xX PREFACE. 
It may be a subject of regret, that no paper on the Botany 
of Tierra del Fuego is appended to the first volume. Captain 
King took great pains in forming and preserving a botanical 
collection, aided by a person embarked solely for that purpose. 
He placed this collection in the British Museum, and was led 
to expect that a first-rate botanist would have examined and 
described it ; but he has been disappointed. 
In conclusion, I beg to remind the reader, that the work is 
unavoidably of a rambling and very mixed character; that 
some parts may be wholly uninteresting to most readers, 
though, perhaps, not devoid of interest to all; and that its 
publication arises solely from a sense of duty. 
ROBERT FITZ-ROY. 
London, March 1839. 
