THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. • 59 



hooked, proved to be a specimen of the far-famed "kelp" 

 {Macrocystis pyrifera), with which we subsequently became 

 very familiar. It was a plant about eighteen feet long, with 

 a large branching root, in the crevices of which a variety of 

 small Ophiocomce, Annelids, Tunicata, and other minute 

 marine animals had taken up their abode, while the fronds 

 were loaded with thousands of fine specimens of a peduncu- 

 lated Cirriped {Lepas australis), widely distributed in the 

 southern seas. We placed a few specimens of the Lepas in a 

 tumbler of sea-water, and it was interesting to watch them 

 bending and twisting their peduncles, and thrusting out and 

 again withdrawing their cirri within the valves of the shell. 

 That portion of the viscera not included in the test appeared 

 of an exquisite blue colour as seen through the integument, 

 and the peduncle, as a whole, was also more or less tinged 

 with the same tint. This fine blue, however, soon changed 

 to a dull pink when the animal was placed in spirit. 



Although much has been written on the " kelp," it would, 

 I think, be unpardonable to pass over this wonderful sea- 

 weed, one of the most striking phenomena of vegetable life in 

 the southern temperate and antarctic latitudes, without a 

 more extended notice, as some of my readers may probably 

 be unacquainted with it ; and in doing so I shall avail myself 

 largely of the excellent and comprehensive resume of the 

 history of the plant given by Dr. Hooker in the Flora Ant- 

 arctica. Dr. Hooker there observes that "the Macrocystis is 

 so conspicuous, and from its wandering habits often occurs so 

 unexpectedly, that the attention of our earliest voyagers has 

 been directed to it, and we are consequently led back by our 

 inquiries into its first discovery, to the annals of those perils 

 and privations which have ever marked the progress of dis- 

 covery or enterprise in the stormy seas of the south." He 



