ENTERING STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 715 



night. Rough and stormy weather followed 

 this fair start, and only two more dredgings 

 were possible before reaching the Strait of 

 Magellan. One was off the Gulf of St. 

 George, where gigantic star-fishes seemed to 

 have their home. One of them, a superb 

 basket-fish, was not less than a foot and a 

 half in diameter; and another, like a huge 

 sunflower of reddish purple tint, with straight 

 arms, thirty-seven in number, radiating from 

 the disk, was of about the same size. Many 

 beautiful little sea-urchins came up in the 

 same dredging. About fifty miles north of 

 Cape Virgens, in tolerably calm weather, an- 

 other haul was tried, and this time the dredge 

 returned literally solid with Ophiurans. 



On Wednesday, March 13th, on a beauti- 

 fully clear morning, like the best October 

 weather in New England, the Hassler rounded 

 Cape Virgens and entered the Strait of Ma- 

 gellan. The tide was just on the flood, and 

 all the conditions favorable for her run to her 

 first anchorage in the Strait at Possession 

 Bay. Here the working force divided, to form 

 two shore parties, one of which, under Agas- 

 siz's direction, the reader may follow. The 

 land above the first shore bluff at Possession 

 Bay rises to a height of some four hundred 



