Difference of Climate between East and West Patagonia.--
Extraordinary Aridity of East Patagonia.--Zoology.--The
Guanaco.--The Tucutuco.--The Patagonian Agouti.--Vultures.--
The Turkey-buzzard.--The Carrancha.--The Chimango.--Darwin’s
Ostrich.--The Patagonians.--Exaggerated Accounts of their
Stature.--Their Physiognomy and Dress.--Religious Ideas.--
Superstitions.--Astronomical Knowledge.--Division into Tribes.--
The Tent, or Toldo.--Trading Routes.--The great Cacique.--
Introduction of the Horse.--Industry.--Amusements.--Character.
Patagonia, the southern extremity of the American continent, is divided
by the ridge of the Andes into two parts of a totally different
character. Its western coast-lands, washed by the cold Antarctic
current and exposed to the humid gales of a restless ocean, are
almost constantly obscured with clouds and drenched with rain. Dense
forests, dripping with moisture, clothe the steep hill-sides; and,
from the coldness of the summer, the snow-line is so low that for 650
miles northward of Tierra del Fuego almost every arm of the sea which
penetrates to the interior higher chain is terminated by huge glaciers
descending to the water’s edge.
East Patagonia, on the contrary, a vast plain rising in successive
terraces from the Atlantic to the foot of the Cordillera, is one of the
most arid regions of the globe. The extreme dryness of the prevailing
westerly winds, which have been totally deprived of their humidity
before crossing the Andes, and the well-rounded shingles which compose
the soil, have entailed the curse of sterility on the land. Monotonous
warm tints of brown, yellow, or light red everywhere fatigue the eye,
which vainly seeks for rest in the dark blue sky, and finds refreshing
green only on some river-banks.
Many broad flat vales transsect the plains, and in these the vegetation
is somewhat better. The streams of former ages have no doubt hollowed
them out, for the rivers of the present day are utterly inadequate to
the task. On account of the dryness of the atmosphere, the traveller
may journey for days in these Patagonian plains without finding a drop
of water. Springs are rare, and even when found are generally brackish
and unrefreshing. While the “Beagle” was anchoring in the spacious
harbor of Port St. Julian, a party one day accompanied Captain Fitzroy
on a long walk round the head of the harbor. They were eleven hours
without tasting any water, and some of the party were quite exhausted.
From the summit of a hill, to which the appropriate name of “Thirsty
Hill” was given, a fine lake was spied, and two of the party proceeded,
with concerted signals, to show whether it was fresh water. The
disappointment may be imagined when the supposed lake was found to be a
snow-white expanse of salt, crystallized in great cubes.
The extreme dryness of the air, which imparts so sterile a character
to the country, favors the formation of guano deposits on the naked
islands along the coast, which are frequented by sea-birds. Protracted
droughts are essential to the accumulation of this manure, for repeated
showers of rain would wash it into the sea, and for this reason no
guano deposits are found on the populous bird-mountains of the north. A
similar dryness of the atmosphere favors the deposit at Ichaboe on the
African coast, at the Kooria Nooria Islands in the Indian Ocean, and
at the Chincha Islands on the Peruvian coast; and this kind of climate
appears also to be particularly agreeable to the sea-birds.
Considering the excessive aridity of Patagonia, it seems surprising
that the country should be traversed from west to east by such
considerable rivers as the Rio Negro, the Gallegos, and the Santa Cruz;
but all these have their sources in the Andes, and are fed by mountain
torrents, which no doubt derive their waters from the atmospherical
precipitations of the Pacific.
The zoology of Patagonia is as limited as its flora, and greatly
resembles in its character that of the mountain regions of Chili, or of
the Puna or high table-land of the tropical Andes of Peru and Bolivia,
the height of which varies from 10,000 to 14,000 feet above the level
of the sea.
In all these countries, situated in such different latitudes, the
explorer is astonished to find not only the same genera, but even
animals of the same species. The forest-loving race of monkeys is
nowhere to be found in treeless Patagonia. None of the quadrumana
ventures farther south than 29° lat., but on the borders of the Rio
Negro, the northern boundary of Patagonia, some small bats are seen
fluttering about in the twilight.
The dark-brown yellow-headed _Galictis vittata_, an animal allied
to the Civets and Genets, is likewise found there, but much more
frequently its relation the Zorilla, which ranges from 30° lat. to the
Strait of Magellan, and, like the skunk of the north, has the power of
discharging a fluid of an intolerably fetid odor.
The guanaco is the characteristic quadruped of the plains of Patagonia,
where it is no less useful to man than the wild reindeer to the savage
hunters of the north. It ranges from the Cordillera of Peru as far
south as the islands near Cape Horn, but it appears to be more frequent
on the plains of South Patagonia than anywhere else. It is of greater
size than the llama, and resembles it so much that it was supposed to
be the wild variety, until Tschudi, in his “Fauna Peruana,” pointed out
the specific difference between both. The guanaco is a more elegant
animal, with a long, slender neck and fine legs; its fleece is shorter
and less fine; its color is brown, the under parts being whitish.
It generally lives in small herds of from half a dozen to thirty in
each; but on the banks of the Santa Cruz Mr. Darwin saw one herd which
contained at least five hundred. Though extremely shy and wary, it
is no match for the cunning of the savage; and, before the horse was
introduced into Patagonia, man most probably could not have existed in
those arid plains without the guanaco. It easily takes to the water,
and this accounts for its presence on the eastern islands of Fuegia,
where it has been followed by the puma, or American lion, who likewise
pursues it on the plateaus of the Cordillera, 12,000 feet above the
level of the sea.
The Brazilian fox (_Canis Azaræ_) is also met with as far as the
strait. It is somewhat smaller than our fox, but more robustly built.
In Patagonia it preys chiefly upon the small rodents, with which the
land, in spite of its sterility, is perhaps more richly stocked than
any other country in the world. Among these the tucutuco (_Ctenomys
magellanica_), which may briefly be described as a gnawer with the
habits of a mole, is one of the most remarkable. It abounds near the
strait, where the sandy plain is one vast burrow of these creatures.
This curious animal makes, when beneath the ground, a very peculiar
noise, consisting of a short nasal grunt, monotonously repeated about
four times in quick succession, the name tucutuco being given in
imitation of the sound. Where the animal is abundant, it may be heard
at all times of the day, and sometimes directly beneath one’s feet.
The tucutuco is nocturnal in its habits; its food consists chiefly of
roots, the search after which seems to be the cause of its burrowing.
Among the indigenous quadrupeds of Patagonia we find, moreover, a
species of agouti (_Dasyprocta patagonica_), which in some measure
represents our hare, but is about twice the size, and has only three
toes on its hind feet; the elegant long-eared mara (_Dolichotis
patagonicus_), which, unlike most burrowing animals, wanders, commonly
two or three together, for miles from its home; the _Didelphis Azaræ_,
a species of opossum; and the pichy (_Dasypus minutus_), a small
armadillo, which extends as far south as 50° lat.
It would be vain to seek among the Patagonian birds for the splendid
plumage of the tropical feathered tribes; their colors are simple and
monotonous, as those of the naked plains which are their home. Many
birds of prey of the warmer regions of America likewise frequent the
arid wastes of Patagonia. When a horse chances to perish from fatigue
or thirst, the turkey-buzzard (_Vultur aura?_) begins to feast upon
its carcass, and then the carrancha (_Polyborus brasiliensis_) and the
chimango (_Polyborus chimango_) pick its bones clean. Though these
birds, which well supply the place of our carrion-crows, magpies, and
ravens, generally feed in common, they are by no means on a friendly
footing. When the carrancha is quietly seated on the branch of a tree
or on the ground, the chimango often continues for a long time flying
backward and forward, up and down, in a semicircle, trying each time,
at the bottom of the curve, to strike its larger relative, which takes
little notice except by bobbing its head. The carrancha, which is
common in the dry and open countries, and likewise on the arid shores
of the Pacific, is also found inhabiting the forests of West Patagonia
and Tierra del Fuego. The chimango is much smaller than the carrancha.
Of all the carrion feeders, it is generally the last which leaves the
skeleton of a dead animal, and may frequently be seen within the ribs
of a horse, like a prisoner behind a grating. It is frequently found on
the sea-coast, where it lives on small fishes.
The condor may likewise be reckoned among the Patagonian birds, as it
follows its prey, the guanaco, across the Strait of Magellan as far as
the eastern lowlands of Tierra del Fuego. In the winter especially,
when the cold forces vast numbers of geese and ducks to quit the
Antarctic islands in the higher latitudes, all these birds of prey,
to which the crowned falcon (_Circætes coronatus_), the three-colored
buzzard (_Buteo tricolor_), the Aguia eagle (_Haliatus aguia_), and
several others must be added, live in luxury. Most of them are likewise
migratory birds, and disappear in summer, with the defenseless tribes
on which they prey. The Magellanic thrush (_Turdus magellanicus_)
leaves in winter the stormy banks of the strait, and retires to the
milder skies of the Rio Negro, where it meets the tuneful Patagonian
warbler (_Orpheus patagonicus_), the nimble troglodyte (_Troglodytes
pallida_), and the inconstant fly-catcher (_Muscicape parvulus_).
A peculiar species of ostrich, the nandu (_Rhea Darwini_), roams over
the plains of Southern Patagonia as far as the Strait of Magellan. It
is smaller than the South American ostrich (_Rhea americana_), which
inhabits the country of La Plata as far as a little south of the Rio
Negro; but it is more beautiful, as its white feathers are tipped with
black at the extremity, and its black ones in like manner terminate in
white.
In the same high latitude one is surprised to meet with a member of
the parrot tribe (_Psittacus patagonicus_) feeding on the seeds of
the winter’s bark, and to see humming-birds (_Trochilus forficatus_)
flitting about during the snowstorms in the forests of Tierra del Fuego.
The plains of Patagonia are inhabited by a race of Indians supposed to
be gigantic, but the descriptions of modern travellers have dispelled
the idea. Thus Pigafetti, the companion of Magellan, relates that the
Europeans only reach to the waist of the Patagonians; Simon de Weert
tells us that they are from ten to eleven feet high; Byron, who visited
them in the last century, reduces them to seven feet, and Captain King
finally, who accurately measured them, found the medium height of the
males about five feet eleven inches. As the Patagonians have most
likely not degenerated within the last few centuries, we may infer from
these various accounts that the travellers of the present day are less
prone to exaggeration than those of more ancient times. So much is
certain, that the Patagonians are a fine athletic race of men, with
remarkably broad shoulders and thick muscular limbs. The head is long,
broad, and flat, and the forehead low, with the hair growing within
an inch of the eyebrows, which are bare; the eyes are often placed
obliquely, and have but little expression; the forehead and the large
lips are prominent, so that if a perpendicular line were drawn between
the two, the thick flat nose would hardly reach it, and but seldom
project beyond it. In spite of these coarse features the physiognomy
of the young girls is by no means unpleasant, as it has an amiable,
lively expression. All of them have small hands and feet, and D’Orbigny
says that they have the finest shapes of all the savages he saw. Though
they have a wide mouth and thick lips, this fault is redeemed by their
beautiful white teeth, which never fall out even in old age.
The color of the Patagonians is much darker than that of the Pampas
Indians and others farther to the north, and most closely resembles
that of the mulatto; a fact totally at variance with the common belief
that the darkness of the human skin increases on approaching the
equator.
The chief garment is the _manuhé_, a wide, square mantle--eight feet
long and nearly as broad--which they wear after the fashion of the
ancient Greeks and Romans, with one end hanging down to the earth. It
generally consists of guanaco skins neatly sewn together with ostrich
sinews. In cold weather the manuhé, which serves also as a blanket, is
worn with the hair inside; the even surface is therefore ornamented
with red drawings. Sometimes they wear boots of horse-leather, like
the Gauchos, from whom they have learned to make them; formerly
sandals of guanaco skin were alone in use. Their long black hair is
tied behind with a thong of leather or a piece of ribbon; the women
plait and adorn it with a number of ornaments of glass and copper. The
face is generally painted red, white, and black, and a Patagonian is
never seen without the little pouch in which he carries the necessary
colors. A remarkable custom, common to all the Indian tribes as far as
Bolivia, is that of eradicating the hairs of the beard, and the men may
frequently be seen plucking them out with a pair of pincers.
The religious ideas of the Patagonians greatly resemble those of their
neighbors the Aucas and the Puelches. The divine Achekenat Kanet is
reverenced as the genius of both good and evil; but beside this chief
deity they have a number of inferior spirits, generally of a malignant
nature, which can be held in check only by the arts of their magicians.
Like the shamans, or medicine-men of the north, these impostors work
themselves into an ecstatic state, in which they predict things to
come, or announce the will of the unseen gods; but their trade does
not seem to be very lucrative if we may judge from the bad condition
of their mantles. They also act as physicians, for all diseases are
invariably ascribed to the agency of evil spirits.
The Patagonians are quite as superstitious as the Indians of the high
northern latitudes. They seldom cut their hair, but when they do, they
cast it into the river or carefully burn it, so that it may not fall
into the hands of some malignant magician, who might use it to the hurt
of its quondam owner. When, on journeying along a river, they see some
trunks of trees descending with the current, they take them for evil
spirits, and address them with a loud voice. If by chance the trees
are swept by less rapidly or are driven round in a whirlpool, they
believe that this takes place for the purpose of hearing them. They
then make them liberal promises, which they faithfully keep. They cast
their weapons, their ornaments, sometimes even their horses with bound
feet, into the water, fully persuaded that by this sacrifice they have
averted the misfortunes that otherwise would have befallen them. Like
many other savage nations, they believe in a future paradise, where
they expect to find again all that they prized on earth. For this
reason they immolate over the graves of their friends all the animals
that belonged to them, and inter with them all they possessed.
The astronomical knowledge of the Patagonians is surprising in a people
ranking so low in the scale of civilization. Continually migrating
over their arid land, they soon felt the necessity of directing their
movements during the day by the position of the sun, during the night
by the stars; and thus they gradually learned to observe the march
of the constellations, and to note the times of their appearance and
disappearance, giving them names, so as to be able to communicate their
observations to each other. Their lively fancy traces in the starry
firmament the picture of the Indian’s hunting expedition. The Milky Way
is the path on which he follows the ostrich; the “Three Kings” are the
bolas, or balls, with which he strikes the bird whose feet form the
Southern Cross; and the Magellanic clouds are heaps of its feathers
that have been collected by its pursuer.
When the Patagonians speak of the direction they intend to follow,
from north to south or from east to west, they always indicate the
constellations; so that in these South American plains, as in those of
Chaldea, a similar necessity has led man to lay the first foundations
of astronomical knowledge.
The Patagonians are divided into a number of small migratory tribes,
each consisting of, at the utmost, thirty or forty families. As they
live exclusively by the chase, it is evident that a few days would
suffice to destroy or to drive away the game of a great extent of
territory were they to assemble in larger numbers. Not to perish of
want, they are thus compelled to wander from place to place in small
companies, and to carry along with them their leathern toldos, or
tents. The toldo reposes on a frame of poles stuck into the earth,
and is scarcely higher than six feet in its centre, so that one can
hardly imagine how a family of tall Patagonians can live in so small
a space. The door is invariably to the east, so that early in the
morning the chief of the family may sprinkle before it a few drops of
water as an offering to the rising sun, for were this sacrifice to be
neglected, the evil spirits would infallibly wreak their vengeance
upon the inmates of the tent. Horse-hides, or guanaco skins coarsely
sewn together, cover the frame, and afford but a scanty protection
against the rain and the much more frequent wind. At the top, as in
the Laplander’s hut, an opening is left to let out the smoke. The
hearth is in the middle, and close by lie some earthen vases, and
large volute shells which serve as drinking-horns. The inmates lie on
skins, or sit in a corner cross-legged, after the Oriental fashion.
The excessive filth of these wretched tenements makes their poverty
appear still more squalid than it really is. Thirty or forty toldos
form a migratory village, or tolderia. Though the dreadful small-pox
epidemic from 1809 to 1812 destroyed whole tribes of Patagonians, their
present number may still be estimated at from eight to ten thousand; a
small one, when compared with the size of the country, yet large enough
when we consider the sterile nature of its soil and the vast space of
desert needed to feed a sufficient number of guanacos and horses for
the wants of even a scanty population. Each tolderia appears to have
its territory limited by the hunting-grounds of its neighbors, but
commercial transactions take place between the various tribes, and
occasion longer journeys. One of the chief trading routes runs along
the eastern foot of the Andes from the Strait of Magellan to the Rio
Negro, as water is here everywhere found; another, leading parallel
with the coast from the Rio Negro to Port St. Julian and Port Desire,
is only frequented in the rainy season, and even then there are wide
spaces without any sweet water, and where it is necessary to travel
night and day so as to avoid the danger of dying of thirst.
Every year the various Patagonian tribes wander to the sources of
the Rio Negro, where they provide themselves with araucaria seeds,
which serve them as food, or with apples, which have multiplied on
the eastern spurs of the Andes in the same astonishing manner as
the peach-trees near the mouths of the La Plata. The apple-tree was
introduced by the first Spaniards who inhabited the Chilian Andes soon
after the conquest; and when later the intruders were expelled by the
victorious Araucanians, the natives found their country enriched by
this valuable acquisition.
One of the chief bartering rendezvous is the island Cholechel, which
is formed by two arms of the Rio Negro, about eighty leagues from the
mouth of the river. Here the Patagonian exchanges his guanaco skins
for the articles which the Puelches, his northern neighbors, either
fabricate themselves or procure in a more easy manner by stealing them
from the white settlers in their neighborhood. This bartering trade
is very ancient, and has always existed excepting in times of war. In
this manner the Patagonians were provided with horses soon after the
introduction of this valuable animal into the New World, and thus also
articles of Spanish manufacture soon found their way as far as the
Strait of Magellan.
At present there seems to be peace among all the Patagonian tribes,
which consider themselves as brothers, though frequently separated
several hundred leagues from each other.
Their system of government is very simple. The whole nation has a
chief, or great cacique, whom they call carasken, and whose authority
is very limited. In war he presides in the assembly of the minor
chiefs, and has the supreme command in battle. In peace his sway is
confined to his own tribe. He is as poor as his subjects, and, far from
enjoying a copious civil list, is obliged to hunt for his subsistence
like every other Patagonian; the only advantage he owes to his exalted
station being a somewhat larger share of the products of the chase;
and this he is obliged to distribute among the more needy of his
followers, to maintain his influence. The dignity of carasken is not
always hereditary. To succeed his father, the son must first prove by
his eloquence, his courage, and his liberality that he is worthy to
succeed him; and if he is found wanting, the Indian most distinguished
by his moral and intellectual qualities is elected in his place.
The Patagonians are very awkward fishermen; they merely catch what
chance throws into their hands, and are unacquainted with nets or any
other piscatorial artifice. In this respect they are totally different
from the Fuegians, who derive their chief subsistence from the sea.
They have ever been a nation of hunters, and before the introduction
of the horse, they pursued their game on foot, using their bolas with
great dexterity for the destruction of the guanaco and the ostrich.
Their dogs afforded them a valuable assistance, and since they have
become accomplished horsemen, their fleet coursers enable them to
overtake with ease all the animals of the wilderness. In times of
scarcity they dig for a small root, which is either eaten fresh or
preserved dry. Horse-flesh is their favorite food.
The Patagonian toldos and their weapons are very rudely made, but their
skin mantles are not untastefully ornamented with rectilinear figures.
In their war-dress they have a very hideous appearance, and it would
be difficult to imagine a more diabolical figure than that of a tall
Patagonian ready for a fight, his broad face painted scarlet, with
black or blue stripes under the eyes, and his coarse features distorted
with fury. Their arms are bows and arrows, with points of flint loosely
attached with sinews, so as to remain sticking in the wound. They are
excellent archers, and use with skill the sling, the javelin, and
above all their formidable bolas, which serve them both for bringing
the guanaco to the ground or for breaking the skull of an enemy. When
not engaged in war or in the chase, the men, like most savages, pass
their time in absolute idleness, leaving all the household work to the
women. Amusements they have but few. The use of dice they have learned
from the Spaniards. They are said to be a false and deceitful people,
but their hospitality and good-nature have been frequently extolled by
travellers.
[Illustration: 126. COAST OF FUEGIA.]