354 NATUEAL HISTORY OF 



the upper end of the English Narrows, named Hoskyn Cove, 

 in honour of one of the surveying officers. There had been a 

 heavy fall of snow during the previous night on the higher 

 ground, and many of the mountains in the vicinity of the 

 Narrows were whitened half-way down, and the innumerable 

 cascades w^hich rush foaming down their sides greatly swollen. 

 It was raining again when we reached our destination about 

 five P.M., and heavy rain fell throughout the night and during 

 the forenoon of the 9th. On the afternoon of the same day, 

 as it had somewhat abated, and we were anxious to examine 

 this new locality, a party of four of us, encased in waterproofs 

 and sea-boots, took the dingy and left the ship for some hours. 

 The land rose in very steep, precipitous, wooded mountains 

 on all sides, so that it was with some difficulty that we could 

 get on shore, and that fairly accomplished, we found it im- 

 possible to scramble far. I, however, succeeded in finding 

 two plants that were new to me, and which I never sub- 

 sequently found in any other locality. One of these was a 

 fern, a species of Bleclmum, apparently distinct from that 

 obtained at Chiloe ; and another, a herbaceous plant, probably 

 Gesneraceous, with ovate-elliptical leaves and handsome scar- 

 let flowers, which was growing in the clefts of the rocks. 

 Unfortunately, it was almost out of bloom, so that I only 

 obtained a single flowering specimen. A tall branching fern 

 previously observed at Chiloe, the Alsophila pruinata, was 

 here growing in wonderful luxuriance, some of the fronds 

 attaining a height of upwards of twelve feet, and the steel- 

 gray colouring of the back communicating a very handsome 

 appearance to them. Callixene ^polyphylla, not previously 

 recorded to the south of the Chonos Archipelago, ascended 

 the trunks of the trees to a height of from seven to nine 

 feet, and the pinnate-leaved creeper already mentioned as 



