240 TIERRA DEL FUEGO. [CHAP. xi. 



greater depth of forty-five fathoms. The beds of this sea-weed, 

 even when of not great breadth, make excellent natural floating 

 breakwaters. It is quite curious to see, in an exposed harbour, 

 how soon the waves from the open sea, as they travel through 

 the straggling stems, sink in height, and pass into smooth 

 water. 



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 all the leaves, excepting those that float on 

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

 white colour. We find exquisitely delicate structures, some in- 

 habited by simple hydra-like polypi, others by more organized 

 kinds, and beautiful compound Ascidise. On the leaves, also, 

 various patelliform shells, Trochi, uncovered molluscs, and some 

 bivalves are attached. Innumerable 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- 

 fkh, beautiful Holuthurise, Planariae, and crawling nereidous 

 animals of a multitude of forms, all fall out together. Often as 

 I recurred to a branch of the kelp, I never failed to discover 

 animals of new and curious structures. In Chiloe, where the 

 kelp does not thrive very well, the numerous shells, corallines, 

 and Crustacea are absent ; but there yet remain a few of the 

 Flustraceae, and some compound Ascidise ; the latter, however, 

 are of different species from those in Tierra 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 hemisphere, with the terrestrial 

 ones in the intertropical regions. Yet if in any country a forest 

 was destroyed, I do not believe nearly so many species of animals 

 would perish as would here, from the destruction of the kelp. 

 Amidst the leaves of this plant numerous species of fish live, 

 which nowhere else could find food or shelter ; with their destruc- 

 tion the many cormorants and other fishing birds, the otters, 

 seals, and porpoisos, 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. 



