THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 193 



conical hills, and the bright sunshine gilding their slopes had 

 a very pleasing effect. I found a single late specimen of 

 Calceolaria nana in flower, and on the seaward edge of a 

 patch of brackish water, where a number of upland geese were 

 feeding, occurred a curious belt of Senecio candidans. While 

 crossing a little sandy valley where many guanacos' bones 

 were lying, I noticed protruding from a sandbank the orbit 

 and part of the frontal bone of a skull, and on proceeding to 

 disinter it, was much pleased to find it to be a fine cranium of 

 a Patagonian, which has been thus described by Professor 

 Huxley, to whom it was sent : — 



" This skull (which is that of an adult male) shows very distinct 

 evidence of artificial distortion. Not only is the occiput much flattened 

 and unsymmetrical, but the very retreating forehead has such a surface 

 as appears to me could only have been produced by the application of a 

 frontal compress or bandage. Under these circumstances the cephalic 

 index (-81) is of doubtful value as an indication of the primitive form 

 of the cranium. The supra-orbital ridges are very strongly marked, 

 their real prominence being much exaggerated by the retreat of the 

 forehead. There are no distinct paroccipital processes. The crowns 

 of the teeth are ground quite flat." 



Between the undulating country in the vicinity of the 

 Narrows and the Gregory Eange extends a flat plain, covered 

 with the usual yellowish grass, and dotted at distant intervals 

 with barberry bushes. Over part of this I now pursued my way, 

 descending after a time to the beach, which I found had dried 

 out to a considerable extent, leaving broad sandy flats, on 

 which I hoped to have found some live Magellanic Volutes, 

 but as usual sought for them in vain, though the broken dead 

 shells were strewed abundantly along high-water mark. I, 

 however, obtained specimens of a Bnllia, a Natica, a Pecteny 

 and one or two other molluscs. Towards the close of the 

 afternoon I ascended one of the high banks overlooking the 







