Three other insects (a Cincindela, like hybrida, a
Cymindis, and a Harpalus, which all live on muddy flats
occasionally overflowed by the sea), and one other found dead on
the plain, complete the list of the beetles. A good-sized fly
(Tabanus) was extremely numerous, and tormented us by its painful
bite. The common horsefly, which is so troublesome in the shady
lanes of England, belongs to this same genus. We here have the
puzzle that so frequently occurs in the case of musquitoes--on the
blood of what animals do these insects commonly feed? The guanaco
is nearly the only warm-blooded quadruped, and it is found in quite
inconsiderable numbers compared with the multitude of flies.
The geology of Patagonia is interesting. Differently from Europe,
where the tertiary formations appear to have accumulated in bays,
here along hundreds of miles of coast we have one great deposit,
including many tertiary shells, all apparently extinct. The most
common shell is a massive gigantic oyster, sometimes even a foot in
diameter. These beds are covered by others of a peculiar soft white
stone, including much gypsum, and resembling chalk, but really of a
pumiceous nature.
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