22S TIEBBA.DEL FUEGO [CHAP. XT. 



voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, not one rock near the surface 

 was discovered which was not buoyed by this floating weed. The 

 good service it thus affords to vessels navigating near this stormy 

 land is evident ; and it certainly has saved many a one from being 

 wrecked. I know few things more surprising than to see this 

 plant growing and flourishing amidst those great breakers of the 

 western ocean, which no mass of rock, let it be ever so hard, can 

 long resist. The stem is round, slimy, and smooth, and seldom 

 lias a diameter of so much as an inch. A few taken together are 

 sufficiently strong to support the weight of the large loose stones, 

 to which in the inland channels they grow attached ; and yet some 

 of these stones were so heavy that when drawn to the surface, they 

 could scarcely be lifted into a boat by one person. Captain Cook, 

 in his second voyage, says, that this plant at Kerguelen Land rises 

 from a greater depth than twenty-four fathoms ; '' and as it does 

 not grow in a perpendicular direction, but makes a very acute 

 angle with the bottom, and much of it afterwards spreads many 

 fathoms on the surface of the sea, I am well warranted to say that 

 some of it grows to the length of sixty fathoms and upwards." I 

 do not suppose the stem of any other plant attains so great a length 

 as three hundred and sixty feet, as stated by Captain Cook. Captain 

 Fitz Eoy, moreover, found it growing * up from the greater depth 

 of forty-five fathoms. The beds of this sea-weed, even when of 

 not great breadth, make excellent natural floating breakwaters. It 

 is quite curious to see, in an exposed harbour, how soon the waves 

 from the open sea, as they travel through the straggling stems, sink 

 in height, and pass into smooth water. 



The number of living creatures of all Orders, whose existence 

 intimately depends on the kelp, is wonderful. A great volume 

 might be written, describing the inhabitants of one of these beds 



(according to information given me by Mr. Stokes) at lat. 43, but 

 on the western coast, as Dr. Hooker tells me, it extends to the R. 8au 

 Francisco in California, and perhaps even to Kamtschatka. We thus have 

 an immense range in latitude; and as Cook, who must Lave been well 

 acquainted with the species, found it at Kerguelen Land, no less than 140 

 in longitude. 



* Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, vol. i. p. 3C3. It appears 

 that sea-weed grows extremely quick. Mr. Stepheuson found (Wilson's 

 A'oynge round Scotland, vol. ii. p. 228) that a rock uncovered only at 

 spring-tides, which had been chiselled smooth in November, on the follow- 

 ing May, that is, within six months afterwards, was thickly covered with. 

 FOOTS digitatus two feet, and F. csculcutus six feet, in length. 



