Letters, Announceynents, &;c. 487 



specimens which I can depend on is limited to my cabin ; and 

 you know six feet square will only allow of a very limited amount 

 of stowage. But you may rely upon it that all that I can do I 

 will do. 



Your letter was peculiarly welcome, as giving me the first 

 information that Professors Newton and Huxley had received 

 the specimens sent to them. Probably they may have written 

 to me ; but I have been so unfortunate as to lose (I trust only 

 temporarily) two mails from England, i. e. those despatched on 

 the 17th of last November and December. You can imagine 

 that such mishaps, though not uncommon, are rather unplea- 

 sant, as letters become very valuable in the isolated position in 

 which I am at present placed. I shall be anxious to learn what 

 is thought of the Fuegian and Patagonian crania, and in what 

 condition the birds' skins arrived, and whether there are any 

 rarities among them. They were not all in such good condition 

 as I could have wished ; but you know there is a certain class 

 of difficulties connected with the preservation of specimens on 

 board ship that one is comparatively free from on shore, and, as 

 I was occupied in the collection of plants, insects, marine ani- 

 mals, &c., as well as ornithological specimens, I could not do the 

 latter as much justice as if they had been my sole object. I am 

 sorry T have not got the 'Zoology of the "Beagle^' ' with me, 

 as it would have been an excellent guide to the animals, as Dr. 

 Hooker's 'Flora Antarctica' has been an invaluable one to the 

 plants of Fuegia. We have now finished our second season of 

 w'ork down south, and before long, if all is well, shall be at Val- 

 j)ai'aiso for the winter months ; and thence I shall despatch the 

 collections I have made this season, which, I regret to say, are 

 considerably more limited than those I sent home last year. 

 This is peculiarly the case with the animals, and has arisen from 

 our having spent a considerable portion of our time in a region 

 the fauna of which is poor beyond measure, ami has disap- 

 pointed me a good deal. We entered the Strait of Magellan on 

 the afternoon of the 17th of last November, on which day 1 had 

 my first sight of Chionis nlba. Several individuals of this species 

 flew about in the neighbourhood of the ship, and were naturally 

 enough mistaken by the uninitiated for Pigeons. At the same 



