1834] GREAT SEA-WEED. 2:>9 



of sea-weed. Almost all the leaves, excepting those that float on 

 the surface, are so thickly incrusted with corallines as to be of a 

 white colour. We find exquisitely delicate structures, some in- 

 habited by simple hydra-like polypi, others by more organized 

 kinds, and beautiful compound Ascidise. On the leaves, also, 

 various patelliform shells, Trochi, uncovered molluscs, and some 

 bivalves are attached. Innumerable Crustacea frequent every 

 part of the plant. On shaking the great entangled roots, a pile 

 of small fish, shells, cuttle-fish, crabs of all orders, sea-eggs, star- 

 fish, beautiful Iloluthuria?, Planarite, and crawling nereidous 

 animals of a multitude of forms, all fall out together. Often as 

 I recurred to a branch of the kelp, I never failed to discover 

 animals of new and curious structures. In Chiloe, where the kelp 

 does not thrive very well, the numerous shells, corallines, and 

 Crustacea are absent; but there yet remain a few of the Flus- 

 traceac, and some compound Ascidirc ; the latter, however, are of 

 different species from those in Tierra del Fuego: we here see 

 the fucus possessing a wider range than the animals which use it 

 as an abode. I can only compare these great aquatic forests of 

 the southern hemisphere with the terrestrial ones in the inter- 

 tropical regions. Yet if in any coiintry a forest was destroyed, I 

 do not believe nearly so many species of animals would perish as 

 would here, from the destruction of the kelp. Amidst the leaves 

 of this plant numerous species of fish live, which nowhere else 

 could find food or shelter ; with their destruction the many cor- 

 morants and other fishing birds, the otters, seals, and porpoises, 

 would soon perish also; and lastly, the Fuegian savage, the 

 miserable lord of this miserable land, would redouble his cannibal 

 feast, decrease in numbers, and perhaps cease to exist. 



June 8th. We weighed anchor early in the morning and left 

 Port Famine. Captain Fitz Roy determined to leave the Strait 

 of Magellan by the Magdalen Channel, which had not long been 

 discovered. Our course lay due south, down that gloomy passage 

 which I have before alluded to as appearing to lead to another 

 and worse world. The wind was fair, but the atmosphere was 

 very thick ; so that we missed much curious scenery. The dark 

 ragged clouds were rapidly driven over the mountains, from their 

 summits nearly down to their bases. The glimpses which wo 

 caught through the dusky mass were highly interesting; jagged 

 points, cones of snow, blue glaciers, strong outlines, marked on a 



