58 Cruise of the "Alert" 



bones and sterna of birds, and at a depth of four feet from the 

 surface we found a partly disintegrated bone spear-head, which 

 was different in shape from any which we saw among the natives 

 either before or subsequently. Instead of being rounded, it was 

 flattened from side to side, like a very large arrow-head. In most 

 of the other shell heaps which we examined, bones of the nutria 

 {Myopotamus coypu) and of the otter (Lutra felind) were observed. 

 To the westward of our anchorage {i.e., in the large island of 

 Madre de Dios) was a long narrow inlet, partly overhung with 

 trees, which communicated by a shallow bar with a brackish 

 lagoon of about thirty acres in extent. At low water there was 

 only about three feet of water on the bar, and we could then see 

 that the bottom was covered with huge white sessile barnacles 

 (the "picos" of the Chilians), growing closely together. During the 

 ebb and flood tides the current ran fiercely over this bar, so as 

 to render it an exceedingly difficult matter to pull through the 

 channel when the tide was adverse. This lagoon was a favourite 

 haunt of the Magellan sea otter {Lutra felind), which is abundant 

 in all these waters, but is very difficult to kill without the aid of 

 'clogs. Its " runs" are generally strewn with the shells of a large 

 spiny crab (the Lithodes antarcticd), which appears to form its 

 principal food. I have seen an otter rise to the surface with one 

 of these hideous crabs in its mouth, as unpalatable a morsel, one 

 would think — for it is armed all over with strong spines — as a 

 " knuckleduster." In the Alert, the great feat of sportsmanship 

 was to shoot and bag an otter ; for if the animal be not struck 

 in the head, and killed outright at the first shot, it is almost 

 certain to make a long dive, crawl up the beach in the shade of 

 the overhanging bushes, and escape. 



When exploring in a small boat the winding shores of this lagoon, 

 we one day came upon a little sequestered cove, where there was 

 a luxuriant growth of ' Desfontainea bushes, and on landing on the 

 shingly beach we saw, by the way in which the larger stones had 

 been moved aside, that the place had been used by the natives 



