THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 383 



officers to look at a raised beach beyond the forts to the 

 N.W. of the town. It was, as nearly as I could calculate, 

 about seventy feet above the present sea-level, and abounded 

 in shells all apparently belonging to existing species, Fis- 

 surellce and Concholejpades being the prevailing forms. As, 

 however, I could see no good sections, I could not ascertain 

 what was the thickness of the shell-bed, and I was not with- 

 out a lurking doubt that the collection of shells might be 

 rather due to an old " Kjokkenmodding," than to an eleva- 

 tion of the land. We subsequently descended to the sea- 

 beach, where I spent a short time in search of marine 

 animals, but was not particularly successful, owing to the 

 circumscribed nature of the field of my investigations ; for 

 although it was low tide, not more than five or six yards of 

 the rocks were accessible, even by wading. At high- water 

 mark hundreds of a Littorina, the L. zebra, with a pretty 

 white striped shell, were congregated, and further out I 

 found specimens of Monoceros gldbratum, and several Fissic- 

 rellcB and Chitons. After I had finished my explorations we 

 continued our walk for some distance along the heights to the 

 N.W., meeting on the way an old man who had been fishing 

 for large Echini, of which he had obtained a basketful, for 

 food. The instrument by which he obtained them consisted 

 of a long pole, with a number of little sticks attached to one 

 end of it in a circle. 



The following day (19th) three of us landed in the morning, 

 and having procured horses, rode out, under the escort of one 

 of the officers of the " Nereus," to the Placilla, a broad flat 

 valley, about seven miles distant, on the route to Santiago. 

 Our route lay chiefly over the top of low treeless hills, 

 covered with a red soil, and dotted with low shrubs such 

 as the Boldu, and a Leguminous plant of the tribe Sophore(B 



