IN THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN 17 



diameter, were placed close together. The great mass of old birds re- 

 mained by their nests until cameras could be brought into play at a 

 distance of fifteen or twenty yards. On being approached closer they 

 shuffled off, not taking wing until more closely pressed, leaving the 

 well-grown young behind. The latter had not developed the white 

 breasts of the adults and were quite fearless. Another species of 

 cormorant lacking the white breast, had nests along the low cliffs, 

 while eggs and young of gulls were abundant on some elevations near 

 the water. 



Our explorations were not confined to the shores; when the ship 

 was under way, the large dredge, or beam trawl, was often lowered to 

 drag on the bottom, once as deep as 370 fathoms. It was, in fact, 

 dragged systematically through the inland passages of the straits and 

 Smythe Channel from Cape Virgins on the Atlantic to Port Otway on 

 the Pacific. This big iron-framed net, hauled by steam power, brought 

 up fishes, shells, crustaceans, sea urchins, starfishes and many other 

 sea forms whose scientific names are here somewhat out of place. 



Among the fishes we often got Macrurus, that strange, big-eyed, 

 long-tailed genus distributed nearly everywhere over the ocean floor. 

 Crustaceans were better represented in the dredge hauls, many deep 

 sea types being brought up. Mollusks were plentiful in number and 

 variety, living brachiopods — the " lamp shells " so well known as fos- 

 sils — appearing frequently. 



There were many specimens of small octopus and a couple of 

 burly squids nearly six feet long. The deep-water species were, as a 

 whole, new to science. 



This whole region is an anciently depressed, sea-engulfed mass of 

 mountains among which the voyager of the present carefully gropes 

 his way. 



The navigation of the straits is confined to daylight work and the 

 summer days are of course long, but even then heavy fogs have to be 

 reckoned on. The short nights were always passed at anchor. While 

 the straits are several miles wide in places, there are dangerous nar- 

 rows which can only be passed at slack water. English Narrows are 

 less than a quarter of a mile wide and the channel affords room for 

 but one ship at a time. 



The only settlement worthy of mention here is Punta Arenas, the 

 most southerly town on the globe. The region is too far south for 

 agriculture, but garden vegetables can be grown in sheltered places. 

 There is some gold digging carried on, but sheep raising has become 

 an established industry. There was much in the climate to remind 

 me of the Aleutian Islands, which lie nearly in the same latitude in the 

 north. 



Our observations of water temperature in the straits varied from 

 47° to 57° Fahrenheit, the higher temperature being found in the 



VOL. LXXVI.I — 2. 



