We here have the agouti, bizcacha, three species of armadillo, the ostrich, certain kinds of partridges and other birds, none of which are ever seen in Chile, but are the characteristic animals of the desert plains of Patagonia.

We have likewise many of the same (to the eyes of a person who is not a botanist) thorny stunted bushes, withered grass, and dwarf plants.

Even the black slowly crawling beetles are closely similar, and some, I believe, on rigorous examination, absolutely identical.

It had always been to me a subject of regret that we were unavoidably compelled to give up the ascent of the S.
Cruz river before reaching the mountains: I always had a latent hope of meeting with some great change in the features of the country; but I now feel sure that it would only have been following the plains of Patagonia up a mountainous ascent.
MARCH 24, 1835.
Early in the morning I climbed up a mountain on one side of the valley, and enjoyed a far extended view over the Pampas.

This was a spectacle to which I had always looked forward with interest, but I was disappointed: at the first glance it much resembled a distant view of the ocean, but in the northern parts many irregularities were soon distinguishable.