IN THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN 13 
was favorable to certain large fungus growths on the trees, and used 
as food by the natives. 
The chief constituents of the Magellan forest are the Antarctic 
beech, the evergreen beech,’ and the “ winters bark’® (of the mag- 
nolia order) with laurel-shaped leaves nearly four inches long. A so- 
called cypress'* is conspicuously abundant along the western channels. 
It was new and rich ground for the scientific prospector. The 
naturalists were not to be deterred by the weather, but penetrated the 
narrow side channels in the ship’s boats, shooting, fishing, botanizing, 
shore-collecting at low tide, photographing, hammering mesozoic fos- 
sils from the rocks, digging in the ancient shell-heaps of the aborigines 
and bartering with the natives. 
Suitable beaches for dragging the seines were not easy to find, but 
the sailors usually secured enough smelt and mullet-like fishes for the 
table and a considerable variety of finny oddities for the ichthyol- 
ogist’s alcohol tanks. The naval officers found sport for their trout 
rods, in taking a trout-like fish abundant in the small streams. They 
insisted on calling it a trout, but this peculiar genus, Haplochiton, of 
the austral fresh waters differs noticeably from the boreal fish in lack- 
ing the adipose fin of the true trouts. To the angler it is equally 
gamy. ‘The ichthyologist ignoring the rules of the true sportsman, 
swept many of the best pools with his nets. His “specimens,” it is 
needless to relate, did not appear upon the mess table, much to the 
protest of the anglers. 
Collecting along shore at low tide yielded many interesting inverte- 
brates. A univalve of the genus Concholepas clings to the rocks like 
a limpet. It is as large as a man’s fist and deep enough for a drinking 
cup. J saw one in a canoe where it may have been used as a boat 
bailer. It is also said to be used by the natives as food. The large 
Chilian mussel” is abundant and seems to be the principal item in the 
food supply of the natives. We found it excellent eating and obtained 
specimens fully seven inches long. The handsomest sea shel] of the 
straits is Voluta Magellanica, which reaches a length equal to that of 
the large mussel. . 
The most interesting crustacean was an isopod of the genus Serolis, 
which bears a superficial resemblance to the extinct trilobites and here 
takes the place of our North American horseshoe crab'® as a notable 
zoological type. We obtained specimens of it in many localities along 
shore and also in our dredge hauls. 
We were scarcely prepared to find frogs in this latitude, but four 
™ Fagus antarctica. 
2 Fagus betuloides. 
*% Drimys. 
* Tibocedrus. 
®% Mytilus chilensis. 
*% Limulus polyphemus. 
