Letters, Announcements, ^c. 123 



of proceeding to the Straits of Magellan in the capacity of 

 naturalist to a Surveying Expedition, you expressed a wish to 

 hear from nie occasionally during the time of my absence from 

 the United Kingdom. I have long had it in my mind to write 

 to you ; and now that we have spent one season in the Straits, 

 and before long shall be beginning another six months' work 

 there, I put the intention into execution. We left Plymoutii 

 on the forenoon of the 8th September, 1866, but soon en- 

 countered such a severe gale that, after vainly attempting to run 

 into Brest, we were obliged to return to our starting-point on the 

 10th, and remained at anchor in Plymouth Sound till the even- 

 ing of the 17th, when we again set forth, and, after a rough 

 passage, reached Madeira on the 25th. Here we remained lying 

 in the Bay of Funchal until the evening of the 2nd October ; but 

 I saw much less of the lovely island than I could have wished, 

 owing to our being placed in quarantine during the first five 

 days of our stay, so that I had only two opportunities of land- 

 ing, on the second of which I had a glorious ride up to the Grand 

 Curral. I noticed numerous Gulls and Terns flying about Fun- 

 chal Bay, but they all appeared to belong to British species ; and 

 the results of dredging for marine animals were of a similar 

 nature, the greater number of the Mollusks obtained being species 

 met with on the south coast of England. I need scarcely say 

 that we were accompanied on our passage between England and 

 Madeira by numerous Stormy Petrels ; and these pretty little 

 creatures were our constant associates alike in calm and stormy 

 weather on the voyage till we got to the south of Rio dc Janeiro, 

 when we lost them. On leaving Madeira we next shaped our 

 course for St. Vincent (Cape Verd), where we arrived on the 

 9th of October. On our way there we had a variety of custo- 

 mary oceanic sights, which, however, were new and interesting 

 to me, such as shoals of flyingfish, wonderful displays of 

 phosphorescence, not to speak of the occurrence of various 

 insects at a great distance from land. The weather was ex- 

 tremely hot at St. Vincent ; but I had one or two interesting 

 excursions, and was pleased to find the island much greener than 

 is usually the case, owing to recent heavy rains. By Mr. Miller, 

 our Consul, from whom I had a kind reception, I was informed 



