THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 



255 



Fuego with that of Patagonia ; and the difference is strongly 

 exemplified in the entomology. I do not believe they have 

 one species in common ; certainly the general character of the 

 insects is widely different. 



If we turn from the land to the sea, we shall find the latter 

 as abundantly stocked with living creatures as the former is 

 poorly so. In all parts of the world a rocky and partially 

 protected shore perhaps supports, in a given space, a greater 

 number of individual animals than any other station. There 

 is one marine production which, from its importance, is 

 worthy of a particular history. It is the kelp, or Macrocystis 

 pyrifera. This plant grows on every rock from low-water 

 mark to a great depth, both on the outer coast and within the 

 channels* 6 I believe, during the voyages of the Adventure 

 and Beagle, not one rock near the surface was discovered 

 which was not buoyed by this floating weed. The good ser- 

 vice it thus affords to vessels navigating near this stormy 

 land is evident; and it certainly has saved many a one from 

 being wrecked. I know few things more surprising than to 

 see this plant growing and flourishing amidst those great 

 breakers of the western ocean, which no mass of rock, let it 

 be ever so hard, can long resist. The stem is round, slimy, 

 and smooth, and seldom has a diameter of so much as an 

 inch. A few taken together are sufficiently strong to support 

 the weight of the large loose stones, to which in the inland 

 channels they grow attached; and yet some of these stones 

 were so heavy that when drawn to the surface, they could 

 scarcely be lifted into a boat by one person. Captain Cook, 

 in his second voyage, says, that this plant at Kerguelen Land 

 rises from a greater depth than twenty-four fathoms ; " and 

 as it does not grow in a perpendicular direction, but makes a 

 very acute angle with the bottom, and much of it afterwards 

 spreads many fathoms on the surface of the sea, I am well 

 warranted to say that some of it grows to the length of sixty 

 fathoms and upwards." I do not suppose the stem of any 



6 Its geographical range is remarkably wide; it is found from the extreme 

 Southern islets near Cape Horn, as far north on the eastern coast (accord- 

 ing to information given me by Mr. Stokes) as lat. 43 °, — but on the west- 

 ern coast, as Dr. Hooker tells me, it extends to the R. San Francisco in 

 California, and perhaps even to Kamtschatka. We thus have an immense 

 range in latitude; and as Cook, who must have been well acquainted with 

 the species, found it at Kerguelen Land, no less than 140° in longitude. 



