THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 333 



the first time tlie beautiful undivided frond of the Hymeno- 

 pJiyllum cruentum, which we afterwards met with at Port 

 Otway and in the Messier Channel, as well as the handsome 

 IT. caudiculahcm, the frond of which occurred sometimes 

 nearly a foot in length. Another fern belonging to a different 

 tribe, the Lomaria aspera^ was common on the ground beneath 

 the shrubs, and remarkable on account of the peculiarity of 

 its habit, certain of the fronds lying flat along the surface of 

 the soil, and taking root at their tips, so as to produce a new 

 plant, from which arise a second series of fronds, which take 

 root in their turn, a chain of plants, often many feet in length, 

 being thus formed. After spending some time in the forest, 

 we emerged from it to the cleared ground, and, seated on the 

 bank of a stream near a large fuchsia bush, watched the 

 humming-birds which were flying about the flowers in num- 

 bers, their heads gleaming as with burnished gold in the sun- 

 shine. We then walked for some miles along the beach, 

 which is formed of rocks of rather hard yellowish sandstone, 

 abounding in spherical nodules of more compact consistence, 

 varying in size from an inch in diameter to the dimensions of 

 a cannon-ball. At one spot we observed a collection of water- 

 worn fossil trunks of trees, some of them evidently in the 

 position in which they had grown countless ages before. 



The following day was again very fine, with the distant pro- 

 spect of Osorno and the Cordillera as clear as ever, and we began 

 to consider ourselves in luck. In the morning a boat came 

 alongside with a variety of articles for sale, including oysters 

 and other shell-fish, and the fruits of the Bromelia sphacelata, 

 esteemed by the Chilotes for their sweet taste, which some- 

 what resembles that of a pine-apple, and called by them 

 "Chupon." There were also a few crabs, among which I 

 observed the Zithodes antarctica, a large species of Cancer, 



