362 NATUKAL HISTOEY OF 



ing-party was sent on shore for timber. A party of four of 

 us landed in the rain after breakfast, and had a walk, finding 

 everything in a universal state of sponge. We saw a white 

 egret, similar to that obtained at Port Otway, some steamer- 

 ducks, oyster-catchers, and cormorants, and picked up some 

 very large valves of Mytilus ChiUnsis, and great fragments of 

 Balanus psittacus. I obtained but little that was new to me 

 in the botanical line, with the exception of a few ferns and a 

 curious fungus, several examples of which I found growing in 

 the sand of the beach, above high-water mark. This was a 

 species of Clathrus or Ileodictyon, and consisted of a cup-like 

 volva partially buried in the sand, and formed of a rather 

 tough membrane, enclosing a mass of gelatinous substance, 

 possessed of an extremely fetid odour, resembling that of the 

 common Phallus foetidus ; and of a branched reticulated cage- 

 like receptacle of a snow-white colour, with its lower extremity 

 imbedded in the fetid jelly. Some of the specimens of this 

 receptacle were as much as six or seven inches high, by 

 between three and four in diameter. 



Eain fell in torrents throughout the whole of the next 

 day. The wooding-party were again on shore, and early in 

 the day brought on board a curious little quadruped, taken 

 in the fork of a large tree which they had felled. I was 

 much interested to recognise it as a Marsupial, and on subse- 

 quent examination ascertained it to be the DidelpJiys elegans, 

 not uncommon in the neighbourhood of Valparaiso and 

 Concepcion, but which, I believe, had not previously been 

 observed farther south than the Eiver Lieubu, in lat 37° 

 33' S., the present locality being to the south of lat. 42°. 

 The body measures between four and five inches in length, and 

 is clothed with grayish fur above, while beneath it is nearly 

 white. The eyes are very large and protruding. The feet 



