Chapter 9 - Page 2

night's lodging. Each of the crew took it in turns to b cook. Immediately the boat was hauled up, the cook mad his fire; two others pitched the tent; the coxswain hande the things out of the boat; the rest carried them up to th tents and collected firewood. By this order, in half an hou everything was ready for the night. A watch of two me and an officer was always kept, whose duty it was to loo after the boats, keep up the fire, and guard against Indians Each in the party had his one hour every night.

During this day we tracked but a short distance, for ther were many islets, covered by thorny bushes, and the channels between them were shallow.

April 20th. -- We passed the islands and set to work. Ou regular day's march, although it was hard enough, carrie us on an average only ten miles in a straight line, and perhaps fifteen or twenty altogether. Beyond the place wher we slept last night, the country is completely terra incognita for it was there that Captain Stokes turned back. We sa in the distance a great smoke, and found the skeleton of horse, so we knew that Indians were in the neighbourhood On the next morning (21st) tracks of a party of horse and marks left by the trailing of the chuzos, or long spears were observed on the ground. It was generally though that the Indians had reconnoitred us during the night Shortly afterwards we came to a spot where, from the fres footsteps of men, children, and horses, it was evident tha the party had crossed the river.

April 22nd. -- The country remained the same, and wa extremely uninteresting. The complete similarity of th productions throughout Patagonia is one of its most striking characters. The level plains of arid shingle suppor the same stunted and dwarf plants; and in the valleys th same thorn-bearing bushes grow. Everywhere we see th same birds and insects. Even the very banks of the rive and of the clear streamlets which entered it, were scarcel enlivened by a brighter tint of green. The curse of sterilit is on the land, and the water flowing over a bed of pebble partakes of the same curse. Hence the number of waterfowl is very scanty; for there is nothing to support life i the stream of this barren river.

Patagonia, poor as she is in some respects, can howeve boast of a greater stock of small rodents [1] than perhaps an other country in the world. Several species of mice ar externally characterized by large thin ears and a very fin fur. These little animals swarm amongst the thickets in th valleys, where they cannot for months together taste a dro of water excepting the dew. They all seem to be cannibals for no sooner was a mouse caught in one of my traps tha it was devoured by others. A small and delicately shape fox, which is likewise very abundant, probably derives it entire support from these small animals. The guanaco i also in his proper district, herds of fifty or a hundred wer common; and, as I have stated, we saw one which mus have