. Through the heart of Patagonia. Natural history. BACK TO CIVILISATION 171. coast, and my desire was to arrive there as soon as possible in order to have plenty of time to carry out my projects before winter made travelling of any kind impossible. Once we reached the River Belgrano our difficulties would be over, that we knew; but in order to attain this end we had to pass through a region some- what waterless and stony lying on the verge of the basalt wilderness, into which we had strayed. To get away from this basalt region was, of course, our first desire. Could we. but find the I ndian tr
. Through the heart of Patagonia. Natural history. BACK TO CIVILISATION 171. coast, and my desire was to arrive there as soon as possible in order to have plenty of time to carry out my projects before winter made travelling of any kind impossible. Once we reached the River Belgrano our difficulties would be over, that we knew; but in order to attain this end we had to pass through a region some- what waterless and stony lying on the verge of the basalt wilderness, into which we had strayed. To get away from this basalt region was, of course, our first desire. Could we. but find the I ndian trail, which we were sure must be at no great distance, and which stretches, leading one from camp to camp, all the way from Lake Buenos Aires to Punta Arenas, with a branch in the direction of Santa Cruz, our troubles would be at an end. Owing, however, to the lessening number of Indians, the track is now only clearly visible for half a mile at a time in the neighbourhood of fords and other difficult places. To return to our search. Burbury and I had started early. The going at first was over basalt clinker, fearful for the horses' feet, but presently we came to a low round hillock of pebble—a hopeful sight, for I had been half afraid we might be deep in the basalt wilderness. Following on we discovered other pebbly hillocks, on one of which I found a single horse-track, stamped when the ground was soft some time previously. After a while, as we rounded a slope, we saw a bit of green camp. We were bearing a little west of south, and there we struck the full Indian trail—that wonderful trail, v\hich runs league after league, worn by the footsteps of generations upon generations of Indians as they migrated up and down the length of the country with their women and children, their guanaco-skin tents and their few possessions. The trail is much like a guanaco-track, or rather like several. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been di
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectnatural, bookyear1902
