THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 407 



while in South Chili, Talcahuano, the seaport of Concepcion, 

 was almost swallowed up by the wave. As, however, full 

 details of the disaster appeared in nearly all the leading 

 newspapers of Great Britain about six weeks later, I shall 

 not attempt any further account of it. 



On the 17th some specimens of a beautiful Tubularian polyp, 

 procured on the copper of H.M.S. " Topaze," were sent to me, 

 and a few days later the copper of the "Nassau" yielded addi- 

 tional examples of the same species, which being regarded by 

 one of our highest authorities on the subject (Professor Allman) 

 as hitherto undescribed, has been named by him Tuhularia 

 polycarpa. The afternoon of the following day, as the tide was 

 very low, I devoted to a search for marine animals among the 

 rocks at the entrance of the bay, and met with a consider- 

 able amount of success. Among the spoils obtained on this 

 occasion, I may mention a small Octopus (0. Fontanianus), 

 a specimen of which, discovered under a stone, was at first 

 of a dirty grayish -white tint, but changed almost in- 

 stantaneously to a rich dark purplish-red as the little creature 

 swam off, tail first, with great rapidity and the directness of 

 an arrow, propelled by the rapid movements of its arms. I 

 also procured some very fine specimens of the Chiton aculeatus 

 and C. magnificus, by dint of watching my opportunity as the 

 wave retired, and rapidly removing them from the rock with 

 the large blade of a clasp-knife. Two other species of the 

 same genus, of smaller size, but very elegantly marked, which 

 I found on this occasion, were the Chiton C%imingii and the 

 C elegans. Fine specimens of Concholepas, Crucihulum ferru- 

 gineicm, etc., also abounded, and I further procured several 

 Crustacea that were new to me, including a fierce crab of the 

 genus Grapsus (G. planifrons), generally ensconced in deep 

 narrow clefts, from which it was difficult to dislodge ; several 



