130 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



see what he could find. Among other things he found 

 a very rare shell, and two specimens, the young and the 

 old, one would say, from the relative size, and only 

 known heretofore from the Straits of Magellan where 

 we had had a faint hope he might find it, though even 

 there it's not easy. Then some beautiful sea-urchins 

 and many very young ones, from the size of a pea, 

 and even smaller, upwards, all of which he preserved 

 with great care for Alex, as that is a specialty with 

 him, and the young are not easy to have. Altogether 

 this dredging was more interesting even than the 

 previous one. 



On this same day we saw many albatross. It is a 

 beautiful bird on the water, sitting so gracefully with 

 the body half sunk in the wave, the large head with 

 soft glittering white plumage resting above the surface ; 

 it looks as much at home and as secure as any bird in 

 its nest on land; when it rises it scuds along on the 

 water for a little way then soars away on wide spread 

 wings, as easy in its motion as in its rest. They say that 

 some of them measure twelve feet from tip to tip of 

 the wings; these did not look to me so large. 



Off Port San Antonio, March 6 



HERE we are in a land-locked harbor where the ship 

 lies as if she were at the Charlestown wharf, so quiet 

 and motionless. We anchored about five o'clock yes- 

 terday afternoon, and immediately after dinner all 

 hands went on shore. The boat with Agassiz, the fish- 

 ing party and the seine went first; Mrs. Johnson and 

 I followed a little later with the Captain. We landed 



