408 Observations on Terra del Fuego. 



very great. And as this weed does not'grow in a perpendicular direc- 

 tion but makes a very acute angle with the bottom, and much of it af- 

 terwards spreads many fathoms on the surface of the sea, I am well war- 

 ranted to say that some of it grows to the length of sixty fathoms and 

 upwards." Certainly at the Falkland Islands, and about Terra del Fuego, 

 extensive beds frequently spring up from ten and fifteen fathom water. 

 I do not suppose the stem of any other plant attains so great a length as 

 360 feet, as stated by Captain Cook. Its geographical range is very con- 

 siderable ; it is found from the extreme southern islets near Cape Horn, 

 as far north, on the eastern coast (according to information given me by 

 Mr Stokes) as lat. 43°, and on the western it was tolerably abundant, but 

 far from luxuriant, at Chiloe, in lat. 42°. It may possibly extend a little 

 farther northward, but is soon succeeded by a different species. We 

 thus have a range of fifteen degrees in latitude ; and as Cook, who must 

 have been well acquainted with the species, found it at Kerguelen Land, 

 no less than 140° in longitude. The number of living creatures of all 

 orders, whose existence intimately depends on the kelp, is wonderful. 

 A great volume might be written, describing the inhabitants of one of 

 these beds of sea-weed. Almost every leaf, excepting^ those that float on 

 the surface, is so thickly incrusted with corallines, as to be of a white 

 colour. We find exquisitely-delicate structures, some inhabited by simple 

 hydra-like polypi, others by more organized kinds, and beautifully com- 

 pound Ascidise." On the flat surfaces of the leaves various patelliform 

 shells, Trochi, uncovered molluscs, and some bivalves, are attached. In- 

 numerable Crustacea frequent every part of the plant. On shaking the 

 great entangled roots, a pile of small fish, shells, cuttle-fish, crabs of all 

 orders, sea-eggs, star-fish, beautiful Holuthurise (some taking the external 

 forms of the nudibranch molluscs), Planarise, and crawling nereidous ani- 

 mals of a multitude of forms, all fall out together. In Chiloe, where, as 

 I have said, the kelp did not thrive very well, the numerous shells, co- 

 rallines, and Crustacea, were absent ; but there yet remained a few of the 

 flustraccoe, and some compound Ascidire; the latter, however, were of 

 different species from those in Terra del Fuego. We here see the fucus 

 possessing a wider range than the animals which use it as an abode. 



I can only compare these great aquatic forests of the southern hemi- 

 sphere with the terrestrial ones in the intertropical regions. Yet if the 

 latter should be destroyed in any country, I do not believe nearly so 

 many species of animals would perish, as, under similar circumstances, 

 would happen with the kelp. Amidst the leaves of this plant numerous 

 species of fish live, which nowhere else would find food or shelter ; with 

 their destruction the many cormorants, divers, and other fishing birds, 

 the otters, seals, and porpoises, would soon perish also ; and, lastly, the 

 Fuegian savage, the miserable lord of this miserable land, would redouble 

 his cannibal feast, decrease in numbers, and perhaps cease to exist. 



* I have reason to believe that many of these are exclusively confined to 



this station. 



