1 8 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS : NARRATIVE. 



for the establishment of a great naval port. If we, drawing only eleven 

 or twelve feet, had to await a favorable tide, and then become grounded, 

 what of the great cruisers and battleships that in future were to enter 

 here to be drydocked and repaired ? Fortunately the tide was still making, 

 and an hour later we were just able to pass out and proceed on our way. 



Our next stop was at Port Madryn in New Bay, the port of entry for 

 the Welsh colonies on the Chubut River. We arrived at the entrance to 

 New Bay early one morning, and as we approached, a line of high cliffs 

 rose sheer from the water to a height of perhaps 200 feet and stretched 

 away on either side as far as the eye could reach. This was our first view 

 of that great sea wall that extends almost uninterruptedly all along the 

 eastern coast of Patagonia, from the mouth of the Rio Negro to the eastern 

 entrance of the Straits of Magellan, and with which we were shortly to 

 become so familiar, through the remarkable advantages it presents as a 

 collecting ground for both vertebrate and invertebrate fossils, certain spe- 

 cies of recent birds and mammals and other objects of natural history. 



As we entered the bay, which at its mouth has a breadth of hardly 

 more than a mile, it was seen to expand rapidly into a broad, nearly 

 circular basin with a diameter of little, if any, less than forty miles. On 

 this morning it was a particularly beautiful sheet of water. • Seen under 

 the perfect atmospheric conditions that then prevailed, it was indeed a 

 thing of beauty. From its surface, smooth as that of a polished table, were 

 reflected images of the high, precipitous cliffs surrounding it. The chalk- 

 like whiteness of the latter was intensified by the sunlight as it came 

 streaming through the clear autumnal atmosphere unobscured by a single 

 cloud. The peculiar beauty of this body of water was emphasized by the 

 dreary, not to say desolate appearance of the surrounding plains, occa- 

 sional glimpses of which could be caught from the vessel's side, as we 

 steamed along toward Port Madryn, revealing the bleak, treeless nature 

 of its surface which only supported a scanty covering of brown and 

 withered grass. 



We soon reached Port Madryn, for which we had several passengers 

 and considerable cargo. Here we were detained most of the day dis- 

 charging the latter. Mr. Peterson and myself were on shore at the first 

 opportunity. Life in the waters of this bay must be extremely abundant 

 and quite varied. The beach is literally covered with the cast up shells 

 of mollusks, both bivalves and gastropods. Sea urchins and sand-dol- 



