396 APPENDIX TO JOURNAL. 



head of which is the so called Port San Antonio. In this region our 

 collections were very large and various. Among our treasures was a 

 very interesting collection of tertiary fossils in this bay. The cliffs 

 were largely composed of them. My original programme bad included 

 a recounoissance of the rivers Negro and Santa Cruz, and a visit to 

 the Falkland Islands, where I was especially anxious to have a look at 

 the so-called " rivers of stone," believing, as I do, that they are of 

 glacial origin. But the circumstances of the vessel and the lateness of 

 the season made it important to hurry on, and I reluctantly relin- 

 quished this part of my scheme. We touched, therefore, at no other 

 point between the gulf of San Mathias and the strait of Magellan, 

 though we paused for a cast of the dredge off the gulf of St. Georges, 

 and were rewarded by some superb star-tishes of immense size, (astro- 

 phyton or basket-fish,) besides other valuable specimens. 



" We rounded Cape Virgins on the 13th of March, and made our first 

 anchorage at Possession Bay. My published reports have already given 

 some account of our work in this region. The most important results 

 obtained in this locality were Count Pourtales' discovery that Mount 

 Aymon is an extinct volcano, with a very perfect crater, and forming 

 the nucleus, as it were, of a cluster of smaller volcanoes; beside some less 

 striking geological observations of my own. In the strait of Magellan, 

 and in Sraythe's Channel, we passed three weeks, anchoring every night. 

 The zoological results throughout this region were very satisfactory. 

 We made large collections ; chiefly marine, of course. But the glacial 

 phenomena here interested me more deeply than the fauna. From the 

 character of the drift, and the constant presence of erratic materials, 

 evidently quite foreign to the soil, and recurring along the Patagonian 

 coast throughout the strait of Magellan, and, as I afterward found, 

 high up on the Chilian coast ; from the glacier- worn surfaces on the 

 two sides of the strait, as compared with each other, and on the walls 

 of Smythe's Channel, I satisfied myself that there has been a move 

 ment of ice from south northward, preceding all local glacial phenom- 

 ena, the latter being indeed only the remnant of the former. 



"Leaving Smythe's Channel we kept along the coast to the southern 

 end of Chiloe Island, making a run up the gulf of Corcovado in the 

 hope of passing through the archipelago of Chiloe. As we had no 

 charts, however, the captain feared to attempt the inside passage, and 

 after making some collections in Port San Pedro we returned to the 

 open sea, and reached San Carlos de Ancud, at the northern end of the 

 island, on the 8th of March. Here I found again the erratic of the 

 straits and of the Patagonian coast resting upon the breccia of Ancud 

 showing the chronological relation of the volcanic formations of this 

 region to the glacial phenomena. From San Carlos we proceeded with 

 no pause (except at Lota for coal) to the bay of Concepcion. Here we 

 remained a fortnight, and at no point did I make more full and valuable 

 collections. From Concepcion Bay the Hassler went to Juan Fernandez, 



