THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 191 



to the neighbourhood of our landing-place, and halted for 

 a short space for luncheon — drizzling rain soon after set- 

 ting in, which lasted throughout the greater part of the after- 

 noon. Before long we were joined by two officers from 

 another surveying boat, which had been engaged in taking 

 soundings in Lee Bay, and we then proceeded in company to 

 walk round the island. After a time we reached a plateau 

 at the top of some cliffs, and there beheld a most wonderful 

 congregation of cormorants (Phalacrocorax carunculatus). On 

 a moderate computation they must have numbered upwards 

 of a thousand, and they presented a most peculiar appearance 

 as they sat nearly erect, in regular ranks. As we ran up to 

 them, it was most amusing to watch the difficulty which 

 they experienced in taking flight, in consequence of being so 

 closely packed together. Line after line hustled forwards 

 for some paces, and then breaking up, flew over the cliffs 

 into the sea below, where they swam out to a prudent dis- 

 tance. One or two, which had been hit with stones, lay on 

 their backs on the beach for some minutes, emitting strange 

 sounds, and waving about their splay feet in the air, in the 

 most ridiculous manner, till they were sufficiently recovered to 

 take to the water. The space of ground on which they had 

 been assembled was worn perfectly bare of grass for several 

 hundred yards, and the smell of decaying fish, the viscera of 

 which were lying about in innumerable little heaps, was in- 

 supportable. 



Immediately beyond this roosting-place the high ground 

 sloped steeply down to a long low grass-covered spit, which 

 exhibited at one edge an extensive stratum of cormorants' 

 bones, and upon this tract of ground I found a few additional 

 plants, including a Geranium and a species of TJdaspi, which 

 latter was extremely plentiful. In the long grass we stumbled 



