Note 11 — Chapter I · THE COUNTRY—ITS FOUR DIVISIONS—THE RIVERS—THE CLIMATE

"Very great numbers of birds, wild animals, cattle, and horses perished from the want of food and water. A man told me that the deer used to come into his courtyard to the well, which he had been obliged to dig to supply his own family with water; and that the partridges had hardly strength to fly away when pursued. The lowest estimation of the loss of cattle in Buenos Ayres alone was taken at one million head" (Darwin, "Voyage of the Beagle," chap. vii.). [11]