THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY 



JULY, 1910 



A NATURALIST IN THE STEAITS OF MAGELLAN 1 



By Dr. CHARLES HASKINS TOWNSEND 



DIRECTOR OF THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM 



IT was in January and February of the misty Antarctic summer 

 that we lingered for a month along the seven hundred miles of 

 Magellan Strait and Smythe Channel. The delicate flowers of a 

 December springtime were passing out of bloom giving place to flowers 

 of longer duration, and young land birds were all out of their nests. 



The uneven plains of eastern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego were 

 green with grass and low shrubbery and the mountains along the 

 western channels dark with unbroken forests of evergreen beech. Our 

 course along salt-water passages was marked by somewhat gustier 

 weather than would have been found a short distance inland, but it was 

 not uncomfortably chilly for explorations ashore in daytime, and days 

 are long in summer at fifty-three degrees latitude, both south and 

 north. It was in fact pleasanter in the straits than we had found it 

 shortly before at Montevideo and Buenos Aires — a thousand miles 

 nearer the tropics — where " pamperos " had been blowing wildly along 

 the great river. 



It was pleasant to escape from the unfriendly South Atlantic and 

 enjoy the easy progress of a vessel on even keel. Still more agreeable 

 was the panorama of passing shores and the abundant animal life of the 

 channels and their islands. Best of all were the intimate observations 

 of the aspects of nature, permitted by our daily explorations on land, 

 the Albatross always within reach as a home camp, anchored in some 

 protected harbor. 



• To the naturalist a voyage of exploration through the Straits of 

 Magellan is a rare privilege, not only on account of the strangeness of 

 its animal and plant life and the wonders of its scenery, but also because 

 of the records of scientific discovery associated with it. We were fol- 

 lowing in the wake of Darwin and the Beagle, although more than half 

 1 Illustrated by photographs made by Mr. Thomas Lee and the writer. 



