June, 1834. 



FUCUS GIGANTEUS. 



305 



the plant. On shaking the great entangled roots, a pile of 

 small fish, shells, cuttle-fish, crabs of all orders, sea-eggs, star- 

 fish, beautiful Holuthuric© (some taking the external form of 

 the nudibranch molluscs), Planariee, and crawling nereidous 

 animals of a multitude of forms, all fall out together. Often 

 as I recurred to a branch of the kelp, I never failed to dis- 

 cover animals of new and curious structures. In Chiloe, 

 where, as I have said, the kelp did not thrive very well, the 

 numerous shells, corallines, and Crustacea were absent ; but 

 there yet remained a few of the flustraceee, and some com- 

 pound Ascidiee ; the latter, however, were of different species 

 from those in Tierra del Fuego. We here see the fucus pos- 

 sessing a wider range than the animals which use it as an 

 abode. 



I can only compare these great aquatic forests of the 

 southern hemisphere with the terrestrial ones in the inter- 

 tropical regions. Yet if the latter should be destroyed in 

 any country, I do not believe nearly so many species of 

 animals would perish, as, under similar circumstances, would 

 happen with the kelp. Amidst the leaves of this plant 

 numerous species of fish live, which nowhere else would find 

 food or shelter ; with their destruction the many cormorants, 

 divers, and other fishing birds, the otters, seals, and por- 

 poises, would soon perish also; and lastly, the Fuegian 

 savage, the miserable lord of this miserable land, would 

 redouble his cannibal feast, decrease in numbers, and perhaps 

 cease to exist. 



June 8th. — We weighed anchor early in the morning, 

 and left Port Famine. Captain FitzRoy determined to leave 

 the Strait of Magellan by the Magdalen channel, which had 

 not long been discovered. Our course lay due south, down 

 that gloomy passage which I have before alluded to, as ap- 

 pearing to lead to another and worse world. The wind was 

 fair, but the atmosphere was very thick ; so that we missed 

 much curious scenery. The dark ragged clouds were rapidly 

 driven over the mountains, from their summits nearly to 

 their bases. The glimpses which we caught through the 



VOL. IIT. X 



