Patagonia is divided practically into sections by its eastward-flowing rivers. To-day the jaguar (_Felis onca_) does not, I am informed, range south of the River Colorado, although specimens were killed in the vicinity of the River Negro fifteen years ago. The River Deseado forms the southern limit of the distribution of the Patagonian cavy (_Dolichotis patagonica_). The armadillo (_Dasypus minutus_) is never found south of the River Santa Cruz. During four months which I spent south of that river I did not see one, but when for three days we crossed to the north bank we met with four and killed one. _Dasypus minutus_ is very common in the neighbourhood of Bahia Camerones. The range of the huemul (_Xenelaphus bisulcus_) is confined to the Cordillera or their close proximity, according to my experience, while _Felis concolor puma_, and the guanaco may be said to cover the entire country as regards the plains, and I have seen the animals or their traces in various parts of the Cordillera.
(_Huemul_ or _Guemal_ of the Argentines and Chilians; _Ciervo_ of the Gauchos of Southern Patagonia; _Shóan_ of the Tehuelches.)
In the neighbourhood of Lake Buenos Aires this beautiful deer first came under my observation. On the south side of the River de los Antiguos I saw a buck (which I shot), two does and a pricket. I was told by my Gaucho, Humphrey Jones, that the huemul is found in the forests as far north as the Welsh colony of The 16th October, about lat. 43°; on the south its range extends to the Straits of Magellan. The easterly limit of their present habitat may be said to be the foothills of the Andes. Dr. F. P. Moreno, however, states that these animals have been seen in the hills in the vicinity of Port Desire, on the Atlantic Coast: I do not think that they are any longer to be found there. As far as my personal observations go, I never came across a specimen farther east than a couple of miles from the shore of Lake Buenos Aires upon its north-eastern side. The Indians said that these deer were at one time more numerous in that region.
[Illustration: BEST HEAD OF HUEMUL (_XENELAPHUS BISULCUS_) SHOT BY THE AUTHOR. SIDE VIEW]
During the summer the huemules leave the lower grounds, where the mosquitoes trouble them, and travel up to the snow-line of the Cordillera and even beyond it. At this season I never saw a large herd, but in the winter Mr. Cattle, a pioneer living near Lake Argentino, informed me that he had seen a large herd of over a hundred strong that visited the lake. In the warmer weather I noticed them usually in small parties of two or three, seldom more.