Azara says the smell can be perceived at a
league distant; more than once, when entering the harbour
of Monte Video, the wind being off shore, we have perceived
the odour on board the Beagle. Certain it is, that
every animal most willingly makes room for the Zorillo.
[1] The corral is an enclosure made of tall and strong
stakes. Every estancia, or farming estate, has one attached
to it.
[2] The hovels of the Indians are thus called.
[3] Report of the Agricult. Chem. Assoc. in the Agricult.
Gazette, 1845, p. 93.
[4] Linnaean Trans., vol. xi. p. 205. It is remarkable how
all the circumstances connected with the salt-lakes in Siberia
and Patagonia are similar. Siberia, like Patagonia, appears
to have been recently elevated above the waters of the sea.
In both countries the salt-lakes occupy shallow depressions
in the plains; in both the mud on the borders is black and
fetid; beneath the crust of common salt, sulphate of soda or
of magnesium occurs, imperfectly crystallized; and in both,
the muddy sand is mixed with lentils of gypsum. The Siberian
salt-lakes are inhabited by small crustaceous animals; and
flamingoes (Edin. New Philos. Jour., Jan 1830) likewise
frequent them. As these circumstances, apparently so trifling,
occur in two distant continents, we may feel sure that they
are the necessary results of a common cause - See Pallas's
Travels, 1793 to 1794, pp.
