THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 213 



on the ground, and there was much to remind us of a walk 

 through a wood in autumn in England. At one point in our 

 route we had a severe struggle through a thicket of holly- 

 leaved barherry, many of the plants of which attained a height 

 of more than twelve feet. Here and there, at the tips of the 

 tallest branches, were corymbs of the beautiful large bright 

 orange flowers, appearing at a little distance like tongues of 

 flame. As I have already remarked, this barberry appears to 

 have two distinct times for flowering, one in early spring and 

 the other in autumn. But few birds were to be seen, with 

 the exception of the little Oxyurus, small groups of which 

 accompanied us wherever we went, their sharp notes being 

 almost the only sounds to break the silence of the forest. A 

 woodpecker was shot high up in the fork of a tree, and fell 

 on the ground, but we could not find it. We collected a con- 

 siderable number of fungi, including about a dozen species 

 not previously obtained by me. The greater number of these 

 were Agaricini, ranging in tint from snow-white to orange- 

 tawny and mauve-purple, but representatives of other tribes 

 were also tolerably plentiful. Thus a Tremella, allied to if 

 not identical with T. mesenterica, formed large masses on the 

 stems of some of the trees, and an orange-yellow Exidia was 

 common on dead branches, while the yellow spheres of Cyt- 

 taria Darwinii were to be seen in quantities. On emerging 

 from the woods in the course of the afternoon we were much 

 pleased to see the " Spiteful " lying alongside the " Nassau," 

 and somewhat surprised to observe another steamer approach- 

 ing from the westward, which last proved to be the Pacific Steam 

 Navigation Company's vessel " Peru," on her way to England. 

 On the open ground not far from the settlement we met 

 several Patagonians, forerunners of a large party who arrived 

 two or three days later. One of these had a triangular purple 



