ii8 Cruise 0/ the ''Alerts 



bay a stretch of open moorland, dotted here and there with 

 clumps of cedar trees, led by a gentle ascent to a sort of upland 

 plateau, formed of moss-covered undulating land with sheets of 

 still water occupying the hollows. Not a trace of a bird was 

 to be seen, and I was never more struck with the extreme 

 paucity of animal life in the interior of these islands than when 

 standing on the shore of one of these desolate lakes in Santa 

 Ines Island. 



We frequently noticed, in the deep spongy moss over which we 

 walked, the nests of a Trap-door Spider. They appeared externally 

 as round apertures in the surface of the moss, about an inch and 

 a half in diameter, which were covered over with a closely woven 

 disc of web. On removing the cover from one of them, and 

 clearing away the surrounding moss, I found that the burrow 

 descended vertically for a distance of about eight inches, and was 

 lined throughout with a silky network of spider web, so that the 

 entire w'cb structure, i.e., the tube and lid combined, resembled in 

 general shape some of the commoner forms of Aspergillmn. At 

 the bottom of the hole lay a great spider, embracing with its legs 

 a spherical cocoon, three-eighths of an inch in diameter, which it 

 seemed resolved on defending to the last extremity. I examined 

 other nests with similar results. 



While we were at Tilly Bay, a small party of Fuegians came 

 in and took up their quarters in an old camping place close to 

 the ship. They were- a comparatively friendly lot, and had no 

 hesitation about coming on board, especially about our meal hours, 

 which they very soon got to understand. The party consisted of one 

 adult man, a boy aged about seventeen, a woman about nineteen, 

 with four small children, and two or three dogs of the usual kind. 

 The canoe was made of planks, and vyas of the same build as those 

 which w^e had seen about the Trinidad Channel. Lying in the 

 bottom of the canoe w^ere the putrid remains of two seals, a sea 

 lion, and a fur-seal, whose heads I obtained. We got on such inti- 

 mate terms with this family, that little by little we induced them 



