Feb. 1827. PARROQUETS—FISH. ‘ 39 
All accounts of Port Famine informed us of its abounding 
in fish, but as yet we had taken none excepting with hook and 
line, although the seine had been frequently shot. At last, 
however, in the first week of February, we had a successful 
haul of mullet and smelts, many of the former weighing eight 
pounds, and the latter measuring fifteen inches in length. 
After this we were often very fortunate, and on one occasion 
caught, at one haul of the seine, sixteen hundred-weight of 
smelts, some weighing two pounds, and measuring twenty 
inches in length. A few days previously we had a draught of 
mullet, which served the crews of both Adventure and Beagle 
for three days. Geese, wild ducks and teal, snipe, and now 
and then woodcocks, were to be found by taking a short walk ; 
there were, however, no quadrupeds fit for food which we 
could take. Foxes and wild cats were occasionally seen, and a 
foot-mark of some large animal of the feline race, probably a 
puma, was once observed upon the beach. We found many 
traces of horses, which showed that the Patagonian Indians 
sometimes come thus far south. Had we been so fortunate as 
to meet them here, we might have procured, perhaps, a regular 
supply of guanaco meat. 
On the 9th of February, as the weather seemed favourable 
for ascending Mount Tarn,* Lieutenant Cooke, the Surgeon, 
and Anderson, the botanical collector, set off in advance to 
select a convenient place for passing the night, carrying with 
them a tent and provisions. I followed later in the day, and, 
while the boat’s crew were arranging their loads, made some 
observations with a barometer on the beach. 
Our way led through thick underwood, and then, with a 
gradual ascent, among fallen trees, covered with so thick a 
coating of moss, that at every step we sunk up to the knees 
or auks.” Buffon also doubted the fact, and the author of Histoire 
Naturelle, art. Oiseaux, tom. ii. p. 322, suggests the possibility of a 
specimen having been obtained in some other part of the world, and put, 
by mistake, amongst those collected in the Strait. 
* So named because Mr. Tarn, the surgeon of the Adventure, was the 
first person who reached its summit. 
