GREAT SEAWEED 255 



to be of a white colour. We find exquisitely delicate structures, 

 some inhabited by simple hydra- like polypi, others by more 

 organised kinds, and beautiful compound Ascidise. On the 

 leaves, also, various patelliform shells, Trochi, uncovered mol- 

 luscs, 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, cuttlefish, crabs of 

 all orders, sea-eggs, starfish, beautiful Holothuriae, Planaria:;, 

 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 Flustrace^, and some compound Ascidiae ; the 

 latter, however, are of different species from those in Tierra del 

 Fuego ; we here see the fucus possessing a w^ider 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 ?>tk. — 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 atmo- 

 sphere 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 interest- 

 'J^g ; jigged points, cones of snow, blue glaciers, strong outlines, 

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



