VOYAGE OF THE CHANTICLEER. 377 



All this is foreign to our subject, therefore, let us now turn 

 to the volumes on our table : let us become " Skimmers of the 

 Sea." The South Atlantic regions seem, until late years, to 

 have possessed but slight attractions to the Naturalist, or, if 

 attractive, his researches have been few and unimportant. We 

 cannot look on the voyage of the Chanticleer as one at all 

 calculated to furnish us with a clear and complete view of the 

 productions of the Southern Seas. Captain Foster was an 

 Astronomer only; and it appears to us, that, not content with 

 the laurels he must necessarily win from his own important 

 observations, he entertained an idea that the discoveries of his 

 comrades in other branches of science might, perhaps, eclipse 

 his own ; and as, though actuated by a feeling so entirely un- 

 worthy of him, he does not seem to have afforded that assist- 

 ance to others, which was requisite to render their discoveries 

 of real and permanent utility. 



Captain King, employed, at the period of the Chanticleer's 

 voyage, in a survey of the Straits of Magellan, has brought to 

 this country a valuable collection of insects, of which an ac- 

 count will appear in the Transactions of the Linnaean Society, 

 by Messrs. Curtis, Haliday and Walker. Mr. Darwin also has 

 returned from South America with multitudes of novelties, 

 many of them of most singular forms. We hope to say some- 

 thing of both these collections hereafter. 



The narrative of Captain Weddell's voyage to the Antarctic 

 regions, published many years ago, contains a variety of in- 

 teresting matter. This navigator, we believe, pushed his course 

 further southward than any other, either before or since, and he 

 describes the sea in the extreme south, as being perfectly free 

 from ice. His narrative is also remarkable, as containing the 

 best authenticated story of a mermaid, — a story so interesting 

 that we shall make no apology for introducing it in Captain 

 Weddell's words. The event occurred at Hall Island. 



A man was stationed on one side of the island, to take care 

 of some produce, while the rest of the crew were engaged on 

 the other side. He had gone to bed, and about ten o'clock he 

 heard a noise resembling human cries ; and as day-light in 

 those latitudes never disappears, he got up, and looked about, 



have great pleasure in now saying, that the numbers were taken regularly, and of 

 thanking Mr. Curtis for his kind support. 



