Dec. 1826. SEA-WEED OR KELP. 13 
the peculiar tides of which former navigators have written. 
During the first half of the flood* or westward tide, the depth 
decreased, and then, after a short interval, increased until three 
hours after the stream of tide had begun to run to the eastward. 
The following morning (21st) we gained a little ground. 
Our glasses were directed to the shore in search of inhabitants, 
for it was hereabouts that Byron, and Wallis, and some of the 
Spanish navigators held communication with the Patagonian 
Indians ; but we saw none. Masses of large sea-weed,+ drift- 
ing with the tide, floated past the ship. A description of this 
remarkable plant, although it has often been given before, may 
not be irrelevant here. It is rooted upon rocks or stones at 
the bottom of the sea, and rises to the surface, even from great 
depths. We have found it firmly fixed to the ground more 
than twenty fathoms under water, yet trailing along the sur- 
face for forty or fifty feet. When firmly rooted it shows the 
set of the tide or current. It has also the advantage of indi- 
cating rocky ground: for wherever there are rocks under 
water, their situation is, as it were, buoyed by a mass of sea- 
weed + on the surface of the sea, of larger extent than that of 
the danger below. In many instances perhaps it causes un- 
necessary alarm, since it often grows in deep water; but it 
should not be entered without its vicinity having been sounded, 
especially if seen in masses, with the extremities of the stems 
trailing along the surface. If there be no tide, or if the wind 
and tide are the same way, the plant lies smoothly upon the 
water, but if the wind be against the tide, the leaves curl up 
and are visible at a distance, giving a rough, rippling appear- 
ance to the surface of the water. 
During the last two days the dredge had furnished us with 
a few specimens of Infundibulum of Sowerby (Patella 
trochi-formis, Lin.), and some dead shells (Murex Magellani- 
cus) were brought up by the sounding-lead. 
We made another attempt next morning, but again lost 
* Flowing into the strait from the east towards the west. 
¥ Fucus giganteus. 
t Usually called by seamen ‘ kelp.’ 
