THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 71 



habitation of two time-honoured functionaries, soon received 

 from some of the officers of the " Nassau" the irreverent appel- 

 lation of " the Punch and Judy House." The sketch gives a 

 very correct idea of the appearance presented by the citadel 

 in question, and the government house. 



I need hardly state that the greater number of us were 

 eager to land ; and accordingly, immediately after the 

 governor's visit was over, two boats left the ship, one with 

 Captain Mayne and several of the surveyors, who were 

 anxious to avail themselves of the opportunity afforded by 

 the clear bright afternoon to obtain a set of sights ; and 

 the other weU filled with a party equipped with guns and 

 collecting apparatus. 



The landing-place, close to which are a couple of boat- 

 houses, is not so good as might be, the boats requiring to be 

 run up on a shelving beach, on which, after certain gales, a 

 furious surf beats. A wooden pier, on piles, was in course 

 of construction at the time of our arrival, and when it was 

 finished was found to be of considerable benefit ; but, 

 unfortunately, it was carried away nearly bodily by a violent 

 easterly gale at the close of our first season, and when we 

 bid a final farewell to the settlement in April 1869, it had 

 not been replaced. 



On landing, my attention was at once arrested by a 

 considerable num'ber of plants in bloom on the flat ground 

 between the beach and the settlement. Among the most 

 plentiful were a beautiful species of Sisyrinchium (Symphy- 

 ostemon narcissoides, with a flower-stem about nine inches high, 

 crowned with drooping white bells streaked with purple, 

 and possessed of a delicious fragrance ; an acaulescent 

 composite plant, with pale purplish-white very fragrant 

 flowers ; and a variety of the common dandelion (Taraxicum 



