I Saw One Of These Heaps
Which Was Eight Feet In Diameter, And Was Composed Of A
Large Quantity.
This habit, according to M. A. d'Orbigny, is
common to all the species of the genus; it is very useful to
the Peruvian Indians, who use the dung for fuel, and are
thus saved the trouble of collecting it.
The guanacos appear to have favourite spots for lying
down to die. On the banks of the St. Cruz, in certain
circumscribed spaces, which were generally bushy and all near
the river, the ground was actually white with bones. On one
such spot I counted between ten and twenty heads. I particularly
examined the bones; they did not appear, as some
scattered ones which I had seen, gnawed or broken, as if
dragged together by beasts of prey. The animals in most
cases must have crawled, before dying, beneath and amongst
the bushes. Mr. Bynoe informs me that during a former
voyage he observed the same circumstance on the banks of
the Rio Gallegos. I do not at all understand the reason of
this, but I may observe, that the wounded guanacos at the
St. Cruz invariably walked towards the river. At St. Jago
in the Cape de Verd Islands, I remember having seen in a
ravine a retired corner covered with bones of the goat; we
at the time exclaimed that it was the burial ground of all the
goats in the island. I mention these trifling circumstances,
because in certain cases they might explain the occurrence
of a number of uninjured bones in a cave, or buried under
alluvial accumulations; and likewise the cause why certain
animals are more commonly embedded than others in sedimentary
deposits.
One day the yawl was sent under the command of Mr.
Chaffers with three days' provisions to survey the upper part
of the harbour. In the morning we searched for some
watering-places mentioned in an old Spanish chart. We found one
creek, at the head of which there was a trickling rill (the
first we had seen) of brackish water. Here the tide compelled
us to wait several hours; and in the interval I walked
some miles into the interior. The plain as usual consisted
of gravel, mingled with soil resembling chalk in appearance,
but very different from it in nature. From the softness of
these materials it was worn into many gulleys. There was
not a tree, and, excepting the guanaco, which stood on the
hill-top a watchful sentinel over its herd, scarcely an animal
or a bird. All was stillness and desolation. Yet in passing
over these scenes, without one bright object near, an
ill-defined but strong sense of pleasure is vividly excited.
One asked how many ages the plain had thus lasted, and how
many more it was doomed thus to continue.
"None can reply - all seems eternal now.
The wilderness has a mysterious tongue,
Which teaches awful doubt." [11]
In the evening we sailed a few miles further up, and then
pitched the tents for the night.
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