TRAVELS IN SOUTH AMERICA

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 204, 26 May 1938, Page 15

TRAVELS IN SOUTH AMERICA

Mr, Johannes Andersen

IMPRESSIONS OF PAMPAS

AND ANDES

South America has much in common with New Zealand, in its scenery and flora, according to Mr. Johannes C. Andersen. naturalist and author, who described bis travels through Argentina, Chile, and Peru to the Wellington Philosophical Society hist night, lie was greatly impressed by the resemblance of the Andean region to parts of this Dominion although he drew a vivid picture of the desolate plains of the pampas, unlike anything New Zealand knows. Mr. Andersen said that in geological formation the two countries boi;e a superficial resemblance —but the plains on the eastern side of the American range were wholly unlike the shingle plains of the South Island East Coast. They were of soil in which were found fossils and skeletons of creatures of the past, including the remote ancestor of the horse.

The horse had its origin in South America. It was a small, rabbit-like creature. In the process of evolution it found its way to the Old World and died out in the country of its origin. Later, horses were introduced into America by the Spanish eonquistadores and ran wild there, until there were great mobs of tens of thousands roaming the pampas and trampling over the dead bones of their forgotten ancestors. Destruction of Wild Life. The wanton and wholesale destruction of animal and bird life was a sad feature of the development of South America. The Argentines were wholly devoid of interest in natural history, utterly careless of what became of the wild life of their country. European settlers, mostly Italians, had wiped out the once prolific bird-life. Where there were once vast flocks of storks, lapwings. golden plover, ibises, herons, spoonbills, and scarlet flamingos, he saw not one. Only the swallows came yearly. The puma, or mountain lion, known as “the friend of num” because it had never been known to attack man, but actually to defend him against other wild creatures, had also been given harsh treatment. He saw one only—in a cramped cage at Valparaiso. He and Mrs. Andersen travelled 1200 miles across the dreary pampas, that looked arid as a desert. It was quite level. Here and there were dry-looking bushes not unlike the "wild Irishman” of New Zealand. Under the bushes was bare earth or a sparse coating of green. Now and again the train passed solitary houses or clusters of buildings, some of clay. They had no chimneys; fires were lit in the middle of the floor and the smoke left to find its own way out There were few trees. The Spanish settiers had found it necessary to lie pastoralists, not agriculturists; they had lived in the saddle, roving the pampas on horseback behind their Hocks So they had planted few trees. More over, the locusts destroyed the leaves of the trees. Although they saw locusts in thousands, so that any New Zea lander would have said they were swarming, they were not present in the countless hosts that made them at certain periods a plague. Brutal Gauchos. The travellers visited a ranch of 50,W0 cattle, the main milk herd that supplied Buenos Ayres. They were entertained by representations of Gaucho dances, and by horse-taming, “but,” said Mr. Andersen, “I didn't want to see much of that; it seemed to me the men needed taming. These Gauchos were, many of them, repulsive looking and cruel—the cruellest men I ever saw.” The train journey across the pampas lasted two days and nights. It brought them into the mountain country, with which Mr. Andersen was so much impressed. The mountains and lakes, he said, were very beautiful —more so than the Southern Lakes of New Zealand, ■because they were entirely surrounded by high peaks, instead of having them only at one side, as in New Zealand. The bush was particularly lovely and bore a close resemblance to New Zealand bush. Indeed, many of the plants were actually the same, or very closely related. He saw the kowhai in bloom there, for it was spring. The forest was full of great trees, like totaras. He felt quite at home to see fuchsias, coprosmas, koromiko and what appeared to be supplejack, lawyer and treeferns. Coastal Bird-Life. The bird-life of the sea coast between Callao and Balboa was the most interesting he had seen on his journey. Off Mollendo, where the temperature was moderated by the cold Humboldt current, were the shags or guano-birds which were the source of a vast industry if it could be so described. The guano trade was a Government monopoly. The islands were worked in rotation, and the output was 130,000 tons a year, of which only 10,000 were exported. “It seemed strange,” he said, “to think these birds were so esteemed for what in other circumstances would cause them to be detested.”

It was a curious feature of these shags that they flew in long lines and if such a column was intercepted by the ship, they would fly miles out of their way to pass across the bow, rather than break their column of route. They strung out in a long V to continue to cross the vessel’s bow. but the last one would still go round, rather than take the short-cut astern and so break formation. These birds, and gulls, pelicans and terns were seen fishing in tens of thousands over the sardine shoals.

There were penguins, too, slightly larger than the New Zealand blue penguins, and the sight of one in a Valparaiso street reminded him of the penguin that used to lie an habitue of the main street at Akaroa. Other interesting birds were the big brown pelicans, frigate birds, and buzzards of Balboa, and the amokura or tropic bird of the Pacific.