It has taken some 85 years, but it looks as if Patagonia has now acquired another English laureate of remarkable literary powers in the person of Bruce Chatwin, who reversed [W. H.] Hudson's journey, traveling from London to the remote corners of "the accursed land," as it is called in Buenos Aires, and coming away with a book that is a little masterpiece of travel, history and adventure. It is called, simply, "In Patagonia" …; it is short—199 pages; and it is a wonderful read.

For Mr. Chatwin is a marvelous storyteller—a miniaturist who packs dozens of odd tales, bizarre characters and unforgettable scenes into the 97 succinct chapters of his book, many of them scarcely a page in length. Like Hudson, he has a sharp and sympathetic eye for natural history, and his book abounds in vivid pictorial glimpses of the landscape, but it is in his accounts of...