134 Cruise of the "A/erl^ 



with the heads hanj^ing vertically downwards, until the complete 

 relaxation of the muscles allowed them to fall. The toes, of 

 which there are three directed forwards and one backwards, are 

 furnished with long and sharp claws. The bill is long, stout, and 

 pyramidal, and the shafts of the tail-feathers project bcj-ond the 

 webs. 



On the 7th of March, a small party of us got the use of one 

 of the steam-cutters, and made a trip to Altamirano Bay, an 

 anchorage about seven miles to the westward of the " bay of the 

 mines," which was originally explored and sur\'eyed by the Chilian 

 vessel Magellaiies. We reached the bay after steaming for two 

 hours against a westerly breeze and chopping sea, and landed on 

 its western shore. Here we found an open grassland interspersed 

 with clumps of low trees and bushes, among which the most 

 abundant were an embothrium, a panax, an escallonia, a berberis, 

 a chcilobothrium, and the black currant of Magellan — the Ribes 

 Alagcllauica. The tree-clumps showed evident signs of their being 

 the resting-places of wild cattle and horses, of which we saw also 

 numerous tracks in the open ; none, however, being of recent date. 

 We could find no fresh water of any kind, and therefore concluded 

 that the deer, guanacoes, ostriches, and horses, which were reported 

 to be abundant here, had gone up the hills during this dry season, 

 and only resorted to the lowlands hereabouts during the winter 

 time. There was certainly splendid pasturage for them, and I 

 was much struck by the abundance and variety of the grasses. 

 The land-birds were similar to those noticed previously in the 

 neighbourhood of the coal-mines. The plain of grass-covered land 

 over which we walked seemed to extend for a long way to the 

 westward, but from the head of the bay a dense forest of beech- 

 trees stretched away to the northward. 



Skirting the shore of the bay, although overgrown with scrub 

 and forest, were two distinct terraced levels, which testified to an 

 upraising of the land. The rock formation, as far as could be 

 judged from the rock /'// situ visible on the foreshore, was a clayey 



