126 Cruise of the "Alert." 



These shallow mud-bottomed coves are the favourite haunts of 

 the grey mullets, who collect there in great numbers, and who 

 sometimes on bright fine days may be seen resting on the mud 

 with only a few inches of water over them, as they lie apparently 

 basking in the sunshine. 



Here, at Swallow Bay, a party of our men captured and 

 brought to me a male specimen of the Magellan nutria, an 

 animal which is abundant throughout the straits and western 

 channels, but which is nevertheless very rarely seen. We had 

 often previously seen its bories in the Fuegian midden heaps, 

 where its skull, with the long curved orange-coloured incisors, 

 was a conspicuous object ; but this was the first recent specimen 

 we succeeded in getting hold of. It was started from the brush- 

 wood by a retriever dog belonging to the ship, and on taking 

 to the water was killed after a most exciting chase on the part 

 of our bluejackets. It proved to be identical with the Chilian 

 species, Myofotamus Coyfu. 



