176 NATURAL SCIENCE. September, 



for the freshwater pools, the fauna of which, I knew, had been so far 

 very little studied. From the beach I got many interesting forms, 

 and my dredgings in the vicinity of the harbour — carried on, during 

 the first stop here, from the steam launch of the Chilian man-of-war 

 " Magellanes," which the governor kindly put at my disposal — 

 yielded specimens representative of the fauna living at different depths 

 at the bottom of that part of the Strait. 



I did not pay much attention to species already well known as 

 characteristic of this zoogeographical province, and of a larger size, 

 or possessing some other quality which might make them of value to 

 museums ; but, on the other hand, I was very much interested in the 

 representative forms — that is, such animals as are to be met with both 

 in the Arctic and Antarctic seas, but not in any of the intermediate 

 oceans, sometimes resembling one another so much as to allow of no 

 specific distinction, sometimes offering modifications so slight as to 

 necessitate their being considered as varieties only. 



The recent expeditions to the southern seas, among others the 

 French " Mission " and the German expedition to South Georgia, 

 1882-83, have contributed greatly to our knowledge of these interesting 

 forms. My collections, I am sure, will be found to contain some 

 forms, at least of crustaceans (mainly the amphipods), and of hydroids 

 (with whose Arctic representatives I am somewhat familiar), belonging 

 to the same genera or even, I venture to say, to the very same species 

 as occur in the North Atlantic or Arctic Oceans. 



En passant, I would like to mention the occurrence in the Strait of 

 Magellan of a Nebalia, which, after a rough examination, seemed to me 

 very like our Greenlandian and North Atlantic iV^ia/w bipes{0, Fabr.). 

 I think this is the first time any representative of this highly interest- 

 ing and phylogenetically important order of crustaceans has been 

 observed in the southern hemisphere. I found it rather common on 

 the sandy playa at Punta Arenas, under stones, etc. ; afterwards I got 

 specimens, possibly of the same species, in the trawl at moderate 

 depths in Admiralty Sound and in the western part of the Strait. 

 I also carefully collected all forms belonging to classes not 

 worked out by previous expeditions, e.g., Tunicata, Annelida, 

 Nemertinea, Turbellaria, Amphipoda, Entomostraca and Coelenterata. 

 Having read the vivid descriptions by Darwin and other natura- 

 lists of the numerous and varied forms living in abundance in the 

 kelp-forests {Macrocystis pyrifera, Agardh) of the Antarctic Seas, I 

 expected to find among that magnificent seaweed a rather interesting 

 and easily accessible field for research. In this hope I was, however, 

 greatly disappointed ; for I am sure that in our zone of Fucus and 

 Laminavia there is a more abundant animal life, both as regards the 

 number of species and of individuals. As to the towing-net, I am 

 sorry to say that I did not have much chance of using it, mainly on 

 account of the windy, unfavourable weather which prevailed. 



About December 15 Nordenskiold and the pioneers arrived at 



