476 NATUEAL HISTORY OF 



shore, and had a long walk over the plains, where some 

 plovers and several species of Thinocorus rumicivorus were 

 shot, and a number of geese and " bandurrias," and a couple 

 of spur-winged lapwings, were observed. 



The beach was strewn with kelp, uprooted by the recent 

 gales, and many specimens of Lithodes antardica, Serolis Orhig- 

 niana, the large EcJiiurus discovered in the course of the 

 first season, and a variety of other marine animals, scattered 

 about, but I observed nothing that was new to me. 



Two days later. Captain Mayne, with three of the of&cers 

 and myself, rode to the Chilian outpost at Freshwater Bay, a 

 distance of about twenty miles by the track. The morning 

 was dull and cloudy, but the sky gradually cleared, and the 

 ride was a very pleasant one, our route lying partly through 

 and in part along the edge of the thick forests of the 

 antarctic beech, which were beginning to exhibit fine 

 autumnal tints. We took a little over three hours to reach 

 the outpost, where we were very politely received, and 

 regaled with an excellent "casuela," the unfortunate fowl 

 furnishing the stock of which being caught before our eyes. 

 Soon after our meal we remounted and rode back to Sandy 

 Point, which we reached soon after five P.M., finding that the 

 squadron off the settlement had been increased by the 

 arrival of H.M.S. " Eingdove," on her way from England to 

 Valparaiso. 



On the 19th I was presented by one of the crew of 

 Captain Luis Piedra Buena with a puma cub, a charming 

 little creature, about twice the size of a domestic cat, with a 

 great round head and beautiful hazel-brown eyes. Unfor- 

 tunately, however, it had sustained some injury to its spine, 

 and did not survive long. I fed it with preserved milk, 

 dissolved in warm water, during the few days I kept it on 



