258 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



Sampayo, an elderly lady, with the remains of remark- 

 able beauty, and an unusual combination of dignity 

 and grace with lively, almost playful, conversation. 

 The removal to this inhospitable shore had not 

 quenched her activity, and she employed her leisure 

 in devising pretty ornaments from seaweeds, shells, 

 and other natural productions of the place. 



The Chilian and Argentine Republics concluded, 

 in the year before my visit, a convention to regulate 

 their rival pretensions to the possession of the territory 

 on both sides of the Straits of Magellan, which at one 

 time threatened to engage the two states in war for 

 a worthless object. The new boundary-line is drawn 

 along the middle of the peninsula, ending in Cape 

 Virgenes at the eastern entrance of the Straits, thus 

 leaving to Chili the whole of the northern shores. 

 Opposite to Cape Virgenes is a headland named Cape 

 Espiritu Santo on the main island of Tierra del Fuego. 

 The boundary runs due south from that point, cutting 

 the island into two nearly equal parts, of which the 

 eastern half, along with Staten Island, is assigned to 

 Argentaria. As I understood from the conversation 

 at dinner. Commander Pietrabona had obtained from 

 his government a grant or lease of Staten Island, but 

 it seems very doubtful whether any profit can be 

 derived from an island lying nearly three degrees 

 further south than the Falklands, and fully exposed 

 to the antarctic current. 



Amongst the various nationalities that met on this 

 evening, the representative of Germany, the captain 

 of the port, was perhaps the most typical. He is 

 believed to have a more complete and accurate know- 



