892 
THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
fly at all. According to the Rev. H. C. Lory, late Colonial Chaplain in the Falkland 
Islands, these insects inhabit in immense numbers dried matted seaweed which is to be 
found on the beaches. He says that they escape in hundreds from the seaweed masses 
when they are broken up, and that the masses are full of the pupae. 
One new land Mollusc ( Succinea falklandica, E. A. Smith) was obtained from a hill 
near the lighthouse, Pembroke Point. 1 
From the head of Port Sussex, not far off, was obtained the skeleton of a Ziphioid 
Whale, measuring exactly 14 feet in length, complete except the paddles, which had been 
dragged away tied to the ends of lassos in order to get the oil out of them. It was given 
to the Expedition by Mr. John Bonner, a farmer in the neighbourhood. Professor Turner, 
who has described this skeleton, regards it as a young example of Mesoplodon layardi 2 
The skeleton was lashed on a pack-horse, by no means an easy matter in the case 
of so unusual a load. The party rode at a good pace, but during the long ride the 
lashings were constantly getting loose, and the party almost lost the way near the end 
of the journey, night having overtaken it before it reached Stanley with the skeleton. 
Mr. Murray visited, with Mr. Mansel, the manager of one of the large estates on the 
island, Fitzroy Island Harbour and Fox Point, places distant about 40 miles from 
Stanley. At Fitzroy Island Harbour there are several hills of blown calcareous sand, 
composed chiefly of broken fragments of Molluscs, at other places the sand was of 
very pure quartz. All along the coast there were many bones of Seals and Whales. 
The clastic sedimentary rocks of the island are volcanic grit, arkose, graphitic and other 
shales. Where the shales are inclined at a high angle the ground is much drier than 
at other places, and is known as “dry camp.” The well known “stone rivers” have 
been described and their origin discussed by Sir Wyville Thomson. 3 A large block 
brought home from one of these rivers is a diorite containing some crystals of augite. 
Mr. Robert Etheridge, jun., who has examined the fossils collected by the Expedition, 
has supplied the following notes : — “ Mr. Darwin remarked upon the general close resem- 
blance the organic remains bore to those of the Silurian rocks of Murchison, with, at the 
same time, a tendency towards a Devonian facies. 
“'Sir Wyville Thomson, in his account of the Falkland Islands, noticed the similarity 
between the lithological character of the Falkland fossiliferous sandstones and the 
ferruginous sandstones of May Hill and Girvan. He regarded the fossils as indicating a 
horizon near the base of the Devonian formation. 
“ The only publication bearing directly on the purely palaeontological aspect of the 
Falkland group is that by Professor J. Morris and the late Mr. D. Sharpe. 4 They 
1 Proc. Zool, Soc. Load., p. 280, 1884. 
2 Report on tlie Bones of Cetacea, Zool. Chalk Exp., part iv., 1880. 3 The Atlantic, vol. ii. p. 245, 1877. 
4 Description of Eight Species of Brachiopodous Shells from the Palaeozoic Rocks of the Falkland Islands, Quart. 
Journ. Geol. Soc., vol, ii. pp. 274-278, pis. x. and xi., 1846, 
