486 FALKLAND LSLANDS. 



{Borborus apteriis). I found besides a wingless Beetle, and one 

 also with perfect wings, near Darwin Harbour. 



From the head of Port Sussex, not far off, I obtained the 

 skeleton of a Ziphioid Whale, complete except the paddles, 

 which had been dragged away tied to the ends of lassos, in 

 order to get the oil out of them. The skull was given to me 

 by Mr. John Bonner, a farmer in the neighbourhood. The 

 Whale measured exactly 14 feet in length. It ran on shore in 

 accordance with the usual unaccountable propensity of Ziphioid 

 Whales.* 



We lashed the skeleton on a pack-horse, by no means an 

 easy matter in the case of so unusual a load. We rode at a 

 good pace, but during the long ride the lashings were con- 

 stantly getting loose, and we had to dismount at least 30 

 times. We led the first pack-horse, and hunted and drove 

 along before us the second for which we changed it ; but night 

 overtook us before we reached Stanley with the skeleton, and 

 we almost lost our way near the end of the journey. 



Many of the seamen living at Stanley constantly visit the 

 Straits of Magellan, and very often bring back with them 

 Fuegian bows and arrows for their children to play with. The 

 boys shoot at a mark with the stone-tipped arrows, and the 

 tips are soon broken off and lost. The stone arrow-heads thus 

 become scattered about the moorland anywhere near a habita- 

 tion, and before long they are sure to be picked up, being 

 indestructible. It must then be remembered that they are not 

 proofs that the Falkland Islands were once inhabited by a 

 savage race. Difficulties of this kind are constantly occurring : 

 for example, part of a New Zealand jade Mere has been found 

 in Yorkshire ; ancient Chinese Seals turn up in the ground in 

 Ireland ; and I lately had a New Zealand fish-hook sent to 

 me by a Canadian, who had found it on the shores of a 

 Canadian Lake and took it to be the work of North American 

 Indians. 



I wished very much to taste the luxury which Darwin par- 

 took of when travelling in the Falklands, meat roasted with 

 the hide on, "Came con cuero," t but on my asking for it 

 every one spoke of the practice of so cooking food with horror, 

 as only fit for savages, and almost with as much disgust as if I 

 had suggested cannibalism. No doubt this notion has been 

 fostered by the cattle owners, because of the great value of the 

 hides, which are necessarily spoilt by the process. 



Not far from Stanley Harbour there are rookeries of the 

 Magellan Jackass Penguin {Spheniscus magellanicus). The 

 birds make large and deep burrows in the peat-banks on the 



* S^e p. 136. t "Journal of Researches," p. 190, 



