but is more powerful, some harsh notes and some very high ones being mingled with a pleasant warbling. It is heard only during the spring. At other times its cry is harsh and far from harmonious. Near Maldonado these birds were tame and bold. They constantly attended the country houses and numbers to pick the meat up on the posts or walls. If any other small bird joined the feast the Calandria soon chased it away. On the wide uninhabited plains of Patagonia another closely allied species O Patagonia of Dorbigny which frequents the valleys closed with spiny bushes is a wilder bird and has a slightly different tone of voice. It appears to me a curious circumstance as showing the fine shades of difference in habits the judging from this latter respect alone when I first saw the second species I thought it was different from the Maldonado kind. Having afterwards procured a specimen and comparing the two without particular care they appeared so very similar that I changed my opinion. But now Mr. Gould says they are certainly distinct a conclusion in conformity with the trifling difference of habit of which however he was not aware. The number tameness and disgusting habits of the carrion feeding hawks of South America make them preeminently striking to anyone accustomed only to the birds of Northern Europe. In this list may be included four species of the caracara or polyborus, the turkey buzzard the guianazo and the condor. The caracaras are from their structure placed among the eagles. We shall soon see how ill they become so high a rank. In their habits they well supply a place of our carrion, crows, magpies and ravens. A tribe of birds widely distributed over the rest of the world but entirely absent in South America. To begin with the polyborus brasiliensis this is a common bird and has a wide geographical range. It is most numerous on the grassy savannas of La Plata where it goes by the name of Carancha and is far from infrequent throughout the sterile plains of Patagonia. In the desert between the rivers Negro and Calorado numbers constantly attend the line of road to devour the carcasses of the exhausted animals which chance to perish from fatigue and thirst. Although this is common in these dry and open countries and likewise on the arid shores of the Pacific it is nevertheless found inhabiting the damp and pervious forests of West Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. The Caranchas together with the Chamango constantly attended numbers of burrowing houses. If an animal dies on the plain the Guyanazo commences the feast and then the two species of polyborus pick the bones clean. These birds, although thus commonly feeding together are far from being friends. When the Carancha is quietly seated on the branch of a tree or on the ground the Chamango often continues for a long time flying backwards and forwards up and down in a semi-circle trying each time at the bottom of the curve to make its larger relative. The Carancha takes little notice except by bobbing its head. Although the Caranchas frequently assemble in numbers they are not gregarious for in desert places they may be seen solitary or more commonly by pairs. The Caranchas are said to be very crafty and to steal great numbers of eggs. They attempt also together with the Chamango to pick off the scams from the sore backs of horses and mules. The poor animal with its ears down and its back arched and on the other the hovering bird eyeing at the distance of a yard the disgusting morsel form a picture which has been described by Captain Head with his own peculiar spirit and accuracy. These false eagles most rarely kill any living bird or animal and their vulture like necrophagus habits are very evident to anyone who has fallen asleep on the desolate plains of Patagonia for when he wakes he will see a flying hillock, one of these birds patiently watching him with an evil eye. It is a feature in the landscape of these countries which will be recognized by everyone who has wandered over them. If a party of men go out hunting with dogs and horses they will be accompanied during the day by several of these attendants. After feeding the uncovered craw protrudes at such times and indeed generally the Carancha is an inactive tame and cowardly bird. Its flight is heavy and slow like that of an English rook. It seldom soars but I have twice seen one at a great height gliding through the air with much ease. It runs in contradistinction to hopping but not quite so quickly as some of its congeners. At times the Carancha is noisy but is not generally so. Its cry is loud very harsh and peculiar and may be likened to the sound of the Spanish guttural G followed by a rough double R. When uttering this cry it elevates its head higher and higher till at last with its beak wide open the crown almost touches the lower part of the back. This fact which has been doubted is quite true. I have seen them several times with their heads backwards in a completely inverted position. To these observations I may add on the high authority of Azara that the Carancha feet on worms shells, slugs, grasshoppers and frogs that it destroys young lambs by tearing the umbilical cord and that it pursues the Gaianazo till that bird is compelled to vomit up the carrion it may have recently gorged. Lastly Azara states that several Caranchas five or six together will unite in chase of large birds even such as Hurons. All these facts show that it is a bird of very versatile habits and considerable ingenuity. The Polyborus chimongo is considerably smaller than the last species. It is truly omnivorous and will eat even bread. And I was assured that it materially injures the potato crops in Chiloé by stocking up the roots when first planted. Of all the carrion feeders it is generally the last which leaves the skeleton of a dead animal and may often be seen within the ribs of a cow or horse like a bird in a cage. Another species is the Polyborus novae zelandii which is exceedingly common in the Falkland Islands. These birds in many respects resemble in their habits the Caranchas. They live on the flesh of dead animals and on marine productions and on the Ramirez rocks their whole sustenance must depend on the sea. They are extraordinarily tame and fearless and haunt the neighborhood of houses for awful. If a hunting party kills an animal a number soon collect and patiently await a landing on the ground on all sides. After eating their uncovered claws are largely protruded giving them a disgusting appearance. They readily attack wounded birds a cormorant in this state having taken to shore was immediately seized on by several and its death hastened by their blows. The beagle was at the Falklands only during the summer but the officers of the adventure who were there in the winter mentioned many extraordinary instances of the boldness and opacity of these birds. They actually pounced on a dog that was lying fast asleep close by one of the party and the sportsmen had difficulty in preventing the wounded keys from being seized before their eyes. It is said that several together in this respect resembling the Caranchas waited the mouth of a rabbit-hole and together seized on the animal when it comes out. They were constantly flying on board the vessel when in harbor necessary to keep a good lookout to prevent the leather being torn from the rigging and the meat or game from the stern. These birds are very mischievous and inquisitive. They will pick up almost anything from the ground. A large black glazed hat was carried nearly a mile as was a pair of the heavy balls used in catching cattle. Mr. Usborne experienced during the survey a more severe loss in their stealing a small cater's compass in a red Morocco leather case which was never recovered. These birds are, moreover, quarrelsome and very passionate tearing up the grass with their bills from rage. They are not truly gregarious. They do not soar and their flight is heavy and clumsy. On the ground they run extremely fast very much like pheasants. They are noisy during several harsh cries one of which is like that of the English rook. Hence the sealers always call them rooks. It is a curious circumstance that when crying out they throw their heads upwards and backwards after the same manner as the krancha. They build in the rocky cliffs of the sea coast but only on the small adjoining islets and not on the two main islands. This is a singular precaution and so tame and fearless a bird. The sealers say that the flesh of these birds when cooked is quite white and very good eating, but bold must be the man who attempts such a meal. We have now only to mention the Turkish buzzard, Volter Aura and the Gayanazo. The former is found wherever the country is moderately damp from Cape Horn to North America. Differently from the polyborous Braziliansis and Chamongo it is found its way to the Falkland Islands. The turkey buzzard is a solitary bird where it most goes in pairs. It may at once be recognized from a long distance by its lofty soaring and most elegant flight. It is well known to be a true Haryan feeder. On the west coast of Patagonia among the thickly wooded islets and broken land it lives exclusively on what the sea throws up and on the carcasses of dead seals. Wherever these animals are congregated on the rocks there the vultures may be seen. The Gayanazo, Cathartes atratus has a different range from the last species as it never occurs southward of latitude 41 degrees. Azara states that there exists a tradition that these birds at the time of the conquest were not found near Montevideo but that they subsequently followed the inhabitants from more northern districts. At the present day they are numerous in the valley of the Colorado which is 300 miles due south of Montevideo. It seems probable that this additional migration has happened since the time of Azara. The Gayanazo generally prefers a humid climate or rather the neighborhood of fresh water. Hence it is extremely abundant in Brazil and La Plata while it is never to be found on the desert and arid plains of northern Patagonia except near some stream. These birds frequent the whole Pampas to the foot of the Cordillera but I never saw or heard of one in Chile. In Peru they are preserved as scavengers. These vultures certainly may be called gregarious for they seem to have pleasure in society and are not solely brought together by the attraction of a common prey. On a fine day a flock may often be observed at a great height each bird wheeling round and round without closing its wings in the most graceful evolutions. This is clearly performed for the mere pleasure of the exercise or perhaps is connected with their matrimonial alliances. I have now mentioned all the carrion feeders accepting the condor an account of which will be more appropriately introduced when we visit a country more congenial to its habits of the plata. In a broad band of sand hillocks which separate the Laguna del Portrero from the shores of the plata at the distance of a few miles from Aldenado I found a group of those vitrified siliceous tubes which are formed by lightning entering loose sand. These tubes resemble in every particular those from Drig in Cumberland described in the geological transactions in a footnote In the philosophical transactions at age 294 Dr. Priestley has described some imperfect siliceous tubes and a melted pebble of quartz found in digging into the ground under a tree where a man had been killed by lightning. End of footnote The sand hillocks of Maldenado not being protected by vegetation are constantly changing their position. From this cause the tubes projected above the surface and numerous fragments lying near they had formerly been buried to a greater depth. Four sets entered the sand perpendicularly. By working with my hands I traced one of them 2 feet deep and some fragments which evidently had belonged to the same tube when added to the other part measured 5 feet 3 inches. The diameter of the whole tube was nearly equal and therefore we must suppose that originally it extended to a much greater depth. These dimensions are however small compared to those of the tubes from Drigg one of which was traced to a depth of not less than 30 feet. The internal surface is completely vitrified, glossy and smooth. A small fragment examined under the microscope appeared from the number of minute entangled air or perhaps steam bubbles like in a se fused before the blowpipe. The sand is entirely or in greater parts siliceous but some points are of black color and from their glossy surface possess a metallic luster. The thickness of the wall of the tube varies from a 30th to a 20th of an inch and occasionally even equals a 10th. On the outside the grains of sound are rounded and have a slightly glazed appearance. I could not distinguish any signs of crystallization. In a similar matter to that described in the geological transactions the tubes are generally compressed into furrows, so as closely to resemble a shriveled vegetable stock or the bark of the elm or cork tree. The circumference is about 2 inches but in some fragments which are cylindrical and without any furrows it is as much as 4 inches. The compression from the surrounding loose sand acting while the tube was still softened from the effects of the intense heat has evidently caused the creases of furrows. Judging from the uncompressed fragments the measure or bore of the lightening, if such a term may be used must have been about 1 inch in a quarter. At Paris Monsieur Hauchette and Monsieur Baudel succeeded in making tubes in most respects similar to these fulgurites by passing very strong shocks of galvanism through finely powdered glass. When salt was added so as to increase its fusibility the tubes were larger in every dimension. They failed both with powdered feldspar and quartz. One tube formed with pounded glass was very nearly an inch long namely 0.982 and had an internal diameter of 0.019 of an inch. When we hear that the strongest battery in Paris was used and that its power on a substance of such easy fusibility as glass was to form tubes so diminutive we must feel greatly astonished of a shock of lightening which striking the sand in several places has formed cylinders in one instance of at least 30 feet long and having an internal bore where not compressed of full an inch and a half and this in a material so extraordinarily refractory as quartz. The tubes as I've already remarked enter the sand nearly in a vertical direction. One however which was less regular than the others deviated from a right line at the most considerable bend to the amount of 33 degrees. From the same tube two small branches about a foot apart were sent off. One pointed downwards and the other upwards. This latter case is remarkable as the electric fluid must have turned back at the acute angle of 26 degrees to the line of its main course. Besides the four tubes which I found vertical and increased beneath the surface there were several other groups of fragments the original sites of which without doubt were near. All occurred in a level area of shifting sand 60 yards by 20 situated among some high sand helix and at the distance of about half a mile from a chain of hills 4 or 500 feet in height. The most remarkable circumstance as it appears to me in this case as well as that of Drigg and in one described Rubitrop in Germany is the number of tubes found in such limited spaces. At Drigg within an area of 15 yards 3 were observed and the same number occurred in Germany. In the case which I have described certainly more than 4 existed within the space of the 60 by 20 yards. As it does not appear probable that the tubes are produced by successive distinct shocks we must believe that the lightning entering the ground divides itself into separate branches. The neighborhood of the Rio Plata seems peculiarly subject to electric phenomena. In the year 1793 one of the most destructive thunderstorms perhaps on record happened at Buenos Aires. 37 places within the city were struck by lightning and 19 people killed. From facts stated in several books of travels I am inclined to suspect that thunderstorms are very near the mouths of great rivers. Is it not possible that the mixture of large bodies of fresh and salt water may disturb the electrical equilibrium? Even during our occasional visits to this part of South America we heard of a ship, two churches and a house having been struck. Both the church and the house I saw shortly afterwards. The house belonged to Mr. Hood the Consul General at Montevideo. Some of the effects were curious. The paper, for nearly a foot on each side of the line where the bell wires had run, was blackened. The metal had been fused and although the room was about 15 feet high the globules dropping on the chairs and furniture had drilled in them a chain of minute holes. A part of the wall was shattered as if by gunpowder and the fragments had been blown off with force sufficient to dent the wall on the opposite side of the room. The frame of a looking glass was hardened and the gilding must have been volatilized for a smelling bottle which stood on the chimney-piece was coated with bright metallic particles which adhered as firmly as if they had been enameled. End of Chapter 3 Part 2 Recording by Roger Turnow Chapter 4 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 Leon Meyer The Voyage of the Beagle Chapter 4 Part 1 Rio Negro to Bahia Blanca Rio Negro Estancias Attacked by the Indians Salt Lakes Flamingos Rio Negro to Rio Colorado Sacred Tree Patagonia Hair Indian Families General Rosas Proceed to Bahia Blanca Sand Dunes Negro Lieutenant Bahia Blanca Sailing Incrustaceans Punta Alta Zorio July 24, 1833 The Beagle sailed from Malunado and the Beagle sailed from Malunado and on August 3 she arrived off the mouth of the Rio Negro. This is the principal river on the whole line of coast between the Strait of Magellan and the Plata. It enters the sea about 300 miles south of the estuary of the Plata. About 50 years ago under the old Spanish government a small colony was established here and it is still the most southern position latitude 41 degrees on this eastern coast of America inhabited by a civilized man. The country near the mouth of the river is wretched in the extreme. On the south side a long line of perpendicular cliffs commences which exposes a section of the geological nature of the country. The strata are of sandstone and one layer was remarkable from being composed of a firmly cemented conglomerate of pumice pebbles which must have traveled more than 400 miles from the Andes. The surface is everywhere covered up by a thick bed of gravel which extends far and wide over the open plain. Water is extremely scarce and where found is almost invariably brackish. The vegetation is scanty and although there are bushes of many kinds all are armed with formidable thorns which seem to warn the stranger not to enter on these inhospitable regions. The settlement is situated 18 miles up the river. The road follows a cliff which forms the northern boundary of the great valley in which the Rio Negro flows. On the way we pass the ruins of some fine Estancias which a few years since had been destroyed by the Indians. They were stood several attacks. A man present at one gave me a very lively description of what took place. The inhabitants had sufficient notice to drive all the cattle and horses into the corral which surrounded the house and likewise a small cannon. Footnote. The corral is an enclosure made of tall and strong stakes. Every Estancia or farming estate has one attached to it. End footnote. The Indians were Araucanians from the south of Chile. Several hundreds in number and highly disciplined. They first appeared in two bodies on a neighboring hill. Having their dismounted and taken off their fur mantles they advanced in large. The only weapon of an Indian is a very long bamboo or chuzo. Ornamented with ostrich feathers and pointed by a sharp spearhead. My informer seemed to remember with the greatest horror the quivering of these chuzos as they approached near. When close the casique Pinchera hailed the besieged to give up their arms or he would cut all their throats. As this would probably have been the result of their entrance under any the answer was given by a volley of musketry. The Indians, with great steadiness, came to the very fence of the corral, but to their surprise they found the post fastened together by iron nails instead of leather thongs, and of course in vain attempted to cut them with their knives. This saved the lives of the Christians. Many of the wounded Indians were carried away by their companions, and at last one of the under casiques being wounded the bugle sounded a retreat. They retired to their horses and seemed to hold a council of war. This was an awful pause for the Spaniards as all their ammunition, with the exception of a few cartridges, was expended. In an instant the Indians mounted their horses and galloped out of sight. Another attack was still more quickly repulsed. The cool Frenchman managed the gun. He stopped till the Indians approached close, and then raked their line with grapeshot. He thus laid thirty-nine of them on the ground and of course such a blow immediately routed the whole party. The town is indifferently called El Carmen or Patagones. It is built on the face of a cliff which fronts the river, and many of the houses are excavated even in the sandstone. The river is about two or three hundred yards wide and is deep and rapid. The many islands with their willow trees and the flat headlands, seen one behind the other on the northern area of the broad green valley, formed by the aid of a bright sun, a view almost picturesque. The number of inhabitants does not exceed a few hundreds. These Spanish colonies do not, like our British ones, carry within themselves the elements of growth. Many Indians of pure blood reside here. The tribe of the casique Lucani constantly have their toll-dose on the outskirts of the town. Footnote. The hovels of the Indians are thus called. End footnote. The local government partly supplies them with provisions, by giving them all the old worn out horses and they earn a little by making horse rugs and other articles of riding gear. These Indians are considered civilized, but what their character may have gained by a lesser degree of ferocity is almost counterbalanced by their entire immorality. Some of the younger men are however improving. They are willing to labor, and a short time since, a party went on a sealing voyage and behaved very well. They were now enjoying the fruits of their labor, by being dressed in very gay, clean clothes and by being very idle. The taste they showed in their dress was admirable. If you could have turned one of these young Indians into a statue of bronze, his drapery would have been perfectly graceful. One day I rode to a large Salt Lake, or Salina, which is distant fifteen miles long. During the winter it consists of a shallow lake of brine, which in summer is converted into a field of snow-white salt. The layer near the margin is from four to five inches thick, but towards the center its thickness increases. This lake was two and a half miles long in one broad. Others occur in the neighborhood many times larger and with the floor of salt, two and three feet in thickness, even when under water during the winter. One of these brilliantly white and level expanses in the midst of the brown and desolate plain offers an extraordinary spectacle. A large quantity of salt is annually drawn from the Salina and great piles, some hundred tons in weight, were lying ready for exportation. The season for working the Salinas forms the harvest of Patagones, for on it the prosperity of the place depends. Nearly the whole population encamps on the bank of the river and the people are employed in drawing out the salt in bullock wagons. This salt is crystallized in great cubes and is remarkably pure. Mr. Trenum Rieks has kindly analyzed some for me and he finds in it only 0.26 of gypsum and 0.22 of earthy matter. It is a singular fact that it does not serve so well for preserving meat as sea salt from the Cape de Verde Islands, and a merchant at Buenos Aires told me that he considered it as 50% less valuable. Hence the Cape de Verde salt is constantly imported and is mixed with that from the Salinas. The purity of the Patagonian salt or absence from it of those other sailing bodies found in all seawater is the only assignable cause for this inferiority. A conclusion which no one I think would have suspected, but which is supported by the fact, lately ascertained that those salts answer best for long cheese which contain most of the delicous in chlorides. The border of this lake is formed of mud, and in this numerous large crystals of gypsum some of which are three inches long lie embedded, whilst on the surface others of sulfate of soda lie scattered about. The Gauchos call the former the Padre del Sol and the latter the Madre. They state that these progenitive salts always occur on the borders when the water begins to evaporate. The mud is black and has a fetid odor. I could not at first imagine the cause of this but I afterwards perceive that the froth which the wind drifted on shore was colored green, as if by confervi. I attempted to carry home some of this green matter, but from an accident failed. Parts of the lake seen from a short distance appeared of a reddish color and this perhaps was owing to some infusorial anamalcula. The mud, in many places, was thrown out by numbers of some kind of worm or anelodous animal. How surprising it is that any creature should be able to exist in brine and that they should be crawling along crystals of sulfate of soda and lime. And what becomes of these worms when during the long summer the surface is hardened into a solid layer of salt. Flamingoes in considerable numbers inhabit this lake and breed here throughout Patagonia, in northern Chile and at the Galapagos Islands. I met with these birds wherever there were lakes of brine. I saw them here waiting about in search of food, probably for the worms which burrow in the mud. And these latter probably feed on infusoria or confervi. Thus we have a little living world within itself, adapted to these inland lakes of brine. A minute, crustaceous animal, Cancer Salinas, is said to live in countless numbers and pans at Lamington, but only in those in which the fluid has attained from evaporation considerable strength, namely about a quarter of a pound of salt to a pint of water. Footnote. It is remarkable how all the circumstances connected with the salt lakes in Siberia and Patagonia are similar. Siberia, like Patagonia, appears to have recently elevated above the waters of the sea. In both countries the salt lakes occupy shallow depressions in the plains. In both the mud on the borders is black and fetid. Beneath the crust of common salt sulfate of soda or of magnesium occurs imperfectly crystallized. And in both the muddy sand is mixed with lentils of gypsum. The Siberian salt lakes are inhabited by small crustaceous animals and flamingos likewise frequent them. As these circumstances apparently so trifling occur in two distant continents we may feel sure that they are the necessary results of a common cause. Sea-Palaces travels 1793 to 1794 pages 129 to 134. End Footnote. Well may we affirm that every part of the world is habitable. Whether lakes of brine or those subterranean ones hidden beneath volcanic mountains, warm mineral springs, the wide expanse in depths of the ocean, the upper regions of the atmosphere and even the surface of perpetual snow. All support organic beings. To the northward of the Rio Negro between it and the inhabited country near Buenos Aires, the Spaniards have only one small settlement recently established at Bahia Blanca. The distance in the straight line to Buenos Aires is very nearly 500 British miles. The wandering tribes of horse Indians which have always occupied the greater part of the country, having of late much harassed the outlying Estancias the government at Buenos Aires equipped sometimes since an army under the command of General Rosas for the purpose of exterminating them. The troops were now encamped on the banks of the Colorado, a river lying about 80 miles northward of the Rio Negro. When General Rosas left Buenos Aires he struck in a direct line across the unexplored plains and as the country was pretty well cleared of Indians he left behind him at wide intervals a small party of soldiers with a troop of horses, a posta so as to be enabled to keep up a communication with the capital. As the Beagle intended to call at Bahia Blanca I determined to proceed there by land and ultimately I extended my plan to travel the whole way by the postas to Buenos Aires. August 11th Mr. Harris an Englishman residing at Patagones a guide and five gouchos who are proceeding to the army on business were my companions on the journey. The Colorado as I have already said is nearly 80 miles distant and as we traveled slowly we were two days and a half on the road. The whole line of country deserved scarcely a better name than that of a desert. Water is found only in two small wells. It is called fresh but even at this time of year during the rainy season it was quite brackish. In the summer this must be a distressing passage for now it was sufficiently desolate. The valley of the Rio Negro broad as it is has merely been excavated out of the sandstone plain for immediately above the bank on which the town stands a level country commences which is interrupted only by a few trifling valleys and depressions. Everywhere the landscape wears the same sterile aspect a dry gravelly soil supports tufts of brown withered grass and low scattered bushes armed with thorns. Shortly after passing the first spring we came inside of a famous tree which the Indians reverence as the altar of Wallychu. It is situated on a high part of the plain and hence is a landmark visible at a great distance. As soon as a tribe of Indians come inside of it they offer their adorations by loud shouts. The tree itself is low much branched in thorny. Just above the root it has a diameter of about three feet. It stands by itself without any neighbor and was indeed the first tree we saw. Afterwards we met with a few others of the same kind but they were far from common. Being winter the tree had no leaves but in their place numberless threads by which the various offerings such as cigars, bread, meat pieces of cloth, etc. had been suspended. Poor Indians, not having anything better, only pull a thread out of their ponchos and fasten it to the tree. Richer Indians are accustomed to poor spirits and mate into a certain hole and likewise to smoke upwards thinking thus to afford all possible gratification to Wallychu. To complete the scene the tree was surrounded by the bleached bones of horses which had been slaughtered by horses. All Indians of every age and sex make their offerings. They then think that their horses will not tire and that they themselves shall be prosperous. The Gaucho who told me this said that in the time of peace he had witnessed this scene and that he and others used to wait till the Indians had passed by for the sake of stealing from Wallychu the offerings. The Gauchos think that the Indians consider the tree as the god itself that they regard it as the altar. The only cause which I can imagine for this choice is its being a landmark in a dangerous passage. The Sierra de la Ventana is visible at an immense distance and the Gaucho told me that he was once riding with an Indian a few miles to the north of the Rio Colorado when the Indian commenced making the same loud noise which is usual at the first side of the distant tree putting his hand to his head and then pointing in the direction of the Sierra. Upon being asked the reason of this the Indian said in broken Spanish first see the Sierra. About two leagues beyond this curious tree we halted for the night. At this instant an unfortunate cow was spied by the link-stied Gauchos who set off in full chase and in a few minutes dragged her in with their lazos and slaughtered her. We here had the four necessities of life in El Campo. After for the horses, water only a muddy puddle, meat and firewood. The Gauchos were in high spirits at finding all these luxuries and we soon set to work at the poor cow. This was the first night which I passed under the open sky with the gear of the ricado for my bed. There is high enjoyment in the independence of the Gaucho life to be able at any moment to pull up your horse and say here we will pass the night. The death-like stillness of the plane, the dogs keeping watch, the gypsy group of Gauchos making their beds round the fire have left in my mind a strongly marked picture of this first night which will never be forgotten. The next day the country continued similar to that above described. It is inhabited by few birds or animals of any kind. Occasionally a deer or a guanaco, wild llama may be seen, but the aguti caveat Patagonia is the commonest quadruped. This animal here represents our hairs. It differs however from that genus in many essential respects. For instance it only has three toes behind. It is also nearly twice the size weighing from 20 to 25 pounds. The aguti is a true friend of the desert. It is a common feature of the landscape to see two or three hopping quickly one after the other across these wild plains. They are found as far north as the Sierra Tapalgane latitude 37 degrees 30 where the plain rather suddenly becomes greener and more humid and their southern limit is between Port Desire and St. Julian where there is no change in the nature of the country. It is a singular fact that although the aguti is not now found as far south as Port St. Julian yet that Captain Wood in his voyage in 1670 talks of them as being numerous there. Wood cause can have altered in a wide uninhabited and rarely visited country the range of an animal like this. It appears also from the number shot by Captain Wood in one day at Port Desire that they must have been considerably more abundant there formerly than at present. Where the bizcacha lives and makes its burrows the aguti uses them but where as at Bahia Blanca the bizcacha is not found the aguti burrows for itself. The same thing occurs with the little owl of the Pampas Athenae cunicularia which has so often been described as standing like a sentinel at the mouth of the burrows. For in Banda Oriental owing to the absence of the bizcacha it is obliged to hollow out its own habitation. The next morning when we approached the Rio Colorado the appearance of the country changed. We soon came on a plane covered with turf which from its flowers tall clover and little owls resembled the Pampas. We passed also a muddy swamp of considerable extent which in summer dries and becomes encrusted with various salts and hints is called the Salitrol. It was covered by low succulent plants of the same kind with those growing in the seashore. The Colorado at the pass where we crossed it is only about sixty yards wide. Generally it must be nearly double that width. Its course is very tortuous being marked by willow trees and beds of reeds. In a direct line the distance to the mouth of the river is said to be nine leaks but by water twenty-five. We were delayed crossing in the canoe by some immense troops of mares which were swimming the river to follow a division of troops into the interior. A more ludicrous spectacle I never beheld than the hundreds and hundreds of heads all directed one way with pointed ears and distended snorting nostrils appearing just about the water like a great shoal of some amphibious animal. Mares' flesh is the only food which the soldiers have when on an expedition. This gives them a great facility of movement for the distance to which horses can be driven over these plains is quite surprising. I have been assured that an unloaded horse can travel a hundred miles a day for many days excessively. The encampment of General Rosas was close to the river. It consisted of a square formed by wagons, artillery, straw huts, etc. The soldiers were nearly all cavalry. Inesha thinks such a villainous bandit-like army was never before collected together. The greater number of men were of a mixed breed, between Negro, Indian, and Spaniard. I know not the reason, but men of such origin seldom have a good expression of countenance. I called on the secretary to show my passport. He began to cross-question me in the most dignified and mysterious manner. By good luck I had a letter of recommendation from the government of Buenos Aires to the commandment of Patagones. Footnote. I am bound to express in the strongest terms my obligation to the government of Buenos Aires for the obliging manner in which passports to all parts of the country were given me as naturalist of the beagle. End footnote. This was taken to General Rosas who sent me a very obliging message, and the secretary returned all smiles and graciousness. We took up our residence in the rancho, or hovel, of a curious old Spaniard who had served with Napoleon the expedition against Russia. End of Chapter 4 Part 1 Chapter 4 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 Leon Meyer. The Voyage of the Beagle Chapter 4 Part 2 Rio Negro to Bahia Blanca Rio Negro to Bahia Blanca We stayed two days at the Colorado. I had little to do for the surrounding country was a swamp which in summer, December when the snow melts in the Cordillera is overflowed by the river. My chief amusement was watching the Indian families as they came to buy little articles at the rancho where we stayed. It was supposed that General Rosas had about 600 Indian allies. The men were a tall fine race, yet it was afterwards easy to see in the Fujian savage the same countenance rendered hideous by cold want of food and less civilization. Some authors in defining the primary races of mankind have separated these Indians into two classes but this is certainly incorrect. Among the young women or Chinas some deserve to be called even beautiful. Their hair was coarse but bright and black and they wore it in two plates hanging down to the waist. They had a high color and eyes that glistened with brilliancy. Their legs, feet, and arms were small and elegantly formed. Their ankles and sometimes their wrists were ornamented by broad bracelets of blue beads. Nothing could be more interesting than some of the family groups. A mother with one or two daughters would often come to our rancho mounted on the same horse. They ride like men but with their knees tucked out much higher. This habit perhaps arises from there being accustomed when traveling to ride the loaded horses. The duty of the women is to load and unload the horses to make the tents for the night in short to be like the wives of all savages, useful slaves. The men fight, hunt, take care of the horses and make the riding gear. One of their chief indoor occupations is to knock two stones together till they become round in order to make the bolas. With this important weapon the Indian catches his game and also his horse which roams free over the plane. In fighting his first attempt is to throw down the horse of his adversary with the bolas and win entangled by the fall to kill him with the chuzo. If the balls only catch the neck or body of an animal they are often carried away and lost. As the making the stones round is the labor of two days the manufacture of the balls is a very common employment. Several of the men and women had their faces painted red but I never saw the horizontal bands which are so common among the Phuegians. Their chief pride consists in having everything made of silver. I have seen a casique with his spears, stirrups, handle of his knife and bridle made of this metal. The head stall and reins being of wire were not thicker than whip cord and to see a fiery steed willing about the command of so light a chain gave to the horsemanship a remarkable character of elegance. General Rosas intimated the wish to see me a circumstance which I was afterwards very glad of. He is a man of an extraordinary character and has the most predominant influence in the country which he seems he will use to its prosperity and advancement. Footnote This prophecy has turned out entirely and miserably wrong. 1845 In footnote He is said to be the owner of seventy-four square leagues of land and have about three hundred thousand head of cattle. His estates are admirably managed and are far more productive of corn than those of others. He first gained his celebrity by his laws for his own Estancias and was planning several hundred men so as to resist with success the attacks of the Indians. There are many stories current about the rigid manner in which his laws were enforced. One of these was that no man on penalty of being put into the stocks should carry his knife on a Sunday. This being the principal day for gambling and drinking many quarrels arose which from the general manner of fighting with the knife often proved fatal. One Sunday the governor came to pay the Estancia a visit and General Rosas in his hurry walked out to receive him with his knife as usual, stuck in his belt. The steward touched his arm and reminded him of the law upon which, turning to the governor he said he was extremely sorry but that he must go into the stocks and that till let out he possessed no power even in his own house. After a little time the steward was persuaded to open the stocks and to let him out and no sooner was this done then he turned to the steward and said you now have broken the law so you must take my place in the stocks. Such actions as these delighted the Gauchos who all possess high notions of their own equality and dignity. General Rosas is also a perfect horseman, an accomplishment of no small consequence in a country where an assembled army elected its general by the following trial a troop of unbroken horses being driven into a corral were let out through a gateway above which was a crossbar it was agreed whoever should drop from the bar on one of these wild animals as it rushed out and should be able without saddle or bridle not only to ride it but also to bring it back to the door of the corral should be their general. The person who succeeded was accordingly elected and doubtless made a fit general for such an army. This extraordinary feat has also been performed by Rosas. By these means and by conforming to the dress and habits of the Gauchos he has obtained an unbounded popularity in the country and in consequence a despotic power. I was assured by an English merchant that a man who had murdered another when arrested and questioned concerning his motive answered he spoke disrespectfully of general Rosas so I killed him. At the end of a week the murderer was at liberty. This doubtless was the act of the general's party and not of the general himself. In conversation he is enthusiastic sensible and very grave. His gravity is carried to a high pitch. I heard one of his mad buffoons, for he keeps two like the barons of old relate the following anecdote. I wanted very much to hear a certain piece of music so I went to the general two or three times to ask him. He said to me, go about your business for I am engaged. I went to second time. He said if you come again I will punish you. The third time I asked and he laughed. I rushed out of the tent but it was too late. He ordered two soldiers to catch and stake me. I begged by all the saints in heaven he would let me off but it would not do. When the general laughs he spares neither madman nor sound. The poor, flighty gentleman looked quite dullerous at the very recollection of the staking. This is a very severe punishment. Four posts are driven into the ground and the man is extended by his arms and legs horizontally and there left a stretch for several hours. The idea is evidently taken from the usual method of drawing hides. My interview passed away without a smile and I obtained a passport in order for the government post-horses and this he gave me in the most obliging and ready manner. In the morning we started for Bahia Blanca which we reached in two days. Leaving the regular encampment we passed by the toll-dose of the Indians. These are round like ovens and covered with hides. By the mouth of each a tapering chuseau was stuck in the ground. The toll-dose were divided into separate groups which belonged to the different casiques tribes and the again divided into smaller ones according to the relationship of the owners. For several miles we traveled along the valley of the Colorado. The alluvial plains on the side appeared fertile and it is supposed that they are well adapted to the growth of corn. Turning northward from the river we soon entered on a country differing from the plains south of the river. The land still continued dry and sterile but it supported many different kinds of plants and the grass, though brown and withered, was more abundant as the thorny bushes were less so. These latter in a short space entirely disappeared and the plains were left without a ticket to cover their nakedness. This change in the vegetation marks the commencement of the Grand Calcario Argelatius deposit which forms the wide extent of the pompus and covers the granitic rocks of Banda Oriental. From the Strait of Magellan to Colorado, a distance of about 800 miles, the face of the country is everywhere composed of shingle. The pebbles are chiefly of porphyry and probably owe their origin to the rocks of the Cordillera. North of the Colorado this bed thins out and the pebbles become exceedingly small and here the characteristic vegetation of Patagonia ceases. Having ridden about 25 miles we came to a broad belt of sand dunes which stretches as far as the eye can reach to the east and west. The sand hillocks resting on the clay allow small pools of water to collect and thus afford in this dry country an invaluable supply of fresh water. The great advantage arising from depressions and elevations of the soil is not often brought home to the mind. The two miserable springs in the long passage between the Rio Negro and the Colorado were caused by trifling inequalities in the plain. Without them not a drop of water would have been found. The belt of sand dunes is about eight miles wide. At some former period it probably formed the margin of a grand estuary where the Colorado now flows. In this district where absolute proofs of the recent elevation of the land occur such speculations can hardly be neglected by anyone although merely considering the physical geography of the country. In the sandy tract we arrived in the evening at one of the post houses and as the fresh horses were grazing at a distance we determined to pass the night there. The house was situated at the base of a ridge between one and two hundred feet high, a most remarkable feature in this country. This post was commanded by a Negro lieutenant born in Africa. To his credit be it said there was not a ranche between the Colorado and Buenos Aires in nearly such neat order as his. He had a little room for strangers and a small corral for the horses all made of sticks and reeds. He also had dug a ditch around his house as a defense in case of being attacked. This would, however, have been of little avail if the Indians had come, but his chief comfort seemed to rest in the thought of selling his life dearly. A short time before a body of Indians had traveled past in the night. If they had been aware of the post at that time, a black friend and his four soldiers would assuredly have been slaughtered. I did not anywhere meet a more civil and obliging man than this Negro. It was therefore the more painful to see that he would not sit down and eat with us. In the morning we sent for the horses very early and started for another exhilarating gallop. We passed the Cabeza del Boy an old name given to the head of a large marsh which extends to the north. Here we changed horses and passed through some leagues of swamps and saline marshes. Changing horses for the last time we again began wading through the mud. My animal fell and I was well soused in black mire a very disagreeable accident when one does not possess a change of clothes. Some miles from the fort we met a man who told us that a great gun had been fired which is a signal that Indians are near. We immediately left the road and followed the edge of a marsh which, when chased, offers the best mode of escape. We were glad to arrive within the walls when we found that all the alarm was about nothing, for the Indians turned out to be friendly ones who wished to join General Rosas. Bahia Blanca scarcely deserves the name of a village. A few houses and the barracks for the troops are enclosed by a deep ditch and fortified wall. The settlement is only of recent standing since 1828 and its growth has been one of trouble. The government of Buenos Aires unjustly occupied it by force instead of following the wise example of the Spanish viceroys who purchased the land near the older settlement of the Rio Negro from the Indians. Hence the need of the fortifications. Hence the few houses and little cultivated land without the limits of the walls. Even the cattle are not safe in the attacks of the Indians beyond the boundaries of the plane on which the fortress stands. The part of the harbor where the beagle intended to anchor being distant 25 miles I obtained from the commandant a guide and horses to take me to see whether she had arrived. Leaving the plain of green turf which extended along the course of a little brook we soon entered on a wide level waste consisting either of sand, saline marshes, or bare mud. Some parts were clothed by low thickets and others with those succulent plants which luxuriate only where salt abounds. Bad as the country was ostriches, deers, agoutis, and armadillos were abundant. My guide told me that two months before he had a most narrow escape of his life he was out hunting with two other men at no great distance from this part of the country when they were suddenly met by a party of Indians who, giving chase, soon overtook and killed his two friends. His own horses' legs were also caught by the bolas, but he jumped off and with his knife cut them free. While doing this he was obliged to dodge round his horse and receive two severe wounds from their chuzos. Springing on the saddle he managed by a most wonderful exertion just to keep ahead of the long spears of his pursuers who followed him to within sight of the fort. From that time there was an order that no one should stray far from the settlement. I did not know of this when I started and was surprised to observe how earnestly my guide watched a deer which appeared to have been frightened from a distant quarter. We found the beagle had not arrived and consequently set out on our return, but the horses soon tiring we were obliged to Bivouac on the plain. In the morning we had caught an armadillo which, although a most excellent dish when roasted in its shell, did not make a very substantial breakfast and dinner for two hungry men. The ground at the place where we stopped for the night was encrusted with a layer of sulfate of soda and hence, of course, was without water. Yet many of the smaller rodents managed to exist even here and the tukutuko was making its odd little grunt beneath my head during half the night. Our horses were very poor ones and in the morning they were soon exhausted from not having had anything to drink so that we were obliged to walk. About noon the dogs killed a kid which we roasted. I ate some of it but it made me intolerably thirsty. This was the more distressing as the road from some recent rain was full of little puddles of clear water yet not a drop was drinkable. I had scarcely been twenty hours without water and only part of the time under a hot sun yet the thirst rendered me very weak. How people survived two or three days under such circumstances I cannot imagine. At the same time I must confess that my guide did not suffer at all and was astonished that one day's deprivation should be so troublesome to me. I have several times alluded to the surface of the ground being encrusted with salt. This phenomenon is quite different from that of the Salinas and more extraordinary. In many parts of South America wherever the climate is moderately dry these incrustations occur but I have nowhere seen them so abundant as near Bahía Blanca. The salt here and in other parts of Patagonia consist chiefly of sulfate of soda with some common salt. As long as the ground remains moist in the Saletrales as the Spaniards improperly call them mistaking this substance for salt-peter nothing is to be seen but an extensive plain composed of a black muddy soil supporting scattered tufts of succulent plants. On returning through one of these tracks after a week's hot weather one is surprised to see square miles of the plain white as if from a slight fall of snow here and there heaped out by the wind into little drifts. This latter appearance is chiefly caused by the salt being drawn up during the slow evaporation of the moisture, round blades of dead grass, stumps of wood and pieces of broken earth instead of being crystallized into puddles of water. The Saletrales occur either on level tracks elevated only a few feet above the level of the sea or on alluvial land bordering rivers. Im Parshap found that the saline incrustation on the plain at the distance of some miles from the sea consisted chiefly of sulfate of soda with only 7% of common salt. Wills nearer to the coast the common salt increased to 37 parts in 100. This circumstance would tempt one to believe that the sulfate of soda is generated in the soil from the myriad left on the surface during the slow and recent elevation of this dry country. The whole phenomenon is well worthy of the attention of naturalists. Have the succulent salt-loving plants which are well known to contain much soda the power of decomposing the myriad? Does a black-fetted mud abounding with organic matter yield the sulfur and ultimately acid? Two days afterwards I again rode to the harbor when not far from our destination my companion, the same man as before, spied three people hunting on horseback. He immediately dismounted and watching them intently said they don't ride like Christians and nobody can leave the fort. The three hunters joined company and likewise dismounted from their horses. At last one mounted again and rode over the hill out of sight. My companion said we must now get on our horses load your pistol. And he looked to his own sword. I asked, are the Indians? Kinsabe, who knows if they are more than three it does not signify. It then struck me that the one man had gone over the hill to fetch the rest of his tribe. I suggested this but all the answer I could extort was Kinsabe. His head and eye never for a minute see scanning slowly the distant horizon. I thought his uncommon coolness too good a joke and asked him why he did not return home. I was startled when he answered we are returning but in a line so as to pass near a swamp into which we can gallop the horses as far as they can go and then trust to our own legs so that there is no danger. I did not feel quite so confident and wanted to increase our pace. He said, no not until they do. When any little inequality concealed us we galloped but when inside continued walking. At last we reached a valley and turning to the left galloped quickly to the foot of a hill. He gave me his horse to hold made the dogs lie down and then crawled on his hands and knees to reconnoiter. He remained in this position for some time and at last bursting out and laughter exclaimed Mujeres, women. He knew them to be the wife and sister-in-law of the major son hunting for ostrich's eggs. I have described this man's conduct because he acted under the full impression that they were Indians. As soon however as the absurd mistake was found out he gave me a hundred reasons why they could not have been Indians but all these were forgotten at the time. We then rode on in peace and quietness to a low point called Punta Alta once we could see nearly the whole of the great harbour of Bahia Blanca. The wide expanse of water is choked up by numerous great mud-banks which the inhabitants call Congrehales or crab-berries from the number of small crabs. The mud is so soft that it is impossible to walk over them even for the shortest distance. Many of the banks have their surfaces covered with long rushes and the tops of which alone are visible at high water. On one occasion when in a boat we were so entangled by these shallows that we could hardly find our way. Nothing was visible but the flat beds of mud. The day was not very clear and there was much refraction or as the sailors expressed it things loomed high. The only object within our view which was not level was the horizon. Rushes looked like bushes unsupported in the air and water like mud-banks and mud-banks like water. We passed the night in Punta Alta and I employed myself in searching for fossil bones this point being a perfect catacomb for monsters of extinct races. The evening was perfectly calm and clear. The extreme monotony of the view gave it an interest even in the midst of mud-banks and gulls, sand-hillocks and solitary vultures. In writing back in the morning we came across a very fresh track of Zoraima but did not succeed in finding it. We saw also a couple of Zorios or skunks, odious animals which are far from uncommon. In general appearance the Zorio resembles a pole cat but it is rather larger and much thicker in proportion. Conscious of its power it roams by day about the open plane and fears neither dog nor man. If a dog is urged to attack its courage is instantly checked and a few drops of the fetid oil which brings on violent sickness and running at the nose. Whatever is once polluted by it is forever useless. Zora says the smell can be perceived at a league distance. More than once when entering the harbor of Monte Bedeo the wind being offshore we have perceived the odor on board the beagle. Certain it is that every animal most willingly makes room for the Zorio. Part 2