spread very far yet. There is little agreement among ranchers; rarely did more than 50% of them agree on increase or decrease of a species. One of the agreements was that red foxes had increased. Bellati repeated that large pieces of Santa Cruz Province had been abandoned because of the drought. He also introduced me to one of the Germans running the Desertification of Patagonia Project- sophisticated computer equipment for digitized NOAA images of the steppe. Cloudy in morning, then clear and breezy. Left for El Bolson about 3 o'clock. Major road work south of Pampa del Toro. Camped along the Rio Foyel above the bridge. Anita put out 10 Sher mans. November 6.- Night mostly clear, cold. Anita's traps caught 3 adult Abrothrix and one adult Oryzomys. Then drove to El Bolson. A lot of scrubby nire country, and a lot of it planted to pines. Several large burns also. A man plowing near El Hoyo was being followed by many lapwings, ibises, and chimangos. A few wet pastures were solid buttercups. Then south to Cholila. A few kms south of where the Cholila gravel road branches off of the paved road, about 13 km south of Lago Epuyen, the vegetation along the road is pure Colletia and old old bushes of palo pichi. Much bare ground; real desert, not burned for many years. A few Acaena, no bunchgrass, a couple of berberis bushes and a ground mat with yellow flowers. There were tuco diggings under some of the Colletia bushes, some hare droppings. A fox dropping contained a jaw of ?Buneomys? or Auliscomys?. Cholila is a nothing town. We passed acres and acres of pure dandelion, and miles of rosa mosqueta. 30 or 40 flamingos in a grassy pond southwest of Cholila on our way to Parque Nacional Los Alceres. Drove along Lago Rivadavia and camped on the edge of Lago Verde. Began to rain about 7 p.m. November 7.- Only sprinkles overnight. Anita's traps around rosa mosqueta and radial caught 2 adult Abrothrix and 2 adult Oryzomys. Then drove along Lago Verde and Lago Futulaufquen. . The Berberis darwinii is in full bloom and each plant has 3 times as many blossoms as the Berberis around Pampa Linda and Bariloche. The forests along the road on the east side of the lakes are pretty scrubby, with much retamo, radial etc., whereas those across the lakes look big and dense; dombeyi low down, then a big gap filled with dense bamboo, then solid lenga. Picniced at the east end of Lago Futulaufquen. They now have outhouses at the campsites! Stopped at the Park Intendente's and asked where were the alceres. They called the park guard who said that they had one planted just outside the building. It was 15 ft. tall. Otherwise, you have to sign up with a tour group in Esquel who will bus you to Lago Verde, then launch across Lake Menendez to a place where there are some alceres trees. Discovered a nice little museum at the park headquarters. The curator was happy to show us around. He was a 65-year-old who had known Don Diego