The Voyage of the Beagle - The Original Classic Edition. Darwin Charles

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       gravelly soil supports tufts of brown withered grass, and low scattered bushes, armed with thorns.

       Shortly after passing the first spring we came in sight of a famous tree, which the Indians reverence as the altar of Walleechu. It is situated on a high part of the plain; and hence is a landmark visible at a great distance. As soon as a tribe of Indians come in sight of it, they offer their adorations by loud shouts. The tree itself is low, much branched, and thorny: just above the root it

       has a diameter of about three feet. It stands by itself without any neighbour, and was indeed the first tree we saw; afterwards we met with a few others of the same kind, but they were far from common. Being winter the tree had no leaves, but in their place numberless threads, by which the various offerings, such as cigars, bread,

       meat, pieces of cloth, etc., had been suspended. Poor Indians, not having anything better, only pull a thread out of their ponchos, and fasten it to the tree. Richer Indians are accustomed to pour spirits and mate into a certain hole, and likewise to smoke upwards, thinking thus to afford all possible gratification to Walleechu. To complete the scene, the tree was surrounded by the

       bleached bones of horses which had been slaughtered as sacrifices. All Indians of every age and sex make their offerings; they then think that their horses will not tire, and that they themselves

       shall be prosperous. The Gaucho who told me this, said that in the time of peace he had witnessed this scene, and that he and others used to wait till the Indians had passed by, for the sake of

       stealing from Walleechu the offerings.

       The Gauchos think that the Indians consider the tree as the god

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       itself; but it seems far more probable that they regard it as the

       altar. The only cause which I can imagine for this choice, is its being a landmark in a dangerous passage. The Sierra de la Ventana

       is visible at an immense distance; and a Gaucho told me that he was

       once riding with an Indian a few miles to the north of the Rio Colorado, when the Indian commenced making the same loud noise, which is usual at the first sight of the distant tree, putting his

       hand to his head, and then pointing in the direction of the Sierra. Upon being asked the reason of this, the Indian said in broken Spanish, "First see the Sierra."

       About two leagues beyond this curious tree we halted for the night: at this instant an unfortunate cow was spied by the lynx-eyed Gauchos, who set off in full chase, and in a few minutes dragged her in with their lazos, and slaughtered her. We here had the four necessaries of life "en el campo,"--pasture for the horses, water

       (only a muddy puddle), meat and firewood. The Gauchos were in high

       spirits at finding all these luxuries; and we soon set to work at the poor cow. This was the first night which I passed under the open sky, with the gear of the recado for my bed. There is high

       enjoyment in the independence of the Gaucho life--to be able at any moment to pull up your horse, and say, "Here we will pass the

       night." The deathlike stillness of the plain, the dogs keeping

       watch, the gipsy-group of Gauchos making their beds round the fire, have left in my mind a strongly-marked picture of this first night, which will never be forgotten.

       The next day the country continued similar to that above described.

       It is inhabited by few birds or animals of any kind. Occasionally a

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       deer, or a Guanaco (wild Llama) may be seen; but the Agouti (Cavia

       Patagonica) is the commonest quadruped. This animal here represents our hares. It differs, however, from that genus in many essential respects; for instance, it has only three toes behind. It is also

       nearly twice the size, weighing from twenty to twenty-five pounds. The Agouti is a true friend of the desert; it is a common feature

       of the landscape to see two or three hopping quickly one after the other in a straight line across these wild plains. They are found

       as far north as the Sierra Tapalguen (latitude 37 degrees 30'),

       where the plain rather suddenly becomes greener and more humid; and

       their southern limit is between Port Desire and St. Julian, where there is no change in the nature of the country.

       It is a singular fact, that although the Agouti is not now found as far south as Port St. Julian, yet that Captain Wood, in his voyage

       in 1670, talks of them as being numerous there. What cause can have altered, in a wide, uninhabited, and rarely-visited country, the

       range of an animal like this? It appears also, from the number shot

       by Captain Wood in one day at Port Desire, that they must have been considerably more abundant there formerly than at present. Where the Bizcacha lives and makes its burrows, the Agouti uses them; but where, as at Bahia Blanca, the Bizcacha is not found, the Agouti burrows for itself. The same thing occurs with the little owl of

       the Pampas (Athene cunicularia), which has so often been described

       as standing like a sentinel at the mouth of the burrows; for in Banda Oriental, owing to the absence of the Bizcacha, it is obliged to hollow out its own habitation.

       The next morning, as we approached the Rio Colorado, the appearance

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       of the country changed; we soon came on a plain covered with turf,

       which, from its flowers, tall clover, and little owls, resembled

       the Pampas. We passed also a muddy swamp of considerable extent, which in summer dries, and becomes incrusted with various salts; and hence is called a salitral. It was covered by low succulent

       plants, of the same kind with those growing on the sea-shore. The

       Colorado, at the pass where we crossed it, is only about sixty yards wide; generally it must be nearly double that width. Its course is very tortuous, being marked by willow-trees and beds of reeds: in a direct line the distance to the mouth of the river is

       said to be nine leagues, but by water twenty-five. We were delayed crossing in the canoe by some immense troops of mares, which were swimming the river in order to follow a division of troops into the interior. A more ludicrous spectacle I never beheld than the

       hundreds and hundreds of heads, all directed one way, with pointed ears and distended snorting nostrils, appearing just above the

       water like a great shoal of some amphibious animal. Mare's flesh is

       the only food which the soldiers have when on an expedition. This gives them a great facility of movement; for the distance to which horses can be driven over these plains is quite surprising: I have been assured that an unloaded horse can travel a hundred miles a day for many days successively.