Bahia Blanca—Geology—Numerous gigantic extinct Quadrupeds—Recent
Extinction—Longevity of Species—Large Animals do not require a
luxuriant Vegetation—Southern Africa—Siberian Fossils—Two Species of
Ostrich—Habits of Oven-bird—Armadilloes—Venomous Snake, Toad,
Lizard—Hybernation of Animals—Habits of Sea-Pen—Indian Wars and
Massacres—Arrowhead, antiquarian Relic.
BAHIA BLANCA.
The _Beagle_ arrived here on the 24th of August, and a week afterwards
sailed for the Plata. With Captain Fitz Roy’s consent I was left
behind, to travel by land to Buenos Ayres. I will here add some
observations, which were made during this visit and on a previous
occasion, when the _Beagle_ was employed in surveying the harbour.
The plain, at the distance of a few miles from the coast,
belongs to the great Pampean formation, which consists in part of a
reddish clay, and in part of a highly calcareous marly rock. Nearer the
coast there are some plains formed from the wreck of the upper plain,
and from mud, gravel, and sand thrown up by the sea during the slow
elevation of the land, of which elevation we have evidence in upraised
beds of recent shells, and in rounded pebbles of pumice scattered over
the country. At Punta Alta we have a section of one of these
later-formed little plains, which is highly interesting from the number
and extraordinary character of the remains of gigantic land-animals
embedded in it. These have been fully described by Professor Owen, in
the _Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle_, and are deposited in the
College of Surgeons. I will here give only a brief outline of their
nature.
First, parts of three heads and other bones of the Megatherium, the
huge dimensions of which are expressed by its name. Secondly, the
Megalonyx, a great allied animal. Thirdly, the Scelidotherium, also an
allied animal, of which I obtained a nearly perfect skeleton. It must
have been as large as a rhinoceros: in the structure of its head it
comes, according to Mr. Owen, nearest to the Cape Ant-eater, but in
some other respects it approaches to the armadilloes. Fourthly, the
Mylodon Darwinii, a closely related genus of little inferior size.
Fifthly, another gigantic edental quadruped. Sixthly, a large animal,
with an osseous coat in compartments, very like that of an armadillo.
Seventhly, an extinct kind of horse, to which I shall have again to
refer. Eighthly, a tooth of a Pachydermatous animal, probably the same
with the Macrauchenia, a huge beast with a long neck like a camel,
which I shall also refer to again. Lastly, the Toxodon, perhaps one of
the strangest animals ever discovered: in size it equalled an elephant
or megatherium, but the structure of its teeth, as Mr. Owen states,
proves indisputably that it was intimately related to the Gnawers, the
order which, at the present day, includes most of the smallest
quadrupeds: in many details it is allied to the Pachydermata: judging
from the position of its eyes, ears, and nostrils, it was probably
aquatic, like the Dugong and Manatee, to which it is also allied. How
wonderfully are the different Orders, at the present time so well
separated, blended together in different points of the structure of the
Toxodon!
The remains of these nine great quadrupeds and many detached bones were
found embedded on the beach, within the space of about 200 yards
square. It is a remarkable circumstance that so many different species
should be found together; and it proves how numerous in kind the
ancient inhabitants of this country must have been. At the distance of
about thirty miles from Punta Alta, in a cliff of red earth, I found
several fragments of bones, some of large size. Among them were the
teeth of a gnawer, equalling in size and closely resembling those of
the Capybara, whose habits have been described; and therefore,
probably, an aquatic animal. There was also part of the head of a
Ctenomys; the species being different from the Tucutuco, but with a
close general resemblance. The red earth, like that of the Pampas, in
which these remains were embedded, contains, according to Professor
Ehrenberg, eight fresh-water and one salt-water infusorial animalcule;
therefore, probably, it was an estuary deposit.
The remains at Punta Alta were embedded in stratified gravel and
reddish mud, just such as the sea might now wash up on a shallow bank.
They were associated with twenty-three species of shells, of which
thirteen are recent and four others very closely related to recent
forms.[1] From the bones of the Scelidotherium, including even the
kneecap, being entombed in their proper relative positions,[2] and from
the osseous armour of the great armadillo-like animal being so well
preserved, together with the bones of one of its legs, we may feel
assured that these remains were fresh and united by their ligaments,
when deposited in the gravel together with the shells. Hence we have
good evidence that the above enumerated gigantic quadrupeds, more
different from those of the present day than the oldest of the tertiary
quadrupeds of Europe, lived whilst the sea was peopled with most of its
present inhabitants; and we have confirmed that remarkable law so often
insisted on by Mr. Lyell, namely, that the “longevity of the species in
the mammalia is upon the whole inferior to that of the testacea.”[3]
[1] Since this was written, M. Alcide d’Orbigny has examined these
shells, and pronounces them all to be recent.
[2] M. Aug. Bravard has described, in a Spanish work (_Observaciones
Geologicas_, 1857), this district, and he believes that the bones of
the extinct mammals were washed out of the underlying Pampean deposit,
and subsequently became embedded with the still existing shells; but I
am not convinced by his remarks. M. Bravard believes that the whole
enormous Pampean deposit is a sub-aerial formation, like sand-dunes:
this seems to me to be an untenable doctrine.
[3] _Principles of Geology_, vol. iv, p. 40.
The great size of the bones of the Megatheroid animals, including the
Megatherium, Megalonyx, Scelidotherium, and Mylodon, is truly
wonderful. The habits of life of these animals were a complete puzzle
to naturalists, until Professor Owen[4] solved the problem with
remarkable ingenuity. The teeth indicate, by their simple structure,
that these Megatheroid animals lived on vegetable food, and probably on
the leaves and small twigs of trees; their ponderous forms and great
strong curved claws seem so little adapted for locomotion, that some
eminent naturalists have actually believed that, like the sloths, to
which they are intimately related, they subsisted by climbing back
downwards on trees, and feeding on the leaves. It was a bold, not to
say preposterous, idea to conceive even antediluvian trees, with
branches strong enough to bear animals as large as elephants. Professor
Owen, with far more probability, believes that, instead of climbing on
the trees, they pulled the branches down to them, and tore up the
smaller ones by the roots, and so fed on the leaves. The colossal
breadth and weight of their hinder quarters, which can hardly be
imagined without having been seen, become, on this view, of obvious
service, instead of being an encumbrance: their apparent clumsiness
disappears. With their great tails and their huge heels firmly fixed
like a tripod on the ground, they could freely exert the full force of
their most powerful arms and great claws. Strongly rooted, indeed, must
that tree have been, which could have resisted such force! The Mylodon,
moreover, was furnished with a long extensile tongue like that of the
giraffe, which, by one of those beautiful provisions of nature, thus
reaches with the aid of its long neck its leafy food. I may remark,
that in Abyssinia the elephant, according to Bruce, when it cannot
reach with its proboscis the branches, deeply scores with its tusks the
trunk of the tree, up and down and all round, till it is sufficiently
weakened to be broken down.
[4] This theory was first developed in the _Zoology of the Voyage of
the Beagle_, and subsequently in Professor Owen’s _Memoir on Mylodon
robustus._
The beds including the above fossil remains stand only from fifteen to
twenty feet above the level of high water; and hence
the elevation of the land has been small (without there has been an
intercalated period of subsidence, of which we have no evidence) since
the great quadrupeds wandered over the surrounding plains; and the
external features of the country must then have been very nearly the
same as now. What, it may naturally be asked, was the character of the
vegetation at that period; was the country as wretchedly sterile as it
now is? As so many of the co-embedded shells are the same with those
now living in the bay, I was at first inclined to think that the former
vegetation was probably similar to the existing one; but this would
have been an erroneous inference, for some of these same shells live on
the luxuriant coast of Brazil; and generally, the characters of the
inhabitants of the sea are useless as guides to judge of those on the
land. Nevertheless, from the following considerations, I do not believe
that the simple fact of many gigantic quadrupeds having lived on the
plains round Bahia Blanca, is any sure guide that they formerly were
clothed with a luxuriant vegetation: I have no doubt that the sterile
country a little southward, near the Rio Negro, with its scattered
thorny trees, would support many and large quadrupeds.
That large animals require a luxuriant vegetation, has been a general
assumption which has passed from one work to another; but I do not
hesitate to say that it is completely false, and that it has vitiated
the reasoning of geologists on some points of great interest in the
ancient history of the world. The prejudice has probably been derived
from India, and the Indian islands, where troops of elephants, noble
forests, and impenetrable jungles, are associated together in every
one’s mind. If, however, we refer to any work of travels through the
southern parts of Africa, we shall find allusions in almost every page
either to the desert character of the country, or to the numbers of
large animals inhabiting it. The same thing is rendered evident by the
many engravings which have been published of various parts of the
interior. When the _ Beagle_ was at Cape Town, I made an excursion of
some days’ length into the country, which at least was sufficient to
render that which I had read more fully intelligible.
Dr. Andrew Smith, who, at the head of his adventurous party, has lately
succeeded in passing the Tropic of Capricorn,
informs me that, taking into consideration the whole of the southern
part of Africa, there can be no doubt of its being a sterile country.
On the southern and south-eastern coasts there are some fine forests,
but with these exceptions, the traveller may pass for days together
through open plains, covered by a poor and scanty vegetation. It is
difficult to convey any accurate idea of degrees of comparative
fertility; but it may be safely said that the amount of vegetation
supported at any one time[5] by Great Britain, exceeds, perhaps even
tenfold, the quantity on an equal area in the interior parts of
Southern Africa. The fact that bullock-waggons can travel in any
direction, excepting near the coast, without more than occasionally
half an hour’s delay in cutting down bushes, gives, perhaps, a more
definite notion of the scantiness of the vegetation. Now, if we look to
the animals inhabiting these wide plains, we shall find their numbers
extraordinarily great, and their bulk immense. We must enumerate the
elephant, three species of rhinoceros, and probably, according to Dr.
Smith, two others, the hippopotamus, the giraffe, the bos caffer—as
large as a full-grown bull, and the elan—but little less, two zebras,
and the quaccha, two gnus, and several antelopes even larger than these
latter animals. It may be supposed that although the species are
numerous, the individuals of each kind are few. By the kindness of Dr.
Smith, I am enabled to show that the case is very different. He informs
me, that in lat. 24°, in one day’s march with the bullock-waggons, he
saw, without wandering to any great distance on either side, between
one hundred and one hundred and fifty rhinoceroses, which belonged to
three species: the same day he saw several herds of giraffes, amounting
together to nearly a hundred; and that, although no elephant was
observed, yet they are found in this district. At the distance of a
little more than one hour’s march from their place of encampment on the
previous night, his party actually killed at one spot eight
hippopotamuses, and saw many more. In this same river there were
likewise crocodiles. Of course it was a case quite extraordinary, to
see so many great animals crowded together, but it evidently proves
that they must exist in great numbers. Dr. Smith describes the country
passed through that day, as “being
thinly covered with grass, and bushes about four feet high, and still
more thinly with mimosa-trees.” The waggons were not prevented
travelling in a nearly straight line.
[5] I mean by this to exclude the total amount which may have been
successively produced and consumed during a given period.
Besides these large animals, every one the least acquainted with the
natural history of the Cape has read of the herds of antelopes, which
can be compared only with the flocks of migratory birds. The numbers
indeed of the lion, panther, and hyæna, and the multitude of birds of
prey, plainly speak of the abundance of the smaller quadrupeds: one
evening seven lions were counted at the same time prowling round Dr.
Smith’s encampment. As this able naturalist remarked to me, the carnage
each day in Southern Africa must indeed be terrific! I confess it is
truly surprising how such a number of animals can find support in a
country producing so little food. The larger quadrupeds no doubt roam
over wide tracts in search of it; and their food chiefly consists of
underwood, which probably contains much nutriment in a small bulk. Dr.
Smith also informs me that the vegetation has a rapid growth; no sooner
is a part consumed, than its place is supplied by a fresh stock. There
can be no doubt, however, that our ideas respecting the apparent amount
of food necessary for the support of large quadrupeds are much
exaggerated: it should have been remembered that the camel, an animal
of no mean bulk, has always been considered as the emblem of the
desert.
The belief that where large quadrupeds exist, the vegetation must
necessarily be luxuriant, is the more remarkable, because the converse
is far from true. Mr. Burchell observed to me that when entering
Brazil, nothing struck him more forcibly than the splendour of the
South American vegetation contrasted with that of South Africa,
together with the absence of all large quadrupeds. In his _Travels_,[6]
he has suggested that the comparison of the respective weights (if
there were sufficient data) of an equal number of the largest
herbivorous quadrupeds of each country would be extremely curious. If
we take on the one side, the elephant,[7] hippopotamus, giraffe, bos
caffer,
elan, certainly three, and probably five species of rhinoceros; and on
the American side, two tapirs, the guanaco, three deer, the vicuna,
peccari, capybara (after which we must choose from the monkeys to
complete the number), and then place these two groups alongside each
other, it is not easy to conceive ranks more disproportionate in size.
After the above facts, we are compelled to conclude, against anterior
probability,[8] that among the mammalia there exists no close relation
between the _bulk_ of the species and the _quantity_ of the vegetation
in the countries which they inhabit.
[6] _Travels in the Interior of South Africa_, vol. ii, p. 207.
[7] The elephant which was killed at Exeter Change was estimated
(being partly weighed) at five tons and a half. The elephant actress,
as I was informed, weighed one ton less; so that we may take five as
the average of a full-grown elephant. I was told at the Surry Gardens,
that a hippopotamus which was sent to England cut up into pieces was
estimated at three tons and a half; we will call it three. From these
premises we may give three tons and a half to each of the five
rhinoceroses; perhaps a ton to the giraffe, and half to the bos caffer
as well as to the elan (a large ox weighs from 1200 to 1500 pounds).
This will give an average (from the above estimates) of 2.7 of a ton
for the ten largest herbivorous animals of Southern Africa. In South
America, allowing 1200 pounds for the two tapirs together, 550 for the
guanaco and vicuna, 500 for three deer, 300 for the capybara, peccari,
and a monkey, we shall have an average of 250 pounds, which I believe
is overstating the result. The ratio will therefore be as 6048 to 250,
or 24 to 1, for the ten largest animals from the two continents.
[8] If we suppose the case of the discovery of a skeleton of a
Greenland whale in a fossil state, not a single cetaceous animal being
known to exist, what naturalist would have ventured conjecture on the
possibility of a carcass so gigantic being supported on the minute
crustacea and mollusca living in the frozen seas of the extreme North?
With regard to the number of large quadrupeds, there certainly exists
no quarter of the globe which will bear comparison with Southern
Africa. After the different statements which have been given, the
extremely desert character of that region will not be disputed. In the
European division of the world, we must look back to the tertiary
epochs, to find a condition of things among the mammalia, resembling
that now existing at the Cape of Good Hope. Those tertiary epochs,
which we are apt to consider as abounding to an astonishing degree with
large animals, because we find the remains of many ages accumulated at
certain spots, could hardly boast of more large quadrupeds than
Southern Africa does at present. If we speculate on the condition of
the vegetation during those epochs, we are at least bound so far to
consider existing analogies, as not to urge as absolutely necessary a
luxuriant vegetation, when we see a state of things so totally
different at the Cape of Good Hope.
We know[9] that the extreme regions of North America
many degrees beyond the limit where the ground at the depth of a few
feet remains perpetually congealed, are covered by forests of large and
tall trees. In a like manner, in Siberia, we have woods of birch, fir,
aspen, and larch, growing in a latitude[10] (64°) where the mean
temperature of the air falls below the freezing point, and where the
earth is so completely frozen, that the carcass of an animal embedded
in it is perfectly preserved. With these facts we must grant, as far as
_quantity alone_ of vegetation is concerned, that the great quadrupeds
of the later tertiary epochs might, in most parts of Northern Europe
and Asia, have lived on the spots where their remains are now found. I
do not here speak of the _kind_ of vegetation necessary for their
support; because, as there is evidence of physical changes, and as the
animals have become extinct, so may we suppose that the species of
plants have likewise been changed.
[9] See _Zoological Remarks to Captain Back’s Expedition_, by Dr.
Richardson. He says, “The subsoil north of latitude 56° is perpetually
frozen, the thaw on the coast not penetrating above three feet, and at
Bear Lake, in latitude 64°, not more than twenty inches. The frozen
substratum does not of itself destroy vegetation, for forests flourish
on the surface, at a distance from the coast.”
[10] See Humboldt _Fragmens Asiatiques_, p. 386: Barton’s _Geography
of Plants_; and Malte Brun. In the latter work it is said that the
limit of the growth of trees in Siberia may be drawn under the
parallel of 70°.
These remarks, I may be permitted to add, directly bear on the case of
the Siberian animals preserved in ice. The firm conviction of the
necessity of a vegetation possessing a character of tropical
luxuriance, to support such large animals, and the impossibility of
reconciling this with the proximity of perpetual congelation, was one
chief cause of the several theories of sudden revolutions of climate,
and of overwhelming catastrophes, which were invented to account for
their entombment. I am far from supposing that the climate has not
changed since the period when those animals lived, which now lie buried
in the ice. At present I only wish to show, that as far as _quantity_
of food _alone_ is concerned, the ancient rhinoceroses might have
roamed over the _steppes_ of central Siberia (the northern parts
probably being under water) even in their present condition, as well as
the living rhinoceroses and elephants over the _Karros_ of Southern
Africa.
I will now give an account of the habits of some of the more
interesting birds which are common on the wild plains of Northern
Patagonia: and first for the largest, or South
American ostrich. The ordinary habits of the ostrich are familiar to
every one. They live on vegetable matter, such as roots and grass; but
at Bahia Blanca I have repeatedly seen three or four come down at low
water to the extensive mudbanks which are then dry, for the sake, as
the Gauchos say, of feeding on small fish. Although the ostrich in its
habits is so shy, wary, and solitary, and although so fleet in its
pace, it is caught without much difficulty by the Indian or Gaucho
armed with the bolas. When several horsemen appear in a semicircle, it
becomes confounded, and does not know which way to escape. They
generally prefer running against the wind; yet at the first start they
expand their wings, and like a vessel make all sail. On one fine hot
day I saw several ostriches enter a bed of tall rushes, where they
squatted concealed, till quite closely approached. It is not generally
known that ostriches readily take to the water. Mr. King informs me
that at the Bay of San Blas, and at Port Valdes in Patagonia, he saw
these birds swimming several times from island to island. They ran into
the water both when driven down to a point, and likewise of their own
accord when not frightened: the distance crossed was about two hundred
yards. When swimming, very little of their bodies appear above water;
their necks are extended a little forward, and their progress is slow.
On two occasions I saw some ostriches swimming across the Santa Cruz
river, where its course was about four hundred yards wide, and the
stream rapid. Captain Sturt,[11] when descending the Murrumbidgee, in
Australia, saw two emus in the act of swimming.
[11] Sturt’s _Travels_, vol. ii, p. 74.
The inhabitants of the country readily distinguish, even at a distance,
the cock bird from the hen. The former is larger and
darker-coloured,[12] and has a bigger head. The ostrich, I believe the
cock, emits a singular, deep-toned, hissing note: when first I heard
it, standing in the midst of some sand-hillocks, I thought it was made
by some wild beast, for it is a sound that one cannot tell whence it
comes, or from how far distant. When we were at Bahia Blanca in the
months of September and October, the eggs, in extraordinary numbers,
were found all
over the country. They lie either scattered and single, in which case
they are never hatched, and are called by the Spaniards huachos; or
they are collected together into a shallow excavation, which forms the
nest. Out of the four nests which I saw, three contained twenty-two
eggs each, and the fourth twenty-seven. In one day’s hunting on
horseback sixty-four eggs were found; forty-four of these were in two
nests, and the remaining twenty, scattered huachos. The Gauchos
unanimously affirm, and there is no reason to doubt their statement,
that the male bird alone hatches the eggs, and for some time afterwards
accompanies the young. The cock when on the nest lies very close; I
have myself almost ridden over one. It is asserted that at such times
they are occasionally fierce, and even dangerous, and that they have
been known to attack a man on horseback, trying to kick and leap on
him. My informer pointed out to me an old man, whom he had seen much
terrified by one chasing him. I observe in Burchell’s _Travels in South
Africa_ that he remarks, “Having killed a male ostrich, and the
feathers being dirty, it was said by the Hottentots to be a nest bird.”
I understand that the male emu in the Zoological Gardens takes charge
of the nest: this habit, therefore, is common to the family.
[12] A Gaucho assured me that he had once seen a snow-white or Albino
variety, and that it was a most beautiful bird.
The Gauchos unanimously affirm that several females lay in one nest. I
have been positively told that four or five hen birds have been watched
to go in the middle of the day, one after the other, to the same nest.
I may add, also, that it is believed in Africa that two or more females
lay in one nest.[13] Although this habit at first appears very strange,
I think the cause may be explained in a simple manner. The number of
eggs in the nest varies from twenty to forty, and even to fifty; and
according to Azara, sometimes to seventy or eighty. Now although it is
most probable, from the number of eggs found in one district being so
extraordinarily great in proportion to the parent birds, and likewise
from the state of the ovarium of the hen, that she may in the course of
the season lay a large number, yet the time required must be very long.
Azara states,[14] that a female in a state of domestication laid
seventeen
eggs, each at the interval of three days one from another. If the hen
was obliged to hatch her own eggs, before the last was laid the first
probably would be addled; but if each laid a few eggs at successive
periods, in different nests, and several hens, as is stated to be the
case, combined together, then the eggs in one collection would be
nearly of the same age. If the number of eggs in one of these nests is,
as I believe, not greater on an average than the number laid by one
female in the season, then there must be as many nests as females, and
each cock bird will have its fair share of the labour of incubation;
and that during a period when the females probably could not sit, from
not having finished laying.[15] I have before mentioned the great
numbers of huachos, or deserted eggs; so that in one day’s hunting
twenty were found in this state. It appears odd that so many should be
wasted. Does it not arise from the difficulty of several females
associating together, and finding a male ready to undertake the office
of incubation? It is evident that there must at first be some degree of
association between at least two females; otherwise the eggs would
remain scattered over the wide plains, at distances far too great to
allow of the male collecting them into one nest: some authors have
believed that the scattered eggs were deposited for the young birds to
feed on. This can hardly be the case in America, because the huachos,
although often found addled and putrid, are generally whole.
[13] Burchell’s _Travels_, vol. i, p. 280.
[14] Azara, vol. iv, p. 173.
[15] Lichtenstein, however, asserts (_Travels_, vol. ii, p. 25) that
the hens begin sitting when they have laid ten or twelve eggs; and
that they continue laying, I presume in another nest. This appears to
me very improbable. He asserts that four or five hens associate for
incubation with one cock, who sits only at night.
When at the Rio Negro in Northern Patagonia, I repeatedly heard the
Gauchos talking of a very rare bird which they called Avestruz Petise.
They described it as being less than the common ostrich (which is there
abundant), but with a very close general resemblance. They said its
colour was dark and mottled, and that its legs were shorter, and
feathered lower down than those of the common ostrich. It is more
easily caught by the bolas than the other species. The few inhabitants
who had seen both kinds, affirmed they could distinguish them apart
from a long distance. The eggs of the small species appeared, however,
more generally known; and it was remarked, with
surprise, that they were very little less than those of the Rhea but of
a slightly different form, and with a tinge of pale blue. This species
occurs most rarely on the plains bordering the Rio Negro; but about a
degree and a half farther south they are tolerably abundant. When at
Port Desire, in Patagonia (lat. 48°), Mr. Martens shot an ostrich; and
I looked at it, forgetting at the moment, in the most unaccountable
manner, the whole subject of the Petises, and thought it was a not
full-grown bird of the common sort. It was cooked and eaten before my
memory returned. Fortunately the head, neck, legs, wings, many of the
larger feathers, and a large part of the skin, had been preserved; and
from these a very nearly perfect specimen has been put together, and is
now exhibited in the museum of the Zoological Society. Mr. Gould, in
describing this new species, has done me the honour of calling it after
my name.
Among the Patagonian Indians in the Strait of Magellan, we found a half
Indian, who had lived some years with the tribe, but had been born in
the northern provinces. I asked him if he had ever heard of the
Avestruz Petise. He answered by saying, “Why, there are none others in
these southern countries.” He informed me that the number of eggs in
the nest of the petise is considerably less than in that of the other
kind, namely, not more than fifteen on an average, but he asserted that
more than one female deposited them. At Santa Cruz we saw several of
these birds. They were excessively wary: I think they could see a
person approaching when too far off to be distinguished themselves. In
ascending the river few were seen; but in our quiet and rapid descent
many, in pairs and by fours or fives, were observed. It was remarked
that this bird did not expand its wings, when first starting at full
speed, after the manner of the northern kind. In conclusion I may
observe that the Struthio rhea inhabits the country of La Plata as far
as a little south of the Rio Negro in lat. 41°, and that the Struthio
Darwinii takes its place in Southern Patagonia; the part about the Rio
Negro being neutral territory. M. A. d’Orbigny,[16] when at the Rio
Negro, made great exertions to
procure this bird, but never had the good fortune to succeed.
Dobrizhoffer[17] long ago was aware of there being two kinds of
ostriches, he says, “You must know, moreover, that Emus differ in size
and habits in different tracts of land; for those that inhabit the
plains of Buenos Ayres and Tucuman are larger, and have black, white
and grey feathers; those near to the Strait of Magellan are smaller and
more beautiful, for their white feathers are tipped with black at the
extremity, and their black ones in like manner terminate in white.”
[16] When at the Rio Negro, we heard much of the indefatigable labours
of this naturalist. M. Alcide d’Orbigny, during the years 1825 to
1833, traversed several large portions of South America, and has made
a collection, and is now publishing the results on a scale of
magnificence, which at once places himself in the list of American
travellers second only to Humboldt.
[17] _Account of the Abipones_, A.D. 1749, vol. i, (English
translation) p. 314.
A very singular little bird, Tinochorus rumicivorus, is here common: in
its habits and general appearance it nearly equally partakes of the
characters, different as they are, of the quail and snipe. The
Tinochorus is found in the whole of southern South America, wherever
there are sterile plains, or open dry pasture land. It frequents in
pairs or small flocks the most desolate places, where scarcely another
living creature can exist. Upon being approached they squat close, and
then are very difficult to be distinguished from the ground. When
feeding they walk rather slowly, with their legs wide apart. They dust
themselves in roads and sandy places, and frequent particular spots,
where they may be found day after day: like partridges, they take wing
in a flock. In all these respects, in the muscular gizzard adapted for
vegetable food, in the arched beak and fleshy nostrils, short legs and
form of foot, the Tinochorus has a close affinity with quails. But as
soon as the bird is seen flying, its whole appearance changes; the long
pointed wings, so different from those in the gallinaceous order, the
irregular manner of flight, and plaintive cry uttered at the moment of
rising, recall the idea of a snipe. The sportsmen of the _Beagle_
unanimously called it the short-billed snipe. To this genus, or rather
to the family of the Waders, its skeleton shows that it is really
related.
The Tinochorus is closely related to some other South American birds.
Two species of the genus Attagis are in almost every respect ptarmigans
in their habits; one lives in Tierra del Fuego, above the limits of the
forest land; and the other just beneath the snow-line on the Cordillera
of Central Chile. A bird of another closely allied genus, Chionis alba,
is
an inhabitant of the antarctic regions; it feeds on seaweed and shells
on the tidal rocks. Although not web-footed, from some unaccountable
habit it is frequently met with far out at sea. This small family of
birds is one of those which, from its varied relations to other
families, although at present offering only difficulties to the
systematic naturalist, ultimately may assist in revealing the grand
scheme, common to the present and past ages, on which organised beings
have been created.
The genus Furnarius contains several species, all small birds, living
on the ground, and inhabiting open dry countries. In structure they
cannot be compared to any European form. Ornithologists have generally
included them among the creepers, although opposed to that family in
every habit. The best known species is the common oven-bird of La
Plata, the Casara or housemaker of the Spaniards. The nest, whence it
takes its name, is placed in the most exposed situations, as on the top
of a post, a bare rock, or on a cactus. It is composed of mud and bits
of straw, and has strong thick walls: in shape it precisely resembles
an oven, or depressed beehive. The opening is large and arched, and
directly in front, within the nest, there is a partition, which reaches
nearly to the roof, thus forming a passage or antechamber to the true
nest.
Another and smaller species of Furnarius (F. cunicularius), resembles
the oven-bird in the general reddish tint of its plumage, in a peculiar
shrill reiterated cry, and in an odd manner of running by starts. From
its affinity, the Spaniards call it Casarita (or little housebuilder),
although its nidification is quite different. The Casarita builds its
nest at the bottom of a narrow cylindrical hole, which is said to
extend horizontally to nearly six feet under ground. Several of the
country people told me, that when boys, they had attempted to dig out
the nest, but had scarcely ever succeeded in getting to the end of the
passage. The bird chooses any low bank of firm sandy soil by the side
of a road or stream. Here (at Bahia Blanca) the walls round the houses
are built of hardened mud, and I noticed that one, which enclosed a
courtyard where I lodged, was bored through by round holes in a score
of places. On asking the owner the cause of this, he bitterly
complained of the little casarita, several of which I afterwards
observed at work. It is rather curious to find how incapable these
birds
must be of acquiring any notion of thickness, for although they were
constantly flitting over the low wall, they continued vainly to bore
through it, thinking it an excellent bank for their nests. I do not
doubt that each bird, as often as it came to daylight on the opposite
side, was greatly surprised at the marvellous fact.
I have already mentioned nearly all the mammalia common in this
country. Of armadilloes three species occur, namely, the Dasypus
minutus or _pichy_, the D. villosus or _peludo_, and the _apar._ The
first extends ten degrees farther south than any other kind; a fourth
species, the _Mulita_, does not come as far south as Bahia Blanca. The
four species have nearly similar habits; the _peludo_, however, is
nocturnal, while the others wander by day over the open plains, feeding
on beetles, larvæ, roots, and even small snakes. The _apar_, commonly
called _mataco_, is remarkable by having only three movable bands; the
rest of its tesselated covering being nearly inflexible. It has the
power of rolling itself into a perfect sphere, like one kind of English
woodlouse. In this state it is safe from the attack of dogs; for the
dog not being able to take the whole in its mouth, tries to bite one
side, and the ball slips away. The smooth hard covering of the _mataco_
offers a better defence than the sharp spines of the hedgehog. The
_pichy_ prefers a very dry soil; and the sand-dunes near the coast,
where for many months it can never taste water, is its favourite
resort: it often tries to escape notice, by squatting close to the
ground. In the course of a day’s ride, near Bahia Blanca, several were
generally met with. The instant one was perceived, it was necessary, in
order to catch it, almost to tumble off one’s horse; for in soft soil
the animal burrowed so quickly, that its hinder quarters would almost
disappear before one could alight. It seems almost a pity to kill such
nice little animals, for as a Gaucho said, while sharpening his knife
on the back of one, “Son tan mansos” (they are so quiet).
Of reptiles there are many kinds: one snake (a Trigonocephalus, or
Cophias, subsequently called by M. Bibron T. crepitans), from the size
of the poison channel in its fangs, must be very deadly. Cuvier, in
opposition to some other naturalists, makes this a sub-genus of the
rattlesnake, and intermediate between it and the viper. In confirmation
of this opinion, I
observed a fact, which appears to me very curious and instructive, as
showing how every character, even though it may be in some degree
independent of structure, has a tendency to vary by slow degrees. The
extremity of the tail of this snake is terminated by a point, which is
very slightly enlarged; and as the animal glides along, it constantly
vibrates the last inch; and this part striking against the dry grass
and brushwood, produces a rattling noise, which can be distinctly heard
at the distance of six feet. As often as the animal was irritated or
surprised, its tail was shaken; and the vibrations were extremely
rapid. Even as long as the body retained its irritability, a tendency
to this habitual movement was evident. This Trigonocephalus has,
therefore, in some respects the structure of a viper, with the habits
of a rattlesnake: the noise, however, being produced by a simpler
device. The expression of this snake’s face was hideous and fierce; the
pupil consisted of a vertical slit in a mottled and coppery iris; the
jaws were broad at the base, and the nose terminated in a triangular
projection. I do not think I ever saw anything more ugly, excepting,
perhaps, some of the vampire bats. I imagine this repulsive aspect
originates from the features being placed in positions, with respect to
each other, somewhat proportional to those of the human face; and thus
we obtain a scale of hideousness.
Amongst the Batrachian reptiles, I found only one little toad
(Phryniscus nigricans), which was most singular from its colour. If we
imagine, first, that it had been steeped in the blackest ink, and then,
when dry, allowed to crawl over a board, freshly painted with the
brightest vermilion, so as to colour the soles of its feet and parts of
its stomach, a good idea of its appearance will be gained. If it had
been an unnamed species, surely it ought to have been called
_Diabolicus_, for it is a fit toad to preach in the ear of Eve. Instead
of being nocturnal in its habits, as other toads are, and living in
damp obscure recesses, it crawls during the heat of the day about the
dry sand-hillocks and arid plains, where not a single drop of water can
be found. It must necessarily depend on the dew for its moisture; and
this probably is absorbed by the skin, for it is known that these
reptiles possess great powers of cutaneous absorption. At Maldonado, I
found one in a situation nearly as dry as at Bahia Blanca, and thinking
to give it a great treat,
carried it to a pool of water; not only was the little animal unable to
swim, but I think without help it would soon have been drowned.
Of lizards there were many kinds, but only one (Proctotretus
multimaculatus) remarkable from its habits. It lives on the bare sand
near the sea-coast, and from its mottled colour, the brownish scales
being speckled with white, yellowish red, and dirty blue, can hardly be
distinguished from the surrounding surface. When frightened, it
attempts to avoid discovery by feigning death, with outstretched legs,
depressed body, and closed eyes: if further molested, it buries itself
with great quickness in the loose sand. This lizard, from its flattened
body and short legs, cannot run quickly.
[Illustration]
I will here add a few remarks on the hybernation of animals in this
part of South America. When we first arrived at Bahia Blanca, September
7th, 1832, we thought nature had granted scarcely a living creature to
this sandy and dry country. By digging, however, in the ground, several
insects, large spiders, and lizards were found in a half-torpid state.
On the 15th, a few animals began to appear, and by the 18th (three days
from the equinox), everything announced the commencement of spring. The
plains were ornamented by the flowers of a pink wood-sorrel, wild peas,
œnotheræ, and geraniums; and the birds began to lay their eggs.
Numerous Lamellicorn and Heteromerous insects, the latter remarkable
for their deeply sculptured bodies, were slowly crawling about; while
the lizard tribe, the constant inhabitants of a sandy soil, darted
about in every direction. During the first eleven days, whilst nature
was dormant, the mean temperature taken from observations made every
two hours on board the _Beagle_, was 51°; and in the middle of the day
the thermometer seldom ranged above 55°. On the eleven succeeding days,
in which all living things became so animated, the mean was 58°, and
the range in the middle of the day between sixty and seventy. Here then
an increase of seven degrees in mean temperature, but a greater one of
extreme heat, was sufficient to awake the functions of life. At Monte
Video, from which we had just before sailed, in the twenty-three days
included between the 26th of July and the 19th of August, the mean
temperature from 276 observations was 58.4°; the mean hottest day being
65.5°, and
the coldest 46°. The lowest point to which the thermometer fell was
41.5°, and occasionally in the middle of the day it rose to 69° or 70°.
Yet with this high temperature, almost every beetle, several genera of
spiders, snails, and land-shells, toads and lizards, were all lying
torpid beneath stones. But we have seen that at Bahia Blanca, which is
four degrees southward, and therefore with a climate only a very little
colder, this same temperature, with a rather less extreme heat, was
sufficient to awake all orders of animated beings. This shows how
nicely the stimulus required to arouse hybernating animals is governed
by the usual climate of the district, and not by the absolute heat. It
is well known that within the tropics the hybernation, or more properly
æstivation, of animals is determined not by the temperature, but by the
times of drought. Near Rio de Janeiro, I was at first surprised to
observe that, a few days after some little depressions had been filled
with water, they were peopled by numerous full-grown shells and
beetles, which must have been lying dormant. Humboldt has related the
strange accident of a hovel having been erected over a spot where a
young crocodile lay buried in the hardened
mud. He adds, “The Indians often find enormous boas, which they call
Uji, or water serpents, in the same lethargic state. To reanimate them,
they must be irritated or wetted with water.”
I will only mention one other animal, a zoophyte (I believe Virgularia
Patagonica), a kind of sea-pen. It consists of a thin, straight, fleshy
stem, with alternate rows of polypi on each side, and surrounding an
elastic stony axis, varying in length from eight inches to two feet.
The stem at one extremity is truncate, but at the other is terminated
by a vermiform fleshy appendage. The stony axis which gives strength to
the stem may be traced at this extremity into a mere vessel filled with
granular matter. At low water hundreds of these zoophytes might be
seen, projecting like stubble, with the truncate end upwards, a few
inches above the surface of the muddy sand. When touched or pulled they
suddenly drew themselves in with force, so as nearly or quite to
disappear. By this action, the highly elastic axis must be bent at the
lower extremity, where it is naturally slightly curved; and I imagine
it is by this elasticity alone that the zoophyte is enabled to rise
again through the mud. Each polypus, though closely united to its
brethren, has a distinct mouth, body, and tentacula. Of these polypi,
in a large specimen, there must be many thousands; yet we see that they
act by one movement: they have also one central axis connected with a
system of obscure circulation, and the ova are produced in an organ
distinct from the separate individuals.[18] Well may one be allowed to
ask, What is an individual? It is always interesting to discover the
foundation of the strange tales of the old voyagers; and I have no
doubt but that the habits of
this Virgularia explain one such case. Captain Lancaster, in his
Voyage[19] in 1601, narrates that on the sea-sands of the Island of
Sombrero, in the East Indies, he “found a small twig growing up like a
young tree, and on offering to pluck it up it shrinks down to the
ground, and sinks, unless held very hard. On being plucked up, a great
worm is found to be its root, and as the tree groweth in greatness, so
doth the worm diminish, and as soon as the worm is entirely turned into
a tree it rooteth in the earth, and so becomes great. This
transformation is one of the strangest wonders that I saw in all my
travels: for if this tree is plucked up, while young, and the leaves
and bark stripped off, it becomes a hard stone when dry, much like
white coral: thus is this worm twice transformed into different
natures. Of these we gathered and brought home many.”
[18] The cavities leading from the fleshy compartments of the
extremity were filled with a yellow pulpy matter, which, examined
under a microscope, presented an extraordinary appearance. The mass
consisted of rounded, semi-transparent, irregular grains, aggregated
together into particles of various sizes. All such particles, and the
separate grains, possessed the power of rapid movement; generally
revolving around different axes, but sometimes progressive. The
movement was visible with a very weak power, but even with the highest
its cause could not be perceived. It was very different from the
circulation of the fluid in the elastic bag, containing the thin
extremity of the axis. On other occasions, when dissecting small
marine animals beneath the microscope, I have seen particles of pulpy
matter, some of large size, as soon as they were disengaged, commence
revolving. I have imagined, I know not with how much truth, that this
granulo-pulpy matter was in process of being converted into ova.
Certainly in this zoophyte such appeared to be the case.
[19] Kerr’s _Collection of Voyages_, vol. viii, p. 119.
During my stay at Bahia Blanca, while waiting for the _ Beagle_, the
place was in a constant state of excitement, from rumours of wars and
victories, between the troops of Rosas and the wild Indians. One day an
account came that a small party forming one of the postas on the line
to Buenos Ayres had been found all murdered. The next day three hundred
men arrived from the Colorado, under the command of Commandant Miranda.
A large portion of these men were Indians (_mansos_, or tame),
belonging to the tribe of the Cacique Bernantio. They passed the night
here; and it was impossible to conceive anything more wild and savage
than the scene of their bivouac. Some drank till they were intoxicated;
others swallowed the steaming blood of the cattle slaughtered for their
suppers, and then, being sick from drunkenness, they cast it up again,
and were besmeared with filth and gore.
Nam simul expletus dapibus, vinoque sepultus
Cervicem inflexam posuit, jacuitque per antrum
Immensus, saniem eructans, ac frusta cruenta
Per somnum commixta mero.
In the morning they started for the scene of the murder, with orders to
follow the rastro, or track, even if it led them
to Chile. We subsequently heard that the wild Indians had escaped into
the great Pampas, and from some cause the track had been missed. One
glance at the rastro tells these people a whole history. Supposing they
examine the track of a thousand horses, they will soon guess the number
of mounted ones by seeing how many have cantered; by the depth of the
other impressions, whether any horses were loaded with cargoes; by the
irregularity of the footsteps, how far tired; by the manner in which
the food has been cooked, whether the pursued travelled in haste; by
the general appearance, how long it has been since they passed. They
consider a rastro of ten days or a fortnight quite recent enough to be
hunted out. We also heard that Miranda struck from the west end of the
Sierra Ventana, in a direct line to the island of Cholechel, situated
seventy leagues up the Rio Negro. This is a distance of between two and
three hundred miles, through a country completely unknown. What other
troops in the world are so independent? With the sun for their guide,
mare’s flesh for food, their saddle-cloths for beds,—as long as there
is a little water, these men would penetrate to the end of the world.
A few days afterwards I saw another troop of these banditti-like
soldiers start on an expedition against a tribe of Indians at the small
Salinas, who had been betrayed by a prisoner cacique. The Spaniard who
brought the orders for this expedition was a very intelligent man. He
gave me an account of the last engagement at which he was present. Some
Indians, who had been taken prisoners, gave information of a tribe
living north of the Colorado. Two hundred soldiers were sent; and they
first discovered the Indians by a cloud of dust from their horses’ feet
as they chanced to be travelling. The country was mountainous and wild,
and it must have been far in the interior, for the Cordillera were in
sight. The Indians, men, women, and children, were about one hundred
and ten in number, and they were nearly all taken or killed, for the
soldiers sabre every man. The Indians are now so terrified that they
offer no resistance in a body, but each flies, neglecting even his wife
and children; but when overtaken, like wild animals, they fight against
any number to the last moment. One dying Indian seized with his teeth
the thumb of his adversary,
and allowed his own eye to be forced out sooner than relinquish his
hold. Another, who was wounded, feigned death, keeping a knife ready to
strike one more fatal blow. My informer said, when he was pursuing an
Indian, the man cried out for mercy, at the same time that he was
covertly loosing the bolas from his waist, meaning to whirl it round
his head and so strike his pursuer. “I however struck him with my sabre
to the ground, and then got off my horse, and cut his throat with my
knife.” This is a dark picture; but how much more shocking is the
unquestionable fact, that all the women who appear above twenty years
old are massacred in cold blood? When I exclaimed that this appeared
rather inhuman, he answered, “Why, what can be done? they breed so!”
Every one here is fully convinced that this is the most just war,
because it is against barbarians. Who would believe in this age that
such atrocities could be committed in a Christian civilised country?
The children of the Indians are saved, to be sold or given away as
servants, or rather slaves for as long a time as the owners can make
them believe themselves slaves; but I believe in their treatment there
is little to complain of.
In the battle four men ran away together. They were pursued, one was
killed, and the other three were taken alive. They turned out to be
messengers or ambassadors from a large body of Indians, united in the
common cause of defence, near the Cordillera. The tribe to which they
had been sent was on the point of holding a grand council, the feast of
mare’s flesh was ready, and the dance prepared: in the morning the
ambassadors were to have returned to the Cordillera. They were
remarkably fine men, very fair, above six feet high, and all under
thirty years of age. The three survivors of course possessed very
valuable information and to extort this they were placed in a line. The
two first being questioned, answered, “No sé” (I do not know), and were
one after the other shot. The third also said “No sé;” adding, “Fire, I
am a man, and can die!” Not one syllable would they breathe to injure
the united cause of their country! The conduct of the above-mentioned
cacique was very different; he saved his life by betraying the intended
plan of warfare, and the point of union in the Andes. It was believed
that there were already six or
seven hundred Indians together, and that in summer their numbers would
be doubled. Ambassadors were to have been sent to the Indians at the
small Salinas, near Bahia Blanca, whom I have mentioned that this same
cacique had betrayed. The communication, therefore, between the
Indians, extends from the Cordillera to the coast of the Atlantic.
General Rosas’s plan is to kill all stragglers, and having driven the
remainder to a common point, to attack them in a body, in the summer,
with the assistance of the Chilenos. This operation is to be repeated
for three successive years. I imagine the summer is chosen as the time
for the main attack, because the plains are then without water, and the
Indians can only travel in particular directions. The escape of the
Indians to the south of the Rio Negro, where in such a vast unknown
country they would be safe, is prevented by a treaty with the
Tehuelches to this effect;—that Rosas pays them so much to slaughter
every Indian who passes to the south of the river, but if they fail in
so doing, they themselves are to be exterminated. The war is waged
chiefly against the Indians near the Cordillera; for many of the tribes
on this eastern side are fighting with Rosas. The general, however,
like Lord Chesterfield, thinking that his friends may in a future day
become his enemies, always places them in the front ranks, so that
their numbers may be thinned. Since leaving South America we have heard
that this war of extermination completely failed.
Among the captive girls taken in the same engagement, there were two
very pretty Spanish ones, who had been carried away by the Indians when
young, and could now only speak the Indian tongue. From their account
they must have come from Salta, a distance in a straight line of nearly
one thousand miles. This gives one a grand idea of the immense
territory over which the Indians roam: yet, great as it is, I think
there will not, in another half-century, be a wild Indian northward of
the Rio Negro. The warfare is too bloody to last; the Christians
killing every Indian, and the Indians doing the same by the Christians.
It is melancholy to trace how the Indians have given way before the
Spanish invaders. Schirdel[20] says that in 1535, when Buenos Ayres was
founded, there were villages
containing two and three thousand inhabitants. Even in Falconer’s time
(1750) the Indians made inroads as far as Luxan, Areco, and Arrecife,
but now they are driven beyond the Salado. Not only have whole tribes
been exterminated, but the remaining Indians have become more
barbarous: instead of living in large villages, and being employed in
the arts of fishing, as well as of the chase, they now wander about the
open plains, without home or fixed occupation.
[20] Purchas’s _Collection of Voyages._ I believe the date was really
1537.
I heard also some account of an engagement which took place, a few
weeks previously to the one mentioned, at Cholechel. This is a very
important station on account of being a pass for horses; and it was, in
consequence, for some time the head-quarters of a division of the army.
When the troops first arrived there they found a tribe of Indians, of
whom they killed twenty or thirty. The cacique escaped in a manner
which astonished every one. The chief Indians always have one or two
picked horses, which they keep ready for any urgent occasion. On one of
these, an old white horse, the cacique sprung, taking with him his
little son. The horse had neither saddle nor bridle. To avoid the
shots, the Indian rode in the peculiar method of his nation; namely,
with an arm round the horse’s neck, and one leg only on its back. Thus
hanging on one side, he was seen patting the horse’s head, and talking
to him. The pursuers urged every effort in the chase; the Commandant
three times changed his horse, but all in vain. The old Indian father
and his son escaped, and were free. What a fine picture one can form in
one’s mind,—the naked, bronze-like figure of the old man with his
little boy, riding like a Mazeppa on the white horse, thus leaving far
behind him the host of his pursuers!
I saw one day a soldier striking fire with a piece of flint, which I
immediately recognised as having been a part of the head of an arrow.
He told me it was found near the island of Cholechel, and that they are
frequently picked up there. It was between two and three inches long,
and therefore twice as large as those now used in Tierra del Fuego: it
was made of opaque cream-coloured flint, but the point and barbs had
been intentionally broken off. It is well known that no Pampas Indians
now use bows and arrows. I believe a small tribe in Banda Oriental must
be excepted; but
they are widely separated from the Pampas Indians, and border close on
those tribes that inhabit the forest, and live on foot. It appears,
therefore, that these arrow-heads are antiquarian[21] relics of the
Indians, before the great change in habits consequent on the
introduction of the horse into South America.
[21] Azara has even doubted whether the Pampas Indians ever used bows.
[Several similar agate arrow-heads have since been dug up at Chupat,
and two were given to me, on the occasion of my visit there, by the
Governor.—R. T. Pritchett, 1880.]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]