174 T1ERRA DEL FUEGO. [CHAP. xi. 



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 inhabited by simple hydra-like 

 polypi, others by more organized kinds, and beautiful compound Ascidiae. 

 On the leaves, also, various patelliform shells, Trochi, uncovered 

 molluscs, and some bivalves are attached. Innumerable Crustacea 

 Irequent 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, 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 destruction the many cormorants 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. 



June $>th. We weighed anchor early in the morning and left Port 

 Famine. Captain Fitz Roy determined to leave the Strait of Magellan 

 by the Magdalen Channel, which had not long been discovered. Our 

 course lay due south, down that gloomy passage which I have before 

 alluded to, as appearing to lead to another and worse world. The 

 wind was fair, but the atmosphere was very thick ; so that we missed 

 much curious scenery. The dark ragged clouds were rapidly driven 

 over the mountains, from their summits nearly down to their bases. 

 The glimpses which we caught through the dusky mass, were highly 

 interesting ; jagged points, cones of snow, blue glaciers, strong outlines, 

 marked on a lurid sky, were seen at different distances and heights. In 

 the midst of such scenery we anchored at Cape Turn, close to Mount 

 Saimiento, which was then hidden in the clouds. At the base of the 

 loity and almost perpendicular sides of our little cove there was one 



