Canal of Fitzroy, 129 



noticed the antarctic beech, an embothrium, a barberry, and a 

 cheilobothrium. The ground in the middle of these clumps was 

 worn bare from having been used as a resting-place by the wild 

 cattle. Herbaceous composite plants grew in great profusion, and 

 many specimens of a lychnis were seen, but unfortunately the 

 season was too far advanced for our obtaining useful specimens 

 of flowering plants. I was surprised at the great variety of 

 grasses which flourished on the dark loamy soil. We saw count- 

 less tracks of wild cattle and horses, and a few deer tracks, but 

 in the course of our ramble failed to meet with any of these 

 animals. The existence of a species of Ctenomys was evident 

 from the way in which the ground was in many places so 

 riddled with holes as to be exceedingly dangerous for incautious 

 horsemen ; and while walking through the long grass I stumbled 

 over the skull of a puma. We did not see many species of birds. 

 Finches were abundant, and some flocks of the black starling, 

 and also of the military starling, were seen. I got a specimen of 

 a pteroptochus, which resembled the tapacola of Chili, but differed 

 from it in having a red iris ; and on the beach I shot a cinclodes, 

 which seemed to be of a different species from the common kelp- 

 bird of the straits. A fine buzzard (I think Bateo erythronotus) 

 soared above my head, but out of range ; and the tiny wren of 

 Magellan (Troglodytes), completed the list of birds which we saw. 

 During our absence great numbers of black- necked swans and 

 brown ducks were seen in the vicinity of the ship. 



The western shore of Fitzroy Channel consisted of a low plain, 

 rising gradually towards the westward, covered with a dense 

 scrub of tall bushes, and contrasting strikingly with the open 

 moorland on the eastern shore. 



At five o'clock on the following morning, we got under way and 

 continued our course through the Canal of Fitzroy, steaming for 

 hours through a dense interminable flock of black-necked swans, 

 that paddled lazily to either side as we advanced, as yet in happy 

 ignorance of the thirst for blood which characterizes the British 



9 



