306 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



bank leading from the spit np to the high ground covered 

 with plants of Arabis Madoviana gone to seed. The cor- 

 morants were, if possible, more numerous than on our visit in 

 1867, and on being disturbed rose into the air in thousands, 

 raising a thick cloud of dust, which had a most powerful 

 odour of guano. It was curious to observe that, though of 

 the same species with those observed at Sta. Magdalena, the 

 nests were not so carefully constructed or so regularly grouped. 

 A few young birds were encountered, clothed with blackish 

 down, and unable to fly, but which ran very fast, sometimes 

 tumbling over the nests. One of them, in its hurry to escape 

 my pursuit, soused itself in a pool of black mire, and emerged 

 in a draggled and forlorn condition. Skua gulls were abun- 

 dant, though not so noisy or so fierce as those which we 

 encountered at the Tyssen Islands, and geese were plentiful, 

 but very shy. A considerable number of bandurrias were also 

 observed, and a few specimens shot. We returned to the 

 ship in the moonlight, about eight p.m., to a late dinner. 



The 5th was another beautiful day. We left our anchorage 

 between seven and eight A.M., and proceeded along the Fuegian 

 coast southward of Gente Grande Bay. Soon after breakfast 

 I had an opportunity of accompanying a couple of the sur- 

 veying officers on shore at Gente Point. A party of seven 

 Fuegians, accompanied by several dogs, were assembled on a 

 low hillock close to the beach, but decamped as we approached 

 the land in our boat, much to my disappointment, as I was 

 very anxious to hold intercourse with this tribe, which, as I 

 have earlier stated in the course of this narrative, appears to 

 be very distinct from those occurring to the westward. We 

 found the ground close to the beach tunnelled with the 

 burrows of the Ctenomys ; and near the hill a great number 

 of shells of limpets, Fissurellce, and mussels, on which the 

 Fuegians had evidently been recently regaling themselves, 



