394 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



lat.), which when visited by Cook in the height of summer was found covered 

 with snow, and where only five plants in flower were collected ; in Tierra del 

 Fuego (53° S. lat.), where the mean summer temperature is fully 9^° lower than 

 that of Dublin (53° 21' N. lat.) ; in the Falkland Islands (51° 30'), which, though 

 flat and low and near Patagonia, have, according to Mr. Darwin, a climate simi- 

 lar to that which is experienced at the height of between one and two thousand 

 feet on the mountains of North Wales, with less sunshine and less frost, but 

 more wind and rain ; and finally along the south-west coast of America, where 

 the Peruvian current and the cold sea-winds so considerably depress the snow* 

 line, that while in Europe the most southern glacier which comes down to the 

 sea is met with, according to Yon Buch, on the coast of Norway in lat. 67°; 

 the " Beagle " found a glacier fifteen miles long and in one part seven miles 

 broad descending to the sea-coast in the gulf of Penas, in a latitude (46° 50') 

 nearly corresponding with that of the Lake of Geneva. 



" The position of this glacier," says Mr. Darwin, " may be put even in a 

 more striking point of view, for it descends to the sea-coast within less than 9° 

 from where palms grow; within 4^° of a region where the jaguar and puma 

 range over the plains, less than 2^° from arborescent grasses, and (looking to 

 the westward in the same hemisphere) less than 2° from orchideous parasites, 

 and within a single degree of tree-ferns !" As the influence of the tropical gulf 

 stream reaches as far as Spitzbergen, so that of the cold Peruvian stream, which 

 issues from the Antarctic Seas, extends even to the equator, and not seldom re- 

 duces the tempe«*ature of the waters about the Galapagos to less than -f 58^°, 

 so that reef-building corals, which require a minimum warmth of +60°, are 

 unable to grow near islands situated directly under the line. 



Though the Antarctic lands are so bleak and inclement that not a single 

 quadruped is to be found within 60° of latitude, yet they are the resort of in- 

 numerable sea-birds which, belonging to the same families as those ot the north, 

 generally form distinct genera or species, for with rare exceptions no bird is 

 found to inhabit both the Arctic and the Antarctic regions. 



Thus in the petrel family we find the fulmar {Procellaria glacialis) and the 

 glacial petrel (P. gelida) of the high north represented in the Antarctic Seas 

 by the giant petrel [Procellaria gigantea), which extends its flight from Pata- 

 gonia to the ice-banks of the south, where the Antarctic and the snowy petrels 

 (P. antarctica et nivea) first appear, cold-loving birds which never leave those 

 dreary waters, and are often seen in vast flocks floating upon the drift-ice. 



The giant petrel, which has received from the Spaniards the significant appel- 

 lation of " quehranta huesos,^^ or " break-bones," is a more powerful bird than 

 the fulmar. It is larger than a goose, with a strong beak 4^ inches long. Its 

 color is a dirty black, white below, and with white spots on the neck and back. 

 In its habits and manner of flight it closely resembles the albatross, and, as with 

 the albatross, a spectator may watch it for hours together without seeing on 

 what it feeds. Like the fulmar it feasts upon fishes, or the carcasses of seals and 

 cetaceans, but it also chases other birds. At Port Saint Antonio it was seen by 

 some of the oflicers of the " Beagle " pursuing a diver, which tried to escape by 

 diving and flying, but was continually struck down, and at last killed by a blow 



