to the Stra it of M agellan . 8 3 



five or six inches, are not inferior in flavour to the richest 

 oysters; for which reason, to distinguish them from others, na- 

 turalists have given them the appellation of Magellanic mussels. 

 In many of them are found pearls, produced, according to the 

 general opinion, h}^ a disease to which that shell-fish is subject. 

 The lempits are of an uncommon largeness, and the inner part 

 of the shell is a mother-of-pearl of great beauty ; but they are 

 neither so agreeable to the taste as the mussels, nor by far so 

 easily digested. 



In our nets we used to bring up also a number of santozas 

 lobsters, and a kind of crab, of tolerable qualitj^ 



All these sorts of shell-tish feed, in general, on the juice of a 

 marine plant called cachiyuyo or cachiyullo ; but, by the natu- 

 ralists who accompanied Cook in his tirst voyage to the South 

 Seas, fucus giganteus antarciicusy as being peculiar to this 

 southern hemisphere. The stalk of this plant extends to the 

 surface of the water, being in length from fifteen to twenty feet. 

 Cook indeed says, that there are some plants of sixty to seventy 

 feet ; but, in the course of our voyage, we met with none of 

 such extraordinary length. The roots are attached to the rocks 

 and stones in the bottom of the sea, and are of the same colour 

 with the plant itself, which is of a dark-yellow, resembling that 

 of dead leaves of trees when they begin to dry ; the stalk is 

 about the thickness of the finger ; it discharges a mucilaginous 

 slimy juice. From space to space are seen small longish blad- 

 ders, of little thickness, filled with water, from which springs 

 the leaf, about two or two and a half feet long, and in its great- 

 est breadth from four to five inches. This leaf ends in a point, 

 being shaped like a very sharp-pointed almond ; it is not 

 smooth on the surface, but neatly figured with longitudinal 

 lines, a little raised above the root, so thaf , at a distance, they 

 resemble the water-ribbons. From each root spring up five or 

 six of these stalks or branches, so closely set together as oftea 

 to cover entirely a large space of the sea, and so thick, that it 

 is with the greatest difficulty that a boat can pass over them. 



The sight of this plant indicates always a rocky or stony 

 bottom; so that, if possible, navigators ought to avoid sailing 

 near it, on account of the inequality of the depth of water 

 constantly found where it grows. In many parts, vast quan- 

 tities of cachiyuyo are found floating on the surface of the 

 sea, torn from their roots by the tide and force of the wind; so 

 that the shores of the strait are generally covered with it. 



Such is the soil and climate, and such are the productions and 

 animals, to be found in the Strait of Magellanes. This is the 

 whole stock furnished by nature to the inhabitants, of whom it 

 is now time to offer some information. 



M 2 



