TIERRA DEL FVEGO. [< MAI-. xi. 



deposits, which, before the elevation of the land, had been accu- 

 mulated near the then existing shores. It is, however, a remark- 

 able coincidence, that in the two large islands cut off by the 

 Beagle Channel from the rest of Tit-mi del Fuego, one has cliffs 

 composed of matter that may be called stratified alluvium, which 

 front similar ones on the opposite side of the channel, while the 

 other is exclusively bordered by old crystalline rocks: in the 

 former, called Navarin Island, both foxes and guanacos occur; but 

 in the latter, Hoste Island, although similar in every respect, and 

 only separated by a channel a little more than half a mile wide, 

 I have the word of Jemmy Button for saying that neither of these 

 animals are found. 



The gloomy woods are inhabited by few birds : occasionally the 

 plaintive note of a white-tufted tyrant-flycatcher (Myiobius albi- 

 ceps) may be heard, concealed near the summit of the most lofty 

 trees ; and more rarely the loud strange cry of a black wookpecker, 

 with a fine scarlet crest on its head. A little, dusky-coloured wren 

 (Scytalopus Magellanicus) hops in a skulking manner among the 

 entangled mass of the fallen and decaying trunks. But the creeper 

 (Oxyurus tupinieri) is the commonest bird in the country. 

 Throughout the beech forests, high up and low down, in the 

 most gloomy, wet, and impenetrable ravines, it may be met with. 

 This little bird no doubt appears more numerous than it really is, 

 from its habit of following with seeming curiosity any person who 

 enters these silent woods : continually uttering a harsh twitter, it 

 flutters from tree to tree, within a few feet of the intruder's face. 

 It is far from wishing for the modest concealment of the true creeper 

 (Certhia familiaris) ; nor does it, like that bird, run up the trunks of 

 trees; but industriously, after the manner of a willow-wren, hops 

 about, and searches for insects on every twig and branch. In the 

 more open parts, three or four species of finches, a thrush, a starling 

 (or Icterus), two Opetiorhynchi, and several hawks and owls occur. 

 The absence or any species whatever in the whole class of Eep- 

 tiles, is a marked feature in the zoology of this country, as well as 

 in that of the Falkland Islands. I do not ground this statement 

 merely on my own observation, but I heard it from the Spanish 

 inhabitants of the latter place, and from Jemmy Button with 

 regard to Tierra del Fuego. On the banks of the Santa Cruz, in 

 50 south, I saw a frog ; and it is not improbable that these 

 animals, as well as lizards, may be found as far south as the Strait 



