350 NATUKAL HISTORY OF 



Thereafter Dr. Campbell and I landed, and spent nearly a 

 couple of hours on shore, walking over some boggy ground, 

 where a Sphagnum of a deep purplish-red tint abounded. 

 Eain fell in torrents during the next two days, but on the 

 28th it was again fair, though cloudy ; and a party of the 

 non-surveyors left the ship immediately after breakfast, and 

 spent the day pulling about among the islands outside the 

 harbour. On one of these I found a single specimen of an 

 Iridaceous plant, which I afterwards ascertained to be a 

 species of Libertia, in seed ; and it is a fact worth recording 

 that I never saw a second specimen of it south of the 

 Chonos Archipelago. On the beach of the same island I ob- 

 tained an example of a fish, the Lycodes latitans, previously 

 procured in various localities in the Strait and Channels ; and 

 a specimen of the grayish-brown night -heron {Nycticorax 

 obscuTus) seen in the northern part of the Strait and the 

 Falkland Islands, was shot. We also saw many kelp-geese, 

 and several kingfishers, as well as two large flocks of 

 steamer-ducks, which were making a great tumult in the 

 water, raising a wave of surf fully a foot and a half in height, 

 and causing a loud rushing sound by the rapid movements of 

 their little wings. Cormorants were also plentiful, some with 

 black and white, and others (young birds as we subsequently 

 ascertained) with entirely black plumage. One of the latter, 

 which was shot, had the skin of the feet raised into white 

 diseased patches. We had two very exciting chases after 

 otters, which at length escaped by taking to the land, and 

 concealing themselves among the rocks and bushes. They 

 swam with great rapidity, with only their brown hea,ds out 

 of the water, and often dived, coming up again at a long 

 distance ahead of us. In initiating the dive, they bent their 

 bodies in a marked curve, the middle of the back emerging 

 above the surface of the water for an instant. 



