298 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



that all four species were originally derived from a common 

 stock. 



The following morning (30th) the Argentine captain of a 

 small sealing schooner, then at the Tyssen Islands, Don Luis 

 Piedra Buena, presented me with a fine specimen of a King pen- 

 guin (Aptenodytes Pennanti) from Staten Land, which had died 

 on board his ship the night before, as well as with some beauti- 

 ful casts of fossil univalve shells, apparently Turritellce, from 

 a deposit on the banks of the Santa Cruz river, on the east coast 

 of Patagonia. Don Luis is a most intelligent, well-informed 

 man, and I had much interesting conversation with him about 

 the regions with which he was familiar. One of our number 

 who was on shore on this day shot a fine male specimen of the 

 night-heron {Nycticorax ohscurus) previously observed in the 

 Strait. Having seen the wreck party comfortably established 

 on shore, we weighed about four p.m. and proceeded on our way 

 through the Sound ; but as, on nearing the southern entrance, we 

 found that the weather had assumed a threatening aspect, the 

 barometer falling rapidly, and the wind against us, we anchored 

 in Pox Bay in the West Falkland Island between seven and 

 eight P.M. 



The 31st was a most beautiful day, but as the wind con- 

 tinued still unfavourable w*e remained at anchor, and a party 

 of us landed in the morning to explore the neighbourhood. 

 On the beach I obtained a very curious snow-white dried sponge, 

 resembling at first sight a mass of bone with large cancellge. 

 On the green sloping banks above the shore I found flower- 

 ing specimens of two Orchids (species of Chlorma), which I 

 had not met with in the Strait, as well as of two familiar 

 British plants, Senecio vulgafis and JSonchus oleraceus ; and in 

 ascending a hill I came across numerous fine clumps of 

 the Balsam-bog, so compact in their structure that I could 



