March 1829. skeletons — sea bear bay. 



193 



Schouteii, the Dutch navigator, is said to have found skeletons 

 measuring eleven or twelve feet in length ! 



Captain Fitz Roy informed me that he had not seen the 

 Adelaide since we separated. The Beagle had lost another boat 

 in the gale ; the eleventh we have lost in the expedition since 

 leaving England. As the Adelaide did not make her appear- 

 ance, I determined upon proceeding in the Adventure to Sea 

 Bear Bay, a few miles to the southward of Port Desire, to 

 await her arrival with the Beagle. While standing into the bay, 

 we were amused by a chase of a novel description : a guanaco 

 was observed following a fox, which had much difficulty in 

 keeping his pursuer at a distance. As the guanaco is not car- 

 nivorous, it may have been in playfulness : Reynard, however, 

 by his speed, and anxiety to escape, did not seem to think it an 

 amusement. How the chase terminated we did not see, for they 

 disappeared in a valley. 



While the ship was being moored, I landed to examine some 

 wells near the outer point, which have been said to afford 

 some tuns of good water. I found them to be deep holes in the 

 solid rock, within the wash of a heavy surf, and large enough 

 to contain two hundred gallons of water ; but in one only was 

 the water fresh, the sea having broken into the others, and, of 

 course, spoiled their contents. They receive the rain from the 

 ravines, and are much depended upon by sealing vessels which 

 frequent this coast. 



Sea Bear Bay was discovered in the voyage of the Nodales, 

 in the year 1618; they describe the place, but give it, as it 

 deserves, a very poor character. " The port,*" they say, " for a 

 -short stay, is not bad, since it affords a good depth of water and 

 a clear bottom ; but otherwise it possesses nothing to make it 

 worth a ship visiting it, for there is neither w^ood nor water, 

 which are what ships most require.'"' Nodales called the bay 

 * Sea Lion,' from the multitude of sea-lions (Phoca jubata) 

 found on Penguin Island. Why it has been changed to Sea 

 Bear Bay I cannot determine. 



In one of Mr. Tarn's excursions into the country, he observed 

 a sail in the offing, which he thought was a whale-boat ; and 



VOL, I. o 



