The fauna of Patagonia are not specially varied. Those who desire the results of keen observation on the subject should turn to Darwin's "Voyage of the _Beagle_." The guanaco and the ostrich are the most notable, and the latter creature is in great favour in Northern Argentina as a destroyer of locusts. Darwin[139] says: "The guanaco, or wild llama, is the characteristic quadruped of the plains of Patagonia; it is the South American representative of the camel of the East. It is an elegant animal in a state of nature, with a long slender neck and fine legs. It is very common over the whole of the temperate parts of the continent, as far south as the islands near Cape Horn. It generally lives in small herds of from half a dozen to thirty in each; but on the banks of the St. Cruz we saw one herd which must have contained at least five hundred." It is a gentle animal and easily domesticated, but, of course, in the plains it is not nearly as useful as the invaluable llama of the Chilian and Peruvian Andes. [Illustration: A VIEW OF TIERRA DEL FUEGO.] Patagonia is almost virgin land, a spacious adjunct to a country whose wealth and scanty population has hitherto prevented the inhabitants from seeking pastures new when the new are less luxuriant than the old. For long years it was considered almost worthless and was abandoned to wandering tribes of Indians. Now it is recognised as having a great future before it, and, promising as have been the settlements already, it can hardly be said that a beginning has yet been made, for Patagonia has hardly any railways, and the abundant rivers have scarcely been tapped for the purposes of irrigation. When iron rails have opened up the fine pasture-lands and when the waters of the great streams shall have been utilised for agriculture, it is safe to predict that the expansion of Argentina will exceed beyond comparison the progress hitherto made--a progress which even now fills the world with astonishment. FOOTNOTES: [124] _Geog. Journ._, October, 1898. [125] Darwin remarks of the remains of the Spanish settlement, that "the style in which they were commenced shows the strong and liberal hand of Spain in the old time.... Port Famine expresses by its name the lingering and extreme sufferings of several hundred wretched people, of whom one alone survived to relate their misfortunes" ("Voyage of the _Beagle_," chap. viii.). [126] Hakluyt, Extra Series, xi. 383. [127] Walter, "A Voyage Round the World," p. 55. [128] Hawkesworth, "An Account of the Voyages," i. 26. [129] "A Description of Patagonia," pp. 84-5. [130] "Narrative of the Surveying Voyages," ii. 167-8. [131] "Voyage of the _Beagle_," chap. iv. [132] The following is the testimony of travellers:-- 1520. Pigafetta. The least, taller than the tallest man in Castile. 1578. Drake. Not taller than some Englishmen. 1591. Knyvet. Fifteen or sixteen spans high. 1598. Van Noort. Natives of tall stature.