2 VOYAGE OF U.M.S. ' ALERT. 



During our further voyage through the South Atlantic a course 

 was held which brought us over the Hotspur and Victoria Banks — 

 submerged coral-reefs which are situated between the parallels of 

 17g° and L2° S. lat., and are about 180 miles from the east coast of 

 Brazil. In these two places we plied our dredges in depths ranging 

 from 35 to 39 fathoms, obtaining thereby a large number of zoolo- 

 gical specimens, among which were several novelties in the classes 

 of Sponges and Polyzoa. The collection made at these stations 

 proved to be of special interest, as it helped to fill up a gap unavoid- 

 ably left by the ' Challenger ' expedition in the marine zoology of 

 the South Atlantic. 



On the 27th November we anchored in the estuary of the river 

 Plate, off Monte Video, where we remained until the 14th Decem- 

 ber. Sailing on the latter date, we shaped a course for the Falkland 

 Islands, and aiTived at Stanley Harbour on the 26th inst. A few 

 weeks prior to the time of our visit to the Falklands a peculiar 

 avalanche of semifluid peat had poured down from the summit 

 of one of the low hills, laying waste a portion of the settlement. 



We again put to sea on the evening of the 27th December, and 

 steering to the eastward, entered the Strait of Magellan on the 

 first day of the year 1879. After stopping for a few days at the 

 Chilian settlement of Sandy Point, we proceeded to our surveying- 

 ground among the channels on the west coast of Patagonia. Here 

 we spent the greater portion of the two succeeding years, executing 

 surveys of previously uncharted waters, and adding to those which 

 had been partially effected by our predecessors in the same field ; 

 but during the more rigorous winter months we each year proceeded 

 north to Coquimbo, on the Chilian coast, where our ship was refitted 

 and fresh supplies of stores were obtained *. As the requirements 

 of the survey necessitated our visiting and anchoring in a great 

 many bays and inlets in this remote region, frequent opportunities 

 occurred for shallow-water dredging, so that we were able to make 

 a large collection of marine invertebrates — a branch of research to 

 which our attention was more especially directed, as we were aware 

 that in other departments of biology the work done by the ' Erebus ' 

 and ' Terror,' ' Nassau,' and ' Challenger ' of our own navy, as well 

 as by many foreign vessels, left little to be desired. 



During the month of March 1880 a visit extending over a few 

 days was made to Skyring Water, a large and almost completely 

 landlocked sheet of water situated to the eastward of the Cordillera, 

 and, so far as we yet know, only accessible by ship through a 

 narrow channel by which it communicates with the main Strait of 

 Magellan. And here I should remark that in the month of July 

 1879, and during the surplus time allotted for refitting our ship on 

 the Chilian coast, a brief visit was made to the island of St. Ambrose, 

 which lies about 500 miles to the north-west of Coquimbo. 



* During the winter of 1879-80 Sir George Nares returned to England, and 

 was succeeded in the command of the 'Alert ' by Captain Maclear, formerly of 

 the ' Challenger ' Expedition. 





