a general reader; therefore 1 sliall hasten from one place to
another, dwelling only, in my way, upon the few incidents, or
reflections, wliich may have interest enough to warrant -tlieir
being noticed in tliis abridg-ed narrative, or are absolutely
necessary for carrying on the thread of the story. Eastern Pampa Coast—Point Medaños—Mar-chiquito—Ranges of Hills
—Direction of Inlets, Shoals, and Rivers—Cape Corrientes—Tosca
Coast—Blanco Bay—Mount Hermoso—Port Belgrano—Mr. Harris__
Ventana Mountain—View—Argentina—Commandant—Major—Situation
— Toriano — Indians —^ Fossils —^ Animals — Fish — Climate—
Pumice — Ashes — Conway — Deliberations—Consequent Decision—
Responsibility incurred — Paz — Liebre—Gale—Hunger—Fossils at
Hermoso—Fossils at Point Alta—Express sent to Buenos Ayres—
Suspicions and absurd alarm—Rodriguez.
A ug. 22. From Cape San Antonio (which, though so called,
is only a low point) to rather more than half-way towards Cape
Corrientes, the sea-coast is sandy and low. Behind the beach
are sand-hills, and farther inshore are thickets affording shelter
to numbers of jaguars. In sailing along, even with both
leads going, we were, for a few minutes, in imminent danger
of grounding upon a bank, or ledge, which extends six miles
E.S.E. from Point Medaños. The water shoaled so suddenly,
and so irregularly, that I could not tell which way to steer;
and as we had been running directly before the wind, it was
impossible to retreat by the safest track (that whicli we had
made in approaching) : however, by persevering in pushing
eastward, away from the land, steering one way or another as
the water deepened, we at last got clear. AVe then stood out to
gain an ofBng, rounded the bank, and hauled close inshore
again neai-ly opposite to a large salt lagoon, called Mar-
chiquito, which approaches the sea so closely as to have occasioned
an idea that, by cutting through the narrow strip of
land which separates them, a fine port might be formed.
Some persons assert that there is alwa>'s a communication
between the lagoon and the sea; that cattle cannot pass along
the isthmus on account of that opening; and that a boat might
swim from one to the other. I f this is the case, we were much
deceived on board the Beagle; for when she passed so near the
spot that the lagoon was overlooked by the officers at her mast-
VOL. I I . H
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