182 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



after communicating with one of the surveying boats in 

 Laredo Bay, proceeded on to Peckett Harbour, and anchored 

 there early in the evening. Next morning I left the ship 

 with Captain Mayne, and visited various parts of the har- 

 bour with him, rambling out in search of specimens while 

 he was engaged in taking angles at different points. I found 

 many clumps of Balsam-bog {Bolax glebaria), and observed 

 numerous specimens of the large Buff Ball {Lycoperdovi) 

 noticed on our first visit to Sandy Point. Empetrum nigrum, 

 var. ruhrum, was also very abundant, patches of the ground 

 being rendered scarlet by the profusion of its red berries, 

 which form one of the principal sources of food of the geese 

 and ostriches. In the eastern part of Patagonia the plant 

 seldom exceeds three or four inches in height, but its branches 

 are often prostrate, and then extend along the surface of the 

 ground for a considerable distance. The green plant burns 

 very readily with a bright flame, wliich renders it useful 

 when camping out. Another berry-bearing plant, plentiful 

 in the same situations as well as on the bare summits of many 

 of the Puegian hills, belongs to the heath order, and to the 

 genus Pernettya. It is the P. pumila, and creeps along the 

 ground so as to be almost concealed by the other vegetation. 

 Its flowers are white, and the berries, frequently of the size of 

 the common snow-berry of our gardens, are of a pale pink colour. 

 The 22d was occupied in the same manner. We left the ship 

 early, and landed at numerous places, ascending an inlet at 

 the western side of the harbour, till brought to a halt by the 

 rapid shoaling of the water.* At one place the putrefying 

 carcass of a large seal, probably the Sea-Leopard {Stenorkyinchus 



* From the configuration of the land at this point it appears not unlikely 

 that at one period a communication existed between Peckett Harbour and 

 the Otway Water. 



