THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 363 



are well fitted for climbing, and the tail is remarkably stout, 

 and thick at the base. I found the body loaded with fat, and 

 the skin extremely greasy. Later in the day the of&cer in 

 charge of the wooding-party brought me off a small frog of 

 the genus Cacotus, 



The 21st was a tolerably fine day, and we left our anchor- 

 age after breakfast, wdth the intention of reaching Ancud. 

 Unfortunately, however, the wood used for steaming proved to 

 be so thoroughly wet as to be of but very little value as fuel, and 

 our rate of progression, at first sufficiently moderate, became 

 by degrees slower and slower, till at length we feared that the 

 revolutions of the screw would cease altogether. Crawling 

 along at a snail's pace, we reached, after some hours, the en- 

 trance of the Chacao ISTarrows, when the tide helped us. While 

 passing slowly through the Narrows, we descried the steam- 

 cutter close to one of the shores, and she shortly after joined 

 us, with a supply of letters from England, bearing date of 

 only two months back. We anchored in the Narrows that 

 evening when the tide turned against us, and next day, which 

 we were surprised to find bright and sunny, we remained 

 stationary until noon, when the tide turned in our favour, and 

 then went slowly on to the bay of Ancud, reaching our old 

 position at Punta Arenas between three and four p.m. Soon 

 after that I landed, and had a walk with two companions. On 

 the sandy beach numbers of an Amphipod {Orchestoidea tuber- 

 culatd), much resembling our common sand-hopper in general 

 appearance, were skipping out, and in a small rock-pool, not 

 much more than two feet in diameter, I observed hundreds 

 of a small pale-coloured Actinia, each individual of which 

 had its base fixed in a hollow in the rock, and withdrew from 

 view on being touched. Many of the plants had gone out of 

 flower, owing to its being the beginning of winter, only a few 



