262 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



ment which, if successful, may hereafter attract settlers 

 to the eastern shores of the Straits of Magellan. The 

 appearance of the country had already shown to me 

 that the climate is much drier here than on the western 

 side of Cape Froward, and I believe that the range 

 above spoken of, which divides this coast from Otway 

 Water, is about the eastern limit of the extension of 

 the zone of continuous forests that cover all but the 

 higher levels of Western Patagonia. Between Peckett 

 Harbour, about forty miles north of Punta Arenas, 

 and the Atlantic coast the country is open and pro- 

 duces an abundance of coarse herbage. Sheep are 

 known to thrive in the Falkland Islands, about the 

 same latitude, and Dr. Fenton had recently procured 

 from that place a flock which he had established in 

 the neighbourhood of Peckett Harbour. 



I was warned that the English steamer might 

 possibly arrive in the afternoon of June 13, though 

 more probably on the following day, so that it was 

 expedient to start early on the short excursion which 

 I proposed to make along the coast to the north of 

 Punta Arenas. The horses were ready soon after 

 sunrise, and the governor's secretary was good enough 

 to accompany me. After fording the stream which 

 flows by the settlement, we for some distance followed 

 the sandy beach, dismounting here and there to ex- 

 amine the vegetation. Few plants could at this 

 season be found in a state in which they could be 

 certainly identified, but there was quite enough to 

 reward a naturalist. It was very interesting to find 

 here several cosmopolitan species whose diffusion 

 cannot, I think, be set down to the agency of man. 



