In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin

This book is a series of 97 vignettes which eventually tie together in style, theme, content and wistfulness. Charles Milward, cousin of the author's grandfather, had found a brontosaurus that turned out to be a mylodon - a great sloth. "It took some years to sort the story out." Traveling through Patagonia in search of stories about his family, he finds many cultures and stories that intertwine: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid followed south by Pinkerton detectives; penguins, condors, albatross; stories of ill-fated voyages which may have influenced literature such as Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, Poe, even Darwin, who argued with the orthodox chief officer Fitzroy. Dante and Donne speak of straits and Magellan and fire islands. There's a discussion of Tierra del Fuego and the Indian language in "The Uttermost Parts of the Earth" by Lucas Bridges. A good book written in a subtle and engaging manner - curiosity evoking more curiosity.