Feb. 1827. 



PARROQUETS — FlSH. 



39 



All accounts of Port Famine informed us of its abounding 

 in fish, but as yet we had taken none excepting with hook and 

 line, although the seine had been frequently shot. At last, 

 however, in the first week of February, we had a successful 

 haul of mullet and smelts, many of the former weighing eight 

 pounds, and the latter measuring fifteen inches in length. 

 After this we were often very fortunate, and on one occasion 

 caught, at one haul of the seine, sixteen hundred- weight of 

 smelts, some weighing two pounds, and measuring twenty 

 inches in length. A few days previously we had a draught of 

 mullet, Avhich served the crews of both Adventure and Beagle 

 for three days. Geese, wild ducks and teal, snipe, and now 

 and then woodcocks, were to be found by taking a short walk ; 

 there were, however, no quadrupeds fit for food which we 

 could take. Foxes and wild cats were occasionally seen, and a 

 foot-mark of some large animal of the feline race, probably a 

 puma, was once observed upon the beach. We found many 

 traces of horses, which showed that the Patagonian Indians 

 sometimes come thus far south. Had we been so fortunate as 

 to meet them here, we might have procured, perhaps, a regular 

 supply of guanaco meat. 



On the 9th of February, as the weather seemed favourable 

 for ascending Mount Tarn,* Lieutenant Cooke, the Surgeon, 

 and Anderson, the botanical collector, set off in advance to 

 select a convenient place for passing the night, carrying with 

 them a tent and provisions. I followed later in the day, and, 

 while the boaf s crew were arranging their loads, made some 

 observations with a barometer on the beach. 



Our way led through thick underwood, and then, with a 

 gradual ascent, among fallen trees, covered with so thick a 

 coating of moss, that at every step we sunk up to the knees 



or auks." BufFon also doubted the fact, and the author of Histoirc 

 Naturelle, art. Oiseaux, torn. ii. p. 322, sug-gcsts the possibility of a 

 specimen having been obtained in some other part of the world, and put, 

 by mistake, amongst those collected in the Strait. 



* So named because Mr. Tarn, the surgeon of the Adventure, was the 

 first person who reached its summit. 



