Pearson - 1991 Neil. He remembered the 1939-40 bamboo bloom. He says that Neil was right there at Futulaufquen at the time, not at Lago Puelo as we had understood. He aid that it was a massive bloom, that there were mice everywhere, of two kinds, short tail and long tail. He dug a pit in the back yard and mice fell in and devoured eachother. Eventually big trout in the lake died, presumably the water was polluted by dead mice. He said the first settlers came over from Chile about 1905 and did a lot of burning, and that this accounts for the scrubby forest on the east side of the lakes. Then drove to Esquel, had lunch, and visited a Municipal Museum with some good Indian exhibits. When I knocked on the door and asked what were the hours for the public, the curator, Sr. Alberti, turned on the lights and said come in. He was baby-sitting a 1 1/2 year-old who played noisily with artifacts etc while the father gave us a fascinating archeological/anthropological tour of the exhibits. Apparently the Indians, before the horse, hunted guanacos by encircling and driving them, then killing them with bolas, arrows, and lances. Then had tea with Charlie and Nora MacKinnon. The four big English-company estancias, Leleque, El Maiten, Pilcaniyeu, and Chacabuco, that were sold to Argentines a number of years ago, have now been sold to an Italian, Benneton. Then drove via long gravel-road detour, to the desert patch on the Cholila road. At dusk Anita put out 10 Sher mans, and I put out 12 cage traps and 8 steel traps. Mostly cloudy. November 8.- 13 km. S Epuyen, Prov. Chubut. Night warm, moths flying, cleared up. My traps had 5 Abrothrix and 1 Auliscomys. Anita's had 1 Abrothrix. Lots of hare tracks but only a few hare droppings. Occasional tuco burrows, and in a few places a trail of mouse footprints crossing from one clump of Colletia to another; probably Auliscomys. This patch of desert habitat, only a couple of kms along the road, seems to be in a rain shadow of the Cordon de Cholila. Probably 50% bare sandy gavel light soil, deep, with patches of palo pichi and Colletia, numerous Acaena and a yellow-flowered ground mat. Occasional Berberis buxifolia, some of them huge with trunks 4 or more inches in diameter. Some of the Palo pichi up to 6 inches diam., many of them dead or dying. The place obviously has not burned for decades. Occasional individual bunches of bunch grass, a few "yarrow", a few 8-petaled "buttercups". Scattered radial trees at the edges of the desert patch. No droppings of horse, cow, or sheep, so not grazed for years. Altitude 2270 ft. Then drove north through the moonscape of bulldozing on the road. Stopped at La Veranada and excavated rhizomes to weigh, Then home to Bariloche. I am impressed with how much forest must have burned in the past (and