THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 203 



consisting of Captain Mayne, two officers, and myself, 

 together with four men employed in carrying rifles, survey- 

 ing apparatus, etc. The ground, though undulating' and in 

 occasional situations swampy, proved to be well adapted for 

 pedestrianism, as we soon got beyond the region of rat- 

 burrows, which appear to be limited to the immediate 

 neighbourhood of the sea-coast ; and the air was perfectly 

 still, with a decided tinge of frost. On our way we saw 

 several droves of hundreds of guanacos in the distance, and 

 one or two stragglers were fired at with rifles, but without 

 success. Some small flocks of Attagis Falklandica were also 

 seen, and a single specimen procured. In the way of plants 

 almost the only novelty encountered was a curious little 

 Gasteromycetous fungus, belonging to the genus Geaster, of 

 which we have one or two representatives, more or less local 

 in their distribution, in Great Britain. The general form of 

 the plant may be roughly described as consisting of a small 

 rounded ball, about the size of a bullet, attached to a flat, 

 lobed, starlike plate, the rays of which are spread out on the 

 sandy soil, curling up when they become very dry. 



Near the foot of the hill which was our destination we 

 crossed a rivulet of delicionsly cold water, of which we drank 

 and were refreshed, thereafter beginning the ascent, in the 

 course of which we startled an ostrich, which rose out of the 

 long grass about ten yards ahead of us, and went off at a 

 great pace. At the top of the hill we found the vestiges of 

 an old cairn, probably erected by King or Fitzroy while 

 engaged in their surveys of the same regions about thirty 

 years before ; and on a large boulder, which contained 

 several small pools of water in the hollows in its surface, I 

 found a single specimen of a minute species of earwig {For- 

 ficula), similar to one obtained by one of the officers in Fuegia 



