 CHAPTER VII. Nes Eres and Santa Fe. Excursion to Santa Fe, Thistle-Beds, Habits of the Viscaca, Little Owl, Sailing Streams, Level Plain, Mastodon, Santa Fe, Change in Landscape, Geology, Tooth of Extinct Horse, Relation of the Fossil and Recent Quadrupeds of North and South America, Effects of a Great Drought, Piranha, Habits of the Jaguar, Scissorbeak, Kingfisher, Parrot and Scissortail, Revolution, Buenos Aires, State of Government. September 27th. In the evening I set out on an excursion to Santa Fe, which is situated nearly three hundred English miles from Buenos Aires, on the banks of the Piranha. The roads in the neighborhood of the city after the rainy weather were extraordinarily bad. I should never have thought it possible for a bullock wagon to have crawled along as it was. They scarcely went at the rate of a mile an hour, and a man was kept ahead to survey the best line for making the attempt. The bullocks were terribly jaded. It is a great mistake to suppose that with improved roads and an accelerated rate of traveling the sufferings of the animals increase in the same proportion. We passed a train of wagons and a group of beasts on their road to Mendoza. The distance is about five hundred eighty geographical miles and the journey is generally performed in fifty days. These wagons are very long, narrow and thatched with reeds. They have only two wheels, the diameter of which in some cases is as much as ten feet. Each is drawn by six bullocks, which are urged on by a goat at least twenty feet long. This is suspended from within the roof. For the wheel-bullocks a smaller one is kept and for the intermediate pair a point projects at right angles from the middle of the long one. The whole apparatus looked like some implement of war. September 28th. We passed the small town of Luxan where there is a wooden bridge over the river, a most unusual convenience in this country. We passed also Orico. The planes appeared level, but were not so, in fact. For in various places the horizon was distant. The Estanches are here wide apart, for there is little good pasture owing to the land being covered by beds either of an acrid clover or of the great thistle. The latter, well known from the animated description given by Sir F. Head, were at this time of the year two-thirds grown. In some parts they were as high as the horses back, but in others they had not yet sprung up, and the ground was bare and dusty as on a turnpike road. The clumps were of the most brilliant green, and they made a pleasing miniature likeness of broken forest land. When the thistles are full grown, the great beds are impenetrable, except by a few tracks as intricate as those in a labyrinth. These are only known to the robbers, who at this season inhabit them, and sally forth at night to rob and cut throats with impunity. Upon asking at a house whether robbers were numerous, I was answered, the thistles are not up yet. The meaning of which reply was not at first very obvious. There is little interest in passing over these tracks, for they are inhabited by few animals or birds, excepting the viscaca and its friend the little owl. The viscaca is well known to form a prominent feature in the zoology of the Pampus. The viscaca, legostomus tricodacilus, somewhat resembles a large rabbit, but with bigger, gnawing teeth and a long tail. It has, however, only three toes behind like the aguti. During the last three or four years the skins of these animals have been sent to England for the sake of the fur. It is found as far south as L'Oreal Negro in latitude forty-one degrees, but not beyond. It cannot, like the aguti, subsist on the gravelly and desert plains of Patagonia, but prefers a claye or sandy soil which produces a different and more abundant vegetation. Near Mendoza, at the foot of the Cordillera, it occurs in close neighborhood with the allied alpine species. It is a very curious circumstance in its geographical distribution that it has never been seen, fortunately for the inhabitants of the Banda oriental, to the eastward of the river Uruguay. Yet in this province there are plains which appear admirably adapted to its habits. The Uruguay has formed an insuperable obstacle to its migration, although the broader barrier of the piranha has been passed, and the viscaca is common in Entre Rios, the province between these two great rivers. Near Buenos Aires, these animals are exceedingly common. Their most favorite resort appears to be those parts of the plain which during one half of the year are covered with giant thistles to the exclusion of other The Gauchos affirm that it lives on roots, which from the great strength of its gnawing teeth and the kind of places frequented by it seems probable. In the evening the viscacas come out in numbers and quietly sit at the mouse of their burrows on their haunches. At such times they are very tame, and a man on horseback passing by seems only to present an object for their grave contemplation. They run very awkwardly, and when running out of danger, from their elevated tails and short front legs much resemble great rats. Their flesh, when cooked, is very white and good, but it is seldom used. The viscaca has one singular habit, namely dragging every hard object to the mouth of its burrow. Around each group of holes many bones of cattle, stones, thistle stalks, hard lumps of earth, dry dung, etc., are collected into an irregular heap, which frequently amounts to as much as a wheelbarrow could contain. I was credibly informed that a gentleman, when riding on a dark night, dropped his watch. He returned in the morning, and by searching the neighborhood of every viscaca hole on the line of the road as he expected he soon found it. This habit of picking up whatever may be lying on the ground anywhere near its habitation must cost much trouble. For what purpose it is done I am quite unable to form even the most remote conjecture. It cannot be for defense, because the rubbish is chiefly placed above the mouth of the burrow, which enters the ground at a very small inclination. No doubt there must exist some good reason, but the inhabitants of the country are quite ignorant of it. The only fact which I know analogous to it is the habit of that extraordinary Australian bird, the Caledera maculata, which makes an elegant vaulted passage of twigs for playing in, and which collects near the spot land and seashells, bones and the feathers of birds, especially bright-colored ones. Mr. Gould, who has described these facts, informs me that the natives, when they lose any hard object, search the playing passages, and he has known a tobacco pipe thus recovered. The little owl, Athene Canicularia, which has been so often mentioned on the plains of Buenos Aires, exclusively inhabits the holes of the viscaca, but in Banda Oriental it is its own workman. During the open day but more especially in the evening these birds may be seen in every direction standing frequently by pairs on the hillock near their burrows. If disturbed they either enter the hole or, uttering a shrill harsh cry, move with a remarkable undulatory flight to a short distance and then turning round steadily gaze at their pursuer. Occasionally in the evening they may be heard hooting. I found in the stomachs of two which I opened the remains of mice, and one day saw a small snake killed and carried away. It is said that snakes are their common prey during the daytime. I may mention here, as showing on what various kinds of food owls subsist, that a species killed among the islets of the Chonos acropelago had its stomach full of good-sized crabs. In India there is a fishing genus of owls which likewise catches crabs. In the evening we cross the Rio Aracife on a simple raft made of barrels lashed together and slept at the post house on the other side. I this day paid horse hire for thirty-one leagues, and although the sun was glaring hot I was but little fatigued. When Captain Head talks of riding fifty leagues a day I do not imagine the distance is equal to one hundred fifty English miles. At all events the thirty-one leagues was only seventy-six miles in a straight line, and in an open country I should think four additional miles for turnings would be a sufficient allowance. Twenty-ninth and thirtieth. We continue to ride over planes of the same character. At San Nicolás I first saw the noble river of the Piranha. At the foot of the cliff on which the town stands some large vessels were at anchor. Before arriving at Rosario we crossed the Saladillo, a stream of fine clear running water, but too saline to drink. Rosario is a large town built on a dead-level plain which forms a cliff about sixty feet high over the Piranha. The river here is very broad with many islands which are low and wooded as is also the opposite shore. The view would resemble that of a large lake if it were not for the linear shaped islets which alone give the idea of running water. The cliffs are the most picturesque part. Sometimes they are absolutely perpendicular and of a red color at other times in large broken masses covered with cacti and mimosa trees. The real grandeur however of an immense river like this is derived from reflecting how important a means of communication and commerce it forms between one nation and another to what a distance it travels and from how vast the territory it drains the great body of fresh water which flows past your feet. For many leagues north and south of San Nicolás and Rosario the country is really level. Scarcely anything which travelers have written about its extreme flatness can be considered as exaggeration. Yet I could never find a spot where by slowly turning round objects were not seen at greater distances in some directions than in others and this manifestly proves inequality in the plain. At sea a person's eye being six feet above the surface of the water his horizon is two miles and four fifths distant. In like manner the more level the plain the more nearly does the horizon approach within these narrow limits and this in my opinion entirely destroys that grandeur which one would have imagined that a vast level plain would have possessed. October 1st. We started by moonlight and arrived at the Rio de Cerro by sunrise. The river is also called the Saladillo and it deserves the name for the water is brackish. I stayed here the greater part of the day searching for fossil bones. Besides a perfect tooth of the Toxodon and many scattered bones I found two immense skeletons near each other projecting in bold relief from the perpendicular cliff of the Parana. They were however so completely decayed that I could only bring away small fragments of one of the great molar teeth but these are sufficient to show that the remains belong to a mastodon probably to the same species with that which formerly must have inhabited the Correjera in upper Peru in such great numbers. The men who took me in the canoe said that they had long known of these skeletons and had often wondered how they had got there. The necessity of a theory being felt they came to the conclusion that like the Viscaca the mastodon was formerly a burrowing animal. In the evening we rode another stage and crossed the Monga another brackish stream bearing the dregs of the washings of the Pampas. October 2nd. We passed through Corrinda which from the luxuriance of its gardens was one of the prettiest villages I saw. From this point to Santa Fe the road is not very safe. The western side of the Parana northward ceases to be inhabited and hence the Indians sometimes come down thus far and way lay travellers. The nature of the country also favours this or instead of a grassy plain there is an open woodland composed of low prickly mimosas. We passed some houses that had been ransacked and since deserted. We saw also a spectacle which my guides viewed with high satisfaction. It was the skeleton of an Indian with the dried skin hanging on its bones suspended to the branch of a tree. In the morning we arrived at Santa Fe. I was surprised to observe how great a change of climate a difference of only three degrees of latitude between this place and Buenos Aires had caused. This was evident from the dress and complexion of the men, from the increased size of the Ambu trees, the number of new cacti and other plants and especially from the birds. In the course of an hour I remarked half a dozen birds which I had never seen at Buenos Aires. Considering that there is no natural boundary between the two places and that the character of the country is nearly similar the difference was much greater than I should have expected. October 3rd and 4th. I was confined for these two days to my bed by a headache. A good-natured old woman who attended me wished me to try many odd remedies. A common practice is to bind an orange leaf or a bit of black plaster to each temple and a still more general plan is to split a bean into halves, moisten them, and place one on each temple where they will easily adhere. It is not thought proper ever to remove the beans or plaster but to allow them to drop off and sometimes if a man with patches on his head is asked what is the matter he will answer, I had a headache the day before yesterday. Many of the remedies used by the people of the country are ludicrously strange but too disgusting to be mentioned. One of the least nasty is to kill and cut open two puppies and bind them on either side of a broken limb. Little hairless dogs are in great request to sleep at the feet of invalids. Santa Fe is a quiet little town and is kept clean and in good order. The governor, Lopez, was a common soldier at the time of the revolution but has now been seventeen years in power. This stability of government is owing to his tyrannical habits for tyranny seems as yet better adapted to these countries than republicanism. The governor's favorite occupation is hunting Indians. A short time since he slaughtered forty-eight and sold the children at the rate of three or four pounds apiece. October 5th. We crossed the Piranha to Santa Fe Bahadah, a town on the opposite shore. The passage took some hours as the river here consisted of a labyrinth of small streams separated by low-wooded islands. I had a letter of introduction to an old Catalonian Spaniard who treated me with the most uncommon hospitality. The Bahadah is the capital of André Rios. In 1825 the town contained six thousand inhabitants and the province thirty thousand yet few as the inhabitants are no province has suffered from more bloody and desperate revolutions. They boast here of representatives, ministers, a standing army and governors so it is no wonder that they have their revolutions. At some future day this must be one of the richest colonies of La Plata. The soil is varied and productive and its most insular form gives it two grand lines of communication by the rivers Piranha and Uruguay. I was delayed here five days and employed myself in examining the geology of the surrounding country which was very interesting. We here see at the bottom of the cliffs beds containing sharks teeth and seashells of extinct species passing above into an ingerated marl and from that into the red clayy earth of the Pampas with its calcareous concretions and the bones of terrestrial quadrupeds. This vertical section clearly tells us of a large bay of pure salt water gradually encroached on and at last converted into the bed of a muddy estuary into which floating carcasses were swept. At Punta Gorda in Bonda Oriental I found an alternation of the Pampian estuary deposit with a limestone containing some of the same extinct seashells and this shows either a change in the former currents or more probably an oscillation of level in the bottom of the ancient estuary. Until recently my reasons for considering the Pampian formation to be an estuary deposit were its general appearance, its position at the mouth of the existing great river the Plata and the presence of so many bones of terrestrial quadrupeds. But now Professor Ehrenberg has had the kindness to examine for me a little of the red earth taken from low down in the deposit close to the skeletons of the mastodon and he finds in it many infusoria partly salt water and partly fresh water forms with the latter rather preponderating and therefore as he remarks the water must have been brackish. M.A. Dormini found on the banks of the Piranha at the height of 100 feet great beds of an estuary shell now living a hundred miles lower down near the sea and I found similar shells at a less height on the banks of the Uruguay. This shows that just before the Pampus was slowly elevated into dry land the water covering it was brackish. Below Buenos Aires there are upraised beds of seashells of existing species which also proves that the period of elevation of the Pampus was within the recent period. In the Pampian deposit at the Bahada I found the oceus armor of a gigantic armadillo like animal the inside of which when the earth was removed was like a great cauldron. I also found teeth of the toxodon and mastodon and one tooth of a horse in the same stained and decayed state. This latter tooth greatly interested me and I took scrupulous care and ascertaining that it had been embedded contemporaneously with the other remains for I was not then aware that amongst the fossils from Bahia Blanca there was a horse's tooth hidden in the matrix nor was it then known with certainty that the remains of horses are common in North America. Footnote I hardly need state here that there is good evidence against any horse living in America at the time of Columbus. Mr. Lyle has lately brought from the United States a tooth of a horse and it is an interesting fact that Professor Owens could find in it no species either fossil or recent a slight but peculiar curvature characterizing it until he thought of comparing it with my specimen found here. He has named this American horse equus covidens. Certainly it is a marvelous fact in the history of the mammalia that in South America a native horse should have lived and disappeared to be succeeded in after ages by the countless herds descended from the few introduced by the Spanish colonists. The existence in South America of a fossil horse of the mastodon possibly of an elephant and of a hollow horned ruminant discovered by MM Lund and Clawson in the caves of Brazil are highly interesting facts with respect to the geographical distribution of animals. At the present time if we divide America not by the isthmus of Panama but by the southern part of Mexico in latitude 20 degrees with a great table in presents an obstacle to the migration of species by affecting the climate and by forming with the exception of some valleys and of a fringe of low land on the coast a broad barrier. We shall then have the two zoological provinces of North and South America strongly contrasted with each other. But note this is a geographical division followed by Lichtenstein, Swainson, Erickson and Richardson. The section from Vera Cruz to Acapulco given by Humboldt in the political essay on Kingdom of North Spain will show how immense a barrier the Mexican table land forms. Dr. Richardson in his admirable report on the duology of North America read before the British Association talking of the identification of a Mexican animal with a synestheris prehensilis says we do not know with what propriety but if correct it is if not a solitary instance at least very nearly so of a rodent animal being common to North and South America. Some few species alone have passed the barrier and may be considered as wanderers from the south such as the Puma, Apossum, Kinkajou and Pecari. South America is characterized by possessing many peculiar gnollers, a family of monkeys, the Lama, Pecari, Tapir, Apossums and especially several genera of Edentata the order which includes the Sloths, Anteaters and Armadillos. North America on the other hand is characterized putting on one side a few wandering species by numerous peculiar gnollers and by four genera the ox, sheep, goat and antelope of hollow horned ruminants of which Great Division South America is not known to possess a single species. Formerly but within the period when most of the now existing shells were living North America possessed besides hollow horned ruminants the elephant mastodon horse and three genera of Edentata namely the megatherium megalonics and myladon within nearly the same period as proof by the shells at Bahia Blanca South America possessed as we have just seen a mastodon horse hollow horned ruminant and the same three genera as well as several others of the Edentata. Hence it is evident that North and South America and having within a late geological period the several genera in common were much more closely related in the character of their terrestrial inhabitants than they now are. The more I reflect on this case the more interesting it appears. I know of no other instance where we can almost mark the period and manner of the splitting up of one great region into two well characterized zoological provinces. The geologist who is fully impressed with the vast oscillations of level which have affected the earth's crust within late periods will not fear to speculate on the recent elevation of the Mexican platform or more probably on the recent submergence of land in the West Indian Archipelago as the cause of the present zoological separation of North and South America. The South American character of the West Indian mammals seems to indicate that this archipelago was formally united to the southern continent and that it has subsequently been an area of subsidence. Footnote. Kuvye says the Kinkaju is found in the larger Antilles, but this is doubtful. Mishir Gervais states that the Daidelphus Crankivora is found there. It is certain that the West Indies possess some mammifers peculiar to themselves. A tooth of a mastodon has been brought from Bahama. End of Chapter 7, Part 1. Chapter 7, 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. The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin. Chapter 7, Part 2. When America, especially North America, possessed its elephants, mastodon, horses, and hollow horned ruminants, it was much more closely related in its zoological characters to the temperate parts of Europe and Asia than it is now. As the remains of these genera are found on both sides of Bering Straits and on the plains of Siberia, we are led to look to the northwestern side of North America as the former point of communication between the old and so-called New World. And as to many species, both living and extinct, of these same genera inhabit and have inhabited the old world, it seems most probable that the North American elephants, mastodons, horse, and hollow horned ruminants migrated on land since submerged near Bering Straits from Siberia into North America, and thence on land since submerged in the West Indies into South America, where for a time they mingled with the form's characteristic of that southern continent and have since become extinct. While traveling through the country, I received several vivid descriptions of the effects of the late Great Drought, and the account of this may throw some light on the cases where vast numbers of animals of all kinds have been embedded together. The period included between the years 1827 and 1830 is so-called the Grand Seco, or the Great Drought. During this time so little rain fell that the vegetation, even to the thistles, failed, the brooks were dried up, and the whole country assumed the appearance of a dusty high road. This was especially the case in the northern part of the province of Buenos Aires and the southern part of Santa Fe. Very great numbers of birds, wild animals, cattle, and horses perished from the want of food and water. A man told me that the deer used to come into his courtyard to the well, which he had been obliged to dig to supply his own family with water, and that the partridges had hardly strength to fly away when pursued. Footnote. In Captain Owen's surveying voyage, there is a curious account of the effects of a drought on the elephants at Benguela, west coast of Africa. A number of these animals had sometimes since entered the town, in a body, to possess themselves of the wells, not being able to procure any water in the country. The inhabitants mustered when a desperate conflict ensued, which terminated in the ultimate discomforture of the invaders, but not until they had killed one man and wounded several others. The town is said to have a population of nearly three thousand. Dr. Malcomson informs me that during a great drought in India, the wild animals entered the tents of some troops at Elor, and that a hare drank out of a vessel held by the adjutant of the regiment. The lowest estimation of the loss of cattle in the province of Buenos Aires alone was taken at one million head. A proprietor at San Pedro had previously to these years twenty thousand cattle, at the end not one remained. San Pedro is situated in the middle of the finest country, and even now abounds again with animals, yet during the latter part of the Grand Seiko live cattle were brought in vessels for the consumption of the inhabitants. The animals roamed from their estanches and wandering far southward were mingled together in such multitudes that a government commission was sent from Buenos Aires to settle the disputes of the owners. Sir Woodbine Parish informed me of another and very curious source of dispute. The ground being so long dry, such quantities of dust were blown about that in this open country the landmarks became obliterated and people could not tell the limits of their estates. I was informed by an eye witness that the cattle in herds of thousands rushed into the piranha and being exhausted by hunger they were unable to crawl up the muddy banks and thus were drowned. The arm of the river which runs by San Pedro was so full of putrid carcasses that the master of a vessel told me that the smell rendered it quite impassable. Without doubt several hundred thousand animals thus perished in the river, their bodies when putrid were seen floating down the stream and many in all probability were deposited in the estuary of the Plata. All the small rivers became highly saline and this caused the death of vast numbers in particular spots for when an animal drinks of such water it does not recover. Azara describes the fury of the wild horses on a similar occasion rushing into the marshes those which arrived first being overwhelmed and crushed by those which followed. He adds that more than once he has seen the carcasses of upwards of a thousand wild horses thus destroyed. I noticed that the smaller streams in the Pampas were paved with a brachia of bones but this probably is the effect of a gradual increase rather than of the destruction of any one period. Subsequently to the drought of 1827 to 1832 a very rainy season followed which caused great floods hence it is almost certain that some thousands of the skeletons were buried by the deposits of the very next year. What would be the opinion of a geologist viewing such an enormous collection of bones of all kinds of animals and of all ages thus embedded in one thick earthy mass? Would he not attribute it to a flood having swept over the surface of the land rather than to the common order of things? Footnote these droughts to a certain degree seem to be almost periodical. I was told the dates of several others and the intervals were about fifteen years. October twelfth. I had intended to push my excursion further but not being quite well I was compelled to return by a Balandra or one masted vessel of about one hundred tons burden which was bound to Buenos Aires. As the weather was not fair we moored early in the day to a branch of a tree on one of the islands. The piranha is full of islands which undergo a constant round of decay and renovation. In the memory of the master several large ones had disappeared and others again had been formed and protected by vegetation. They are composed of muddy sand without even the smallest pebble and were then about four feet above the level of the river but during the periodical floods they are inundated. They all present one character numerous willows and a few other trees are bound together by a great variety of creeping plants thus forming a thick jungle. These thickets afford a retreat for capybaras and jaguars. The fear of the latter animal quite destroyed all pleasure in scrambling through the woods. This evening I had not proceeded a hundred yards before finding indubitable signs of the recent presence of the tiger I was obliged to come back. On every island there were tracks and as on the former excursion Rasto de los Indios had been the subject of conversation so in this was Rasto de Tigre. The wooded banks of the great rivers appear to be the favorite haunts of the jaguar but south of the plata I was told that they frequented the reeds bordering lakes wherever they are they seem to require water. Their common prey is the capybara so that it is generally said where capybaras are numerous there is little danger from the jaguar. Falconer states that near the southern side of the mouth of the plata there are many jaguars and that they chiefly live on fish. This account I have heard repeated. On the piranha they have killed many wood cutters and have even entered vessels at night. There is a man now living in the bahada who coming up from below when it was dark was seized on the deck. He escaped however with the loss of the use of one arm. When the floods drive these animals from the islands they are most dangerous. I was told that a few years since a very large one found its way into a church at Santa Fe two padres entering one after the other were killed and a third who came to see what was the matter escaped with difficulty. The beast was destroyed by being shot from a corner of the building which was unroofed. They commit also at these times great ravages among cattle and horses. It is said that they kill their prey by breaking their necks. If driven from the carcass they seldom return to it. The gauchos say that the jaguar when wandering about at night is much tormented by the foxes yelping as they follow him. This is a curious coincidence with the fact that is generally affirmed of the jackals accompanying in a similarly officious manner the East Indian Tiger. The jaguar is a noisy animal roaring much by night and especially before bad weather. One day when hunting on the banks of the Uruguay I was shown certain trees to which these animals constantly recur for the purpose as it is said of sharpening their claws. I saw three well known trees in front the bark was worn smooth as if by the breast of the animal and on each side there were deep scratches or rather grooves extending in an oblique line nearly a yard in length. The scars were of different ages. A common method of ascertaining whether a jaguar is in the neighborhood is to examine these trees. I imagine this habit of the jaguar is exactly similar to one which may any day be seen in the common cat as with outstretched legs and exerted claws it scrapes the leg of a chair and I have heard of young fruit trees in an orchard in England having been thus much injured. Some such habit must also be common to the puma for on the bare hard soil of Patagonia I have frequently seen scores so deep that no other animal could have made them. The object of this practice is I believe to tear off the ragged points of their claws and not as the gauchos think to sharpen them. The jaguar is killed without much difficulty by the aid of dogs baying and driving him up a tree where he is dispatched with bullets. Owing to bad weather we remain two days at our moorings. Our only amusement was catching fish for our dinner. There were several kinds and all good eating. A fish called the armado, a sylarus, is remarkable from a harsh grating noise which it makes when caught by hook in line and which can be distinctly heard when the fish is beneath the water. This same fish has the power of firmly catching hold of any object such as the blade of an oar or the fishing line with the strong spine both of its pectoral and dorsal fin. In the evening the weather was quite tropical, the thermometer standing at 79 degrees, numbers of fireflies were hovering about and the mosquitoes were very troublesome. I exposed my hand for five minutes and it was soon black with them. I do not suppose there could have been less than fifty, all busy sucking. October 15th. We got under way and passed Punta Gorda where there is a colony of tame Indians from the province of Missiones. We sailed rapidly down the current but before sunset, from a silly fear of bad weather, we brought into a narrow arm of the river. I took the boat and rode some distance up this creek. It was very narrow, winding, and deep. On either side a wall thirty or forty feet high, formed by trees intertwined with creepers, gave to the canal a singularly gloomy appearance. I saw here a very extraordinary bird called the scissor beak, Rhine chop's nigra. It has short legs, webbed feet, extremely long pointed wings, and is about the size of a turn. The beak is flat and laterally, that is, in a plain at right angles to that of a spoonbill or duck. It is as flat and elastic as an ivory paper cutter, and the lower mandible, differing from every other bird, is an inch and a half longer than the upper. In a lake near Maldonado, from which the water had been nearly drained, and which in consequence swarmed with small fry, I saw several of these birds, generally in small flocks, flying rapidly backwards and forwards, close to the surface of the lake. They kept their bills wide open, and the lower mandible half buried in the water. Thus skimming the surface, they plowed it in their course. The water was quite smooth, and it formed a most curious spectacle to behold a flock, each bird leaving its narrow wake on the mirror-like surface. In their flight they frequently twist about with extreme quickness, and dexterously manage with their projecting lower mandible to plow up small fish, which are secured by the upper and shorter half of their scissor-like bills. This fact I repeatedly saw as, like swallows, they continued to fly backwards and forwards close before me. Occasionally, when leaving the surface of the water, their flight was wild, irregular, and rapid. They then uttered loud, harsh cries. When these birds are fishing, the advantage of the long primary feathers of their wings, and keeping them dry, is very evident. When thus employed, their forms resemble the symbol by which many artists represent marine birds. Their tails are much used in steering their irregular course. These birds are common far inland along the course of the Rio Piranha. It is said that they remain here during the whole year and breed in the marshes. During the day they rest in flocks on the grassy plains at some distance from the water. Being at anchor, as I have said, in one of the deep creeks between the islands of the Piranha, as the evening drew to a close, one of these scissor-beaks suddenly appeared. The water was quite still, and many little fish were rising. The bird continued for a short time to skim the surface, flying its wild and irregular manner up and down the narrow canal, now dark with the growing night and the shadows of the overhanging trees. At Montevideo I observed that some large flocks during the day remained on the mud banks at the head of the harbor in the same manner as on the grassy plains near the Piranha, and every evening they took flight seaward. From these facts I suspect that the rind chops generally fishes by night, at which time many of the lower animals come most abundantly to the surface. Mishir Lisonne states that he has seen these birds opening the shells of the mack tray buried in the sandbanks on the coast of Chile. From their weak bills, with the lower mandibles so much projecting, their short legs and long wings, it is very probable that this can be a general habit. In our course down the Piranha I observed only three other birds whose habits are worth mentioning. One is a small kingfisher, cerile americana. It has a longer tail than the european species, and hence does not sit in so stiff and upright a position. Its flight also, instead of being direct and rapid, like the course of an arrow, is weak and undulatory, as among the soft-billed birds. It utters a low note like the clicking together of two small stones. A small green parrot, canuris marinas, with a gray breast, appears to prefer the tall trees on the islands to any other situation for its building place. A number of nests are placed so close together as to form one great mass of sticks. These parrots always live in flocks and commit great ravages on the cornfields. I was told, near Colonia, twenty-five hundred were killed in the course of one year. A bird with a fork tail, terminated by two long feathers, tyrannous savanna, and named by the Spaniard's scissortail, is very common near Buenos Aires. It commonly sits on a branch of the Ambu Tree, near a house, and then takes a short flight in pursuit of insects and returns to the same spot. When on the wing it presents in its manner a flight in general appearance a caricature likeness of the common swallow. It has the power of turning very shortly in the air, and in so doing opens and shuts its tail, sometimes in a horizontal or lateral and sometimes in a vertical direction, just like a pair of scissors. October 16th. Some leagues below Rosario the western shore of the Piranha is bounded by perpendicular cliffs, which extend in a line to below San Nicolas, hence it more resembles a seacoast than that of a freshwater river. It is a great drawback to the scenery of the Piranha that, from the soft nature of its banks, the water is very muddy. The Uruguay, flowing through a granitic country, is much clearer, and where the two channels unite at the head of the plada the waters may for a long distance be distinguished by their black and red colors. In the evening the wind being not quite fair, as usual we immediately moored, and the next day as it blew rather freshly, though with a favoring current, the master was much too indolent to think of starting. At Bajada he was described to me as hombre muy afflicto, a man always miserable to get on, but certainly he bore all delays with admirable resignation. He was an old Spaniard and had been many years in this country. He professed a great liking to the English, but stately maintained that the battle of Trafalgar was merely won by the Spanish captains having been all bought over, and that the only really gallant action on either side was performed by the Spanish admiral. It struck me as rather characteristic that this man should prefer his countrymen being thought the worst of traitors, rather than unskillful or cowardly. 18th and 19th. We continued slowly to sail down the noble stream. The current helped us but little. We met during our descent very few vessels. One of the best gifts of nature in so grand a channel of communication seems here willfully thrown away. A river in which ships might navigate from a temperate country, as surprisingly abundant in certain productions as destitute of others, to another possessing a tropical climate, and a soil which, according to the best of judges, misure bon plan, is perhaps unequal infertility in any of the world. How different would have been the aspect of this river if English colonists had by good fortune first sailed up to Plata, what noble towns would now have occupied its shores. Till the death of Francia, the dictator of Paraguay, these two countries must remain distinct, as have placed on opposite sides of the globe. And when the old bloody-minded tyrant is gone to his long account, Paraguay will be torn by revolutions, violent in proportion to the previous unnatural calm. That country will have to learn, like every other South American state, that a republic cannot succeed till it contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of justice and honor. October 20th. Being arrived at the mouth of the Piranha, and as I was very anxious to reach Buenos Aires, I went unsure at Las Conchas with the intention of riding there. Upon landing I found to my great surprise that I was to a certain degree a prisoner. A violent revolution having broken out, all the ports were laid under an embargo. I could not return to my vessel, and as forgoing by land to the city it was out of the question. After a long conversation with the Commandant, I obtained permission to go the next day to General Rolar, who commanded a division of the rebels on this side of the capital. In the morning I rode to the encampment. The general, officers and soldiers, all appeared, and I believe really were, great villains. The general, the very evening before he left the city, voluntarily went to the governor, and with his hand to his heart, pledged his word of honor, that he at least would remain faithful to the last. The general told me that the city was in a state of close blockade, and that all he could do was to give me a passport to the Commander-in-Chief of the Rebels at Qemis. We had therefore to take a great sweep round the city, and it was with much difficulty that we procured horses. My reception at the encampment was quite civil, but I was told it was impossible that I could be allowed to enter the city. I was very anxious about this, as I anticipated the Beagle's departure from the Rio Plata earlier than it took place. Having mentioned, however, General Rossa's obliging kindness to me when at the Colorado, magic itself could not have altered circumstances quicker than did this conversation. I was instantly told that though they could not give me a passport, if I chose to leave my guide in horses I might pass their sentinels. I was too glad to accept of this, and an officer was sent with me to give directions that I should not be stopped at the bridge. The road for the space of a league was quite deserted. I met one party of soldiers who were satisfied by gravely looking at an old passport, and at length I was not a little pleased to find myself within the city. This revolution was supported by scarcely any pretext of grievances, but in a state which, in the course of nine months, from February to October 1820, underwent 15 changes in its government, each governor, according to the Constitution being elected for three years, it would be very unreasonable to ask for pretext. In this case a party of men who, being attached to Rossa's, were disgusted with the governor Balcarce to the number of seventy left the city, and with the cry of Rossa's the whole country took arms. The city was then blockaded, no provisions, cattle, or horses were allowed to enter. Besides this there was only a little skirmishing, and a few men daily killed. The outside party well knew that by stopping the supply of meat they would certainly be victorious. General Rossa's could not have known of this rising, but it appears to be quite consonant with the plans of his party. A year ago he was elected governor, but he refused it, unless the Sala would confer on him extraordinary powers. This was refused, and since then his party have shown that no other governor can keep his place. The warfare on both sides was avowedly protracted till it was possible to hear from Rossa's. A note arrived a few days after I left Buenos Aires, which stated that the general disapproved of peace having been broken, but that he thought the outside party had justice on their side. On the bare reception of this the governor, ministers, and part of the military to the number of some hundreds fled from the city. The rebels entered, elected a new governor, and were paid for their services to the number of fifty-five hundred men. From these proceedings it was clear that Rossa's ultimately would become the dictator, to the term king, the people in this as and other republics have a particular dislike. Since leaving South America we have heard that Rossa's has been elected with powers and for a time altogether opposed to the constitutional principles of the republic. Volunteer please visit liprevox.org Recording by MCY. The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darring Chapter 8 Band Oriental and Patagonia Excursion to Colonia del Sacramento Value of Anestancia Cattle, How Counted Singular breed of oxen Perforated pebbles Shepherd dogs Horses broken in Gautra's riding Character of Inhabitants Rio Plata Flux of Butterflies Aeronaut Spiders Phosphorescence of the Sea Poor Desire Guanaco Poor Saint Julian Geology of Patagonia Fossil Gigantic Animal Types of Organization Constant Changing the Zoology of America Causes of Extinction Having been delayed for nearly a fortnight in the city I was glad to escape on board a packet bound for Montevideo. A town in the state of blockade must always be a disagreeable place of residence. In this case, moreover, there were constant apprehensions from robbers within. The sentinels were the worst of all, for from their office and from having arms in the hands, they robbed with the real authority which other men could not imitate. Our passage was a very long and tedious one. The Plata looks like a noble estuary on the map, but it is, in truth, a poor affair. A wide expanse of muddy water has neither grandeur nor beauty. At one time of the day, the two shores, both of which are extremely low, could just be distinguished from the deck. On arriving in Montevideo, I found that the beagle would not sail for some time. So I prepared for a short excursion in this part of Bandori and Tal. Everything which I have said about the country near Maldonado is applicable to Montevideo, but the land, with the one exception of the grain, Mount, 550 feet high, from which it takes its name, is far more level. Very little of the underlating grassy plains is enclosed, but near the town there are a few hedge banks covered with agavis, cacti, and fennel. November 14th, we left Montevideo in the afternoon. I intended to proceed to Colonia del Sacramiento, situated on another bank of the Plata and opposite to Buenos Aires, and thence, following up the Uruguay to the village of Mercedes on the Rio Negro, one of the many rivers of this name in South America, and from this point returned direct to Montevideo. We slept at the house of my guide at Canelones. In the morning we rose early in the hopes of being able to ride a good distance, but it was in vain entamped for all the rivers were flooded. We passed in boats the streams of Canelones, Santa Lucia, and San José, in this lost much time. On a former excursion across Lucia, near its mouth, and I was surprised to observe how easily our horses, although not used to swim, passed over a width of at least six hundred yards. I'll mention in days at Montevideo, I was told that a vessel containing some mount-manks and their horses, being wrecked in the Plata, my horse swam seven miles to the shore. In the course of the day I was amused by the dexterity with which a goat of force arrested a horse to swim a river. He stripped off his clothes and, jumping on its back, rode into the water till it was out of this depth. Then, slipping off over the crepper, he caught hold of the tail and, as often as the horse turned round, the man frightened it back by splashing water into its face. As soon as the horse touched the bottom on the other side, the man pulled himself on and was firmly seated, bridal in hand, before the horse gained the bank. A naked man on a naked horse is a fine spectacle. I had no idea how well the two animals suited each other. The tail of a horse is a very useful appendage. I have passed a river in the boat with four people in it, which was ferried across in the same way as the gocho. If a man and horse have to cross a broad river, the best plan is for the man to catch hold of the palm of our mane and help himself with the other arm. We slept and stayed the following day at the post of Kufre. In the evening, the postman or letter carrier arrived. He was a day after his time owing to the real Rosario being flooded. It would not, however, be of much consequence, for although he had passed through some of the principal towns in Band oriental, his luggage consisted of two letters. The view from the house was pleasing, an undulating green surface with distant glimpses of the plata. I find that I look at this province with very different eyes from what I did upon my first arrival. I recollect I then thought at singularly level, but now, after galloping over the pampas, my only surprise is what could have induced me ever to call it level. The country is a series of undulations, in themselves perhaps not absolutely great, but as compared to the plan of Santa Fe, Rio mountains. From these inequalities, there is an abundance of small rivulets and the turf is green and luxuriant. November 17th, we crossed the Rosario, which was deep and rapid, and passing the village of Coya arrived at Mideia Colonia da Sacramento. The distance is 20 leagues through a country covered with fine dress but poorly stocked with cattle or inhabitants. I was invited to sleep at Colonia and accompany on the following day a gentleman to his estancia, while there were some limestone rocks. The town is built on its tonic promontory, something in the same manner as at Montevideo. It is strongly fortified but both fortifications in town suffered much in the brazilian war. It is very ancient and the irregularity of the streets and the surrounding groves of old orange and peach trees gave it a pretty appearance. The church is a curious ruin. It was used as a powder magazine and was often used by lightning in one of the 10,000 thunderstorms of the Rio Plata. Two-thirds of the building were blown away to the very foundation and the rest stands a shattered and curious monument of the united powers of lightning in gunpowder. In the evening I wondered about the half-demolished walls of the town. It was the chief seat of the brazilian war, a war most injurious to this country, not so much in its immediate effects as in being the origin of a multitude of generals and all other grades of officers. More generals are numbered but not paid in the united provinces of La Plata than in the united kingdom of Great Britain. These gentlemen have learned to like power and do not object to a literal skirmishing. Hence there are many always on the watch to create disturbance and to overturn a government which has yet has never rested on any stable foundation. I noticed, however, both here and in other places a very general interest in the ensuing election for the president and this appears a good sign for the prosperity of this little country. The inhabitants do not require much education in their representatives. I heard some men discussing the merits of those for a colonia and it was said that although they were not men of business they could all sign their names. With these it seemed to think every reasonable man ought to be satisfied. Eighteenth Road with my host to Houstoncia at the Royal de Saint-Wan. In the evening we took a ride round the state it contained two square leagues and a half and were situated in what is called a ring con. That is one side was fronted by the Plata and the two others guarded by impassable brooks. There was an excellent port for little vessels and an abundance of food which is valuable as supply and fuel to Buenos Aires. I was curious to know the value of so complete in Estencia. A kettle there were at three thousand and it would well support three or four times that number of mares eight hundred together with a hundred fifty broken in horses and six hundred sheep. There was plenty of water and limestone a rough hulls excellent corals and a peach orchard. He had been offered two thousand pounds and he only wanted five hundred pounds additional and probably would sell it for less. The chief trouble with Estencia is driving the kettle twice a week to a central spot in order to make them tame and to count them. This latter operation would be thought difficult where there are ten or fifteen thousand head together. It is managed on the principle that a kettle invariably divide themselves into little troops of from forty to one hundred. Each troop is recognized by a few peculiarly marked animals and its number is known so that one being lost out of ten thousand it is perceived by its absence for one of the torpedoes. During a stormy night the kettle all mingled together but the next morning the torpedo separated before so that each animal must know its fellow out of ten thousand others. On two occasions I met within this province some oxen of a very curious breed called Nata or Niata. They appear externally to hold nearly the same relation to other kettle which bull or poop dogs do to other dogs. Their forehead is very short and broad with a nasal end turned up and the upper lip much drawn back. Their lower jaws project beyond the upper and have a corresponding upward curve hence their teeth are always exposed their nostrils are seated high up and are very open their eyes project outwards. When walking they carry their heads low on a short neck and their hind legs are rather longer compared with the front legs than is usual. Their bare teeth, their short heads and upturned nostrils give them the most ludicrous self-competent air of defiance imaginable. Since my return I have procured a skeleton head through the kindness of my friend Captain Sullivan R.N which is now deposited in the College of Surgeons. Don F. Muniz of Luxon has kindly collected for me all the information which he could respecting this breed. Note 1. Mr. Waterhouse has drawn up a detailed description of this head which I hope you will publish in some journal. It seems that about 80 or 90 years ago they were rare and kept as curiosities at Buenos Aires the breed is universally believed to have originated among the Indian southward of the Plata and that it was with them the commonest kind. Even to this day those reared in the provinces near the Plata show their less civilized origin in being fiercest than common cattle and in the cow easily deserting his first calf we visited too often or molested. It is a singular fact that an almost-similar structure to the abnormal one of the Dniata breed characterizes as I am informed by Dr. Faulkner that great extinct ruminant of India, the Civaterium. Note 2. A nearly-similar abnormal but I do not know whether hereditary structure has been observed in the crop. In likewise in the crocodile of the Ganges is saw the anomaly by M. E. C. Joe Fry Sandilaer Tom 1. Page 244 The breed is very true. In a Dniata bull and cow invariably produce Dniata calves. A Dniata bull with a common cow or the reverse cross produces offspring having an indicator, but with the Dniata character strongly displayed. According to M. M. there is the clearest evidence contrary to the common belief of agriculturists in analogous cases that the Dniata cow when crossed with a common bull transmits her peculiarities more strongly than the Dniata bull when crossed with a common cow. When the pasture is tolerably long the Dniata cattle feed with the tongue and palate as well as drafts when so many animals perish the Dniata breed is under a greater disadvantage and would be exterminated if not attended to for the common cattle like horses are able just to keep alive by browsing with their lips on twigs of trees and reeds. These Dniatas cannot so well do as their lips do not join and hence they are found to perish before the common cattle. This tracks me as a good illustration of how little we are able to judge the ordinary habits of life on what circumstances occurring only at long intervals the rarity of our extinctions of a species may be determined. November 19th passing the valley of Las Vacas we slept at a house of a North American who worked a lime kiln in the oreo de las vívoras in the morning we rode to a protecting headland on the banks called Punta Gorda on the way we tried to find a jaguar there were plenty of fresh tracks and we visited the trees on which they are set to sharpen their claws but we did not succeed in disturbing one. From this point the Rio Uruguay presented to our view a noble volume of water from the clearness and rapidity of the stream its appearance was far superior to that of its neighbor the Paraná on the opposite coast several branches from the latter river entered the Uruguay as the sun was shining the two colors of the waters could be seen quite distinct in the evening we proceeded on our road towards Mercedes on the Rio Negro at night we asked permission to sleep at Anastasia at which we happened to arrive it was a very large state being ten leagues square and the owner is one of the greatest owners in the country his nephew had charred of it and with him there was a captain in the army who the other day ran away from Buenos Aires considering their station the conversation was rather amusing the express as was usual and bounded astonishment at the globe being round and could scarcely credit that a hole would if deep enough come out on the other side they had however heard of a country where there were six months of light and six of darkness and where the inhabitants were very tall and thin they were curious about the price and condition of horses in Catalan England upon finding out we did not catch our animal with the lasso they cried out ah then he used nothing but the bolas the idea of an enclosed country was quite new to them the captain at last said he had one question to ask me which he should be very much obliged if I would answer with all truth I trembled to think how deeply scientific it would be it was whether the ladies of Buenos Aires were not the handsomest in the world I replied like a renegade charmingly so he added I have one other question do ladies in any other part of the world where such large comes Solomon reassured him that he did not they were absolutely delighted the captain explained look there, a man who has seen half the world says it is the case we always thought so but now we know it my excellent judgment incomes and beauty procured me a most hospitable reception the captain forced me to take his bed and he would sleep on his Ricardo 21st started at sunrise and rode slowly during the whole day the geological nature of this part of the province was different from the rest and closely resembled that of the pompas in consequence there were immense beds of the thistle as well as of the cardoon the whole country indeed may be called one great bed of these plants the two sorts grew separate each plant in company with its own kind the cardoon is as high as the horse's back but the pompas thistle is higher than the crown of the rider's head to leave the road for a yard is out of the question and the road itself is partly and in some cases entirely closed pasture of course there is none if cattle horses once enter the bed they are for the time completely lost hence it is very hazardous to attempt to drive cattle at this season of the year if they are needed enough to face the thistles they rush among them and are seen no more in these districts there are very few Estancias and these few are situated in the neighborhood of Dam Vales where fortunately neither of these overwhelming plants can exist as night came on before we arrived at our journey's end we slept at a miserable little hovo inhabited by the poorest people the extreme though rather formal courtesy of our host and hostess considering the rate of life was quite delightful November 22 arrived at an Estancia in the Berquello belonging to a very hospitable Englishman to whom I had a letter of introduction from my friend Mr. Lum I stayed here three days one morning I rode with my host to the Sierra del Pedro Flaco about 20 miles up the Rio Negro nearly the whole country was covered with good though coarse grass which was as high as a horse's belly yet there were square leagues without a single head of cattle the province of Bondo Oriental if well stocked would support an astonishing number of animals at present the annual export of hides from Montevideo amounts to 300,000 and the home consumption from waste is very considerable an Estanciero told me that he often had to send large herds of cattle on a long journey to assaulting establishment and that the tired beasts were frequently obliged to be killed and skinned but that he could never persuade the Gauchos to eat of them and every evening a fresh beast was slaughtered for their suppers the view of the Rio Negro from the Sierra was more picturesque than any other which I saw in this province the river, broad, deep and rapid wounded the foot of a rocky precipitous cliff a belt of wood followed its course and the horizon terminated in the distant undulations of the turf plain when in this neighborhood a several times heard of the Sierra de las Cuentas a hill distant many miles from the northward the name signifies hill of beads I was assured that vast numbers of little round stones of various colors each with a small cylindrical hole were found there formerly the Indians used to collect them for the purpose of making necklaces and bracelets a taste I may observe which is common to all savage nations as well as to the most polished I do not know what to understand from this story but upon mentioning it at the Cape of Good Hope to Dr. Andrew Smith he told me that he recollected finding on the southeastern coast of Africa about 100 miles to the eastward of St. John's River some quartz crystals with their edge splunted from attrition and mixed with gravel on the sea beach each crystal was about 5 lines in diameter and from an inch to an inch and a half in length many of them had a small canal extending from one extremity to the other perfectly cylindrical and of a size that readily admitted a coarse thread or a piece of fine cat gut that color was red or dull white and the details were acquainted with this structure in crystals I have mentioned these circumstances because although no crystallized body is at present known to assume this form it may lead some future traveler to investigate the real nature of such stones while staying at this stancia I was amused with what I saw and heard of the shepherd dogs of the country when riding it is a common thing to meet a large flock of sheep guarded by one or two dogs at the distance of some miles from any house or man note, M.A. Dorbigny has given nearly a similar account of these dogs, termed first page, hundred seventy-five I often wondered how so firm a friendship has been established the method of education consists of separating the puppy while very young from the bitch and in accustomed it to its future companions a new is have three or four times a day for the little thing to suck and a nest of wool is made for it in the sheep pen at no time it is allowed to associate with other dogs or with the children of the family the puppy is more over generally castrated so that when grown up it can scarcely have any feelings in common with the rest of its kind from this education it has no wish to leave the flock and just as another dog will defend its master man so will this the ship it is amusing to observe when approaching a flock how the dog immediately advances barking and the sheep all close in his rear as if round the oldest ram these dogs are also easily taught to bring home the flock at a certain hour in the evening their most troublesome fault when young is their desire of playing with the sheep for in their sport they sometimes develop their poor subjects most unmercifully the shepherd dog comes to the house every day for some meat and as soon as it is given him he is coked away as if ashamed of himself on these occasions the house dogs are very tyrannical and the least of them will attack and pursue the stranger the minute however the letter has reached the flock it turns round and begins to bark and then all the house dogs come quickly to their heels in a similar manner a whole pack of the hungry wild dogs will scarcely ever and I was told by some never ventured to attack a flock guarded by even one of these faithful shepherds the whole account appears to me a curious instance of the pliability of the factions in the dog and yet whether wild or however educated he has a feeling of respect or fear for those that are fulfilling for we can understand on no principle the wild dogs being driven away by the single one with its flock except that they consider from some confused notion that one is associated against power as if in company with its own kind F. Cuvier has observed that all animals that readily entered into domestication consider man as a member of their own society and thus fulfill their instinct of association in the above case the shepherd dog ranks the sheep as its fellow brethren and thus gains confidence and the wild dogs though knowing that the individual shape are not dogs but are good to eat yet partly consent to this view when seeing them in a flock with a shepherd dog at their head one evening a dormidor a subduer of horses came for the purpose of breaking I would describe the preparatory steps for I believe they have not been mentioned by other travelers a troop of wild young horses is driven into the corral or large enclosure of stakes and the door is shut we will suppose that one man alone has to catch and mount a horse which as yet had never felt bridle or saddle I conceive except by a gaucho such a feat would be utterly impractical the gaucho picks out a full-grown coat and as a beast rushes round the circles he throws his lasso so as to catch both the front legs instantly the horse rolls over with a heavy shock and wheels struggling on the ground the gaucho holding the lasso tight makes a circle so as to catch one of the hind legs just beneath the fatlock and draws it close to the two front legs he then hitches the lasso so that the three are bound together then sitting on the horse's neck he fixes a strong bridle without a bit to the lower jaw this he does by passing a narrow tongue through the eye holes at the end of the reins and several times round both jaw and tongue the two front legs are now tied closely together with a strong leather tongue fastened by a slip knot the lasso which bound the three together being then loosed the horse rises with difficulty the gaucho now holding fast the bridle fixed to the lower jaw leads the horse outside the corral if a second man is present otherwise the trouble is much greater he holds the animal's head wheels the first puts on the horse cloths and saddle and gusts the hold together during this operation the horse from dread and astonishment thus being bound round the waist throws himself over and over again on the ground until bitten is unwilling to rise alas when the settling is finished the poor animal can hardly breath from fear and is wide with foam and sweat the man now prepares to mount by pressing heavily on the stirrup so that the horse may not lose its balance and at the moment that he throws his leg over the animal's back he pulls the slip knot biting the front legs and the beast is free some domedors pull the knot while the animal is lying on the ground standing over the saddle allow him to rise beneath them the horse, wide with dread gives a few most violent bounds and then starts off at full gallop when quite exhausted the man by patience brings him back to the corral where reeking hot and scarcely alive the poor beast is let free those animals which will not gallop away but obviously throw themselves on the ground are by far the most troublesome this process is tremendously severe but in two or three trials the horse is tamed it is not however for some weeks that the animal is reeding with the iron bait and solid rain for it must learn to associate the wheel of its rider with the fill of the rain before the most powerful bridle can be of any service animals are so abundant in these countries that humanity and self-interest are not closely united therefore I fear it is that the former is here scarcely known one day riding in the Pampas with a very respectable stanciero my horse being tired lagged behind the man often shouted to me it is per hem when I remonstrated that it was a pity for the horse was quite exhausted he cried out why not never mind it is per hem it is my horse I had then some difficulty in making him comprehend that it was for his sake and not in his account that I did not choose to use my spurts he exclaimed in the look of great surprise ah don carlos que cosa it was clear that such an idea had never before entered his head the goatos are well known to be perfect riders the idea of being thrown let the horse do what it likes never enters their head their criteria of a good rider is a man who can manage an untamed coat or who if his horse falls a lights on his own feet or can perform other such exploits I have heard of a man betting that he would throw his horse down 20 times and that 19 times he would not fall himself I recollect seeing a goat riding a very stubborn horse which three times successfully reared so high as to fall backwards with great violence the man jutted with uncommon coolness the proper moment for his riding off not an instant before or after the right time and as soon as the horse got up the man jumped on his back and at last they started at a gallop the gaucho never appears to exert any muscular force I was one day watching a good rider as we were galloping along at a rapid pace and thought to myself surely if the horse starts you appeared so careless on your seat you must fall at this moment a male ostrich at least right beneath the horse's nose the young coat bounded on one side like a stag but as for the man all that could be said was that he started and took fright with his horse End of Chapter 8 Part 1 Chapter 8 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 Chapter 8 Banda Oriental and Patagonia Part 2 In Chile and Peru more pains are taken with the mouth of the horse than in La Plata and this is evidently a consequence of the more intricate nature of the country In Chile a horse is not considered perfectly broken till he can be brought up standing in the midst of his full speed on any particular spot for instance on a cloak thrown on the ground or again he will charge a wall and rearing scrape the surface with his hoofs I have seen an animal bounding with spirit yet merely reigned by a forefinger and thumb taken at full gallop across a courtyard and then made to wheel around the post of a veranda with great speed but at so equal a distance with an outstretched arm all the while kept one finger rubbing the post then making a demi-volt in the air with the other arm outstretched in a like manner he wheeled round with astonishing force in an opposite direction such a horse is well broken and although this at first may appear useless it is far otherwise it is only carrying that which is daily necessary into perfection when a bullock is checked and caught by the lasso it will sometimes gallop round and round in a circle and the horse being alarmed at the great strain if not well broken will not readily turn like the pivot of a wheel in consequence many men have been killed for if the lasso once takes a twist around a man's body it will instantly from the power of the two opposed animals almost cut him in twain the same principle the races are managed the course is only two or three hundred yards long the wish being to have horses that can make a rapid dash the race horses are trained not only to stand with their hoofs touching a line but to draw all four feet together so as at the first spring to bring into play the full action of the hind quarters in Chile I was told an anecdote and it offers a good illustration of the use of a well broken animal a respectable man writing one day met two others one of whom was mounted on a horse which he knew to have been stolen from himself he challenged them they answered him by drawing their sabers and giving chase the man on his good and fleet beast kept just ahead as he passed a thick brush he wheeled round it the horse to a dead check the pursuers were obliged to shoot on one side and ahead then instantly dashing on right behind them he buried his knife in the back of one wounded the other recovered his horse from the dying robber and rode home for these feats of horsemanship two things are necessary a most severe bit like the mammal key the power of which though seldom used the horse knows full well and large blunt spurs that can be applied either as a mere touch or as an instrument of extreme pain I conceive that with English spurs the slightest touch of which pricks the skin it would be impossible to break in a horse after the South American fashion at an Estancia near Las Vegas large numbers of mayors are weakly slaughtered for the sake of their highs although worth only five paper dollars or about half crown apiece it seems at first strange that it can answer to kill mayors for such a trifle but as it is thought ridiculous in this country ever to break in or ride a mare they are of no value except for breeding the only thing for which I ever saw mayors used was to tread out wheat from the ear for which purpose they were driven round a circular enclosure where the wheat sheaves or strewn the man employed for slaughtering the mayors happened to be celebrated for his dexterity with the lasso standing at the distance of 12 yards from the mouth of the corral he has laid a wager that he would catch by the legs every animal without missing one as it rushed past him there was another man who said he would enter the corral on foot catch a mare fasten her front legs together drive her out, throw her down kill, scan, and stake the hide for which the latter is a tedious job and he engaged that he would perform this whole operation on 22 animals in one day or he would kill and take the skin off 50 in the same time this would have been a prodigious task for it is considered a good day's work to skin and stake the hides of 15 or 16 animals November 26th I set out on my return in a direct line from Montevideo having heard of some giants bones at a neighboring farmhouse on the Sarandes a small stream entering the Rio Negro I rode there accompanied by my host and purchased for the value of 18 pence the head of the Toxodon when found it was quite perfect but the boys knocked out some of the teeth with stones and then set up the head as a mark to throw at by a most fortunate chance I found a perfect tooth that really fitted one of the sockets and the skull embedded itself on the banks of the Rio Tercero at the distance of about 180 miles from this place I found remains of this extraordinary animal at two other places so that it must formally have been common I found here also some large portions of the armor of a gigantic armadillo-like animal and part of the great head of the Myladon the bones of this head are so fresh that they contain according to the analysis of Mr. T. Reeks 7% of animal matter and when placed in a spirit lamp they burn with a small flame the number of the remains embedded in the grand estuary deposit which forms the pompos and covers the gigantic rocks of Banda Oriental must be extraordinarily great I believe a straight line drawn in any direction through the pompos would cut through some skeleton or bones besides those which I found during my short excursions I heard of many others and the origin of such names as the stream of the animal the hill of the giant is obvious at other times I heard of the marvelous property of certain rivers which had the power of changing small bones into large or as some maintained the bones themselves grew as far as I'm aware not one of these animals perished as was formally supposed in the marshes or muddy riverbeds of the present land but their bones have been exposed by the streams intersecting the sabacoia deposits in which they were originally embedded we may conclude that the whole area of the pompos is one wide sepulcher of these extinct gigantic quadrupeds by the middle of the day on the 28th we arrived at Montevideo having been 2 days and a half on the road the country for the whole way was of a very uniform character some parts being rather more rocky and hilly than near the plada not far from Montevideo we passed through the village of Las Pietras so named for some large rounded masses of cyanite its appearance was rather pretty in this country a few fig trees around a group of houses and a site elevated 100 feet above the general level ought always to be called picturesque during the last 6 months I have had an opportunity of seeing a little of the character of the inhabitants of these provinces the gauchos or countrymen are very superior to those who reside in the towns the gaucho is invariably most obliging, polite and hospitable I did not meet with even one instance of rudeness or inhospitality he is modest both respecting himself and country but at the same time a spirited bold fellow on the other hand many robberies are committed and there is much bloodshed the habit of constantly wearing the knife is the chief cause of the latter it is lamentable to hear how many lives are lost in trifling quarrels in fighting each party tries to mark the face of his adversary by slashing his nose or eyes as is often attested by deep and horrid looking scars robberies are a natural consequence of universal gambling much drinking and extreme indolence at Mercedes I asked two men why they did not work one gravely said the days were too long the other that he was too poor the number of horses and the profusion of food are the destruction of all industry moreover there are so many feast days and again nothing can succeed without it be begun when the moon is on the increase so that half the month is lost from these two causes police injustice are quite inefficient if a man who is poor commits a murder and is taken he will be imprisoned even shot but if he is rich and has friends he may rely on it no very severe consequence will ensue it is curious that the most respectable inhabitants of the country invariably assist a murderer to escape they seem to think that the individual sins against the government and not against the people a traveler has no protection besides his firearms and the constant habit of carrying them to more frequent robberies the character of the higher and more educated classes who reside in the towns partakes but perhaps in a lesser degree of the good parts of the gaucho but is I fear stained by many vices of which he is free sensuality mockery of all religion and the grossest corruption are far from uncommon nearly every public officer can be bribed a man in the post office sold forge to government francs the governor and prime minister openly combined to plunder the state justice where gold came into play was hardly expected by anyone I knew an Englishman who went to the chief justice he told me that not then understanding the ways of the place he trembled as he entered the room and said sir I have come to offer you 200 paper dollars about five pounds sterling if you will arrest before a certain time a man who has cheated me I know it is against the law but my lawyer, naming him recommended me to take this step the chief justice smiled acquiescence, thanked him and the man before night was safe in prison with this entire want of principle in many of the leading men with a country full of ill-paid turbulent officers the people yet hope that a democratic form of government can succeed on first entering society in these countries two or three features strike one as particularly remarkable the polite and dignified manners pervading every rank of life the excellent taste displayed by the women in their dresses and the equality amongst all ranks at Rio Colorado some men who kept the humblest shops used to dine with General Rosas a son of a major at Bahia Blanca gained his livelihood by making paper cigars and wished to accompany me as guide or servant to Buenos Aires but his father objected on the score of the danger alone many officers in the army can neither read nor write yet all met in society as equals in Entre Rios the Sala consisted of only six representatives one of them kept a common shop and evidently was not degraded by the office all this is what would be expected in a new country nevertheless the absence of gentlemen by profession appears to an Englishman something strange when speaking of these countries the manner in which they have been brought up by their unnatural parent Spain should always be born in mind on the whole perhaps more credit is due for what has been done than blame for that which may be deficient it is impossible to doubt but that the extreme liberalism of these countries must ultimately lead to good results the very general toleration of foreign religions the regard paid to the means of education the freedom of the press the facilities offered to all foreigners and especially as I am bound to add professing the humblest pretensions to science should be recollected with gratitude by those who have visited Spanish South America December 6th the Beagle sailed from the Rio Plata never again to enter its muddy stream our course was directed to port Desire on the coast of Patagonia before proceeding any further I will here put together a few observations made at sea several times when the ship has been some miles off the mouth of the Plata and at other times when off the shores of northern Patagonia we have been surrounded by insects one evening when we were about 10 miles from the bay of San Blas vast numbers of butterflies in bands or flocks of countless Marriads extended as far as the eye could range even by the aid of a telescope it was not possible to see a space free from butterflies the semen cried out it was snowing butterflies and such was in fact the appearance more species than one were present but the main part belonged to a kind very similar to but not identical with the common English collias edusa some moths and hymenoptera accompanied the butterflies and a fine beetle calisoma flew on board other instances are known of this beetle having been caught far out at sea and this is the more remarkable as the greater number of the carabide seldom or never take wing the day had been fine and calm and the one previous to it equally so with light and variable airs and we cannot suppose that the insects were blown off the land but we must conclude that they voluntarily took flight the great bands of the collias seem at first to afford an instance like those on record of the migrations of another butterfly Vanessa cardouille but the presence of other insects makes the case distinct and even less intelligible before sunset a strong breeze sprung up from the north and this must have caused tens of thousands of the butterflies and other insects to have perished on another occasion when 17 miles off Cape Corrientes I had a net over board to catch palasic animals upon drawing it up to my surprise I found a considerable number of beetles in it and although in the open sea they did not appear much injured by the salt water I lost some of the specimens but those which I preserve belong to the genera columbites hydroporos hydrobius two species notaphas, synecus admonia and scarbarius at first I thought that these insects had been blown from the shore but upon reflecting that out of the eight species four were aquatic and two others partly so on their habits it appeared to me more probable that they were floated into the sea by a small stream which drains a lake near Cape Corrientes on any supposition it is an interesting circumstance to find live insects swimming in the open ocean 17 miles from the nearest point of land there are several accounts of insects having been blown off the Patagonian shore Captain Cook observed it as did more lately Captain King of the adventurer the cause probably is due to the want of shelter both of trees and hills so that an insect on the wing with an offshore breeze may apt to be blown out to sea the most remarkable instance I have known of an insect being caught far from the land was that of a large grasshopper acridium which flew on board when the beagle was to windward of the Cape de Verde islands and when the nearest point of land not directly opposed to the trade wind was Cape Blanco on the coast of Africa 370 miles distant on several occasions the beagle has been within the mouth of the plada the rigging has been coated with the web of the Gossamer spider November 1st 1832 I paid particular attention to this subject the weather had been fine and clear and in the morning the air was full of patches of the flocculent web as on an autumnal day in England the ship was 60 miles distant from the land in the direction of a steady though light breeze the last numbers of a small spider about one tenth of an inch in length and of a dusky red color were attached to the web there must have been, I should suppose some thousands on the ship the little spider when first coming in contact with the rigging was always seated on a single thread and not on the flocculent mass this ladder seems merely to be produced by the entanglement of the single thread the spiders were all of one species but of both sexes together with the young ones these ladder were distinguished by their smaller size and more dusky color I will not give the description of the spider but merely state that it does not appear to me to be included in any of L'Otriel's Genera the little aeronaut as soon as it arrived on board was very active running about sometimes letting itself fall and then re-ascending the same thread sometimes employing itself making a small and very irregular mesh in the corners between the ropes it could run with facility on the surface of the water when disturbed it lifted up its front legs in the attitude of attention on its first arrival it appeared very thirsty and with exerted maxillae drank eagerly of drops of water the same circumstance has been observed by Strach may it not be in consequence of the little insect having passed through a dry and rarefied atmosphere its stock of web seemed inexhaustible while watching some that were suspended by a single thread I several times observed that the slightest breath of air bore them away out of sight in a horizontal line on another occasion 25th under similar circumstances I repeatedly observed the same kind of small spider either when placed or having crawled on some little eminence elevate its abdomen send forth a thread and then sail away horizontally but with a rapidity which was quite unaccountable I thought I could perceive that the spider before performing the above preparatory steps connected its legs together with the most delicate threads but I am not sure whether this observation was correct one day at St. Fay I had a better opportunity of observing some similar facts a spider which was about 3 tenths of an inch in length and which in its general appearance resembled a citigrad therefore quite different from the gossamer while standing on a summit of a post darted forth four or five threads from its spinners these glittering in the sunshine might be compared to diverging rays of light they were not however straight but in undulations like films of silk brown by the wind they were more than a yard in length and diverged in ascending directions from their orifices the spider then suddenly let go of its hold from the post and was quickly born out of sight the day was hot and apparently calm yet under such circumstances the atmosphere can never be so tranquil as to not affect a vein so delicate as the thread of the web if during a warm day we look either at the shadow of any object cast on a bank or over a level plane at a distant landmark the effect of an ascending current of heated air is almost always evident such upward currents as it has been remarked are also shown by the ascent of soap bubbles which will not rise in the indoors room hence I think there is not much difficulty in understanding the ascent of any lines projected from a spider's spinners and afterwards of the spider itself the divergence of the lines has been attempted to be explained I believe by Mr. Murray by their similar electrical condition the circumstance of spiders of the same species but of different sexes and ages being found on several occasions at the distance of many leagues from the land attached in vast numbers to the lines is it probable that the habit of sailing through the air is as characteristic of this tribe as that of diving is to the Argeronida we may then reject Latrielle's supposition that the Gossamer owes its origin indifferently to the young of several genera of spiders although as we have seen the young of other spiders do possess the power of performing aerial voyages during our different passages south of the Plata I often totestern a net made of bunting and thus caught many curious animals of Crestacea there were many strange and undescribed genera one which in some respects is a lie to the notopods or those crabs which have their posterior legs placed almost on their backs for the purpose of adhering to the underside of rocks is very remarkable for the structure of its hind pair of legs the penultimate joint instead of terminating in a simple claw ends in three bristle-like appendages of dissimilar length the longest equalling that of the entire leg these claws are very thin and are serrated with the finest teeth directed backwards their curved extremities are flattened and on this part five most minute cups are placed which seem to act in the same manner as the suckers on the arm of the cuttlefish as the animal lives in the open sea and probably wants a place of rest I suppose this beautiful and most anomalous structure is adapted to take hold of the floating marine animals in deep water far from the land the number of living creatures is extremely small south of the latitude 35 degrees I never succeeded in catching anything besides some burrow and a few species of minute endromostracus crustacea in shallower water at the distance of a few miles from the coast very many kinds of crustacea and some other animals are numerous but only during the night between latitudes 56 and 57 degrees south of Cape Horn the net was put astern several times it never however brought up anything besides a few of two extremely minute species of entromostracus yet whales and seals, petrels and albatross are exceedingly abundant throughout this part of the ocean it has always been a mystery to me on what the albatross which lives far from the shore can subsist I presume that, like the condor it is able to fast long and that one good feast on the carcass of a putrid whale lasts for a long time the central and intertropical parts of the Atlantic swarm with petropada, crustacea and radiata and with their devourers the bonitos and albicores I presume that the numerous lower pelagic animals feed on the infusoria which are now known from the researches of erenberg to abound in the open ocean but on what in the clear blue water do these infusoria subsist while sailing a little south of the plada on one very dark night the sea presented a wonderful and most beautiful spectacle there was a fresh breeze and every part of the surface which during the day is seen as foam now glowed with a pale light the vessel drove before her bow two billows of liquid phosphorus and in her wake she was followed by a milky train as far as the eye reached the crest of every wake was bright and the sky above the horizon from the reflected glare of these livid flames was as pure as over the vault of the heavens as we proceed further southward the sea has seldom phosphorescent and off Cape Horn I do not recollect more than once having seen it so and then it was far from being brilliant this circumstance probably has a close connection with the scarcity of organic beings in that part of the ocean after the elaborate paper by erenberg on the phosphorescence it is almost superfluous on my part to make any observations on the subject I may however add that the same torn and irregular particles of gelatinous matter described by erenberg seen in the southern as well as in the northern hemisphere to be the common cause of this phenomenon the particles were so minute as easily to pass through the fine gauze yet many were distinctly visible by the naked eye the water when placed in a tumbler and agitated gave out sparks but a small portion in a watch glass scarcely ever was luminous erenberg states that these particles all retained certain degrees of irritability my observations some of which made directly after taking up the water gave a different result I may also mention that having used the net during one night I allowed it to become partially dry and having occasioned 12 hours afterwards to employ it again I found the whole surface sparkled as brightly as when first taken out of the water it does not appear probable in this case that the particles could have remained so long alive on one occasion having kept a jellyfish of the genus dianneia till it was dead the water on which it was placed became luminous when the waves scintillated with bright green sparks I believe it is generally owing to my new crustacea but there can be no doubt that very many other palatial animals when alive are phosphorescent on two occasions I have observed the sea luminous at considerable depth beneath the surface near the mouth of the plata some circular and oval patches from 2 to 4 yards in diameter and with defined outlines shown with a steady but pale light while the surrounding water only gave out a few sparks the appearance resembled the reflection of the moon or some luminous body for the edges were sinuous from the undulations of the surface the ship which drew 13 feet of water passed over without disturbing these patches therefore we must suppose that some animals were congregated together at a greater depth than the bottom of the vessel near Fernando Naronia the sea gave out light and flashes the appearance was very similar to that which might be expected from a large fish moving rapidly through a luminous fluid to this cause the sailors attributed it at the time however I entertained some doubts on account of the frequency and rapidity of the flashes I have already remarked that the phenomenon is very much more common and warm than in cold countries and I have sometimes imagined that a disturbed electrical condition was most favorable to its production certainly I think the sea is most luminous after a few days of more calm weather than ordinary during which time it has swarmed with various animals observing that the water charged with gelatinous particles is an impure state and that the luminous appearance in all common cases is produced by the agitation of the fluid in contact with the atmosphere I am inclined to consider the result of the decomposition of organic particles by which process one is tempted almost to call it a kind of respiration the ocean becomes purified December 23rd we arrived at Port Desire situated in latitude 47 degrees on the coast of Patagonia the creek runs for about 20 miles inland with an irregular width the beagle angered a few miles within the entrance in front of the ruins of the Spanish settlement the same evening I went on shore the first landing in any new country is very interesting and especially when, as in this case the whole aspect bears a stamp of a marked and individual character at the height of between 2 and 300 feet above some masses of periphery a wide plain extends which is truly characteristic of Patagonia the surface is quite level and is composed of well rounded with a whitish earth here and there scattered tufts of brown, wiry grass are supported and still more rarely some low thorny bushes the weather is dry and pleasant and the fine blue sky is but seldom obscured when standing in the middle of one of these desert plains and looking towards the interior the view is generally bounded by the escarpment of another plain rather higher but equally level and desolate in another direction the horizon is indistinct from the trembling mirage which seems to rise from the heated surface in such a country the fate of the Spanish settlement was soon decided the dryness of the climate during the greater part of the year and the occasional hostile attacks of the wandering Indians compelled the colonists to desert their half finished buildings the style however of Spain in the old time the result of all the attempts to colonize the site of America south of 41 degrees has been miserable Port Famine expresses by its name the lingering and extreme sufferings of several hundred wretched people of whom one alone survived to relate their misfortunes at St. Joseph's Bay on the coast of Patagonia a small settlement was made but during one Sunday a small party accepting two men who remained captives during many years at the Rio Negro I conversed with one of these men now in extreme old age