In commencing this chapter I may remark that, as far as English publications are concerned, I have found nothing bearing on the zoology of South-eastern Patagonia of later date than the book of Captain Musters, published in 1871, and no work whatever dealing with the mammals of the Cordillera.
Captain Musters traversed the country with a tribe of Tehuelche Indians, and only at one point touched the Cordillera. His book is essentially a book treating of these interesting Indians, and he does little more than refer now and then to the zoology of the land through which he passed.
Every one is, of course, familiar with the volumes to which the voyages of the Adventure and the Beagle gave rise, but it must be remembered that the most westerly point attained by the boat-party from the Beagle, which ascended the Santa Cruz River, was Mystery Plain. In no English work whatever has any mention been made of the huemul (Xenelaphus bisulcus), a deer peculiar to the Southern Cordillera, nor have we any account of the habits of the puma, or, I should rather say, the pumas of Patagonia. During the time we spent in Patagonia we covered a considerable portion of the country, and passed some five or six months within the Cordillera, or in their immediate neighbourhood, so that we had ample opportunity for making some interesting observations.
To begin with, I should like to say a few words concerning the distribution, broadly speaking, of the principal mammals of Patagonia.
Patagonia is divided practically into sections by its eastward-flowing rivers. To-day the jaguar (Felis onca) does not, I am informed, range south of the River Colorado, although specimens were killed in the vicinity of the River Negro fifteen years ago. The River Deseado forms the southern limit of the distribution of the Patagonian cavy (Dolichotis patagonica). The armadillo (Dasypus minutus) is never found south of the River Santa Cruz. During four months which I spent south of that river I did not see one, but when for three days we crossed to the north bank we met with four and killed one. Dasypus minutus is very common in the neighbourhood of Bahia Camerones. The range of the huemul (Xenelaphus bisulcus) is confined to the Cordillera or their close proximity, according to my experience, while Felis concolor puma, and the guanaco may be said to cover the entire country as regards the plains, and I have seen the animals or their traces in various parts of the Cordillera.
So much for general distribution.
1. Huemul (Xenelaphus bisulcus).
(Huemul or Guemal of the Argentines and Chilians; Ciervo of the Gauchos of Southern Patagonia; Shóan of the Tehuelches.)
In the neighbourhood of Lake Buenos Aires this beautiful deer first came under my observation. On the south side of the River de los Antiguos I saw a buck (which I shot), two does and a pricket. I was told by my Gaucho, Humphrey Jones, that the huemul is found in the forests as far north as the Welsh colony of The 16th October, about lat. 43°; on the south its range extends to the Straits of Magellan. The easterly limit of their present habitat may be said to be the foothills of the Andes. Dr. F. P. Moreno, however, states that these animals have been seen in the hills in the vicinity of Port Desire, on the Atlantic Coast: I do not think that they are any longer to be found there. As far as my personal observations go, I never came across a specimen farther east than a couple of miles from the shore of Lake Buenos Aires upon its north-eastern side. The Indians said that these deer were at one time more numerous in that region.