234 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



and to keep more to the exposed coasts during winter, 

 because at that season animal life is there more 

 abundant. 



After exchanging sundry jokes about the general 

 disappointment in failing to behold the wilde frdulein 

 in their natural home, the party separated, two of 

 the officers proceeding in the boat towards the upper 

 part of the inlet in quest of water-fowl. For nearly 

 an hour we heard the frequent discharge of their 

 guns, and much ammunition must certainly have been 

 expended ; but when they returned their report was 

 that the birds were too wild, and no addition was 

 made to the ship's larder. 



The general character of the vegetation at Puerto 

 Bueno was the same as that at Eden Harbour, but 

 there were some indications of a slight increase in the 

 severity of the climate. Mitraria coccinea and a few 

 other representatives of the special flora of Chili were 

 no longer to be found, while some antarctic types not 

 before seen here first made their appearance. The 

 most prominent of these was a bush from three to 

 five feet high, in general appearance reminding one 

 of rosemary, but at this season abundantly furnished 

 with the plumed fruits characteristic of a composite. 

 This plant, nearly allied to the genus Olearia, whose 

 numerous species are confined to Australia, New 

 Zealand, and the adjoining islands, is known to 

 botanists as Chiliotrichium amelloides, and is one of 

 the characteristic species of this region. It is plentiful 

 in Fuegia and on the northern shores of the Straits 

 of Magellan. Sir Joseph Hooker, in the " Flora 

 Antarctica," remarks that this is the nearest approach 



