THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 187 



returned to the spit where we landed, to await the arrival of 

 the other members of the party, occupying myself in wading 

 about in the icy-cold water in search of Volutes, but to no 

 purpose. The clouds continued to gather, and before long a 

 most remarkable spectacle ensued, an immense cloud, in the 

 form of a great dull-red veil falling down to the sea, gradu- 

 ally creeping up to the entrance of the harbour, and pre- 

 sently dissolving in a furious shower of sleet ; while from 

 another quarter of the heavens the sun shone out bright 

 yellow from beneath a huge black nimbus, and its rays, 

 striking on the snow-cloud, produced a brilliant fragment of 

 a rainbow. This was all very fine, but I was rapidly becom- 

 ing cold and drenched, and was therefore well pleased when 

 one of the ofl&cers, who had been sounding outside the harbour, 

 arrived in his boat, and took me on board. On the return of 

 the others shortly after, I received from one of them a speci- 

 men of a most beautiful buzzard {Buteo erythronotus), ash- 

 coloured on the upper parts, and snow-white beneath. On 

 the 2d, a bright, calm, exhilarating day, we left Oazy Harbour 

 before breakfast, and continued under way until evening, 

 employed in taking lines of soundings. On skinning the 

 buzzard, I found its crop crammed with large fragments of 

 one of the burrowing rats. It was comparatively free from 

 parasitic Anoplura, but smelt very strong, in consequence of 

 which a fox, which, as I have previously mentioned, we had 

 on board for some months, and which had been let loose for a 

 run, kept sniffing round my cabin, and when I came out for 

 a " spell," would hardly let me alone, jumping up on me, and 

 smelling my clothes. We anchored in Laredo Bay shortly 

 before sunset, which was one of the most magnificent that 

 we had yet seen — fleets of scarlet, purple, and rosy clouds 

 being spread over a clear yellow and pale green sky, con- 



