A few farms are rented by Welsh settlers, refugees from the Chupat, who wisely have preferred the valley of the Rio Negro to that luckless settlement.
A little above the Guardia is situated the estancia of Messrs. Kincaid, of which we caught a glimpse on our first arrival at civilisation. I had the pleasure of staying some days at this farm, where a good deal of land had been brought under cultivation, and flocks of sheep might be seen grazing on the rich plain.
The estancia, from its situation in what is termed a rincon or corner, namely, a peninsula nearly surrounded by a bend of the river, possessed great advantages, and as it is one of the most convenient places for passing cattle to the south side, the owner, who keeps a boat on the river, was enabled to do a profitable business with the Indians when they received their rations, by assisting them in ferrying their animals across.
The overseer, under Mr. Kincaid, was a Scotch shepherd, whose gude wife superintended the ménage; the house was a substantial edifice, built mainly by Messrs. Kincaid, the beams being taken from willow trees felled in the rincon. Up to the time of my visit these gentlemen had been working against fortune, neither of the yields of grain in the two previous years of their occupation having been even a good average.
Close to this estancia a number of ancient Indian burial grounds exist, where, besides skulls and bones, numerous flint arrowheads may be found, some of which, in my possession, have been exhibited to the learned members of the Anthropological Institute, and found to present the peculiar Indian type. Besides flint arrow-heads, pestles and mortars, fashioned out of a porous stone, are also to be found. These articles probably belonged to an old race of Indians who inhabited the Rio Negro previous to the advent of Spaniards and horses, and the pestles and mortars were probably used for pounding the algarroba bean into a paste like that at present manufactured by Pampa Indians under Teneforo; indeed, Luiz Aguirre gave me to understand that these Pampas were of an original stock formerly inhabiting the valley of the Rio Negro, but I leave these conjectures to the consideration of ethnologists more skilled than myself. Near these ancient graves I renewed my acquaintance with the old familiar vizcacha of the plains of Buenos Ayres, which I have previously pointed out does not exist in Patagonia proper, viz., to the south of the Rio Negro. Two other species of armadillo besides the quirquincho were described as being found in their neighbourhood, but I was not fortunate enough to meet with either description, as they were at this season hybernating. Puma have been killed in the neighbourhood of one of the sheep stations. The shepherd heard two outside the corral on one occasion, and giving chase the puma ascended a small tree. The shepherd was only lightly attired, but he stripped off his shirt and fastened it to a stick planted by the tree, which unknown white object so terrified the 'leones' that they remained quiet while he fetched his gun and shot them both.