CHAPTER IX. 



Detention in Port San Antonio — Humming;-birds in snow showers — 

 Fue^ians — Geological remarks — Canoes — Carving — Birds — Fish — 

 Shag Narrows — Glaciers — Avalanches — Natives — Climate — Winter 

 setting in — Adelaide loses a boat — Floods — Lightning— Scurvy — Ade- 

 laide's survey — Bougainville Harbour — Indians cross the Strait, and 

 visit Port Famine — Sealing vessels sail — Scurvy increases — Adelaide 

 sent for guanaco meat — Return of the Beagle — Captain Stokes very 

 ill — Adelaide brings meat from the Patagonians — Death of Captain 

 Stokes. 



Our stay at this port was prolonged beyond my intention 

 by thick snowy weather and hard gales, which cut off our 

 communication with the shore ; for notwithstanding we were 

 in so sheltered a place, and the vessel had three anchors down, 

 we did not consider her quite secure against the violent squalls. 

 We had been fortunate in procuring observations, and took 

 advantage of our detention to lay down the operations of the 

 preceding days on paper. Muscles were found in great abun- 

 dance on the mud flats. There are three varieties, one of which 

 has a bitter, disagreeable taste, but the others are exceedingly 

 good and wholesome. One of the latter is of large size {My- 

 tikis Magellanicus of the Ency. Meth.) The other is of a 

 more globose form than the bitter sort, and has a very obtuse 

 hinge and margin. The bitter kind contains pearls, which are 

 valueless, because small, and of a bad colour. 



At first there v/ere plenty of sea-birds* in the cove, which 

 took refuge at the head of the bay ; till after two days, they 

 deserted us altogether. There appeared to be an abundance of 

 fish ; but as we had not provided ourselves with a seine, and they 



* Here we obtained a second species of the Steam.er-duck, which is 

 described in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, as 

 ' Micropterus PutachoJiicus, Nob.' It differs from the 31. hrachypterus not 

 only in colour but in size, being a smaller bird, and having the power 

 of raising its body, in flight, out of the water. We called it the * Flying 

 Steamer/ 



