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Show 250 FALKLAND ISLANDS. March, 1834. haveno d ou bt 1't .IS apecu liar species ' and confinedI tod 't his archhi - elaO'o . because many sealers, Gauchos, and n Ian~, w .o ~av: visited these islands, all maintain that ~o such amm~l ~s found in any part of South America. Molina: fro~ a '~Imi- 1 't . habl"ts thought this was the same Wlth his cui-any m ' · d' · peu ·"* b ut I h ave se en both' and they are qmte Istmc.t . Thes' e wo 1v es are we ll know• n ' from By.r on's account o. f theu tameness an d Cun'osity '· which the sailors, who ran m.t o the water t o avm· a them' mistook for :fierceness. To this day t h e1· r manne rs re1nain the same. They have been observed to enter a t ent, a nd actually pull some meat from beneath the h ea d of a SleepinOo' seaman. The Gauchos. , also, hav· e fref • quen tly k1'l led them in the evening, by. holdmg out a· kp iehc e o meat m· one h an d, and in the other a kmfe .r eady to .s tw t em. As far as I am aware, there is no other mstance ~n any part f h ld of so small a mass of broken land, distant from o t e wor , ul' · If a continent, possessing so large a quadruped pee mr to Itse • Their numbers have rapidly decreased; they are already banished from that half of the island which lies to the eastward f the neck of land between St. Salvador Bay and Berkeley ~ound. Within a very few years after th~~e isla~ds shall.have become regularly settled, in all probability th1s ~ox Will be classed with the dodo, as an animal which has penshed from the face of the earth. Mr. Lowe, an intelligent person who has long been acquainted with these islands, assured me, that all the foxes from the western island were smaller and of a redder colour than those from the eastern. In the four specimens which were brought to ~ngland i~ the Beaglei" there was some variation, but the d1fference With respect to mon European rat and mouse have roamed from the habitations, and have settled themselves at various points. The common hog has also run wild. . ~ The "culpeu" is the Vulpes Magellanicus brought home by Captam Kina from the Strait of Magellan. It is common in Chile. t ° Captain FitzRoy has presented two of these foxes to the ~ritish Museum, where Mr. Gray had the kindness to compare them m my presence. March, 1834. FALKLAND ISLANDS. 251 the islands could not be perceived. At the same time the fact is far from improbable. At night (17th) we slept on the neck of land which forms the south-west peni~sula. The valley was pretty well sheltered from the cold wmd; but there was very little brushwood for fuel. . The Gauchos, however, soon found what, to my great surpnse, made nearly as hot a :fire as coals ; this was the skeleton of a bullock lately killed, from which the flesh had been picked by the Caracaras. They told me that in winter they had often killed a beast, cleaned the flesh from th bones with their knives, and then with these same bone: roasted the meat for their suppers. 18TH.-It rained during nearly the whole day. At night we managed, however, with our saddle-cloths, to keep ourselves pretty well dry and warm; but the ground on which we slept was on each occasion nearly in the state of a bog, and there ~as not a dry spot to sit down on after our day's ride. I have m another part stated how singular it is that trees should be entirely absent from these islands, while they cover the whole surface of Tierra del Fuego. The largest bush in the island (belonging to the family of Compositre) is scarcely so tall as our gorze. The best fuel is afforded by a green little bush, about the size of common heath, which has the useful pr?~erty of burning while fresh and green. It was very surp~ smg to see the Gauchos, in the midst of rain, and every thmg soaking wet, with nothing more than a tinder-box and piece of rag, immediately make a fire. They sought beneath the tufts of grass and bushes for a few dry twigs, and thes~ they rubbed into :fibres ; then surrounding them with c~ars~r twigs, something like a bird's nest, they put the rag With Its spark of :fire in the middle, and covered it up. The nest being then held up to the wind, by degrees it smoked more and more, and at last burst out in flames. I do not think any other method would have had a chance of succeeding with such damp materials. . l9TII.-Each morning, from not having ridden for some time previously, I was very stiff. I was surprised to hear |