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Title: Cruise of the 'Alert'

Author: R. W. Coppinger

Release date: August 16, 2013 [eBook #43483]

Language: English

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Transcriber's Note:
Minor typographical errors and inconsistencies have been corrected
without note, whilst significant amendments have been listed at the
end of the text. Archaic and variant spellings have been retained.











CRUISE OF THE "ALERT."






H.M.S. "ALERT" AT ANCHOR IN TOM BAY, WEST COAST OF PATAGONIA (see p. 42).





CRUISE OF THE "ALERT"


FOUR YEARS IN


PATAGONIAN, POLYNESIAN, AND

MASCARENE WATERS


(1878-82)


BY

R. W. COPPINGER, M.D.

(Staff-Surgeon Royal Navy, C.M.Z.S.)


With Sixteen full-page Woodcut Illustrations from Photographs by

F. North, R.N., and from Sketches by the Author


FOURTH EDITION


LONDON

SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LIM.

PATERNOSTER SQUARE

1899




First Edition, May 1884; Second Edition, January 1885;

Third Edition, May 1885.




[vii]


PREFACE.


In preparing the following pages for the press, I have
endeavoured to give a brief account, divested as much
as possible of technicalities, of the principal points of interest
in Natural History which came under observation during the
wanderings of a surveying ship; while at the same time I
have done my utmost, at the risk of rendering the narrative
disconnected, to avoid trenching on ground which has been
rendered familiar by the writings of travellers who have visited
the same or similar places. And if in a few instances I have
given some rather dry details regarding the appearance and
surroundings of certain zoological specimens, it has been my
intention, by an occasional reference to the more striking forms
of life met with in each locality, to afford some assistance to those
amateurs who, like myself, may desire to avail themselves of the
opportunities afforded by the surveying ships of the British Navy
for performing, although with rude appliances and very few books
of reference, some useful and interesting work.


Large collections of zoological specimens were made, and as
these accumulated on board, they were from time to time sent[viii]
home to the Admiralty, whence they were transmitted to the
British Museum, the authorities of that institution then submitting
them to specialists for systematic description. For much kindly
aid in making these arrangements, as well as for advice and
encouragement received during the progress of the cruise, I am
indebted to Dr. Albert Günther, F.R.S., Keeper of Zoology in the
British Museum.


I take this opportunity to thank Mr. Frederick North, R.N.,
for the use of a collection of photographs which were taken by
him during the cruise under circumstances of peculiar difficulty,
and of which most of the engravings in this work are reproductions.


I am also under obligations to all the other officers for assistance
rendered to me in various ways; and especially to those
officers who acted successively as Senior Lieutenants, for the
consideration with which they tolerated those parts of my
dredging operations that necessarily interfered with the maintenance
of good order and cleanliness on the ship's decks.


Finally, I have to thank my friend, Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe,
the distinguished ornithologist of the British Museum, by whose
advice and encouragement I was induced to submit these pages
to the public, for his assistance in perusing my MS., and offering
some useful suggestions.


R. W. C.




[ix]


TABLE OF CONTENTS.






INTRODUCTION.


PAGE


Object of the Voyage—Former Surveys of Straits of Magellan—Change
of Programme—Selection of Ship—Equipment—Arrangements for
Natural History Work—Change of Captain—List of Officers1-4


CHAPTER I.


Departure from England—Storm Petrels—A Sparrow-hawk at Sea—Collecting
Surface Organisms with Tow-net—Water-kite—Wire
Sounding Apparatus—Land-swallow at Sea—Gulfweed—Phosphorescence
of Sea-water—Arrive at Madeira—Curious Town—Dredging
Work—A Pinery—Discoloured Sea-water—Petrels again—St. Vincent—Cape
de Verde—Pelagic Animals—Sounding near Abrolhos
Bank—Dredging over Hotspur Bank—Dredging over Victoria Bank—Moths
and Butterflies on the Ocean—Extraordinary Vitality of
Sphinx Moths—Arrive at Monte Video—Gauchos—Trip into Interior
of Uruguay—Buenos Ayres—Dr. Burmeister's Museum—Arrive at
the Falklands—"Stone Runs"5-33


CHAPTER II.


We enter Straits of Magellan—Reach Sandy Point—Gold and Coal—Surrounding
Country—Elizabeth Island—Dredging—Fuegians at
Port Famine—We enter Smyth's Channel—Canoe "Portage" at
Isthmus Bay—Arrive at Tom Bay—A Fuegian Family—Trinidad
Channel—Climate of Western Patagonia—Flora—Rock Formation—Soilcap—Natives—The
Channel Tribe of Fuegians—Scarcity of
Old People—Water-birds of Tom Bay—Sea Otters—A Concealed
"Portage"—Habits of Gulls and Shags—Steamer-ducks—Land-shells—Fresh-water
Fish—Deer34-65


CHAPTER III.[x]


Trinidad Channel gouged out by Glaciers—Port Henry—Trumpet-shells—Native
Camp—Wolsey Sound—"Cache Diablo"—"Ripple-marked"
Limestone—Fuegian Burial-place—Marine Animals—Strange
Capture of Fish—Whales Abundant—Exploration of Picton
Channel—Attack on Sealers—Signs of Old Ice Action—"Hailstone"
Rock—Soil motion—We proceed Northward to Refit—English
Narrows—Gulf of Peñas66-80


CHAPTER IV.


Arrival at Valparaiso—War between Chili, Peru, and Bolivia—Sir George
Nares returns to England—Captain Maclear joins—Coquimbo—Shell
Terraces—Trip to Las Cardas—Habits of Pteroptochus—Island
of St. Ambrose—Habits of Petrels—Flight of the Albatross—Santiago
de Chilé—Natural History Museum—Santa Lucia—Church
of La Compania—Heights of Montenegro—A Fly-trap Plant—Copper mines
of Brillador—Peculiarities of Chilian Mines—Talcahuano—Outbreak
of Small-pox—Isla de los Reyes—Shooting a
"Coypo"—Railway Trip to Araucanian Territory—Our Locomotive—Incidents
of the Journey—Fossil Tree-trunk at Quiriquina
Island81-102


CHAPTER V.


We return to Patagonian Waters—Gulf of Peñas—Spring in the Trinidad
Channel—Gephyrean at Cockle Cove—Diving Petrel—Tree Cormorants—Magellan
Kingfisher—A Curious Moss—Wind-swept
Bushes—Gull, Cormorant, and Skua—Examination of Brazo del
Norte—Black-necked Swan—A Sealer's Yarn—Fur-seal Trade—Hardships
of Seal-hunting—Otter Skins—Experiment with Condor—Fuegians
at Tilly Bay—Flaking Glass Arrow-heads—List of Fuegian
Words—The Maranhense—A Magellan Glacier—Native Fish-weirs—The
Magellan Nutria103-126


CHAPTER VI.[xi]


We proceed towards Skyring Water—Otway Water—Canal of Fitzroy
Terrace-levels—Plants and Animals—Bay of the Mines—Previous
Explorers—The Coal Mines—Altamirano Bay—Prospects of the
Settlement—A Seal "Rookery"—Puerto Bueno—We proceed
Northwards—Port Riofrio—Gray Harbour—Sailing for Coast of Chili—Small-pox
amongst the Chilians—Discoloured Sea-water—Habits
of Ant Thrush127-143


CHAPTER VII.


Early History of Tahiti—Otaheite and Tahiti—Its appearance from Seaward—Harbour
of Papiété—Produce—Matavai Bay—Tahiti annexed
to France—Prince Tamitao—Annexation Festivities—King
Pomare V.—Coral growing on Ship's Bottom—Nassau Island—Danger
Islands—Tema Reef—Union Group—Nukunono—Oatáfu—Natives
afflicted with a Skin Disease—Stone Implements—Religious
Scruples—Metal Fish-hooks not appreciated—Capriciousness of
Sharks—Lalla Rookh Bank144-158


CHAPTER VIII.


Arrival at Fiji—Levuka—Ratu Joe comes on Board—Excursion to Bau
in Viti Levu—We visit King Cacobau—A Native Feast—Lalis—Tapa—The
Bure Kalou—Bakola—Old Fijian Atrocities—Double
Canoe—Stone Adzes now becoming rare—Angona Drinking—Sir
Arthur Gordon—Walk across Ovalau—The Kaicolos—An Imprudent
Settler—Pine-apple Cultivation—Periophthalmus—Suva—Site of
Future Capital—Sail towards Tonga Islands—Pelagic Animals—Early
History of Tonga—Missionaries—Nukualofa—A Costly Pair
of Gates—Visit to Bea—Davita—Evidence of Elevation of Island—King
George of Tonga—Wellington Gnu—Curious Stone Monument—Trip
to Village of Hifo—We are entertained by the Natives—Famous
Caves—Eyeless Fish—Swifts behaving like Bats—Searching
for Reefs—Discolouration of Sea-water—Return to Levuka—Voyage
to Australia—Surface Life159-179


CHAPTER IX.[xii]


Refitting Ship at Sydney—Mr. Haswell joins us—We proceed Northwards
along East Coast of Australia—Port Curtis, Queensland—A
"Labour Vessel"—Mr. Eastlake—Marine Fauna abundant—Festivities
at Gladstone—Birds—Percy Islands—Survey of Port
Molle—Queensland Aborigines—"Black Police"—"Dispersing"
Black fellows—Dredging Operations—A Parasitic Shell-fish—Port
Denison—Visit to a Native Camp—Throwing the Boomerang—A
Beche-de-mer Establishment at Lizard Island—Hostility of the
Natives—Drawings by Aborigines at Clack Island—Albany Island,
North-Eastern Australia180-193


CHAPTER X.


Settlement at Thursday Island—Torres Straits Islanders—Pearl-Shell
Fisheries—Value of the Shell—Pearls not abundant—Neighbouring
Islands—Lizards—Land-crab—Land-shells—Ferns—Birds—Booby
Island—Arrive at Port Darwin, North-Western Australia—Submarine
Cables—Trans-continental Telegraph—Palmerston—Northern
Territory Gold-fields—Aborigines at Port Darwin—Marine Fauna—Birds—Geese
perching on Trees194-208


CHAPTER XI.


Voyage from Port Darwin to Singapore—Through the Eastern Archipelago—We
arrive at Singapore—Oceanic "Tiderips"—Bird
Island, Seychelles—Sea-birds on Land—Port Mahé, Seychelles—The
Coco-de-Mer—Gigantic Tortoise—Produce of the Islands—Vanilla—A
Primitive Crushing-mill—Dredging Operations—Periophthalmus—The
Seychelles, of Granitic Structure—We visit
the Amirante Group—African Islands—Abundance of Orbitolites—Crabs
pursued by Eels—Eagle Island—Partridge shooting—Young
Lizards—Darros Island—Casuarinas—Dredging—Poivre Island—Trees
and Shrubs—Isle des Roches—Flora scanty—Land-birds—General
Remarks on the Amirantes as a Group—"Fringing Reefs,"
but no "Barrier Reefs"—Signs of Elevation—Weather and Lee
Sides contrasted209-229


CHAPTER XII.[xiii]


Alphonse Island—Pearl-shell—Providence Island—Method of planting
Cocoa-nuts—Edible Turtle—Flora—Red Coral—Cerf Islets—St.
Pierre—Du Lise Island—Flora and Fauna—Erratic Stones on
Coral Reef—Glorioso Island—We sail for Mozambique Island—And
sight East Coast of Africa—Trade at Mozambique—Inhabitants—Caju—Shells
of Foreshore—The Survey concluded—Homeward
Bound—Cape of Good Hope—Egg of the Epiornis—Arrival
at Plymouth230-245


General Index246


Index of Natural History Terms253






 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.






Facing


H.M.S. "Alert" at anchor in Tom Bay, West Coast of Patagoniatitle


Fuegian and Australian Implements34


Canoe of Channel Fuegians50


Fuegian "Portage" for Transport of Canoes Overland60


Fuegians Offering their Children for Barter65


Our Fuegian Friends at Tilly Bay, Straits of Magellan104


Fuegian Hut at Tilly Bay120


Foot of Glacier, at Glacier Bay, Straits of Magellan124


Fish-hooks of Union Islanders143


Woman of Tahiti144


Fisherman of Tahiti148


King Cacobau of Fiji, Wife, and Ratu Joe160


Totoonga Valley, Ovalau, Fiji166


Ancient Stone Monument at Tongatabu174


Facsimiles of Drawings by Australian Aborigines192


Aborigines of North-West Australia204


"Travellers' Trees" in Gardens at Singapore210


"Copra" Crushing Mill at Seychelles218






[1]


CRUISE OF THE "ALERT."


INTRODUCTION.


In the summer of 1878 it was decided by the Lords of the
Admiralty to equip a vessel for the threefold purpose of
continuing the survey of the Straits of Magellan, of investigating
the nature and exact position of certain doubtful reefs and islands
in the South Pacific Ocean, and of surveying a portion of the
northern and western coasts of Australia. The special object of
the Magellan portion of the work was to make such a detailed
survey of the sheltered channels extending southward from the
Gulf of Peñas to Port Tamar as would enable vessels to pass
from the Straits to the Pacific, and vice versâ, without having to
encounter the wild and inhospitable outer coasts presented by the
chain of desolate islands here fringing the western coasts of South
America. It was also desirable that additional anchorages should
be found and surveyed, where vessels might lie in safety while
waiting for the cessation of a gale, or for a favourable tide to help
them through the straits. The surveys made by the Adventure
and Beagle in 1826-36, and by the Nassau in 1866-9, were
excellent so far as they went, and so far as the requirements of
their times were concerned; but the great increase of ocean
navigation within the last few years had rendered it necessary
that the charts should contain more minute surveys of certain[2]
places which were not formerly of importance. The South Pacific
portion of our survey was to be mainly in connection with the
recently acquired colony of the Fiji Islands, and was to be devoted
to an exploration of the eastern passages leading to this group,
with an investigation of the doubtful dangers reported in the
vicinity of the great shipping tracts. Finally, on completing the
above, and arriving at Australia, we were to spend a year and a
half, or thereabouts, in surveying the line of reefs which fringe
its whole western seaboard, the ill-defined position of which is
a serious obstacle to the now extensive trade between Western
Australia and the Dutch islands of the Malay Archipelago.


The latter part of the orders was subsequently changed, inasmuch
as we were directed to omit the survey of the western
shores of Australia, and were ordered instead, on completing the
North Australian work, to proceed to Singapore, in the Straits of
Malacca, to refit. Thence we were to return home by the Cape
of Good Hope, stopping on our way at the Seychelles, Amirante
Islands, and Mozambique, in order to fix astronomically the
position of the Amirante Group, and, as opportunities occurred, to
take a line of soundings off the east coast of Africa.


The vessel selected for this special service was the Alert, a
man-of-war sloop of 751 tons measurement and 60 horse-power
nominal; and the command of the expedition was given to Capt.
Sir George Nares, K.C.B. By a happy coincidence the same stout
craft which had already done such good service in the Arctic
Expedition of 1875-6, and which bears the honour of having
attained the highest northern latitude, was selected as the ship
in which Sir George Nares was now about to proceed on a
voyage of exploration in high southern latitudes. She was officially
commissioned on the 20th of August, with a complement
of 120 officers and men, her equipments including apparatus
for conducting deep sea sounding and dredging operations, and
a miscellaneous collection of instruments not usually supplied
to H.M.'s ships.


[3]


It being the wish of the enterprising hydrographer of the navy—Captain,
now Sir Frederick Evans, K.C.B.—that the opportunities
which this expedition would afford of making a valuable
natural history collection in regions little known to science should
not be thrown away, and Sir George Nares warmly seconding him
in this wish, the Admiralty determined on appointing as surgeon
an officer who, in addition to his duties as medical officer of the
ship, would be inclined to devote his spare time to the cause
of natural science. Sir George Nares, knowing my fondness
for natural history, with characteristic kindness gave my application
his support, and I had therefore the good fortune to be
appointed as medical officer of the Alert, on the understanding
that (so far as my medical duties permitted) I would not lose
sight of the advantages which would accrue to science from a
collection of natural-history objects illustrative of the fauna and
flora of the countries visited in the course of the voyage.


During the four years over which my narrative extends, many
changes took place in the personnel of the expedition. Scarcely
a year had elapsed from the date of our departure from England,
when we had to regret the loss of Sir George Nares, who left us
at Valparaiso, and returned to England by mail-steamer, in order
to enter upon his duties as Director of the Marine Department
of the Board of Trade. We were fortunate, however, in having
as his successor Captain John Maclear—formerly of the Challenger
exploring expedition—to whom I take this opportunity of expressing
my thanks for the unvarying kindness which I have always
experienced at his hands, as well as for much assistance and
encouragement in the prosecution of our zoological work.


The following is a list of the officers:—


Captain Sir George S. Nares, K.C.B., F.R.S.; succeeded by
Captain John Maclear, F.R.M.S.


Lieut. George R. Bethell; succeeded by Lieut. James Deedes.


Lieut. the Hon. Foley C. P. Vereker; succeeded by Lieut.
George Rooper.


[4]


Lieut. Gordon S. Gunn (subsequently became senior lieutenant).


Nav. Lieut. William H. Petley.


Sub-Lieut. James H. C. East (subsequently served as lieutenant).


Sub-Lieut. Charles W. de la P. Beresford (left the ship at
Singapore).


Staff-Surgeon Richard W. Coppinger, M.D.


Paymaster Frederick North.


Engineer, John Dinwoodie.


Engineer, William Cook.


Boatswain, Alfred Payne.


(Lieut. Grenfell joined the ship at Singapore, and remained
until the close of the commission.)


[5]


CHAPTER I.

FROM ENGLAND TO THE FALKLANDS.


After various delays, owing to defects in machinery, we
finally bade adieu to the shores of England on the 25th
of September, 1878, taking our departure from Plymouth.


On the second day at sea the little storm petrels appeared
over our wake, and accompanied us, off and on, for most of our
way to Madeira. These seemed to be of two kinds, the Thalassidroma
pelagica and Thalassidroma leachii, the latter being sufficiently
recognizable from their having forked tails, in which
respect they differ from other species of the genus. Many attempts
were made to catch them by means of hooks baited with
fat, skeins of thread, etc., but all to no purpose; and I rather
fancy that in this thoroughfare of the ocean the wily creatures
have had too much experience of the arts of man, and are therefore
not to be caught so easily as their more ignorant brethren of
the southern hemisphere.


On the 28th of September, when 155 miles to the westward of
Cape Finisterre, and during a fresh easterly breeze, a sparrow-hawk
made his appearance, at first hovering round the ship, and ultimately
settling on the rigging. It had probably strayed too far
from the shore in the pursuit of some tempting prey, and had then
lost its reckoning, being eventually blown to seaward. At all
events, it had travelled some long distance, as it evinced its
weariness by resting quietly and contentedly on the main-topgallant
rigging, until one of the seamen, who had managed to[6]
climb up unobserved, suddenly laid hands on it. On placing it in
a meat-safe, which we extemporised as a cage, it ate ravenously,
as well it might after its long journey.


When in the latitude of Lisbon, and 180 miles to the westward
of the Portuguese coast, a large "sea-flier" bird paid us a visit,
soaring over the waves in our vicinity, and evidently on the look-out
for garbage from the ship. The plumage of the upper surface
of wings and body was of a dusky brown colour, the under surface
of the body was whitish, and the wings were long and pointed;
in mode of flight he resembled a large tern. He did not long
remain with us, probably not finding it a sufficiently productive
hunting-ground. I may here mention that on the 6th of October,
when a hundred miles from Madeira, we sighted a bird answering
the same description.


All opportunities of plying the tow-net were duly availed of,
but owing to the unusually rapid speed of the ship, these were few.
However, we succeeded in capturing many specimens of living
Foraminifers (mostly of the genus Orbitolites), stalk-eyed Crustaceans,
Radiolarians, an Ianthina, a few Salpæ, and the pretty
little Pteropod Mollusc, the Criseis aciculata, besides many other
organisms which the rapid motion of the net through the water
had rendered unrecognizable. As it is usually found that these
minute pelagic organisms are to be obtained from the surface in
most abundance at night-time, and during the day retreat for
some fathoms from the glare of the sunlight, I constructed a
wooden apparatus on the principle of a kite, which I attached to
the towing line at some three or four yards from the net, and
which had the effect of dragging down the net some yards below
the surface, and then retaining it at a uniform depth. It of
course required to be adjusted each time to suit the required
depth and the rate of the vessel, but it had this great advantage
over the usual system of employing heavy weights, that the strain
not being nearly so great, a light and manageable rope could be
used; and that, moreover, the adjustment for depth could be[7]
readily made by altering the trim of this water-kite. When I
first tried this apparatus, and before I had succeeded in trimming
it satisfactorily, it caused great amusement to the bluejackets by
the playful manner in which it manœuvred under our stern, now
diving deeply towards our rudder post (the shimmer of the white
wood in the deep blue water reminding one of a dolphin), and
now whimsically rising rapidly to the surface with an impetus
that shot it fully six feet out of the water.


On the 4th of October, the captain made some experiments
with the "Lucas deep-sea sounder." It consists of a strong brass
drum carrying 2,000 fathoms of fine steel wire, and fitted with a
cyclometer which registers on a dial the number of fathoms of
wire run out. The sinker, which weighs 20 lbs., is made of lead,
and has at its lower extremity a bull-dog snapper, which, on
striking the ground, shuts up suddenly, so as to enclose a sample
of the sea bottom. The apparatus is supposed to be capable of
sounding to a depth of 500 fathoms in a vessel going 5 knots,
and to 50 fathoms when going 12 knots. It is said to be a
modification of an invention of Sir W. Thompson's. We subsequently
used this largely, and found it to be a most convenient
and expeditious method of sounding to depths of 500 fathoms,
with the ship almost stationary. The wire could be wound up
again while the ship was under way.


During the forenoon of this same day we saw, to our astonishment,
a land swallow, which flew about the ship for a few minutes,
and then went on his way rejoicing. He would have had to travel
254 miles to make the nearest land, which was the island of Porto
Santo.


An erratic fragment of gulfweed (Sargassum bacciferum) was
entangled in the tow-net on the 5th of October, when we were
105 miles north-east of Madeira, a circumstance which is of interest
as regards the distribution of the plant, the locality cited being
considerably beyond the northern limit of the great eddy between
the Gulf Stream and the Atlantic equatorial current, commonly[8]
called the Sargasso Sea. It was encrusted with a delicate white
Polyzoon (Membranipora), and among other organisms carried on
its fronds a pretty little Spirorbis shell, and several entomostracous
Crustaceans of a deep-blue colour.


The phosphorescence of the sea is a trite subject, and one about
which a very great deal has been written; but nevertheless, of its
actual cause, or of the purposes which it is intended to serve, really
very little is positively known. The animals to which it would
seem mainly due are the small stalk-eyed Crustacea, the Pyrocystis
noctiluca, and the Tunicate Molluscs. I have sometimes observed,
when occupied at night in sifting the contents of a tow-net, that
these organisms, as they were being sucked through the nozzle of
the dip-tube, emitted flashes of light, so brilliant, that they could
be distinctly seen even in a well-lighted room. During the voyage
from England to Madeira, the wake of the ship was every night,
with one exception, phosphorescent. The exception alluded to
was on the night previous to our arrival at Madeira, when probably
the unusual brilliancy of the moonlight caused the light-emitting
creatures to retreat a few yards from the surface, as
happens in the day-time. I have often noticed that while the
phosphorescence of the comparatively still water abeam of the
ship and on her quarter usually seems to emanate from large
spherical masses of about a foot in diameter (commonly called
"globes of fire"), yet the luminosity of the broken water in the
vessel's immediate wake comes apparently from innumerable minute
points. I have rarely captured any of the larger jellyfishes in
the tow-net; and on those nights when I have observed the water
lighted up the most brilliantly, the prevailing organisms have proved
to be the small entomostracous Crustaceans.


The morning of the 7th of October broke cool and hazy, as we
steamed up and dropped anchor in Funchal Roads, on the south
side of the island of Madeira. Crowds of native boats, with
their half-naked occupants, quickly thronged around; remaining,
however, at a respectful distance, until the boat containing the[9]
haughty pratique officer came alongside. On the present occasion
this portentous individual was contented with a very superficial
inquiry into our sanitary condition, and after a few formal
questions as to our tonnage, complement of crew, number of guns,
and general condition, shoved off with the laconic exclamation,
"All right!" We soon availed ourselves of this permission to
visit the shore.


The most conspicuous objects in Funchal, as seen from the
anchorage, are the "Loo Rock" (used as a fort and lighthouse), on
the west side of the town, and on the centre of the crescent-shaped
beach which fronts the town a remarkable and lofty cylindrical
tower of dark-brown stone. This tower, we were informed, was
built about the year 1800, and was intended as a support for a
huge crane, which was to facilitate the loading and disembarkation
of the cargo of merchant ships. The tower as it stands is about
eighty feet in height, and as its base is now about forty yards
distant from high-water mark on the beach, as an article of utility
it is quite effete. Our surveyors have ascertained that the land
has not been elevated since the first admiralty surveys. This
they arrive at by a comparison of old and recent charts with
known marks on the shore, and we are therefore inclined to
believe that the beach has been silted up by accumulations of
basaltic rubble brought down by the two adjoining rivers, and
here washed inshore by the sea. The tower is now without any
appearance of the crane, and raises its plain cylindrical body in
gloomy grandeur, reminding one of the old round towers of
Ireland; and, as in their case, its origin will probably some years
hence be veiled in obscurity.


Madeira was considered to be looking unusually dingy, on
account of a long season of drought, rain not having fallen for
nine months. But some two or three days after our arrival a great
religious ceremony took place at the village of Machico, eight miles
to the eastward of Funchal. The object was to offer up prayers for
rain; and, sure enough, two days afterwards, rain fell abundantly!


[10]


During our stay here the dredge was several times brought
into requisition. On the 8th of October, a party, consisting of
the captain, Lieut. Vereker, some seamen, and myself, started in
the steam-cutter on a dredging expedition to the bay of Santa Cruz,
which is distant about eight miles from Funchal. As we steamed
along the coast, we had excellent opportunities of observing the
sections exhibited by the cliffs of the varieties of volcanic rock
of which the upper crust of the island is mainly formed. At Point
Garajas (Brazen Head), of which Lieut. Vereker made a good
sketch, the north-east face of the cliff presents a magnificent dyke—a
nearly vertical seam of dark lava, about three feet in width
and two hundred feet in height, extending from summit to water
line, and sealing up this long fissure in the older trachytic rock of
the head. Farther on, masses of basalt resting unconformably
on variously arranged layers of laterite tuff and trachyte, the
latter in many places honeycombed in weird fantastic caverns,
afforded a fertile subject for geological reveries into the early
history of this now beautiful island. On reaching the bay of
Santa Cruz, we lowered the dredge in thirty-five fathoms, finding,
as we had half anticipated, that it was altogether too heavy to
ride on the mass of sand that here forms the sea bottom. It
buried itself like an anchor, and it was not without great difficulty
that we could succeed in dislodging it. On bringing it up,
we found it to contain some shells of the genera Cardium, Pecten,
Cypræa, Oliva, and Dentalium, a few small Echini, a Sertularian
Polyp, several Annelids—among others, a Nereis—and Alcyonarians.
We returned on board soon after dusk, having spent
a most enjoyable, if not materially profitable, day. On subsequently
dredging in fifty fathoms in the same bay, our work
was more satisfactory; but besides some Crustaceans, an Ophiocoma,
and an Asterias of a brilliant orange colour, obtained few
specimens of any interest. On another day we tried the coast
to the westward of Funchal; and as we moved along in the
steam-cutter, obtained, by means of the tow-net, several specimens[11]
of gulfweed entangling small sponges. The dredge, being put
over in seven fathoms, procured for us many specimens of a
Cidaris, studded with black spines three to four inches long,
and whose oblate spheroidal tests of about two inches diameter
were of a beautiful smalt colour. Off the same coast, in forty
fathoms, the bottom was found to consist of black basaltic sand
crowded with tooth-shells. This fine black sand seemed to form
the sea-bottom along the south coast of the island as far out as
the fifty fathom line, and from our experience does not prove a
favourable berth for our friends the Mollusca and Annulosa.


Among the Crustaceans obtained in the above dredgings was
a species of Glaucothöe new to science, which has since been
described by Mr. E. J. Miers, of the British Museum, under the
title of "Glaucothöe rostrata."


On the afternoon of the 12th of October, in company with
Sir George Nares, and under the guidance of Dr. Grabham, a
British doctor for many years resident in Madeira, we had an
opportunity of inspecting a "pinery," established within the last
two years by a Mr. Holloway, and by which he expects to amass
a considerable fortune. This establishment, which lies to the
north-east of the town, at an altitude of about three hundred
feet, consists of a series of long, low hothouses with sloping glass
roofs, painted white, and facing to the southward, and is heated
entirely by the sun's rays. The material in which the pines are
planted consists of the branches of the blackberry plant chopped
to fragments, and spread out in a thick layer, and in this substitute
for mould the young pines are placed, at intervals of about
eighteen inches apart. They grow to an enormous size, as we
ourselves witnessed; and being cut when they show the least
sign of ripening, and packed carefully in well-ventilated boxes,
are shipped to London, where they fetch prices varying from
twenty-five to thirty shillings each.


Dr. Grabham was kind enough to give us much interesting
information concerning the natural history of the island, which,[12]
from his long experience and constant observation, was most
valuable. He pointed out to us a considerable tract of land in
the vicinity of the town which used to be thickly planted with
vines, but which is now only devoted to the cultivation of sweet
potatoes. During the last seven years the vine crops have been
steadily decreasing, owing to the ravages of the Phylloxera
vastatrix, and wine-making is now at a low ebb. The number
of trees in the island was also rapidly diminishing, owing to
the demand for fuel; and although efforts are made, by the
cultivation of pine forests, to supply that want, the demand yet
exceeds the supply. In a few years Madeira will no longer be,
as its name implies, a land of wood. Although so late in the
season, numbers of flowers were still in full bloom; the Bougainvillea
with its dark-red bracts, and the yellow jasmine adorning
the trellis-work; further up the hill the belladonna lily attracted
attention, and on the heights were the old familiar furze blossoms,
reminding us of the land we had left behind us.


On October 12th we weighed anchor, and proceeded to the
southward. All that night and the following day we steamed
quietly along in smooth water, with a long, shallow ground swell
(of which, however, the old craft took advantage to display her
extraordinary rolling powers), and late in the afternoon, just
before dark, caught sight of Palmas, one of the Canary Islands,
whose peak, 7,000 feet high, loomed conspicuously through a
light bank of clouds. It was distant seventy miles. On the
morning of the 15th we experienced for the first time the
influence of the north-east trade wind, which wafted us along
pleasantly at the rate of about seven knots. Up to this the only
sign of animal life had been a solitary storm petrel, but on the
following day a shoal of flying fish (Exocetus volitans) appeared,
to pay their respects and greet us on our approach to the tropical
zone. During the night, the wind, which had hitherto only
behaved tolerably, fell light; and as the morning of the 17th
dawned, we found ourselves flapping about in almost a complete[13]
calm. There were several merchant vessels in sight, with one
of which, a fine-looking full-rigged clipper ship, we communicated
by signal, when the usual dumb interchange of civilities took
place; she informing us that she was the Baron Collinson, seventeen
days out from Liverpool, and we in return giving the latest
news we were aware of, viz., the failure of the Glasgow Bank.
During the afternoon, a shark, which seemed to be the Squalus
glaucus, hovered about our stern. It was accompanied by at
least four "pilots" (Naucrates ductor), whose conspicuous dark-blue
body stripes showed out in striking contrast to the sombre
hues of the shark, whose body formed the background.


It is during those tropical calms, usually so wearisome to the
seaman, that the lover of natural history reaps his richest harvest.
On the present occasion the tow-net brought up quantities of a
minute conferva consisting of little bundles of delicate straw-coloured
fibres, about one-eighth of an inch in length, and resembling,
on a small scale, the familiar bundles of "faggots" as one
sees them hawked in the streets. Under a high magnifying
power the individual fibres composing these bundles were seen
to consist of jointed segments marked with dots and transverse
striæ as a diatom. When placed in spirit, they at once broke
up into a shapeless fluffy mass. The surface water was thickly
impregnated with them, yet not so as to impart any obvious discolouration.
About dusk the trade wind suddenly returned, and
a heavy shower of rain brought to a close a day of great interest.


On the 18th of October, many of us fore and aft were diligently
expending our ingenuity in fishing for bonitoes, of which several
(apparently the Thinnus pelamis) were to be seen about the ship;
but, to our great chagrin, only one, a small specimen, was captured.
The tow-net still brought up quantities of the conferva before
mentioned, and multitudes of minute unattached specimens of
the Spirorbis nummulites.


On the following day, as we lay all but becalmed, the storm petrels
(Thalassidroma pelagica) appeared in great numbers, settling[14]
on the water close to our stern, in flocks of twelve or fourteen,
and feeding greedily on the rubbish thrown overboard. It seems
that the natural food of these birds (which probably consists of
the minute surface organisms) is not within their reach when the
surface of the water is unbroken, and hence during calms they
are more than commonly anxious to avail themselves of any offal
thrown overboard. It was most interesting to observe the neat and
graceful way in which they plant their webbed feet on the water, as
with outstretched wings and legs erect they maintain a stationary
attitude while pecking at the object of their fancy. They appeared
to scrupulously avoid wetting the tarsi, and still to use the feet
as a means of maintaining a fixed position on the surface of the
water. I had never previously observed those untiring little navigators
at rest in mid-ocean, but on this occasion we all saw them,
with wings closed, floating as placidly on the water as ducks in a
millpond. The old idea of their following ships only before and
during stormy weather is, I believe, now quite exploded. I think
that within the tropics, at all events, they are most numerous in
the vicinity of ships during calm weather. Finding animal life
scarce at the surface, I tried the tow-net sunk to a depth of about
three fathoms, and having previously raked the surface, was enabled
to institute a comparison; the result being that similar species
were captured in both situations, but that a far greater number
of individuals were present in the deeper water. During the day-time
we obtained a number of Crustaceans, several Atlanta shells,
Globigerina bulloides, and the same conferva as on the previous
day. After dark I got a great quantity of highly phosphorescent
Crustaceans, and one small cuttle-fish.


On the 20th the trade wind returned in full force, and the
monotony of an otherwise uneventful day was varied by the
appearance of a shoal of porpoises, which accompanied us for
some time, moving along abreast of us and about two hundred
yards off on our starboard beam, and making themselves conspicuous
by their usual frisky behaviour.


[15]


On the afternoon of the 22nd the high land of San Antonio,
the most northerly of the Cape de Verde Islands, hove in sight,
far away on our starboard bow; but the evening closing in thick
and dark, and this group being almost without lighthouses, the
captain decided on laying-to until next morning. When about
twenty miles off, we received a visit from a good-sized hawk,
evidently out on a foraging tour; he hovered for a while about
our mastheads, reconnoitring our decks, and then soared away.


As we sailed along the east coast of San Antonio (the largest
island of the Cape de Verde group), we observed a small outlying
island rock, composed of closely packed vertical columnar masses
of rock (probably basaltic), which, from their artificial appearance,
reminded one forcibly of the Giant's Causeway, or of the Staffa
Columns. The hills of the main island, which sloped up majestically
from a low rocky beach to peaks five or six thousand feet
high, were clothed with herbage, whose varying tints of green, to
which the shadows of the secondary peaks added dusky patches
of brown, created a most pleasing landscape.


We reached the harbour of Porto Santo, St. Vincent, on the
afternoon of the 23rd of October, and soon after the anchor was
dropped, those of us who could leave the ship proceeded to land.
As we approached the beach, we were greatly struck by a contrivance,
new to most of us, for carrying coals from the yard
where it is stowed to the shipping wharves, a distance of nearly
a quarter of a mile,—a row of posts, like those used for telegraph
wires, placed about four yards apart, and supporting on iron
rollers a long endless wire, to which are hung at intervals large
metal buckets containing the coal. There is an incline from the
depôt to the wharf, and consequently, as the full buckets travel
down to the lower end of the circuit, and are canted so as to
discharge their contents, the empty buckets pass up the incline
back to the coal-yard, and so a circuit is completed. Most of
the large passenger-steamers traversing the South Atlantic find
St. Vincent a convenient place to stop at to replenish their[16]
bunkers, and it is to this coal trade that the island owes its
importance.


After a cursory inspection of the little town, which presented
a very neat and orderly appearance, we strolled out into the
country, following the direction of the western shore of the bay.
The country exhibited a tolerably green appearance, and we
were informed that vegetation had been exceptionally good
during the previous two years, owing to the rainfall having been
much above the average. Of trees of course there were none to
be seen, and of shrubs only a few stunted representatives, scattered
singly or in patches. A species of rank grass, however, flourished,
and here and there a rather stately fungus raised its head as if in
defiance of its otherwise sterile surroundings, the blown sand of
the foreshore supplying sufficient nutriment for its humble wants.
Of dead shells a great variety were picked up on the beach
between tide marks, including representatives of the genera Arca,
Patella, Cardium, Harpa, Littorina, and Strombus; a very perfect
Spirula shell was also noticed. The blown-sand ridges above
high-water mark were everywhere perforated by the burrows of
a very active grey-coloured crab (Remipes scutellatus), whose feet
terminated in sharp incurved claws admirably adapted for the
creature's mining operations. Its burrows extended obliquely
downwards, and to a depth of two feet from the surface of the
blown-sand ridges. A couple of grasshoppers were the only
other additions made on this occasion to our zoological collection.


The afternoon of the next day (24th October) I was enabled
to devote to dredging operations, working over the bay at depths
varying from two to twelve fathoms. From these I obtained
some large and active specimens of a large wing-shell, the Strombus
pugilis, whose gymnastic performances, when subsequently placed
in a vessel of sea-water, excited general interest. Armed with
his long powerful foot, he struck out boldly in all directions, the
operculated extremity acting like a sword blade, and alarming
me for the safety of the seaweeds and other more delicate[17]
organisms which occupied the same vessel. When disposed to
turn about, it protruded the foot so as to half encircle the shell,
and by then rapidly straightening the organ the desired change
of position was effected. It was very interesting to see the
complete control which the animal thus exercised over its heavy
and apparently unwieldy shell. In twelve fathoms of water we
came upon a great quantity of blue-spined Echini, the tangles
of the dredge in one short haul bringing up about two dozen.
Fishing-lines were also brought into requisition, resulting in the
capture of some fishes of a pale crimson colour, belonging to the
blenny family.


In the evening of this day (24th October) we sailed from St.
Vincent. Up to the 29th instant the north-east trade wind
proved fairly propitious, but it now failed us completely; and as
we were at this time in latitude 8° N., and there were otherwise
unmistakable indications of our having arrived at the "Doldrums"
(the region of equatorial calms), steam was had recourse to.
Under this artificial stimulus we proceeded at a rate of from five
to six knots, a speed unfortunately too great for the use of
the tow-net; and on this occasion the circumstance was all the
more vexatious, as the surface water seemed peculiarly rich in
animal life. Ultimately, however, determining on sacrificing some
bunting in the cause of science, I put a tow-net over the stern,
and the captain aided me materially by towing from the end of
the lower studding-sail boom a ten-foot trawl-net. Between the
two we succeeded in capturing some water insects of the genus
Halobates, several beautiful large Ianthinæ, but unfortunately
with their fragile shells partly broken and severed from their
rafts; also a Physalia, a small free-swimming Actinia, some
discophorous Medusæ, and several Pteropod Molluscs of the
genus Hyalea. For several consecutive days the surface water
after dusk was thronged with the above-mentioned Medusæ, whose
tough gelatinous discs, of three inches diameter, continually
clogged up the meshes of the tow-net. On the 2nd of November[18]
we obtained some Globigerina forms, several Crustaceans, some
minute Pteropods of the genus Cuvieria, and a host of minute
Confervæ, of the kind met with previously to the northward of
Madeira. On the afternoon of the 5th of November, when we
were about a hundred miles from St. Paul's Rocks, we noticed
that the little petrels, which for weeks had accompanied us in
great numbers, were now feebly represented, and in the evening
were completely gone. Perhaps they had found out their proximity
to terra firma, and were gone for a run on shore. It is
very strange how these birds, which follow ships over the ocean
for thousands of miles, can manage to time their journeys so as to
reach land for their breeding season. That the same individuals
do follow ships for such great distances we have good evidence;
for Captain King, in his voyage of the Adventure and Beagle,
mentions a case in which the surgeon of a ship, coming home
from Australia, having caught a Cape pigeon (Daption capensis),
which had been following the ship, tied a piece of ribbon to it
as a mark, and then set it free. The bird, recognized in this way,
was observed to follow them for a distance of no less than 5,000
miles.


From the last date to the 9th of November, but little of interest
occurred. One day a petrel (Thalassidroma pelagica) had been
caught with a skein of thread; and on opening the body the
crop was found to contain a number of stony particles, bits of
cinders, minute shells, and otolites of fishes. In the tow-net we
caught a number of Rhizopods, of 1⁄20 inch diameter, which kept
continually unfolding and shutting up their bodies in telescopic
fashion. When quiescent, the animal is egg-shaped, and about
the size of a mustard seed; but when elongated, it is twice that
length, and exhibits a tubular sort of proboscis armed with an
irregular circle of vibrating cilia. We also obtained a Pteropod
resembling the Criseis aciculata, an Ianthina, and some hyaline
amœbiform bodies, which were entirely beyond my powers of
recognition. On the following day we got more of the pretty[19]
violet shells (Ianthina fragilis), several Crustaceans, including a
large and perfect Glass-crab (Phyllosoma), and several large Salpæ
and Medusæ.


On the 12th of November we entered the north limit of our
surveying ground, being in latitude 17° S., and in the vicinity of
the Abrolhos Bank. Here, in latitude 17° 18′ S., longitude 35° 34′
W., we made a cast with Bailie's deep-sea sounding apparatus;
reaching bottom in 1,975 fathoms, and finding it to consist of
"Globigerina mud," of a pasty tenacity, tinged with red, and
containing a great mass of Globigerina tests, whole and fragmentary.
Later in the day, when in latitude 17° 32′ S., longitude
35° 46′ W., we again sounded, getting bottom in 700 fathoms,
and bringing up a sort of light-grey ooze. Towards evening we
struck soundings in thirty-five fathoms, over the Hotspur Bank.
There we made a successful haul of the dredge, finding the bottom
composed of dead coral encrusted with Nullipores, Polyzoa, and
slimy Algæ, and containing in its crevices some Crustaceans of
the genera Actæa and Corallana, and a few Annelids. The stony
masses of coral which we brought up were pierced in all directions
by boring molluscs; and one specimen of a long elaborately
woven sponge (which has since been described by Mr. S. O.
Ridley, of the British Museum, as a new variety of Cladochalina
armigera) was found attached to a lump of coral.


The next day we sounded in latitude 18° 4′ S., longitude
36° 1′ W., using the Lucas wire sounder. We reached bottom
in 300 fathoms, the bull-dog apparatus bringing up fragments of
coral rock encrusted with calcareous Algæ. In the afternoon we
passed into deeper water, sounding over the Globigerina ooze
area, in 1,395 and 2,025 fathoms. The surface water again
exhibited the same conferva-like bodies which were so abundantly
obtained near Madeira. The Pyrocystis noctiluca was
also largely represented; and in the evening the tow-net was
found to contain small cuttle-fish, some dead spirorbis shells,
specimens of the Criseis aciculata, Cleodora pyramidata, and of[20]
a species of Hyalea, and a thick fleshy Pteropod, a species of
Pneumodermon, small globe fishes, many long, transparent, stalk-eyed
Crustaceans, and other minute members of the same class
of Arthropoda.


On the 14th of November we sounded in latitude 19° 43′ S.,
longitude 36° 5′ W., the bottom consisting of a pale chocolate-coloured
tenacious mud. Towards evening we reached the position
of the Montague Bank, which is indicated on the chart as a bank
about three miles long, and in one part covered by only thirty-six
fathoms of water. We sounded for this bank repeatedly,
but in vain, nowhere getting bottom with 470 fathoms of line.
The ship was now allowed to drift during the night-time, soundings
being made from time to time; and towards morning we
filled our sails to a northerly breeze, and stood on for the Victoria
Bank. In the afternoon we met with a large school of sperm whales
(Physeter macrocephalus), displaying to advantage, as usual, their
huge cylindrical snouts, and alternately their great spreading tails;
this circling exercise appearing to be a favourite amusement of theirs.


On reaching the Victoria Bank, we hauled the dredge in thirty-nine
fathoms, but dropping on a rugged coral bottom, the bag
was torn to pieces; however, the tangles contained numbers of an
oval-shaped sponge, varying in length from a quarter of an inch
to an inch, and studded with beautiful glassy spicules (determined
by Mr. Ridley to be a new species of Chalina), and also numbers
of the genera Vioa, Nardoa, Aphroceras, and Grantia. Among
Polyzoa, the genera Canda, Membranipora, Cribrillina, Gigantopora,
Rhyncopora, Smittia, and Cellepora were represented. Our operations
in the Abrolhos region being now at an end, we shaped a
course for Monte Video.


On the 22nd of November, when we were a hundred miles
from the Brazilian coast, and in about the latitude of Rio, great
numbers of moths appeared, hovering about the ship, and settling
on the rigging. The wind was at the time blowing freshly from
the westward; but the moths appeared, strange to say, as if[21]
coming up from the south-eastward. Conspicuous among them
by their great numbers as well as by their formidable appearance,
were the Sphinx moths. These large insects seemed gifted
with marvellous powers of flight; for although the wind amounted
to a fresh breeze, I noticed that they were not only able to hold
their own, but even to make headway against it. We concluded,
however, that nearer in shore the wind was much stronger, perhaps
reaching us so as an upper current, and that it had consequently
blown them off the land. Later in the day the Lepidoptera
were represented in still greater variety, so that altogether the
ship exhibited an unusually sportive appearance; men and officers
alike striking out with their caps here and there, as they pursued
the objects of their fancy. In the course of the day I collected
no less than seventeen species, of which fourteen were moths, and
the remainder butterflies. As illustrating the great tenacity of
life of the Sphinx moths, I may mention that, in the case of one
refractory individual, it was only after employing all the deadly
resources at the time at my command, viz., prussic acid, ammonia,
oxalic acid, chloroform, crushing the thorax, etc., that I could
succeed in removing all the ordinary manifestations of life.
However, as, after long incarceration in a bottle filled with the
fumes of chloroform, he at length appeared to have succumbed, I
proceeded to remove the contents of his large fleshy body. This
done, I filled in the body with cotton wadding, and placing the
specimen on one side, proceeded to operate on another. But no
sooner had I put down the specimen thus prepared, than it proceeded
to kick about in a most vigorous way, and otherwise gave
unmistakable signs of vitality. On turning it on its legs, it
crawled about, clung to my finger, and seemed to imply that
it could get on just as well with a cotton interior as with the
whole complicated apparatus of intestine and so forth, which it
had given me so much trouble to remove.


It was a strange coincidence, that among the contents of the
tow-net on this occasion was a large black Chrysalis. It also[22]
contained a great number of little phosphorescent spheres, which,
under a high magnifying power, proved to be similar to the bodies
described by Sir Wyville Thompson, under the term Pyrocystis
noctiluca. On the same day we entered the Albatross region, one
large white bird (Diomedea exulans) and several sooties (Diomedea
fuliginosa) soaring around our ship. Some land-birds were also
seen, one of which, a species of finch (?) was captured and
preserved.


On the 24th of November we approached within eighty miles of
the Brazilian coast, and on getting soundings in forty-eight fathoms,
immediately put the dredge overboard. The hempen tangles contained
starfishes of three or four species, and the bag brought up
a mass of bluish tenacious mud, which, on sifting, was found to
contain some Crustaceans and tube-building Annelids, and many
small shells, living and dead, of the genera Dentalium, Hyalea,
Arca, and others. About the same time a turtle was observed
floating on the water.


On the forenoon of the 26th, land—the coast of Uruguay—was
in view on our starboard beam, a long low line of beach, whose
uniform outline was broken by a conspicuous tall lighthouse, which
stamped the locality as Cape Santa Maria. A few hours later
we obtained a view of Lobos Island, a bare-looking uninviting
mass of rock, situated just off Maldonado Point; and as we now
fairly entered the estuary of the Plate, a number of large gulls
(apparently of the genus Dominicanus) joined us, eagerly picking
up any offal cast overboard.


We arrived at Monte Video on the 27th of November, and
stayed until the 14th of December, during this time making
several trips into the country.


On one occasion I went by train to a place called Colon,
about ten miles to the N.W. of Monte Video. Starting from the
central station of the Northern Railway, I took my seat in a clean
well-fitted carriage, with two other passengers, one of whom, my
vis-à-vis, might have realized one's ideas of a Guy Fawkes. In the[23]
course of the journey, this individual somewhat surprised me by
diving his hand into a back coat pocket, and producing therefrom
a formidable-looking silver-sheathed dagger, which, however, to
my relief, he quietly laid down beside him on the seat, perhaps
that he might the more conveniently stretch himself out; possibly
because he thought me a suspicious companion, and wished to
show in time that he was not unprepared in case of an attack.


About Colon the country was open enough, presenting to the eye
a great bare tract of weedy-looking land varied by gently undulating
hills, and studded with oxen innumerable; the farm-houses,
low structures disposed about half a mile apart, hardly breaking
the monotony of the landscape. Here and there a gaily caparisoned
Gaucho cantered about, apparently without any fixed object,
except to enjoy his liberty, and gave a picturesque character to
the scene. These Gauchos are really fine-looking fellows, well
mounted, and most excellent horsemen. They have about them
a certain air of well-fed contentment, which, in spite of their known
ferocity, almost elicits admiration. It is a popular error to apply
the term "Gaucho" indiscriminately to all the horse-riding community
of the lower classes, for the term is properly only applicable
to those homeless wandering horse-riders whose sole worldly
possession consists of a horse and its trappings, who roam about
from place to place, picking up whatever they can appropriate by
fair means or foul, and who, consequently, do not enjoy a very high
reputation among the settled inhabitants. The word "Gaucho" is
looked upon as a term of reproach, and an honest, self-respecting
peasant so addressed would reply, "No, Señor, no soy Gaucho, soy
Paysano." By a clever stroke of policy the present dictator of
Uruguay, Señor Letore, has almost succeeded in putting a stop
to the infamous practice of "cattle lifting," formerly so common
among the "Gauchos." Their equipment usually includes a long
strip of hide, ostensibly carried as a tether for the horse, but
frequently turned to account as a lasso. A law has now been
enacted, and is rigidly enforced, restricting the length of this rope[24]
to five "brazeros," i.e., five arm spans; and as it is in consequence
much too short to answer the purpose of a lasso, these mounted
tramps are no longer able to capture stray bullocks for the sole
pleasure of gouging out the tongue as a dainty dish. Indeed, a
gentleman of Durazno, for many years resident in the country,
informed me that it was now no uncommon thing to see a Gaucho
carrying a hempen rope instead of a thong, the want of a lasso
leaving him without the means of helping himself to a cowhide.


About Colon the prevailing plants were a large thistle and a
purple-flowered Echium, and these so predominated as at a distance
to seem to cover the entire surface of the ground. A light fall of
rain, and a puffy breeze, combined to make it a bad day for insect
hunting, and accordingly very few of these creatures were seen or
captured. Of birds, the cardinal grosbeak, partridges, and pigeons,
were abundant.


Some days subsequently we received, through the courtesy of
the directors of the railway company, permission to travel free
to the extremity of their line, and of this indulgence we availed
ourselves so far as to make a trip to Durazno, the northern terminus
of the railway. Accordingly, a party consisting of the captain
and four of us ward-room officers started by a train leaving the central
terminus at seven in the morning. This railway, which has been
for eleven years in existence, and for a long time struggling against
unfavourable circumstances (rebellion and so forth), is now gradually
assuming a prosperous condition, and has been extended so
far that it now pierces the republic of Uruguay in a northern
direction, to a distance of 128 miles from Monte Video. As we
emerged from the precincts of the town, and passed through a
hamlet called "Bella-Vista," on the shores of the bay, we noticed
here and there woods of the eucalyptus tree growing in great luxuriance
to a height of eighty and even a hundred feet, the foliage of
adjoining trees being so interlocked as to afford considerable patches
of shelter from the sun's rays. Sir George Nares, who has had
some experience of these trees in Australia, where they are indigenous,[25]
said that he had rarely seen them clad with so dense a
foliage. We were told that these trees had been imported and
planted only twelve years previously; yet such is their rapidity of
growth, that they are now of the magnitude of forest trees. On
reaching a distance of about twelve miles from Monte Video, the
number of trees (none of which, except the willows, were indigenous)
had so far decreased, that the few solitary representatives which
dotted the landscape served only to render the paucity of the race
the more remarkable. The surface configuration of the land was
everywhere the same—a gently undulating grass-covered plain,
where the depths from crest to hollow averaged about thirty feet,
admitting a range of vision of about twelve miles from the summit
of each rise. Of ravines, fissures, or gullies, there were none; and
as the railway track had evaded the difficulties of levelling by
pursuing a most meandering course, not even a cutting was to be
seen to afford means for arriving at a geological examination of
the district. About the station of Independencia, rock was to be
seen for the first time, consisting of a coarse-grained (apparently
felspathic) granite, showing itself through the alluvial soil in the
shape of low rounded masses, or as boulders disseminated in
streams directed radially from the outcropping source. At the
next station, appropriately named "Las Piedras" (the stones), the
rock was in greater proportion; and during the remainder of our
journey north, perhaps once in every ten miles, the wide expanse
of grass-land would be varied by an odd-looking outcrop of granite.
Stone was evidently a rare commodity in these parts, most of the
huts being built of sticks and mud.


As far as Santa Lucia, a station about forty miles from Monte
Video, the land (divided into fields by hedgerows of aloes) was
studded thickly enough with large prickly thistles of a very
coarse description; but to the northward of this position the
prominent features of the landscape underwent a change. Trees
disappeared altogether, and except along the river banks, where
some bushes resembling bog-myrtle eked out an existence, no[26]
shrubs were to be seen. Thistles were still present, but in very
small numbers, and indeed there was little to meet the eye but
a wide expanse of grass-land dotted here and there with herds
of oxen, sheep, and horses (which seemed in very small proportion
to the acreage), and exhibiting, at distances of about
two miles apart, small one-storied huts. For ploughing and
other agricultural work, oxen seemed to be used, to the exclusion
of horses; which is all the more strange, as the latter here exist
in great abundance, and are so cheap as to create that equestrian
peasantry which to a European visitor is, I think, the most striking
characteristic of the country.


As one of the up-trains passed by us at the station of Joashim
Suarez, we noticed several trucks piled up with ox skulls and
other bones, and on enquiry ascertained that they were for
exportation to England, to be used in sugar-refining factories:
the bones were piled up so high on the trucks as to tower
above the engine, so that as the train approached us end-on,
they formed a ghastly sort of figure-head.


At Santa Lucia the train stopped half an hour for refreshments,
and all hands adjourned to an hotel close by the railway
station, where a good breakfast, consisting of many courses
(including beefsteak and potatoes), was satisfactorily disposed of.
The charge for this repast was moderate, being only six reals =
3s. 6d. a head.


Of birds a great many were to be seen as we travelled along.
Looking forward from the carriage windows, we could see ground
doves of a dull slate colour, rising from the track, and sheering
off to either side in great flocks, as the train advanced. A
species of lapwing, with bluish-grey plumage barred with white
across the wings, and displaying a pair of long red legs, kept
us continually alive to its presence by its harsh double cry.
Partridges were also abundant. These birds are strictly preserved
all over Uruguay, and during the breeding season, from September
to March, no shooting of any kind is allowed without special[27]
permission. We saw one flock of ostriches stalking about
unconcernedly among the cattle. We were subsequently told
that the ostriches in this district were all allowed to run wild,
the value of the feathers not repaying the cost of farming.
Of deer, the largest indigenous mammal, we saw only one
individual, browsing quietly among a herd of cattle. They are
allowed to come or go as they please, not being sought after
or utilized by the inhabitants.


On arriving at Durazno we were most hospitably received and
entertained by Mr. Ware, the engineer of the railway, under
whose guidance we inspected the sights of this dilapidated
country town, and then proceeded to explore the banks of the
river Yi, a tributary of the Rio Negro, where a great variety
of animal life was to be seen. There was here a large lagoon
bordered with low bushes, a favourite haunt of the largest
living rodent, the capybara or "carpincho," as the natives
call it, and also largely stocked with birds. Snipe and dottrel
were here so tame as to allow one to approach within a few
yards of them. In the course of the day we had the good
fortune to meet a Mr. Edye, an Englishman, who, during thirteen
years' residence in the Plate, had acquired a considerable insight
into the natural history of the country. He told us that a great
variety of birds inhabit the low bushes of the "Monte" (as
they call the shallow valley of the river), including three species
of the cardinal, one humming bird, the calandria or South
American nightingale, etc. With reference to the tucutuco
(Ctenomys), he assured us, contrary to the opinion expressed by
Dr. Darwin, in his "Journal of a Naturalist," as to the animals
never coming to the surface, that the little rodents were commonly
to be seen near their holes about the time of dusk, and that
they invariably retreated to the burrows on the near approach
of a human being. He considered it almost impossible to catch
them, but had no doubt about their habit of coming to the
surface. As we strolled along the river banks, we saw and[28]
captured a black snake about two and a half feet long, which
was swimming gracefully from bank to bank, with its head
elevated about two inches from the top of the water. We also
got some living specimens of a river mussel, which is here used
as fish bait.


Everywhere among the English-speaking community we heard
the same gloomy accounts of the dulness of trade, arising from
the yet unsettled state of the country. All agreed that the
present Dictator was managing the country admirably, but expressed
their fears that he would some day be "wiped out," as
others had been before him, and that the country would again
relapse into a state of anarchy and brigandage.


Some days later I had an opportunity of visiting Buenos
Ayres, the capital of the Argentine Republic, situated on the
opposite or south shore of the river Plate. Accompanied by
Lieut. Gunn, I started from Monte Video on the evening of the
9th of December, taking passage on board one of the river-steamers
(Villa de Salto), then plying daily between the two
cities. The distance, 120 miles, is usually traversed at night-time,
and in this arrangement sight-seers lose nothing, as, owing
to the lowness of the banks and the great width of the river, the
opposite shores are barely visible from a position in mid-channel.
Our fellow-passengers, about eighty in number, represented
Spanish, Italian, and English nationalities, and among the latter
we were fortunate enough to meet two gentlemen residing in
the country, to whom, as well as to the captain, a jovial, hospitable
American, we were indebted for much interesting information
concerning the men and manners of the country. After
dinner—a long, ponderous affair—had been disposed of, a general
dispersion took place, the gentlemen to smoke, and the ladies
to their cabins; but in an hour or so the latter again appeared
in the saloon, arrayed in evening dress of a more gay and airy
character than that worn at dinner, and they now applied themselves
diligently to the luxury of maté drinking. The fluid[29]
known as maté is an infusion of the leaves of the Ilex paraguayensis,
commonly called Paraguay tea, and is usually sucked
through metal tubes about ten inches long, from a gracefully
carved globular wooden receptacle about the size of an orange.
One stock of "yerba" seemed to stand a great many waterings
and sugarings, the necessary manipulations for which furnished
the ladies with a suitable occupation. It was amusing to watch
the eagerness with which the latter sucked away at their maté
tubes, the attitude reminding one of a boy using a decoy whistle.


We anchored off the town of Buenos Ayres at an early hour
the next morning, and here the inefficiency of the landing arrangements
were made unpleasantly manifest. Three different means
of locomotion were resorted to, in order to convey us from the
steamer to the shore. We were pulled in a small boat for a
portion of the way; then, as the boat grounded, the rowers got
out, and, wading alongside, dragged it on for a few hundred yards
more. We were then transferred, with our baggage, to a high-wheeled
cart, drawn by two horses, which brought us through the
last quarter of a mile of shallow water fringing the shore. The
cost of effecting a landing was no inconsiderable item in the
expense of our trip, and was moreover one calculated to prejudice
unfavourably one's first impression of Buenos Ayres.


After securing rooms at the Hotel Universal, and breakfasting
at the Strangers' Club, where we were most kindly received by
the secretary, Mr. Wilson, we proceeded in search of the museum,
so celebrated for its collection of fossil remains of the extinct
South American mammals, arranged under the direction of
Dr. Burmeister. We found the learned Professor enveloped in
white dust, and busily engaged in restoring with plaster of Paris
the spinous process of the vertebra of one of his specimens; and
on explaining the object of our visit, he kindly drew our attention
to the principal objects of interest in his collection. This museum
has already been fully described, and I need hardly allude to the
splendid specimens which it possesses of the Glyptodon, Machairodont,[30]
Toxodon, Mylodon, and other fossils; its beautiful specimens
of the Chlamydophorus retusus (a mole-like armadillo), the
leathery turtle (Sphargis coriacea), the epiodon, etc. The Professor
pointed with great pride to a recent specimen of armadillo,
with the young one attached to its hind-quarters in a peculiar
manner.


On the same day we inspected the Anthropological Museum,
which is in a large building in the Plaza Victoria, opposite the
old market, where we saw a fine collection of Tehuelche and
Araucanian skulls, recently made by Señor Moreno in his travels
through Patagonia. Among others was the skull of "Sam Slick,"
a son of the celebrated Casimiro, the Patagonian cacique, so well
known for many years in the vicinity of Magellan Straits. We
also saw a mummified specimen of a Patagonian, recently found
in a cave at Punta Walichii, near the head waters of the Santa
Cruz river.


In the course of the day we called upon Mr. Mulhall, the
enterprising and courteous editor of the Buenos Ayrean Standard,
and from him we acquired much valuable information as to the
condition of the country. On taking up the Standard next
morning, we found ourselves treated to an editorial notice chronicling
our visit to the Argentine capital, and referring to the
past and present services of H.M.S. Alert.


Coming fresh from so neat and trim a town as Monte Video,
Buenos Ayres was not to be expected to impress one very
favourably. It seemed, indeed, to be a great straggling town that,
having arrived at a certain degree of civilization, had now for
some years back considered itself entitled to rest on its laurels,
and gradually fall into decay. Streets, plazas, and tramways were
in a wretched state of neglect; and such were the great ruts which
time and traffic had made in the streets, that baggage-carts
might be seen brought to a dead lock, even in the principal
thoroughfares. Buenos Ayres can boast of several fine old
public buildings, among which the cathedral, with its classic[31]
front, stands pre-eminent; and although there are some fine
pieces of modern architecture, such as the Bolsa, or Exchange, the
latter are so stowed away among lofty houses in narrow streets,
that they require to be specially looked for to be noticed at
all. I must qualify the above observations by mentioning that
these are the impressions of only two days' sojourn in Buenos
Ayres.


Some days later, His Excellency the Governor of the Falkland
Islands (Mr. Callaghan) and his wife arrived at Monte Video, en
route for his seat of government; and as the sailing schooner, which
was the only regular means of communication between Monte
Video and the Falklands, was then crowded with passengers, the
Governor gladly accepted Sir George Nares's kind invitation to
take him as his guest on board the Alert.


We left Monte Video on the 14th of December, and on the
26th, amid a furious storm of wind and hail, anchored in Stanley
Harbour, Falkland Islands. Here we found that the great topic of
conversation was a landslip of peat, which had occurred about a
month previous to our arrival, laying waste a portion of the little
settlement. On the summit of a hill above the east end of the
town, a circular patch of turf, about two hundred yards in diameter,
had collapsed; and at the same time a broad stream, four feet
high, of semi-fluid peat, flowed down the hillside to the sea, in
its course sweeping away walls and gardens, and partly burying
the houses. This phenomenon, occurring at night, caused great
consternation among the inhabitants of such an uneventful little
place; but after the people had shaken themselves together
somewhat, and recovered from their surprise, they found that
after all no great damage had been done. The appearance of the
peat avalanche, as seen from the ship, was very peculiar, and in
many respects the whole occurrence resembled a lava flow.


On the evening of our arrival, we were most hospitably entertained
at Government House, where we had also the pleasure of
meeting all the rank and fashion of this part of the colony.


[32]


The next day, being fine, I determined to devote to an inspection
of the "stone runs," which have been rendered so famous
in the geology of the Falklands by the writings of Darwin,
Wyville Thompson, and others. In this excursion I was fortunate
in having the assistance of Dr. Watts, the colonial surgeon,
a gentleman who, from his long experience of the group, was
well acquainted with all the salient points in its natural history.
The "run" which we visited lay in the hollow of a winding
valley, situated about two miles to the westward of the settlement
of Stanley. The rocks, heaped together confusedly, formed a
so-called "stone river," varying in width from fifty to two hundred
yards, and extending up the valley as a single "stream" for about
one mile and a half, to a point where it seemed as if originated
by a confluence of tributary streams flowing from the surrounding
hills. The stones, composed of quartzite, presented a roughly
rounded appearance, which was seemingly due to excessive
weathering; and they were so covered with lichens, as to appear
of a uniform grey colour. Those which lay below the surface
were of a rust colour, and, by all accounts, the upturned stones
required an exposure of many years to assume the uniform grey
tint of the surface layer. The margin of the "run" was distinctly
defined by an abrupt edge of swampy soil, with its tangled
vegetation of diddle-dee, tea-plant, and balsam bog. Now, why
are the stones of the "run" so entirely destitute of soil? and
why do they exhibit a margin so sharp and well defined, yet
without the elevated, rounded appearance of a river bank? Sir
Wyville Thompson's theory, it seems to me, falls short of explaining
this. I have as yet seen too little of the country to justify
me in forming a fixed opinion; but I am, so far, inclined to
think that these "streams of stones" are of a date anterior to the
existence of peat on the island, and that the peat has been
approaching the valleys from the elevated land by growth and
slippage, and in its descent has encountered difficulty in obtaining
a footing in those places where the stones are large, and being[33]
heaped to a great depth, act like a gigantic drain, and so prevent
any soil from forming. As far as I can ascertain, no attempt
has ever been made to estimate the rate of movement (if any) of
these "runs," and there is no evidence whatever of their motion
during the present century. There is not sufficient land comprised
by the watershed to form torrents capable of removing the
dense mass of peaty soil, which, according to Sir W. Thompson's
theory, would have been necessary for the transportation of the
large blocks of stone that are here accumulated. The inhabitants
remark, and I think with truth, that the summits of the hills and
the upper slopes are as a rule more wet and boggy than the
hollows below. This supports my view of the drainage being
greatest in the valleys where the big stones were originally packed
to a greater depth, and towards which the peat is now encroaching.
It is worthy of remark that the surface of the stream is
tolerably flat, and does not indicate a process of accumulation by
flow from either side.


To Dr. Watts, my guide on this occasion, I was also indebted
for a skin of the Falkland Island fox, an animal now almost
extinct, a skull of the sea elephant, and a dried specimen of
the petrel, which is known here as the "fire bird," from its
habit of dashing itself against the lantern of the lighthouse, at
whose base dead specimens are occasionally found.


[34]


CHAPTER II.

EXPERIENCES IN PATAGONIA.


We left the Falkland Islands on the evening of the 27th,
and sailed to the westward. On the morning of the 1st
of January, 1879, we entered the eastern entrance of the Straits
of Magellan, passing within easy sight of Cape Virgins and
Dungeness Point. As we approached the latter, we noticed
a herd of guanacos browsing quietly near the beach, as if
a passing ship were an object familiar to their eyes. This, our
first impression of the famous Straits, was certainly favourable.
A winding channel, the glassy smoothness of whose surface was
only broken by the splashing of cormorants, steamer-ducks, and
other sea-birds, stretched away to the westward. On the north
side were the low undulating plains of Patagonia, covered with
their summer mantle of greenish-yellow vegetation; while to
the southward a few widely separated wreaths of blue smoke,
ascending from the gloomy shores of Tierra del Fuego, marked
out the dwelling-place of one of the most remarkable varieties
of the human species. Favoured by the tide, we passed rapidly
through the first Narrows, and at 6.30 in the evening had got
as far as Cape Gregory. Here the flood-tide setting strongly to
the westward, fairly brought us to a standstill, so we steamed in
towards the north shore, and anchored close under Cape Gregory.
A party of us who were bent on exploring soon landed, and proceeded
in various directions in quest of game, and in the few
remaining hours of daylight we succeeded in getting several[35]
ducks, some small birds, and a young fox. The ground was for
the most part covered with a sort of rank grass, through which
bushes of the Berberry, Empetrum rubrum, and Myrtus nummularia,
grew luxuriantly. A very pretty dwarf calceolaria was also
abundant. The only quadruped seen was a fox, but the tucutucos
(Ctenomys) must have been very numerous, for the ground was
riddled in all directions by their burrows. Some of our party,
who strolled along the beach towards Gregory Bay, found a small
settlement of Frenchmen, who, it seemed, had recently come out
here to try their hands at farming. After our arrival on board,
one of the men brought me a specimen of a Myxine, which
had come up on his fishing line, not attached to the hook, but
adhering by its viscid secretion to the line at some distance
above the hook. Of this curious fish I subsequently obtained
many specimens in the western Patagonian channels.




FUEGIAN IMPLEMENTS 1-7.—AUSTRALIAN "WOOMERAHS" 8-11.


1. Stone Axe-head. 2. Bark Bucket. 3. Bone harpoon head. 4. Glass Spear-head. 5. Bone Spear-head used in fishing. 6. Glass-tipped
Arrow. 7. Bow. 8. "Woomerah" or Throwing-stick, used by natives of Torres Straits. 9, 10. 11. "Woomerahs" used by
Aborigines of North-West Australia.


We got under way again before daylight, and about eight
in the morning we arrived at Sandy Point. This interesting
little Chilian settlement was established in the year 1843, and
although a great portion of it was burnt to the ground during
the mutiny of 1877, it yet shows signs of ultimately becoming
a place of considerable importance. Great credit is due to the
Chilian Government for their perseverance in maintaining a
settlement in this wild region, notwithstanding the sad fate of
the colony which was established by Sarmiento in 1580, at a
bay to the westward of Sandy Point, which he named "Bahia
de la Gente." On Sarmiento's return, eight years subsequently,
it was discovered that nearly all the colonists had perished of
starvation. That bay has since been called Port Famine. Of
late years the Straits of Magellan have been largely availed of by
men-of-war and merchant-steamers. Two lines of mail-steamers,
viz., the P.S.N.C. and the Kosmos line, now run bi-monthly
through the Straits; and as all these vessels touch regularly at
Sandy Point, the colonists are kept in frequent communication
with the rest of the civilized world. For some years after[36]
its foundation the population consisted mainly of convicts, undergoing
penal servitude, who were kept in control by a small
garrison; but since the mutiny of November 1877, the importation
of convicts has ceased, and as a consequence labour has become
scarce. At the time of our visit there were 1,100 inhabitants,
including the garrison, which now consists of 120 men, rank
and file, all of whom are armed with the Winchester repeating
rifle.


The country possesses at least two great sources of mineral
wealth, viz., gold and coal. When the coal mines were first
established, sanguine ideas were entertained of their successful
working. But commercial difficulties arose. The company
who were working the mines became involved in a lawsuit,
which, whatever may have been the rights of the case, has at
all events put a stop to mining operations; and at the time
of our visit the railway leading to the mine seemed to be going
to decay; and the rolling stock, in a disjointed state, scattered
about the wharf and line, testified to the stagnant condition of
affairs.


I was here fortunate in finding a friend in the Government
(Chilian) surgeon of the settlement—Dr. Fenton—with whose
assistance and guidance I made some pleasant trips into the
country adjoining Sandy Point. On our first day there he
kindly provided horses, and took me for a ride into the forest,
to the end of the settlement. There I saw for the first time
the evergreen and deciduous beeches, the winter's bark as well
as the berberry, diddle-dee, and other plants, of which we saw a
great deal subsequently, during our Patagonian surveys. As we
crossed a flat dreary plain which lay between the margin of
the forest and the sea coast, we encountered a great number
of very bold hawks, which alighted on the big thistles near
our bridle path, and coolly stared at us as we went by. We
also saw flocks of Bandurria, a species of black and white ibis,
which is common in these parts, but being sought after by the[37]
Chilians as an article of food, has naturally become distrustful
of the ways of man, and is difficult to approach. On returning
to the settlement, we found some excitement prevailing, for two
of the inhabitants had just been drowned by the capsizing of
a boat near the landing-place. With southerly winds, heavy
rollers break along the beach; and as there is no protection in
the shape of a breakwater (for boats), communication with the
shore is dangerous while these winds continue. It appeared
that a party of five were returning from a hulk in the roadstead,
where an auction was being held, and on nearing the shore
the boat got broadside on to the rollers, and capsized. Two
were drowned. The other three narrowly escaped a similar fate,
and owed their preservation to the gallant conduct of two of
our bluejackets, who, happening to be on shore near the scene
of the disaster, plunged boldly in at the risk of their lives, and
brought the survivors to land.


On the following day two of us rode along the shore to the
southward of the town for a distance of about six miles, when
we struck into the woods, following a cart track which led us to
a sawmill in the heart of the forest, belonging to Mr. Dunsmuir,
the British Vice-consul. Here we shot a small owl, specimens
of the Magellan thrush, and a diminutive bird of a general
black colour, with a rusty-red collar, the Centrites niger. The
beach was in places covered with dense clusters of mussels, and
strewn with the dead shells of Volutes, Arcas, and Patellas, the
tests of crabs, and the calcareous remains of a small Cidaris.
We were greatly struck with the sagacity of our little horses—requiring
little or no management, going for the most part at
an easy canter, and climbing over logs, trunks of fallen trees, and
banks, with the agility of goats. On our dismounting, and leaving
the bridles trailing on the ground, they remained quite patiently,
without showing the least inclination to make off, although we
several times discharged our guns close to their heads.


We left Sandy Point on the afternoon of the 4th, and proceeded[38]
under steam to Peckett Harbour, an anchorage about
twenty-five miles to the north-east of the colony. Arriving about
four p.m., all of us who could, landed, and set off in pursuit of game.
Even here, so little to the eastward of Sandy Point, the aspect of
the country was completely different. The land was entirely
devoid of trees, and the only plants of any size were the barberry
and balsam bog, the latter growing as luxuriantly as at the
Falklands. Walking was laborious, for the ground was everywhere
riddled with the burrows of the tucutuco, a curious rodent
(Ctenomys), which the Chilians call carouru. There was a fresh
breeze blowing, and the birds were consequently very wild, and
by no means numerous. We obtained specimens of the crested
duck (Anas cristata), upland goose (Chloephaga magellanica), grebe,
plover, soldier starling, snipe, sandpiper, and Centrites niger. The
tucutucos here evidently differ in their habits from those described
by Mr. Darwin, for they come out of their burrows occasionally (I
believe at dusk), and one was caught by Lieut. Vereker, and
given to me.


The next day we were again under way, and having taken on
board some horses belonging to Mr. Dunsmuir, the British Vice-consul
of Sandy Point, proceeded towards Elizabeth Island, a few
miles off. This island has recently been rented from the Chilian
Government by Mr. Dunsmuir, and proves of value for stock
farming. Tucutucos have not yet succeeded in reaching it, a
matter of no small importance as regards the value of the land,
for their mining operations are almost ruinous to the pasturage.
The island is about six miles long and four miles broad, and
consists of an elevated plateau of undulating grass-land, terminating
at its margin in cliffs three hundred feet high, which front
the sea. Mr. Dunsmuir has stocked it with four hundred sheep,
who are left usually in charge of a shepherd and his family; and
he has also, for commercial purposes, adopted measures for the
protection of the upland geese, which breed in large numbers on
the island. The object of our visit was to bring over for him[39]
some horses, which were required for the working of the island.
As we steamed round its eastern end, myriads of terns rose in a
cloud from the low sandy pits, where they had their breeding place.


After getting out the horses, and letting them swim on shore,
we dropped our anchor, and soon afterwards many of us landed
to explore. It was the breeding time of the upland geese, and
the birds were consequently very tame, and afforded little sport
in shooting. Along the beach below the cliffs a variety of birds
were to be seen, including oyster-catchers, steamer-ducks, and a
species of Cinclodes. As I walked by the foot of the cliffs, a
steamer-duck would occasionally rush out from its retreat, and
make for the water, cackling vigorously as it waddled over the
shingle. As these birds steamed out seaward, they seemed undoubtedly
to flap their wings in unison; but there was a sort of
wabble in their swimming motion, arising probably from the
alternate paddling of the feet. On the heights above, I shot
several military starlings, and others of our party obtained some
brown ducks (Anas cristata) and snipe.


The cliff was apparently breaking away in many places,
exposing fresh sections of its face, and exhibiting pebbles,
rounded stones, and rocks imbedded in the clayey mass, a
feature which is characteristic of this part of the coast. Lines
of stratification, of varying degrees of fineness, were to be seen; and
in several places, at about fifty feet from the summit of the cliff,
streams of water oozed out from the seams. I could detect no trace
of a fossil. Along the beach lay many dead shells of the genera
Voluta, Arca, Patella, Mytilus, and Trophon. During this walk
I noticed about six different species of butterflies and a few
beetles.


The dredge had been laid out from the ship on anchoring, so
that it might profit by the swinging of the ship; and when we
hauled it up in the evening, it contained a quantity of dead
barnacles covered with ophiurids, and also shells of the genera
Trochus and Trophon, Amphipod Crustaceans, Annelids, and[40]
some red, jelly-like Gephyreans. These were all entangled in a
mass of red seaweed, interlaced with stalks of the Macrocystis.


Early next morning (January 7th) we steamed back to Sandy
Point. As we approached the anchorage, we noticed dense clouds
of smoke rising from the woods some distance inland, and it
soon transpired that the forest in the vicinity of the Consul's
sawmills was on fire. In the afternoon I rode out with Dr. Fenton
to the scene, and we found the troops of the garrison
employed in felling trees, so as to make a sort of lane through
the woods to leeward of the fire, in order, if possible, to limit its
ravages. Dr. Fenton afterwards came on board, and gave us an
interesting account of the mutiny of 1877, in which he and his
wife narrowly escaped being shot. His house, like most others,
was burnt down on that occasion. Sixty of the peaceable inhabitants
were shot by the mutineers, and nine of the latter were
subsequently executed. Those of the population who escaped
had fled to the woods, and there fortified themselves against an
attack. Eventually the mutiny was quelled by the arrival of the
Chilian gunboat Magellanes, at whose approach the mutineers
fled away into the pampas.


At two o'clock in the afternoon of the following day we
weighed anchor and proceeded to the westward. We had scarcely
left Sandy Point a few miles behind us, when the character of
the scenery underwent a marked change. The straits narrowed,
its shores rose in lofty hills, whose lightly inclined slopes were
clothed with forest from the summits to the water's edge, and
we exchanged the clear blue sky of Patagonia for an atmosphere
of mists and rain squalls. As we passed by Port Famine, two
Fuegian canoes pulled off to us from the southern shores, the
natives hailing us vociferously for "galleta tabac" (biscuit and
tobacco). However, we could not spare time to interview them,
and they turned back disappointed, and moreover evidencing
signs of indignation. When abreast of Borja Bay, we experienced
such a succession of heavy squalls from the westward, that we[41]
were compelled to put in for shelter, and accordingly anchored.
On landing, we found the trees placarded in various places with
wooden records of ships that had called there; and on pushing
our way through the bushes adjoining the beach, we were not
a little surprised at stumbling across a coffin, which from its
position seemed to have been hurriedly deposited there by a
passing ship. It bore an inscription stating that it contained
the remains of some person who had belonged to the Chilian
man-of-war Almirante Cochrane. Animal life was at a discount;
only a few moths, a Cinclodes, a brace of duck, and a
few gulls being seen. The vegetation was luxuriant, and the
Philesia, berberry, and diddle-dee plants were in full bloom.
We stopped for only a few hours; for on the wind lulling we
again proceeded on our course. Passing through the "Long
Reach," the scenery became of a most imposing character; several
straggling, highly inclined glaciers creeping down on either side
through the deep mountain gorges, their dazzling whiteness contrasting
strikingly with the richly verdured hillsides, and the
lofty snow-covered mountain summits beyond fading away imperceptibly
into a hazy sky. Later in the evening we anchored
in Playa Parda Cove, a beautiful little land-locked basin, and
most of us landed at once, to spend the last few remaining hours
of daylight. A solitary steamer-duck was seen, but for the rest
animal life was unrepresented. As at Borja Bay, several little
billets of wood, attached conspicuously to trees bordering the
shore, recorded the visits of previous explorers to these outlandish
regions.


On the morning of the 10th we left Playa Parda, and steamed
northward through the Sarmiento Channels. In the afternoon,
as we were passing by Fortune Bay, we sighted and exchanged
signals with the Chilian man-of-war Chacabuco, a vessel which
was now employed in surveying certain portions of the Straits.
Our halting-place for this evening was at Isthmus Bay, where
we anchored about six p.m. At the head of this bay, where a[42]
narrow neck of lowland separated us from the waters of Oracion
Sound, was the remains of a Fuegian encampment, which, to
judge from the appearance of the shell heaps, could not have
been left for more than a year uninhabited. Across the
isthmus was a "portage" for boats, consisting of rudely-cut
stakes laid on the ground parallel to each other, and a few
yards apart, like railway sleepers. The aspect of the green
forest encircling this charming little bay was variegated with
a luxuriant display of really beautiful flowers, among which were
conspicuous the Philesia buxifolia, Fuchsia magellanica, Gaultheria
antarctica, Berberis ilicifolia, and a number of composites
of different species. A kind of cedar, the Libocedrus tetragonus
("cipres" of the Chilotes), was here also very abundant, furnishing
good straight poles suitable for various purposes. Its four-sided
arrangement of leaves at once attracts attention.


We got under way early in the morning, and proceeded up
the Sarmiento Channels, passing by the Chilian ship Chacabuco
in the midst of a rain squall. No natives were to be seen. The
channel here narrowed, and the scenery of the opposing shores
became of a grand yet rather sombre character, the round-topped
granite mountains which seemed to overhang us, with their streaky
patches of forest creeping up the gullies, being enveloped in a
hazy mist, and presenting a sort of draggled appearance, as if rain
had been falling over their rocky faces for ages.


About five in the evening we entered Mayne Harbour, a few
cormorants and steamer-ducks sheering off with much splashing, as
we slipped between the islets that almost block up the entrance.


So we continued to wend our way through these desolate
channels, looking into nearly every anchorage on the way, and
usually anchoring for the night, until the 14th of January, when
we reached "Tom Bay," which was to be our base of operations
for the ensuing survey of the Trinidad Channel. Some hours
after we had anchored, a native boat suddenly emerged from a
narrow channel opening into the bay, and paddled towards the[43]
ship, displaying a green branch in the bows of the boat, while
one individual standing up waved a small white cloth, no doubt
intended as a flag of truce. Our people on board made amicable
demonstrations in response, by waving handkerchiefs and so forth,
and then slowly and warily the natives approached. This was
our first experience of representatives of the Channel tribe of
Fuegians. There were altogether eight of them. But I must not
omit to mention the dogs, five in number, as the latter formed
by far the most respectable portion of the community; for it
would indeed be difficult to imagine a more diabolical cast of
countenance than that presented by these savages. Their clothing
consisted of a squarish scrap of sealskin looped round the neck,
sometimes hanging over the back, sometimes resting on the
shoulders, but apparently worn more by way of ornament than
for any protection which it afforded; and a very narrow waistcloth,
which simple garment was sometimes deemed superfluous.
An elderly lady of a saturnine cast of countenance sat on a wisp
of grass in the stern of the canoe, and manœuvred the steering
oar. They could not be induced to come on board the ship,
and from their guarded demeanour would seem to have had
rather unfavourable experiences of civilized man. After bartering
their bits of seal and other skins, and getting some biscuit,
tobacco, and knives, they paddled away, and established themselves
on an islet about half a mile from the ship, where we saw
that the skeleton frameworks of some old huts were standing.


On the following day a small party, consisting of North (the
paymaster), three seamen, and myself, pulled over to the native
camp. We were received on landing by four men with bludgeons
in their hands, who did not seem at all glad to see us, and who
seemed apprehensive of our approaching the hut, where the
women had been jealously shut up. However, by a few presents
of tobacco and biscuit, we established tolerably amicable relations,
and were permitted to examine the canoe, which lay hauled
half out of the water. It was composed of five planks, of which[44]
one, about twenty feet long and two and a half feet wide, formed
the bottom, while the other four, each one and a half foot in
width, formed the sides. The bottom plank was turned up at
the ends, so as to form a flat bow and stern of nearly similar
shape; and to this plank, as well as to each other, the side
pieces were secured by a lacing passed through rude square
shaped holes about an inch in area, which were made in an
even row close to the edges of the planks. The lacing used
for this purpose is the tough stem of a bignoniaceous creeper
(the Campsidium chilense), which is commonly seen twining round
the tall forest trees, forming festoons from branch to branch,
and again extending from the horizontal branches vertically
downwards like the cordage of a ship. Caulking was effected
by stuffing the seams with moss and strips of the winter's bark
(bark of the Drimys winteri), over which the lacing was carried;
and the square-shaped holes were plugged with some pulpy
vegetable matter, of which moss seemed to be the chief constituent.
The oars were made of young stems of the Libocedrus
tetragonus, to one end of which elliptical pieces of wood were
lashed by way of blades. These oars were used in the ordinary
way, the loom resting on crescentic-shaped crutches, fashioned
out of a single piece of wood, and lashed to the gunwale. The
everlasting Fuegian fire, from which Tierra del Fuego derives
its name, burned in the middle of the boat, resting on a bed
of clay; and the half-decomposed head of a seal, which either
the natives or the dogs had recently been gnawing, completed
the furniture of this crazy vessel. The hut in which the women
were shut up was a haycock-shaped arrangement, composed of a
skeleton framework of boughs, over which were thrown several
old skins of the sea lion (Otaria jubata). The chief of this party,
who was, by the way, the tallest Fuegian ever seen by us, we
found by measurement to be five feet four inches in height. One
hut accommodated the entire party, consisting, as I have said,
of four men, four women, and five dogs.


[45]


The greater part of the subsequent four months was spent
in the vicinity of the Trinidad Channel, which it was our special
duty to survey; and as our movements during this period were
most erratic, and we frequently paid five or six different visits to
the same parts, I shall for a time abandon all chronological
order, and speak of events according to the places in which they
occurred.


But in the first place, in order to render my narrative more
intelligible, I shall here give a brief general description of this
region, referring to its climate, natural features, and inhabitants.


The weather is peculiar, for the rainfall is excessive, and as a
rule there is not more than one moderately dry day out of the
seven.


The peaks and ridges of the broken-up range of mountains,
of which the islands and coast are formed, intercept the moisture-laden
clouds which are being continually wafted from seaward by
the prevailing westerly winds, frequent and long-continued downpours
being the result. From observations taken with the rain
gauge, we estimate the average daily rainfall to be 0·41 inch,
and that of the wettest month of which we have had experience,
viz., the month of April, 0·522 inch. The annual rainfall, estimated
from the mean of eight months' observations, we find to
be 149·65 inches. The mean annual temperature, estimated similarly
from observations extending over the months of January,
February, March, April, May, (nine days of) October, November,
and December, we found to be 49·2, the extremes of temperature
being 36° and 60°. When we reflect that the annual rainfall
in London is about 23·5 inches, while the yearly average of temperature
is 46·9 Fahr., we can realize the extent to which rainy
weather prevails in this land, and the comparative coldness of its
nevertheless equable climate. We were told by the master of a
sealing schooner that the climate of Western Fuegia varied but little
throughout the year, and that in his opinion the finest weather
was to be found in mid-winter; and, indeed, on entering the[46]
channels in the month of October—that is, in the early spring—we
ourselves found the appearance of the country but little
different from our recollections of the previous midsummer.
There was, perhaps, more snow on the hill-tops, but there was
none at all on the lower slopes of the hills, and the evergreen
vegetation seemed almost as luxuriant as during midsummer.


As might be expected from the large rainfall and comparatively
equable temperature, this climate is very favourable to the growth
of cryptogamous plants; ferns, mosses, and Hepaticæ abound,
clothing the stems of dead and living trees, and occupying every
shady nook and crevice. Among the ferns most commonly seen
were several beautiful species of the genus Hymenophyllum. Of
flowering plants there were also some of great beauty, the most
attractive of which were the Philesia buxifolia, the Desfontainea
hookeri, the Berberis ilicifolia, the B. empetrifolia, and the Embothrium
coccineum. The former is a sort of under-shrub, of
creeping habit, and is most commonly seen twining round the
stem of the evergreen and antarctic beeches, to a height of six
or eight feet from the ground, its lovely, rose-coloured, bell-shaped
flowers showing to great advantage against the delicate background
of ferns and mosses, which, growing from the bark of the tree,
display the flowers, but almost conceal the branches of the
twining Philesia. There is another beautiful plant, of the same
natural order, met with in Southern Chili, which the people take
great pride in, showing to strangers as the glory of their gardens.
It is called the "Copigue" (Lapageria rosea). The only trees
which attain to any reasonable size as such are the evergreen and
antarctic beeches (Fagus antarctica and F. betuloides), the winter's
bark (Drimys winteri), and the cypress (Libocedrus tetragonus).
The bark of the Drimys winteri was formerly employed in
medicine, but has latterly fallen into disuse, partly from the
difficulty of obtaining the genuine article in Europe. It has
tonic and stimulant properties. The infusion of the dried bark
is so hot and peppery as to burn the tongue and throat; but,[47]
strangely enough, the spirit tincture extracts the tonic bitter with
but very little of the peppery principle.


The summits of the low hills, which are usually bare of trees
or brushwood, are covered with a sort of swamp formed of
astelias, gaimardias, and calthas, whose interlacing roots form
a more or less compact sod, which, as one walks on it, shakes
from the fluctuation of the bog water beneath.


The rock of the district is a cross-grained syenite, intersected
with dykes of greenstone, of very variable thickness. This is the
prevalent rock; but about Port Rosario, on the north side of
"Madre de Dios" island, there is an outcrop of limestone. The
latter is of a pale-blue colour, in some cases assuming the character
of marble; and when much exposed to the weather, presents a
curious honeycombed appearance, due to the solvent action of
the rain. This rock is unfossiliferous. The disintegration of the
syenite from the usual atmospheric agencies is rapid enough;
but the resulting detritus does not contribute to form a good
clay.


If an artificial section be made of the soilcap, or if advantage
be taken of a landslip to examine it carefully, it will be seen to
be composed of a dense network of interlacing roots, containing
in its interstices a small quantity of black mould, the latter
increasing in proportion as the basement rock is reached. This
spongy mass of tangled vegetation, ever saturated with moisture,
is the soil on which the trees clothing the hillsides take root.
On the little plateaus about the hill-tops, however, it only contains
the roots of the marsh plants above mentioned, and those
of an odd stunted bush. On first coming to this region, I was
much struck on seeing that the forest approaches so close to the
water's edge, and that the banks overhang so much that frequently
the branches of the trees dip into the salt water; and
in some places a black snag projecting above the surface of the
inshore water tells the fate of a tree that had perished from
immersion. These phenomena, among others to be hereafter[48]
alluded to, are, I think, to be attributed to a slow but steady
sliding motion of the soilcap over its rocky foundation on the
sloping hillsides, a motion which is in many respects analogous to
the flow of a glacier.


Of the natives inhabiting the Patagonian channels between the
Gulf of Peñas and Smyth's channels, very little is known; and I
am the more inclined to attempt a description of their physical
characteristics and habits of life, because of all the savage tribes
of whom I have had experience—including the Australian aborigines,
who are generally credited with being of the lowest
order—I believe that the people whom I am about to describe
bear away the palm as the most primitive among all the varieties
of the human species. They are certainly closely related to the
Fuegians who live south of the main Straits of Magellan, from
whom, however, they differ sufficiently to show a tribal distinction.
Fitzroy, in enumerating six tribes of Fuegians, denominates those
of whom I speak as "the Channel or Chonos tribe." They lead
a wandering life, constantly shifting in their canoes from place to
place, and travelling in families of about twelve individuals, all
of whom stow in the same canoe, and sleep in the same hut.
We have never been able to ascertain the precise relationship
existing between the different members of these families; but a
party of twelve would probably consist of three men, five women,
and four children.


For the greater part of the year they live almost entirely on
mussels and limpets, this simple fare being only varied occasionally
by the capture of a seal, a small otter, or of an equally small
coypu. That they get this kind of fresh meat but rarely is
evident from our inspection of their midden heaps, hillocks of
refuse in the vicinity of the huts, consisting mainly of shells. I
must not omit to mention, however, that bones of the steamer-duck
and cormorant are also found about the huts, but not in
any quantity. During the months of December and January, the
Magellan seals "haul up" to breed on the rocks of the outer[49]
coasts, and during this season there is a great gathering of natives
about the "rookeries," as the sealers call them, so that for a
short portion of the year these unfortunate wretches can luxuriate
upon a diet of fresh meat.


They are of low stature, the men averaging 5 ft. 1 in. in height,
while the women are still shorter. Of eight men whom I measured
carefully, the extremes were 4 ft. 10 in. and 5 ft. 3 in.; so that
there is a strong contrast between them and their neighbours
in the same latitude, the Patagonians, whose average stature (I
speak of the men only) is 5 ft. 10 in. Their complexion is
of an ochrey copper colour; the eyes are dark, and placed close
together; the upper eyelid curving downwards abruptly as it
approaches the nasal side, or inner canthus, in such a way as
to give an appearance of obliquity in the eye, which reminds
one of that feature in the face of a Japanese. The sclerotics,
or so-called "white" of the eye, have a yellow tinge, and in
the adults the conjunctiva is injected or bloodshot, probably from
their habit of sitting over a smoky wood fire. The upper lip is
thin and curved; and when a grimace is made, it tightly embraces
the teeth, so as to communicate a peculiarly wicked expression to
the countenance. The maxillæ are broad, and the teeth are of
glistening whiteness. In the female the front teeth present an
even regular line; but in the male adult there is usually a front
tooth missing, as if knocked out designedly. The hair is long,
black, and coarse, and is peculiar in growing sometimes from the
temples, as well as from the scalp, a circumstance from which the
forehead acquires a narrow pyramidal appearance. There are no
whiskers, but on the lips and chin a few scattered hairs are seen.
The upper extremities and trunk are well formed, but the legs
are very poorly developed, so much so as to seem out of proportion
to the rest of the body. The skin overlying the kneecaps
is particularly loose, baggy, and wrinkled when the native stands
erect, a circumstance which, in the case of the southern Fuegian,
is very justly attributed (vide Voyage of Adventure and Beagle,[50]
p. 176) to the practice of frequently sitting on the heels, with the
legs flexed to a maximum.


Some of the emotions are expressed by very decided contortions
of the features and limbs. Delight, when intense, is shown by a
display of the closed teeth, accompanied by a clucking sound, and
a curious up and down bobbing motion of the body. Eagerness
is expressed by a clucking sound and a frothing of the lips.
Anger is characterised by a tightening of the upper lip, a protrusion
of the lower jaw or mandible, and a slight display of the
upper incisors.


The men are almost entirely naked, sometimes wearing a
square piece of sealskin suspended from the neck, and hanging
over either shoulder. This seems to be intended as a sort of
weather screen; but, strangely enough, it is one of the first things
parted with when a chance of bartering occurs. Although so
careless about protecting their bodies against the rigour of the
weather, it was nevertheless evident that they were keenly sensible
to the cold; for they were frequently to be seen with their teeth
chattering, and trembling from head to foot, as the rain, wind,
and spray swept over their unprotected skins. The women
generally have a large skin mantle, which they wear with the hair
turned outwards. Those with infants carry the child in a pouch
between the shoulders; but those not so burdened readily part
with their only covering for a plug of tobacco. That these
people should attach any value to tobacco is difficult to understand;
for not only are they unprovided with native pipes in
which to smoke it, but, as far as we could judge, they had never
enjoyed sufficient opportunities of doing so to render the process
anything but highly unpleasant, although its anticipation undoubtedly
afforded them great pleasure. In fact, one or two whiffs of
smoke were sufficient to put a man into the nauseated and giddy
condition familiar to every schoolboy when he makes his first
trial of tobacco.


Although the dress of the women is, as I have mentioned, far[51]
from elaborate, they otherwise evinced the usual love of their sex
for articles intended to be ornamental. They commonly wore
round their throats necklaces composed of margarita shells,
porpoise teeth, or fragments of calcareous worm-tubes, strung
together. Their faces, as well as those of the men, were sometimes
daubed with black charcoal, and sometimes with a paste
composed of white wood-ashes, but with what precise object we
did not ascertain.




CANOE OF "CHANNEL FUEGIANS" HAULED UP ON BEACH.



The affection of these savages for their children does not seem
to be of a very stable character; for, by all accounts, they are willing
to part with them for a trifling consideration. A Fuegian boy,
christened Tom Picton, whom we took on board in the Trinidad
Channel, quitted his relations without any manifestation of reluctance;
and they, on their part, were readily conciliated by the
gift of a few necklaces and some biscuit. In Byron's narrative
of the loss of the Wager, there is a most interesting account of
his wanderings among the natives of the Gulf of Peñas. He
mentions that, on one occasion, a savage was so exasperated with
his son, a child of three years, who had accidentally dropped into
the water a basket containing some sea-eggs (Echini), that he
"caught the boy up in his arms, and dashed him with the utmost
violence against the stones," the child dying soon afterwards.


Their hunting appliances are few and simple; the canoe is a
rude structure, but answers its purpose well enough. It is constructed
of five planks, of which one, about 20 ft. by 21⁄2 in width,
forms the bottom, and the other four, each 11⁄2 ft. wide, form the
sides. The bottom plank is turned up at the ends, so as to form
a flat bow and stern of nearly similar shape; and to this, as well
as to each other, the side planks are laced by the long flexible
stem of a creeping plant, which is passed through rude squarish
holes, about one inch in area, which are made in an even row
close to the edges of the planks. The material used for the
lacing appeared to be the stem of the Campsidium chilense, a
creeper which grows to a great length, is very abundant, and is[52]
remarkable for its exceeding toughness. Caulking is effected by
stuffing the seams with bark, over which a lacing is carried, and
the squarish holes are finally plugged with some vegetable pulpy
matter, of which moss is the chief constituent. Two oars, with
very large broad blades, are used for propelling the boat, and not
paddles, as in the case of the southern Fuegians. A young
woman, seated in the stern sheets, steers very dexterously with a
short paddle. Such rude boats leak, of course, a good deal, and
hence require constant baling out. This office is performed by
the old woman of the party, who, crouching amidships, bales out
the water with a bark bucket.


Spears of two kinds are used, one for fishing, the other for
sealing. The one for sealing, which is rather a harpoon than a
spear, has an arrow-shaped bone head, which is movable, and
is attached by a slack line of hide to the spear shaft. The use of
the loose line is probably to facilitate the capture of the seal, into
which the movable arrow-head has been driven by the impetus
conveyed through the detachable shaft. A harpoon similarly
constructed is used by the Eskimo hunters for a like purpose.
The fish spear is a formidable weapon, having a long bone head
securely fixed to the shaft, and with many deep serrations along
one side. The shafts of both are about eight feet long, and are
made of the young stems of a coniferous tree, the Libocedrus
tetragonus.


Every party that we met with was provided with an iron axe
of some kind. The axes are usually made of bits of scrap iron
which have been picked up from wrecks, or obtained by barter
from passing vessels. Sometimes, though rarely, an axe of civilization
pattern is seen. In other cases the piece of iron, having
been ground into a rude triangular shape, is fitted into a wooden
handle, as some of the old stone celts are supposed to have been;
that is to say, the small end of the axehead is jammed into a
hole made near the end of a stout piece of stick. I may here
mention that, in spite of a most diligent search, I have once, but[53]
only once, succeeded in finding a STONE axehead. It was of very
primitive shape—being only in part ground—and was found lying
among the shells of a very old abandoned kitchen-midden.


For holding drinking water they use large cylindrical buckets,
which are made from the bark of the Drimys winteri; the single
scroll-shaped piece which forms the cylinder and the disc-shaped
bottom being sewn together with rushes. From this same kind
of rush plant, which they use so frequently for making temporary
hitches, they make three-plaited ropes for mooring the canoes,
and also baskets to hold shell fish. The kind of plait used in
fashioning their baskets is a simple network, which must, however,
be tedious to construct, owing to the necessity for frequently
splicing the rushes.


Their huts somewhat resemble small haycocks in general shape,
but are rather oblong, the floor (which is never excavated, as in
the case of some of the southern Fuegians) usually measuring ten
by twelve feet; the height in the centre is six feet, so that one
of us could always stand upright when in the middle of the hut.
A skeleton framework is made of boughs, whose thicker ends are
stuck in the ground, while the terminal twigs are made to interlace,
and are moreover secured to each other by rush lashings.
The required amount of shelter is obtained by placing leafy
boughs and dried sealskins over the framework of the hut. A
fire is kept burning in the centre; and when the boat is about
to be used, a few burning sticks are transferred to it, and kept
alight on a clay flooring amidships.


I have never seen their appliances for striking a light, but
I have no doubt they use iron pyrites, with dried moss or down
for tinder, as do the southern Fuegians, from whom I have obtained
these appliances. These materials for obtaining fire are
very judiciously guarded, and are the only articles among the
properties of a canoe which are not submitted for barter. The
"Pecheray" Fuegians keep their stock of tinder in water-tight
pouches, made of the dried intestine of the seal.(?)


[54]


Neither stone slings, bows and arrows, nor bolas, are used by
the Channel Fuegians, so that altogether, with respect to hunting
appliances, they are in a more primitive state than any of the
southern tribes.


The remains of the deceased, so far as we have known, are
deposited in caves in out-of-the-way localities. During the
voyage of Sarmiento, towards the latter end of the 16th century,
a cave containing human remains was found in a small island
called the "Roca Partida," or cleft rock; and subsequently, when
the shipwrecked crew of the Wager, one of Commodore Anson's
ships, were wandering about the Gulf of Peñas, Mr. Wilson, the
surgeon, discovered near the seashore a large cave which contained
the skeletons of several human beings (vide Byron's
narrative of the loss of the Wager; Burney's Voyages). During
the surveying cruise of H.M.S. Nassau, in 1866-9, a diligent
search was made for such burial places, but without success;
but, on the other hand, no signs were observed of any other
method of disposing of the dead, either by fire, as in the case
of some of the southern tribes, or by covering the bodies with
branches of trees, as described by Fitzroy. However, during
our late survey of the Trinidad Channel, we found a small cave
containing portions of two skeletons in a limestone islet, near
Port Rosario, on the north side of Madre de Dios Island; and
this would seem to have been used as a burial-place, at some
very remote period. The remains have been deposited in the
British Museum.


It has been stated by the late Admiral Fitzroy, on the authority
of Mr. Low, a sealing captain, that during times of great
scarcity of food, these savages do not scruple to resort to cannibalism,
and that for this purpose they select as victims the old
women of the party, killing them by squeezing their throats,
while holding their heads over the smoke of a green wood fire.
Mr. Low's evidence on this point is so circumstantial, being
derived from a native interpreter who served on board his ship[55]
for fourteen months, that it can hardly be doubted. On this
subject I can only add that we noticed a singularly small proportion
of old people, whether male or female, among the parties
of natives with whom we met. This circumstance may support
Mr. Low's opinion, or it may be the natural consequence of the
short span of life which is allotted to these wretched people.


Regarding the treachery of these savages, there can be no
doubt. Their faces alone indicate it, but unfortunately further
evidence is not wanting. We recently met with a small sealing
schooner, the Annita, of Sandy Point, the master of which—a
Frenchman, named Lamire—gave us a detailed account of an
attack made upon his vessel about two years ago, when he was
"sealing" at the north end of Picton Channel. He lay at anchor
one night in fancied security, when he was surprised by a large
party of natives who came alongside in seven canoes. A dreadful
struggle ensued, in which his crew defended themselves with their
guns against the axes, spears, sticks, and stones, of their savage
assailants. The natives were eventually driven off, but not before
five of the sealers had lost their lives. The sealers are now well
aware of the anxiety of the natives to gain possession of their
vessels, and consequently put no trust in their overtures of
friendship. A white man is feared only so long as his party
is known to be the strongest.


Fitzroy has described six tribes of Fuegians who speak different
dialects, and also differ somewhat in their habits. These
are (1) the Yacanas, or inhabitants of the north portion of King
Charles's South Land; (2) the Tekeenicas, who live in south-eastern
Fuegia; (3) the Alikhoolips, who inhabit the South-Western
Islands; (4) the Pecherays, a small tribe of savages
who hover about the middle and western part of the Straits of
Magellan; (5) the Huemuls, so called from the Chilian name
of a deer which has been found about Skyring Water and
Obstruction Sound, the head-quarters of this tribe; and (6) the
Fuegians who inhabit the shores and islands of western Patagonia,[56]
between the parallels of 47° and 52°, and whom Fitzroy
denominates the Chonos or Channel Fuegians. In Fitzroy's
account of the Fuegians, he naturally selected as his type the
people with whom he was best acquainted, viz., the Tekeenicas,
who inhabit the shores of the Beagle Channel. These people
build conical wigwams, which are made of large poles leaning
to from a circular base, with their upper ends meeting in a
point. Their canoes are built of bark, and are small and skiff-shaped.
They also use bows and arrows, and stone slings, and
in this respect are considerably in advance of the Channel
Fuegians.


In their methods of disposing of the dead, the Fuegian tribes
differ somewhat strangely. Fitzroy tells us that among the
Tekeenicas, Alikhoolips, and Pecherays, the bodies of the dead
are carried a long way into the interior of the forest, where they
are placed upon broken timber, and then covered up with
branches. On this subject some information has recently been
obtained from the missionaries, who have now for some years
maintained a settlement at a place called Ushuwia, in the
Beagle Channel. We heard, on the authority of these gentlemen,
that a form of cremation is now commonly practised among the
Tekeenicas, and that charred human bones may often be found
among the embers of the funeral pyre. The Fuegians of the
Western Channels, as I have mentioned already, deposit their
dead in caves.


To continue with Tom Bay. The month of January is here
the breeding season with most of the water birds. About the
middle of the month the steamer-ducks (Tachyeres cinereus) and
the kelp geese (Bernicla antarctica) were paddling about with their
young ones; and the oyster-catchers (Hæmatopus leucopus, and ater),
with their young broods, occupied the small low rocky islets,
where they made themselves conspicuous by their shrill piping
cry. We remarked that the kelp geese, which, as a rule, never
wet their feet, except with the damp seaweed of the foreshore,[57]
take to the water as soon as the young are hatched, being probably
induced to do so in order the better to protect their goslings
from the hawks and rats. The male and female adult birds differ
remarkably in plumage; that of the female being almost black,
with a few white dots and dashes, whereas the feathers of the
male are perfectly white. The sombre colour of the female is
probably intended as a protection during the hatching time, when
she remains almost continuously on the eggs, while the gander
does sentry in some conspicuous position adjacent. Whenever at
this time of the year a solitary gander is seen standing on a
projecting point or headland, it may safely be inferred that his
faithful consort is on her nest somewhere within sixty yards.
Even under these circumstances it is by no means an easy matter
to find the nest; for the black plumage of the female assimilates
with the dark wind-blown seaweed and rank grass in which her
nest is made, and she lies so close that she will not stir until
almost walked on. While the birds are immature (i.e., less than
one year old) the sexes are scarcely distinguishable, the plumage
of both male and female being an almost equal mixture of white
and black colours.


The ashy-headed Brent goose (Chloephaga poliocephala), remarkable
for the splendid chestnut colour of its breast, is the only
other goose met with in these western channels. The common
Magellan and Falkland Islands goose (C. magellanica) does not,
as a rule, extend its range to the damp western regions.


About the islets adjacent to the Tom Bay anchorage were
great numbers of abandoned huts, and at some the size of the
shell mounds and the compactness of the bottom layers indicated
considerable antiquity. These mounds are principally composed
of mussel and limpet shells, the latter predominating; and
among the interstices were great numbers of insects and worms.
There was one very old grass-covered mound near our anchorage,
of which we made a thorough examination by digging cross-section
trenches. Besides the usual shells, there were a few seal[58]
bones and sterna of birds, and at a depth of four feet from the
surface we found a partly disintegrated bone spear-head, which
was different in shape from any which we saw among the natives
either before or subsequently. Instead of being rounded, it was
flattened from side to side, like a very large arrow-head. In most
of the other shell heaps which we examined, bones of the nutria
(Myopotamus coypu) and of the otter (Lutra felina) were observed.


To the westward of our anchorage (i.e., in the large island of
Madre de Dios) was a long narrow inlet, partly overhung with
trees, which communicated by a shallow bar with a brackish
lagoon of about thirty acres in extent. At low water there was
only about three feet of water on the bar, and we could then see
that the bottom was covered with huge white sessile barnacles
(the "picos" of the Chilians), growing closely together. During the
ebb and flood tides the current ran fiercely over this bar, so as
to render it an exceedingly difficult matter to pull through the
channel when the tide was adverse. This lagoon was a favourite
haunt of the Magellan sea otter (Lutra felina), which is abundant
in all these waters, but is very difficult to kill without the aid of
dogs. Its "runs" are generally strewn with the shells of a large
spiny crab (the Lithodes antarctica), which appears to form its
principal food. I have seen an otter rise to the surface with one
of these hideous crabs in its mouth, as unpalatable a morsel, one
would think—for it is armed all over with strong spines—as a
"knuckleduster." In the Alert, the great feat of sportsmanship
was to shoot and bag an otter; for if the animal be not struck
in the head, and killed outright at the first shot, it is almost
certain to make a long dive, crawl up the beach in the shade of
the overhanging bushes, and escape.


When exploring in a small boat the winding shores of this lagoon,
we one day came upon a little sequestered cove, where there was
a luxuriant growth of Desfontainea bushes, and on landing on the
shingly beach we saw, by the way in which the larger stones had
been moved aside, that the place had been used by the natives[59]
for hauling up their canoes. On walking through the long rank
grass, which encroached on the beach, we tripped over some logs
which seemed to have been arranged artificially, and we then
discovered that we were at the extremity of a "portage," intended
for conveying boats overland. On tracing it up, we found a sort
of causeway leading into the forest; and after following it for
about three hundred yards, we ascertained that we had crossed a
narrow isthmus, of whose existence we were previously unaware,
and had reached the shore of an arm of the sea (probably Delgado
Bay), which communicates with the Trinidad Channel not many
miles to the eastward of Port Henry. It was evident that by
means of this "portage" the natives were able to proceed from
Concepcion Channel, viâ Tom Bay, towards the outer coasts,
without undertaking the much longer and more hazardous journey
through the main channels round Point Brazo. The logs forming
the "portage" were partly imbedded in the ground, and were
arranged parallel to each other, like the sleepers of a railway, and
at a distance of about two feet apart. There was, however, no
appearance of the natives having recently visited the place. We
had reason to believe that these "portages" were of frequent
occurrence, and were largely used by the natives, and that it was
owing to the facilities thus afforded them for crossing isthmuses
and the necks of promontories that they were enabled to surprise
sailing vessels at anchor, approaching them unobserved from the
land-locked side of bays and inlets at a time when the attention of
the sailors on "look-out" was naturally only directed towards the
entrance of the harbour which had previously seemed to them to
be untenanted. The "portages" are so concealed by a luxuriant
growth of grass and brushwood that they readily escape observation.


The brackish lagoons, which are fed continuously by fresh-water
streams, and receive an influx of sea-water while the flood
tide is making, are a peculiar feature of this Patagonian archipelago,
and we usually found that the outlets were excellent places
for catching fish. Our fishing parties were in the habit of placing[60]
a "trammel" net across the outlet while the tide was ebbing, and
in this way entrapped great quantities of mullet and mackerel;
sometimes upwards of eighty, ranging in weight from two to
eleven pounds per fish, being taken at one haul.


I collected some green flocculent matter from the surface of
one of these lagoons, and found it to consist almost entirely of
diatoms.


One fine day in April we noticed a great concourse of gulls
and shags, attracted by a shoal of fish, in the pursuit of which
they ventured unusually close to the ship. This gave us an
opportunity of observing that the common brown gull of the
channels, the female of L. dominicanus, behaves towards the male
bird in many respects like a skua. No sooner would one of the
"black-backed" (male) birds capture a fish, and rise from the
surface, than he would be attacked by one of the brown birds,
and chased vigorously about the harbour; the predatory bird not
desisting from the pursuit until the coveted prize had been dropped
by its rightful owner. This I noticed on more occasions than one.
As a rule, however, the female was content to fish for herself.
Several Dominican gulls in immature plumage were seen amongst
the crowd, and were easily distinguished from the adults by the
mottled brown plumage, and by the colour of the mandibles being
green instead of orange, as in the males, and black as in the
females. Now and then the whole flock of gulls and shags would
rise on the wing, as they lost the run of the shoal of fish.
They would then be directed to the new position of the shoal by
the success of some straggling bird, when a general rush would
be made to the new hunting ground. It was most amusing to
witness the widely different fishing powers of the shags and gulls,
and the consequently unequal competition in the struggle for food.
The shag in flight, on observing a fish beneath him, at once
checks himself by presenting the concave side of his wings to the
direction in which he has been moving, and then, flapping legs
foremost into the water, turns and dives; whereas the gull has[61]
first to settle himself carefully as he alights on the water, and has
then to trust to the chance of some unsophisticated fish coming
within reach of his bill. It was impossible to avoid noticing the
mortified appearance of the poor gulls as they looked eagerly
about, but yet caught only an odd fish, whilst their comrades, the
shags, were enjoying abundant sport.




FUEGIAN "PORTAGE" FOR TRANSPORTING CANOES OVERLAND.



It is odd that the silly gull manages at all to survive in the
struggle for existence. Here is another instance of his incapacity.
A piece of meat, weighing a few ounces, drifted astern of the
ship one day, and for its possession a struggle took place between
a dominican gull and a brown hawk. The gull had picked up
the meat, and was flying away with it in his bill, when he was
pursued by the hawk—a much smaller bird—who made him
drop it. Again the gull picked it up, and for a second time
was compelled by the hawk to relinquish it. The latter now
swooped down upon the tempting morsel, as it floated on the
water, and seizing it with his claws, flew off rapidly into an
adjoining thicket, to the edge of which he was followed by the
disappointed gull.


Steamer-ducks (Tachyeres cinereus) are very abundant at Tom
Bay, as indeed they are throughout all the western channels.
Their English name, "steamer-duck," has reference to their habit
of moving rapidly along the surface of the water by means of a
paddling motion of the wings, and leaving a wake of foam which
resembles, on a small scale, that of a paddle-steamer. A great
deal has been written about these remarkable birds, and I shall
not therefore attempt any general description, which at the best
would only involve useless repetition. There are a few remarks
about them, however, which I should like to make. Although
aware of the careful investigations made by Dr. Cunningham in
1866-9, and his conclusion as to their being but one species, I
have yet some reason to believe that the fliers and the non-flying
birds which I have seen belong to two distinct species,
and my impression is—though I am by no means sure—that[62]
the volant species frequents the fresh waters in the interior of
Patagonia, and in the western channels is only represented by
an odd straggler. Mr. Cox, of Talcahuano, who has travelled
in Araucania and central Patagonia, mentions in his narrative,
that in the fresh-water lakes of the latter district there are two
different species of steamer-ducks, one of which possesses the
power of flight. Immature specimens, although differing in the
colour of the bill, and somewhat in plumage, from the adult
birds, need not be confounded with a second species. The largest
steamer-duck which I have come across weighed only 14 lbs.,
and although text books assign a much greater weight as the
extreme limit, I think I am right in saying that few heavier
birds are met with either in the Straits of Magellan or in the
western channels. The female forms a low, oval-shaped nest of
twigs, lined with a thick coating of down, and deposits therein
six large cream-coloured eggs, 33⁄8 in. long, by 21⁄4 in. width. The
nest is usually placed on the ground, at the foot of an old tree,
some few yards from the beach, but in a place where the bush is
almost impenetrable to a human being.


Land-shells must be exceedingly scarce. I met with representatives
of only four species, of which one, a specimen of Helix,
I found on the frond of a Hymenophyllum at Tom Bay. Two
others of the same genus were taken from the rotten trunk of
a tree in the same locality. At Port Henry, in the Trinidad
Channel, and other parts in the neighbourhood, I collected several
specimens of a species of Succinea which clings to dead leaves
and decayed pieces of driftwood lying on the shore just above
high-water mark. These four species of shells have since been
described by Mr. Edgar Smith, of the British Museum, as new
to science. In a fresh-water lake, where I made some casts
of a light dredge, I obtained from the bottom of stinking mud
several examples of a large Unio shell, and some small shells
of the genus Chilinia. I afterwards found species of Unio in
a stream issuing from the lake. North of the English Narrows[63]
many pond snails of the genus Chilinia were also found abundantly
in the stream beds.


I have found only two species of fresh-water fish, Aplochiton
zebra, and a small Galaxias; and they inhabit most of the upland
lakes which are of any considerable extent. The former is a
smooth-skinned fish, with the general shape and fin arrangement
of a grayling, but with a dark scaleless skin. It averages half
a pound in weight, ranging up to three-quarters; and although
it rose like a trout, we could not succeed in making it take
the artificial fly, but caught it readily with worm-bait. These
fish were also met with in mountain lakes far removed from
the sea, whither their ova were probably, in the first instance,
conveyed by cormorants. On one occasion Sir George Nares
caught a specimen of this fish in a brackish lagoon, which communicated
with the sea at high tide, so that it may have been
derived from a marine progenitor which possessed the power of
adapting itself to a fresh-water existence.


In the course of our survey of Concepcion Strait, we stopped
for six days, in the month of March, at Portland Bay, an anchorage
on the east side of the strait, and nearly opposite to Tom
Bay. On the forenoon of our third day, a party of natives
pulled in from the westward, with their canoe well-provisioned
with shell-fish, as if they were about making a long voyage.
There were three men, four women, three children, and four
dogs. They were provided with a good iron axe, bone-pointed
spears, a boat-rope made of plaited rushes, and other rude
implements. It was evident that this party had previously met
with some friendly vessel, for they readily came on board, and
poked about the ship. Two of us went on a visit to their
camp on the following day, but were received very ungraciously
by a villainous-looking old hag armed with a club, who deprecated
any attempt at landing on our part. We could only
examine the canoe, which we found to be twenty-two feet long,
four feet in beam amidships, and in other respects of the usual[64]
construction. On the next day we pulled over again, but only
to find the hut deserted, and the party gone. We inferred,
from various circumstances connected with their disappearance,
that they must have penetrated up the Bay to the eastward,
where there are unexplored channels which are supposed to
extend towards the base of the Cordillera.


On the next day (March 24), a strong westerly breeze, with
occasional rain-squalls, induced most of us to remain on board,
and we were not a little surprised when, about 10 a.m., a boat
under sail was reported standing across the Strait towards our
anchorage. On nearer approach it turned out to be a native
canoe, with a large sealskin hoisted in the forepart of the boat,
so as to form a sort of square sail. As the natives came alongside
to beg for biscuit and tobacco, we found that the wretched-looking
boat contained three men, five women, eleven children
(mostly very young), and five dogs. They had shipped a good
deal of water on the passage, as might be expected, and all the
wretched creatures looked as wet as fishes; indeed, to say that
they were wet to the skin would be simply a truism in the case
of the Fuegians. We had not previously noticed so prolific a
family, the proportion of children being usually one for each
woman. I use the word "family," because each of these canoe
parties appears to constitute a sort of complicated family. One
young mother did not appear to be more than sixteen years
of age. I now inclined to the opinion, which subsequent experience
gave me no reason to alter, that the Channel Fuegians are
a migratory tribe, passing the summer months about the outer
islands, where at that time of the year they may get seals, and
the eggs and young of sea-birds, and in the autumn migrating
up some of the fiords of the mainland, when the deer, driven
down the hills by the winter snows, would be within their reach.
There is no doubt that deer (probably the Cervus chilensis) have
been seen from time to time on this coast. A few years ago
the officers of one of the German steamers of the "Kosmos"[65]
line, stopping at Puerto Bueno about mid-winter, captured three
or four in the immediate vicinity of the anchorage. We ourselves
never met with any, although we saw doubtful indications
of their presence; but further south we obtained portions of
a deer from a native canoe. I was led to form the above-mentioned
idea from comparing the great number of deserted
wigwams which we encountered in our wanderings about these
channels, with the small number of natives actually seen. The
huts alluded to, moreover, bore indications of having been in
use not many months previously, when they were probably
inhabited temporarily by parties of natives on their way to
the outer coasts. Fitzroy would seem to have entertained the
same belief with reference to tribes about Smyth's Channel,
from the fact that a party of men from his ship, when surveying
Obstruction Sound in the summer-time, discovered a large
deserted encampment containing many huts and canoes, and
showing signs of its being the site of a great periodical gathering
of the clans.




FUEGIANS OFFERING THEIR CHILDREN FOR BARTER



[66]


CHAPTER III.

EXPLORATIONS IN THE TRINIDAD CHANNEL.


In prosecuting the survey of the Trinidad Channel, we anchored,
for short periods each time, at a great many ports on its
northern and southern shores; and in crossing and re-crossing the
channel we ran lines of soundings which enabled us to ascertain
roughly the general conformation of its bed. Across the seaward
entrance of the channel, i.e., from Cape Gamboa on the north to
Port Henry on the south, the soundings gave a mean depth of
thirty fathoms, showing the existence of a sort of bar, while one
mile inside of this the depth increased to two and three hundred
fathoms. This was just as we expected; the bar across the
entrance representing the terminal moraine of the huge glacier
which originally gouged out the channel, and whose denuding
action is abundantly recorded in the scorings, planings, and striations
so palpable on all the hard rocks of these inhospitable shores.


At Port Henry, on the southern side of the entrance to the
channel, we anchored several times. The scenery here is very
grand. A clay-slate rock enters largely into the formation of
the hills, its highly inclined strata forming jagged peaks and
ridges of great height; while the low-lying rock about the coast
is a friable syenite traversed with dikes of greenstone. Immediately
to the south of our anchorage was a lofty ridge of
clay-slate hills, terminating above in a multitude of vertical
columns of rock, which from our position on board reminded
us of a cluster of organ pipes, and suggested the name which[67]
now appears on the chart, of the "Organ-pipe Range." The
aspect of the vegetation is also different from that of other
ports in these waters, owing to the abundance of a veronica
(V. decussata), which forms large glossy-green bushes, covered
with a profusion of snow-white flowers, and so varies the otherwise
monotonously green appearance of the beech forest.


Only one party of natives was here seen. They at first
approached us very stealthily, paddling between the small islands
off the eastern entrance of the harbour, and after the usual
interchange of signals (waving of green boughs and caps), they
came alongside. The boat was similar in construction and size
to those already examined at Tom Bay and elsewhere; but we
were now greatly struck at perceiving what a load it could
accommodate; for there were in it sixteen natives and six dogs,
besides provisions, weapons, and camp furniture. The party
consisted of three men, five women, and eight children; and
although they pulled only three oars (the women never taking
part in this work), yet they managed to get along at a fair
pace. On their arrival they were partially clad in seal skins;
but in their eagerness to barter with our seamen, for knives,
tobacco, and such treasures, they soon divested themselves of
all artificial garb, and appeared in a state of nature. It was
noticed that the males, who conducted the barter, compelled
the women to give up their scanty covering. In the way of
provisions, the boat contained a supply of large trumpet shells
(Concholepas) in rush baskets, and the drinking water was carried
in little bark buckets. They encamped near us for the night,
but disappeared unaccountably the next day.


On our exploring the islets just mentioned, we found a large
deserted encampment, in which we counted the remains of nine
native huts. The refuse-heaps contained a good many seal and
whale bones, besides echinoderms, limpet and trumpet shells,
the latter shell here taking the place of the mussel. The
trumpet shell (Concholepas) is found about the entrance of the[68]
Trinidad Channel, inhabiting rocky places immediately below
low-water mark on the weather (i.e., the west) side of islets
which are exposed to the heavy wash of the outer ocean.
I have not seen the shell south of this latitude. The brown
duck (Anas cristata) was here tolerably abundant, and with the
ashy-headed Brent goose, and the two species of oyster-catcher,
were in great request with our sportsmen, being the only edible
birds worth mentioning in the western channels.


From Port Henry we shifted our base of operations to Wolsey
Sound, the next inlet to the eastward. Here we anchored in
an apparently well-sheltered cove, surrounded by lofty hills, but
which we soon found to our cost to be a sort of aerial maelstrom.
A strong westerly gale was blowing over the hill-tops, as we
could see by the fast-flying clouds; while below at the anchorage
we experienced a succession of fierce squalls (williwaws) from
various quarters, with intervals of complete calm; so that the
ship kept swinging to and fro, and circling round her anchors
in a most erratic manner. Eventually one of the cables parted;
but with the other, aided by steam, we managed to ride out
the gale, and to thoroughly satisfy ourselves that Wolsey Sound
was not one of the anchorages to be recommended to passing
vessels. From the translation given in "Burney's Voyages,"
(vol. ii., p. 10), of the journal of Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa,
who discovered the Trinidad Channel in the year 1580, it
would appear that this is the same anchorage which his sailors
named "Cache Diablo" (devil's box-on-the-ear), from the boisterous
nature of the reception which they experienced.


On the east side of Wolsey Sound the rock of the mountain
masses is for the most part a hard grey unfossiliferous limestone,
irregularly stratified, but sometimes showing a dip of 10° or 15°
to the westward. The most striking peculiarity of this rock
consists in its solubility under the influence of both fresh and
salt water, and it is this property that so often causes it to
present a jagged honeycombed appearance. I noticed that in[69]
many places fresh-water streams, running over bare patches of
this rock, had eaten away narrow gutter channels, and that in
other places where a broad sheet of water flowed slowly—as
from a turf bank—over a long gently-sloping table of rock,
an incrustation of hard calcareous matter had been deposited,
presenting a sort of "ripple-marked" appearance, and reminding
one of the effect produced when a film of slowly-moving water
is submitted to the influence of intense cold. When viewed
from a distance, the limestone hills presented a whitish bleached
appearance, which contrasted strangely with the sombre hues
of the other greenstone and syenite hills. Of this description
was "Silvertop," a lofty and conspicuous mountain on the south
side of the Trinidad Channel, which was frequently used by our
surveyors as a landmark.


The next port to the eastward is Rosario Bay. It was named
by Sarmiento "Puerto de Nuestra Señora del Rosario." The
rock formation here is limestone, and of the kind above mentioned,
but the effects of frequent rain in washing away the
more soluble parts of the rock were not only manifested by
the honeycombed appearance of exposed surfaces, but also by
the prevalence of caves of most irregular shape. Soon after
we had anchored, Sub-Lieutenant Beresford and I, who had
gone away in the skiff, were paddling around an islet with
lofty and precipitous sides, when we noticed in the face of a
bare rocky cliff a suspicious-looking dark opening, partly blocked
up with stones, and situated about thirty feet above the sea
level. We ran the boat alongside the rocks, and Beresford
kept her from bumping while I climbed up the cliff to reconnoitre.
On clearing away a heap of stones and rubbish, I laid
bare a sort of niche in the rock, in which were portions of a
human skeleton, the long bones lying together in a compact
bundle, as if they had been so placed there when in the dried
state. Not many yards from this crevice we soon discovered
a small cave in the rock, and partly imbedded in the soil[70]
which formed its floor were a human jaw-bone and fragments
of smaller bones. On excavating the floor of the cave we
found it to consist of a stiff pasty greyish-white marl-clay,
abounding in small shells, amongst which were species of the
genera Patella, Fissurella, Chiton, and Calyptræa. On reaching
a depth of about one foot, we came upon a nearly complete
human skull of immature age, an otter skull with bones of
the same, and the tooth of an Echinus. The human bones
obtained were part of the skeletons of two individuals, one of
whom must have been young, for the epiphyses of the long
bones were not quite cemented to the shafts. I noticed that
the skull presented a completely ossified frontal suture, although,
from the nature of the teeth and alveoli, the person to whom
it belonged could not have lived for more than twelve years
or thereabouts. A tibia found in the first depôt bore marks
of having been chopped by some sharp cutting instrument.
From the fact of these bones being found interbedded with
marine deposits, coupled with what we know of these islands
having been elevated within recent times—I here refer to the
evidence afforded by raised beaches and old high-water marks
in the faces of cliffs—there is reason to believe that these
bones were deposited in the cave at a time when it was under
water, that they thus became surrounded by and imbedded in
an ordinary marine shallow water deposit, and that eventually, on
the island being elevated so as to raise the cave to its present
position—thirty feet above sea level—the surface deposit was
reinforced by the percolation of lime-charged water from the
rock above, thus resulting in the formation of the marl-clay
surface-layer above mentioned.


We made different attempts at dredging, but as the bottom
was everywhere very rocky and the dredge in consequence continually
getting foul, we were not successful in obtaining many
objects of interest. However, among them there were specimens
of a hydroid stony coral representing two species of the genus[71]
Labiopora—one of which Mr. Stuart Ridley of the British Museum
has ascertained to be a species new to science—and a fine orange-coloured
Astrophyton of a new species, recently described by Mr.
F. J. Bell as A. lymani.


On the north side of the Trinidad Channel we stopped for a
time at an anchorage near Cape Gamboa, which forms the north
headland of the entrance. At Cape Gamboa the rock is a clay-slate
showing distinct stratification, containing concretions of a
whitish sandstone, and dipping to the N.E. at an angle of about 45°.
To the eastward of Cape Gamboa is a limestone similar to that
of the south shore. We did some dredging here on a smooth
sandy bottom, the principal results of which were specimens of
the Chimæra (Callorhynchus australis), and some curious Isopod
Crustaceans of the genus Serolis. Another day (March 28th)
when sounding across the entrance of the Channel, we made a
heave of the trawl in thirty fathoms with most fruitful results,
obtaining a magnificent specimen of the orange-coloured Astrophyton
(A. lymani), several small rays and flat fish, large Actinia,
a new Crustacean of the genus Arcturus, starfishes, and a
Cephalopod Mollusc of the genus Rossia. On the evening of this
day we were fortunate enough to witness a most beautiful sunset
effect. As the sun disappeared from a western olive-tinted sky it
seemed to be followed in its descent by several horizontal bands
of delicate rose-tinted stratus clouds, which extended themselves
in parallel lines over an arc of 45°, and finally tapered away into
the most delicate threads of silvery light. In the east the dark
purple-tinted clouds melted upwards into the grey gloom of
approaching night, and foreshadowed to us the advent of another
day of sunshine in this the only really fine and summer month in
these western channels.


At the head of Francisco Bay—which was the name subsequently
given to this anchorage—at the outlet of a small river, we
one day made a very large "take" of fish in a somewhat singular
manner. A trammel net had been placed across the mouth of the[72]
stream at high tide, and on the tide falling had been examined
and found to contain a fair number of fish (mackerel). Some
hours later two of our people were wading up the river, and on
coming to a depression in its bed, which was at about the limit
to which the tidal salt-water reached, they found an immense
collection of half-dead and living mackerel in a pool, in which—the
tide being then rather low—the water was almost entirely
fresh. Here they caught, with their hands, fish enough to fill a
boat, amounting to a gross weight of 4 cwt. The probable
explanation of this lucky "take" seems to be that the fish entered
the mouth of the river with the flood tide—as is their wont—and
on attempting to retreat with the ebb found their return to the
sea barred by our net, and instead of endeavouring to pass
through the meshes preferred to move back into the brackish water
of the river. Here, as the tide fell still further and laid bare
banks of sand stretching across the stream, they became shut off
altogether from the sea, and at dead low tide the flow of fresh
water so predominated over the salt as to render them helplessly
stupid, so that they fell an easy prey to our sailors.


On the shores of this bay I came across a magnificent Winter's
bark tree, the largest which I have ever seen in the channels. Its
smooth and almost cylindrical stem was nine feet in circumference,
and ran up without branching to a height of thirty feet from the
ground.


In cruising to and fro about the channel we frequently came
across whales. They were usually either "finners" or "sperms";
more commonly the former. I saw only one "right" whale
during the many months which we spent in these waters. On
the 17th of February we steamed by a school of about twenty
"finner" whales, and shortly after we passed through a shoal of
small red shrimps (Galatheas), which were so densely clustered
together as to give the water quite a scarlet appearance. This
accounted for the great gathering of Cetaceans. Skeletons of
whales in a very imperfect state were abundant about the shores[73]
of this channel, and many were of large size. On the shore of
Francisco Bay I saw lower jaw bones which measured eleven feet
from condyle to symphysis. I looked, but in vain, for remains of
the Ziphioid Whales.


Some few miles to the eastward of Francisco Bay a deep inlet
pierced Wellington Island in a northerly direction. We were
anxious to explore it, as we thought it not unlikely that it might
prove to be a navigable passage, connecting Trinidad Channel
with the Gulf of Peñas. At length an opportunity occurred, and
on a fine morning in the month of March we steamed into this unsurveyed
inlet. On fairly passing the southern entrance, we found
ourselves traversing a lane of water of such glassy smoothness,
and bordered by such straight running shores, which were not
more than half-a-mile apart, as to seem more like an inland canal
than (which it eventually proved to be) a strait leading through a
nest of breakers to an inhospitable ocean. Its eastern shore
exhibited the kind of scenery prevailing about the Guia Narrows;
viz., round-topped hills with great bare patches of rain-worn rock
extending from the summits to a talus, which was covered with an
uniform mantle of evergreen forest, the latter encroaching upon the
sea-beach. But the country to the west presented a more pleasing
variety, being composed of low undulating slopes of grassy-looking
land, with here and there fissures or landslips exhibiting what
seemed to us, as we scrutinized them with our glasses, to be
sections of a sedimentary formation. We had hitherto seen
nothing like this anywhere among the western channels, and
consequently I for one was extremely anxious to land. However,
the captain had to make the most of daylight for the surveying
work in hand, so that our conjectures as to the nature of this
formation remained unverified. When we had attained a distance
of twenty-five miles from the southern entrance of the Strait, the
western shore was found to be broken up into a chain of low islets,
which in time dwindled away into a great arc of submerged rocks,
over which the swell of the broad Pacific broke with great fury.[74]
This then was the end of what is now known as the Picton
Channel, and bold would be the mariner who would attempt to
traverse it, and thread his way through such a maze of reefs and
breakers. Among the islets at this, its northern extremity, we
found an anchorage, where we decided on stopping for the night.
As we cast anchor, a native boat approached, carrying no less
than twenty-three inmates, most of whom were males, and of a
most savage and treacherous appearance. They had with them
several young fur seals, recently killed, which they were glad to
barter for tobacco or biscuit. After stopping alongside for about
half-an-hour, they paddled away and were seen no more. On the
following day we steamed back.


The rocky shores and islets of the Trinidad Channel bear
abundant indications of old ice action. These marks are not
very apparent on the coarse-grained friable syenite which is the
common rock of the district, but on the dikes of hard greenstone,
with which the syenite is frequently intersected, scorings
and striations of typical character may be seen. Close to the
anchorage in Port Charrua, on the north side of the channel,
there is a broad band of greenstone on which I observed very
perfect examples of "crosshatchings," where the prevailing east
to west striæ were intersected by those of another system at
an angle of about 40°. These rock erosions, coupled with
what we know from the sounding-lead as to the contour of
the sea-bottom, lead us to infer that the Trinidad Channel
was at some remote period the bed of a huge glacier, which
flowed westward from the Cordillera. That most, indeed, of
the other straits and channels of Western Patagonia were also
at one time occupied by glaciers is clearly testified by the
markings on the rocks.


There is a peculiar form of syenite rock not uncommon in
exposed situations on the hill-tops, which is composed of quartz,
felspar, and hornblende, the quartz occurring in crystals of
about the size of large peas. The felspar, being of a very[75]
friable nature, rapidly succumbs to the disintegrating influence
of the weather, and crumbles away, taking with it the small
particles of hornblende, so that the big quartz crystals, when
in the last stage prior to being dislodged, are seen standing
out in bold relief from the matrix. When this rock is seen
projecting in round bosses, through the turfy soil of a hilltop,
it looks at a short distance as if strewn with hailstones; and
the illusion is heightened on observing on its leeward side
heaps of loose quartz crystals, which have been completely
weathered out from the parent rock, and have been drifted by
the wind into this comparatively sheltered situation, as would
be the case with hailstones under similar circumstances.


But the most characteristic feature in the scenery of the
western shores of Patagonia is owing to the phenomenon of
"soil motion," an occurrence which is here in a great measure
due to the exceptionally wet nature of the climate. This
slippage of the soilcap seems in this region to be continually
taking place wherever the basement rock presents a moderately
inclined surface. Some of the effects of this "soil motion" are
apt to be confounded with those due to glacial action, for the
soilcap takes with it in its downward progress not only its
clothing of trees, ferns, and mosses, but also a "moraine profonde"
of rock, stones, and stems of dead trees great and
small, whereby the hills are being denuded, and the valleys,
lakes, and channels gradually filled up. When we first entered
the Western Channels my attention was at once directed to this
subject on noticing that the lower branches of trees growing
in immediate proximity to the seashore were in many places
withering from immersion in the salt water, and that in some
cases entire trees had perished prematurely, from their roots
having become entirely submerged. On looking more closely
into the matter, I noticed that sodden snags of dead trees,
mingled with stones, were often to be seen on the bottom of
the inshore waters, and that the beds of fresh-water lakes were[76]
plentifully strewn with similar fragments of wood, the remains
of bygone forests which had perished prematurely. These circumstances
are fully explained by the occurrence of soil motion,
for as the soilcap by its sliding motion, imparted by gravitation,
and aided by expansion and contraction of the spongy
mass, reaches the water's edge, the soluble portions are removed,
while its more durable contents are left to accumulate
at the foot of the incline. In this way rocks and stones may
sometimes be seen balanced in odd situations near the sea
beach, simulating the "roches perchées" which are dropped by
a melting iceberg or a receding glacier. These circumstances
are all the more interesting from their occurring in a region
where the effects of old and recent glacial action are exhibited
to a marked degree. Planings, scorings, striations, and "roches
moutonnées" may, one or other, be almost invariably found
wherever the rock is sufficiently impervious to the disintegrating
action of the weather to retain these impressions. Thus they
are nowhere to be seen on the coarse-grained friable syenite,
which is the common rock of the district; but where this rock
is intersected by dikes of the more durable greenstone, the
above-mentioned signs of former glacial action may be seen
well developed. I speak now of old glacial action, because
we have not found any glacier existing in the neighbourhood
of the Trinidad Channel, from whence they seem to have
entirely receded; but they are yet to be seen in the fiords
of the mainland further north; and in the main Straits of
Magellan we had opportunities of studying fine examples of
complete and incomplete glaciers, exhibiting in all its grandeur
that wonderful denuding power which these ponderous masses
of ice exercise as they move silently over their rocky beds.
There are, therefore, in this region, ample opportunities of
comparing and differentiating phenomena, which have resulted
from former glacial action, and those which are due to soil motion—a
force now in operation.


[77]


Sir Wyville Thompson (vide "Voyage of Challenger," vol. ii.,
p. 245) attributes the origin of the celebrated "Stone Runs" of
the Falkland Islands to the transporting action of the soilcap,
which among other causes derives its motion from alternate
expansion and contraction of the spongy mass of peat, due to
varying conditions of moisture and comparative dryness; and
this hypothesis is to a certain extent supported by the occurrences
which I now endeavour to describe. Here, in Western
Patagonia, an evergreen arboreal forest, rising through a dense
undergrowth of brushwood and mosses, clothes the hillsides to
a height of about 1,000 feet, and this mass of vegetation, with
its subjacent peaty, swampy soil, resting—as it frequently does—upon
a hillside already planed by old ice action, naturally
tends, under the influence of gravitation, combined with that of
expansion and contraction of the soil, to slide gradually downwards
until it meets the sea, lake, or valley, as the case may
be. In the two former cases the free edge of the mass is
removed by the action of the water, in a manner somewhat
analogous to the wasting of the submerged snout of a "complete
glacier" in the summer time; whereas in the last instance
a chaotic accumulation of all the constituents of the transported
mass gradually takes place, thereby tending to an eventual obliteration
of the valley. It appears to me that the conditions
which are said to have resulted in the formation of the "Stone
Runs" of the Falklands here exist in equal if not greater
force. There is a thick spongy vegetable mass covering the
hillsides, and acted on by varying conditions of extreme
moisture and comparative dryness; there are the loose blocks
of disintegrating syenite to be transported; and there are mountain
torrents, lakes, and sea-channels to remove the soil. That
motion of the soilcap does actually take place we have at least
strong presumptive evidence; but anything resembling a "stone
run" remains yet to be discovered. It would naturally suggest
itself to the reader that the above phenomenon attributed to[78]
soil motion might be accounted for by a slow and gradual
depression of the land, and I have carefully sought for evidence
favouring this view, but have found no reliable sign whatever
of subsidence; while on the other hand one sees raised beaches
and stones testifying to the ravages of stone-boring molluscs
at heights above the present high-water marks, which indicate
that even elevation of the land has taken place.


On May 6th, the winter season having then fairly set in, we bade
adieu for a while to our surveying ground, and commenced our
northern voyage to Valparaiso. Our course lay first through the
sheltered channels which separate Wellington Island from the mainland.
As we rounded Topar Island and entered Wide Channel,
the heavy mist which had been hanging around us all the morning,
almost concealing the land from sight, lifted at intervals like a
veil, and exposed to view the noble cliffs of bare greenstone
rock which hemmed us in on either side,—here and there streaked
down their faces by long slender cascades of water, extending
from summit to base, and seeming to hang over us like
glistening threads of silver. On passing the southern outlet
of Icy Reach, we saw shining in the distance the sloping
tongue-shaped extremity of one of the Eyre Sound glaciers,
whose bergs float out through Icy Reach in the winter time
and sometimes prove a serious obstruction to navigation in these
gloomy and mysterious channels. In Chasm Reach, which we
next traversed, the hills on either side rose nearly perpendicularly
to a height of 1,500 feet, their snow-capped summits contrasting
grandly with the sombre tints of their rocky sides; so scantily
clad with vegetation as to seem at a distance mere sloping walls
of rock.


In the narrowest part of this "reach," where the width was only
about half-a-mile, three native huts were seen established on low
projecting shelves of rock, and situated about a mile apart. To these
our attention was attracted by the long curling wreaths of grey
smoke ascending from their fires. As darkness was coming on,[79]
we did not stop to examine them, but steamed on towards Port
Grappler, where we anchored for the night.


We got under way early in the morning of the following day,
and proceeded through the channel as far as Hoskyn Cove, an
anchorage just to the northward of the famous English Narrows.
The morning had been hazy and showery, but towards noon the
mist cleared away, and as we passed the English Narrows, a
burst of sunshine completed the dispersion of the hazy vapour and
lighted up a scene of surpassing splendour. The scenery here
contrasted strangely with that of Chasm Reach, for the steep
hillsides now were richly clothed with a luxuriant growth of
primeval forest, and rising to a greater altitude, had their summits
capped with a broad mantle of snow, which showed to great
advantage against the deep blue of the sky. In the narrowest
part of the channel, where the flood tide was making southward
in a rapid stream, numbers of fur seals were gambolling in the
water, and the energetic movements of the cormorants testified
to the abundance of the fish.


Formerly the vessels of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company
were in the habit of running through these "Narrows," but of
late years the practice has been discontinued, on account of
the difficulty of managing the long vessels which are now
in vogue. Therefore, excepting an occasional man-of-war, the
only vessels which at the present day make use of the channels
leading to the Gulf of Peñas are the steamers of the German
"Kosmos" line. The deciduous beech (Fagus antarctica) here
formed a great proportion of the forest growth, and as its
leaves were now withering, their autumn tints gave a variegated
character to the wooded scenery, a feature not observed farther
south, where the evergreen beech (Fagus betuloides) predominates.
The Campsidium chilense, a large trailing plant, was abundant
and in full bloom, its flowering branches usually depending in
rather inaccessible places from the upper parts of the trees to
which it clung; and here we obtained for the first time specimens[80]
of the loveliest of South American ferns, the Hymenophyllum
cruentum.


The morning of the 8th May broke wet and gloomy as we got
under way and initiated the next stage on our journey. All day
long the rain fell in torrents, and a fresh northerly breeze, blowing
right in our teeth, raised a heavy, chopping sea, which made the
old ship heave uneasily, and gave us a sort of foretaste of what we
should have to encounter next day on emerging from the Gulf of
Peñas into the troubled waters of the Pacific. Steaming thus
against wind and sea, we made such slow progress that night had
fairly come on us when we crept under shelter of the lofty hills
which overshadow Island Harbour.


On the following morning we entered the open sea, and steered
for Valparaiso.


[81]


CHAPTER IV.

ON THE COAST OF CHILI.


On anchoring at Valparaiso on the 16th May, the first news
we heard was that the country was in a great state of
excitement, anent the war in which Chili was then engaged with
Peru and Bolivia. All the available troops and men-of-war
had been despatched to the seat of war in the north, leaving the
capital in almost a defenceless condition, so that great fears were
entertained lest one of the Peruvian cruisers should take advantage
of this to bombard the town. The last detachment sent off
consisted of the town police, and at the time of our visit the
maintenance of order in the streets, and the manning of the guns
of the forts, had been entrusted to the corps of "Bomberos" (fire
brigade).


The principal part of the town is built on a plateau about ten
feet above high-water mark, which forms a margin to the curving
shore of the bay, and reaches inland for a few hundred yards.
Beyond this the outskirts of the town are disposed irregularly
over a number of steep ridges, which converge radially on the
town from the mountain range behind. There was one principal
street running more or less parallel with the shore, and containing
fine-looking shops well supplied with everything needful, but the
second-rate ones were very dingy in comparison. Owing to the
great stagnation of trade brought about by the war, and the[82]
consequent scarcity of money amongst consumers, the prices of
provisions were very moderate, although under normal conditions
Valparaiso is famous among Europeans for its high prices. Fruit
also and vegetables were in great abundance, and large bunches
of delicious grapes were to be had for almost a nominal price.


One remarkable feature of Valparaiso is that within the precincts
of the town a considerable number of people of the very
lowest grade live in a sort of gipsy encampment. The buildings
which they here occupy are filthy nondescript hovels, constructed
out of a patchwork of mud, bits of tin, old planks, discarded doors,
pieces of sackcloth, etc., all stuck up together anyhow. Even in
the respectable quarter of the town these filthy dens were sometimes
to be seen occupying blind alleys, or the site of razed
buildings.


Sir George Nares left us here to return home by mail-steamer,
on appointment to the Marine and Harbour Department of the
Board of Trade, and was relieved in command of the Alert by
Captain J. F. L. P. Maclear.


After wishing him good-bye on the 18th of May, we got under
way and steered for Coquimbo. On gaining an offing of about
ten miles, and looking in towards the Chilian coast, to which we
were then pursuing a parallel course, we saw the lowlands partially
veiled in a thin stratum of mist, above which towered magnificently
the snowy summit of Aconcagua, 23,220 feet in height. As we
approached the Bay of Coquimbo, we passed through immense
shoals of fishes, which sheered off in great confusion to either side
of our bows with the parting waves. On subsequently hauling
in the "patent log," it was found that the revolving blades had
disappeared, the towing-line having been chopped in two just
above its attachment. This was probably the work of some
hungry and indiscriminating shark, whose stomach must have been
put to a severe trial in endeavouring to digest this angular and
unwholesome piece of metal.


The port of Coquimbo, where we stayed from the 19th of May[83]
to the 16th of July, derives whatever importance it has got from
being one of the best (if not the very best) of the anchorages on
the Chilian coast, and from its connection with the copper trade.
It is brought into communication with the mines and smelting
works by means of a line of railway, which, independently of its
collateral branches, pierces the copper-producing country to a
distance of sixty miles. The copper, either in the form of ingots,
bars, or regulus, is shipped to Europe—principally to England—in
steamers or sailing vessels. The country, as far as the eye
can reach from the anchorage, is a mere sandy desert, dotted here
and there with an odd oasis of cultivated land, which has been
rendered productive by means of artificial irrigation. Trees are
rare; but within the last few years the eucalyptus has been introduced,
and with great success. In properly irrigated localities
it thrives and grows with great rapidity,—in half-a-dozen years
rising to a height of sixty feet,—and forming masses of foliage,
which, by the shade it affords, increases the productiveness of
the neighbouring soil.


Coquimbo has been rendered celebrated for its shell terraces
by the writings of Darwin, Basil Hall, and others. These are
long plateaux of variable size, sometimes a couple of hundred
yards, sometimes a mile in width, with their sharply-defined free
margins running more or less parallel to the curved outline of
the sea beach, and extending inland by a series of gradations,
like the tiers of boxes in a theatre. There are five or six of
these terraces; that furthest inland being about 250 feet above
the sea-level, and its free margin being about six miles from the
beach. They are of entirely marine origin, and abound in shells
of existing species, and they testify to the different periods of
elevation to which this part of the continent has been subjected.


On the night of the 2nd of June we felt a slight shock of
earthquake. The cable rattled in the hawse-pipe as if it were
being violently shaken below by some giant who had got hold
of the other end; and the ship vibrated and surged up and down[84]
as if she had been struck by a wave coming vertically from the
bottom of the sea. The shock lasted about ten seconds, and
then all was again silent. Earthquakes of this magnitude are
of common occurrence in Chili.


One day a large party of us went on a shooting excursion to
Las Cardas, an estate occupying a mountain valley thirty-six miles
from Coquimbo, and belonging to Mr. Lambert, an English
gentleman. For this trip we were indebted to Mr. Weir, the
courteous manager of Mr. Lambert's mines, smelting works, and
estate, who not only provided a special train to convey us to the
shooting ground, but entertained us there most sumptuously. The
estate of "Las Cardas" lies at the termination of the southernmost
part of the two valleys which open into the Bay of Coquimbo,
and beyond this station the railway pursues its further course
over the brow of a hill called the "Cuesta," which it ascends by
a series of zigzags. Although its route here appears, at first
sight, circuitous enough, the gradient of the incline is an average
of one in thirty feet, ranging as high as one in twenty-five. We
found it interesting to stop for a while at the station and watch
our departing train trailing along its zigzag course up the hillside,
as it steamed on towards the inland terminus of the line, viz.,
"Rio Grande," which was some thirty miles further on. The
"Rio Grande" station is 2,000 feet above the level of the Coquimbo
terminus at the other end.


In the bed of a broad valley, and in the gullies communicating
with it laterally from the hills, we expected to get a good many
partridges; but owing to the thickness of the brushwood, and
the absence of dogs, we saw very few, and shot fewer still.
However, we were assured that the birds were there, and only
wanted proper stirring up to make them visible; so that as we
were every minute expecting that the next moment a great covey
would start up from the bushes, and consequently kept our guns
ready for action, we managed to keep up the requisite amount
of excitement for several hours without materially violating the[85]
spirit of the regulations of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Society.


In the evening we assembled at a clump of trees, which seemed
to be a favourite roosting-place for doves; and as the birds
came down from the hills to take up their quarters for the night,
they afforded us some very nice shooting while the daylight
lasted. The most interesting birds which I noticed in the valley
were two species of Pteroptochus, the smaller of which was almost
identical in general character with the Tapaculo of Coquimbo,
where it inhabits the low rocky hills, and attracts attention by
its barking noise, and by the odd manner in which it erects its
tail. Although the barking noise is heard frequently, and sometimes
within a few yards of one, yet the bird itself is seen
comparatively rarely. The bird of Las Cardas, however, might
with a little care be seen, whilst uttering its odd programme of
noises, as it stood under the overhanging branches of some large
bush. On being startled it makes off in a peculiar manner,
taking long strides rather than hops, and moving in a series of
sharp curves in and out among the bushes. In adapting itself
to these curves, the body of the bird is inclined considerably to
the inner side, so that in this position, with its long legs and
great clumsy tail, it forms a truly grotesque object. Examples
of the larger species of Pteroptochus (P. albicollis) were generally
to be seen in pairs, perched on the summit of a tall bush, the
white throat and white stripes over the eye showing conspicuously.


We sailed from Coquimbo on the 16th of July, and shaped our
course for the Islands Felix and Ambrose, which lie about five
hundred miles to the north-west of Coquimbo. The object of this
cruise was to take some deep-sea soundings between the mainland
and the above-mentioned islands. The weather was, for the most
part, very unfavourable, the ship rolling and kicking diabolically,
and making our lives very miserable. On the afternoon of the
20th, St. Ambrose, the eastward island of the two, hove in sight,
but as the day was too far advanced to admit of our landing, we[86]
"lay-to" about six miles to windward of it. Viewing the island
at this distance from the eastward, it presented the appearance of
a roughly cubical flat-topped mass of rock, leaning slightly to the
northward, and bounded—so far as one could see—by perpendicular
cliffs of a gloomy and forbidding aspect, which rose to an
altitude of 1,500 feet. As we approached the island on the following
morning its appearance by no means improved, and nowhere
could be seen any break in the rampart of lofty cliffs, which seemed
to forbid our disturbing their solitude. We looked in vain for the
"sheltered cove," where, as the sailing instructions say, "there is
good landing for boats at all times of the year." After making
the circuit of the island, we "lay-to" about a mile from the N.E.
cliff, and two boats were sent to reconnoitre, in one of which I
took passage. After pulling a considerable distance along the
foot of the cliffs, we at length succeeded, though with great difficulty,
in landing at the foot of a spur of basaltic rock, which
sloped down from the cliffs at a high angle. The first thing that
attracted our attention was a grotesque-looking crab (Grapsus
variegatus), of a reddish-brown colour, mottled on the carapace
with yellow spots. It scuttled about in a most independent way,
and seemed quite indifferent as to whether it trotted over the bottoms
of the rock pools, or ran up the steep face of the rock to a
height of forty feet above the water-line. Sea-birds innumerable
flew about us in all directions, but on careful inspection we could
only muster up three different species; viz., a large white-winged
gannet (Sula), a plump dark-coloured petrel (Œstrelata defilippiana),
and a slender white and grey tern (Anous).[1] The petrels were
nesting in the rock crevices. The nest consisted of a few withered
twigs and dirty feathers, forming a very scanty bed on the hard
rock, and containing a solitary white egg. The birds stuck bravely
to their nests, and would not relinquish their charge until, with
bill and claws, they had given an account of themselves, calculated[87]
to rather astonish an incautious intruder. Nevertheless, I subsequently
ascertained, by dissection of specimens taken from the
nests, that both male and female birds take part in the duty of
hatching. The rock in this locality was almost completely sterile;
only three or four plants (stunted undershrubs) were found, which
eked out a miserable existence among fragments of crumbling
rock.




[1] These and other birds collected during the cruise have been described and determined
by Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, the distinguished ornithologist of the British Museum.


The island is of volcanic formation. The cliffs which we
examined displayed a section, fully 1,000 feet deep, of various
layers of tuff, laterite, and scoriæ, which, for the most part, stretched
out horizontally, and were intersected in every conceivable direction
by dykes of basalt. In some places ridges or spurs of rock
projected like buttresses from the vertical cliff; and where we
landed the spur was composed of a vertical dyke of basalt flanked
by a crumbling scoriaceous rock, which latter was being worn away
by the action of waves and weather much more rapidly than its core
of basalt. The columnar blocks of which the basalt was composed
were bedded horizontally; i.e., at right angles to the plane of the
dyke, so that the appearance of the whole was strikingly suggestive
of an immense stone staircase. After a stay of an hour and a
half we were signalled to return on board, as Captain Maclear was
obliged to get under way, and accordingly at half-past twelve
we were sailing away to the southward, leaving this comparatively
unknown island as a prize for future explorers.


In the course of this cruise we were followed by great numbers
of petrels, among which were the giant petrel (Ossifraga gigantea),
the Cape pigeon (Daption capensis), and two species of Thalassidroma
(I think T. leucogaster and T. wilsoni). I noticed on this,
as on several subsequent occasions, that the little storm petrel is
in the habit of kicking the water with one leg when it is skimming
the surface in searching for its food. This movement is usually
seen most clearly when the sea presents a slightly undulating
surface; and when the bird strikes the water in performing a
slight curve in its flight, one can see that it is invariably the outer[88]
leg that is used. The object of this manœuvre seems to be to give
the body sufficient upward impulse to prevent the wings from
becoming wetted in rising from near the surface. I have often
observed the Atlantic storm petrels steady themselves on the
water with both legs together, but have never seen them perform
this one-legged "kick," like their congeners of the Pacific. There
are contradictory statements in natural history works as to whether
petrels do or do not follow ships during the night time. Those
who adopt the negative view of the question maintain that the
birds rest on the waves during the night and pick up the ship
next morning by following her wake. For a long time I was in
doubt as to which was the correct view to take, although I had
often on dark nights, when sitting on the taffrail of the ship, fancied
I had heard the chirp of the small petrels. At length I became
provoked that after having spent so many years at sea I should
still be in doubt about such a matter as this, so I began to make
systematic observations, in which I was assisted by the officers of
watches and quartermasters, who were also interested in the matter.
The result is that I am now quite certain that the storm petrel
and Cape pigeon do follow the ship by night as well as by day,
and that, moreover, the night is the best time for catching them.
Every night, for a time, I used to tow a long light thread from
the stern of the ship; it was about sixty yards long, and fitted at
the end with an anchor-shaped piece of bottle wire, which just
skimmed along the surface of the water and yet allowed the thread
to float freely in the air. I found this device a great improvement
on the old-fashioned method of using several unarmed threads,
and in this way I caught at night-time, and even on the darkest
nights, both storm petrels and Cape pigeons; the latter, however,
usually breaking my thread and escaping. If I sat down quietly
and held the line lightly between my finger and thumb, I would feel
every now and then a vibration as a bird collided with it. On
moonlight nights, moreover, one could always, by watching carefully,
see the big Cape pigeons flitting about the stern of the ship.


[89]


My experience of petrels and albatrosses is that whenever they
are having a really good meal, they invariably sit down on the
water. This is especially noticeable about noon, when mess
garbage is thrown overboard, and in perfectly calm weather I
have even seen a flock of storm petrels settle down on the surface
as if meaning to rest themselves, and remain as still as ducks on
a pond, basking in the sunshine. One day also in moderately fine
weather I thought I saw a Cape pigeon dive. This surprised me
so that I watched, and saw the manœuvre repeated again and again.
Some refuse had been cast overboard which scarcely floated, and
this petrel, being desirous of possessing some morsels of food
which were submerged, dived bodily down, apparently without the
least inconvenience.


Before quitting this subject, I shall say a few words on a
somewhat hackneyed but still open question, viz.,—"the flight
of the albatross." I have had many opportunities of watching the
yellow-billed species (D. melanophrys), and I have noticed that
it sometimes uses its wings to raise or propel itself in such a
manner that to a superficial observer it would then appear to
be only soaring with wings stationary. It does not "flap" them,
but depresses them rapidly towards the breast, so that it seems
as if the body were being raised at the expense of the wings,
whereas, in reality, the entire bird is elevated. The movement
does not resemble a flap, simply because the return of the wings
to the horizontal position is accomplished by a comparatively
slow movement. By resorting to this manœuvre occasionally, it
is able to maintain a soaring flight for periods which, without
its aid, might be considered extraordinarily long. Of course,
when it wants to gain a fresh stock of buoyancy and momentum,
it gives three or four flaps like any other bird.


During our return stay at Valparaiso from the 1st to the 21st
of August, I made a trip to Santiago, the capital of Chili.
Santiago is built on the great plateau which lies between the coast
range of hills and the Cordillera, and is 1,500 feet above the sea[90]
level. The distance by rail from Valparaiso is about 120 miles,
but as the railroad makes the greater part of the ascent within a
distance of 50 miles, the average gradient of the incline is considerable.
The train follows the line of the seashore for a distance
of about 3 miles to the northward of Valparaiso, when it reaches
the mouth of a wide valley running inland, the windings of whose
right bank it follows until a station called Llallai (pronounced
"Yayai") is reached. It then makes a steep ascent along the
side of a mountain, and here on one side a precipitous wall of conglomerate
rock faces the carriage windows, while on the other the
eye gazes into the depths of an ever-receding valley, above which
the train seems poised as if by magic. While one is still lost in
contemplation of this abyss, a short tunnel in a buttress of the
mountain is traversed, and the train suddenly sweeps round a
sharp corner, and crossing the valley by a light iron bridge which
here spans a part of it, constricted to a narrow chasm, enters a
highland defile on the opposite side. This place is known as the
"Mequin Paso." The train now pursues a meandering track among
the hills of Montenegro, where the summit level of the railway
is reached, and then inclines gradually downwards to the great
plain of Santiago.


After establishing ourselves in the Oddo Hotel, which is situated
in the middle of the city, close to the "Plaza De Armas," we
commenced our explorations, and first proceeded to the Natural
History Museum. It lies on the outskirts of the town and occupies
a spacious building which was originally constructed for the
Exhibition of 1875, and to which the Natural History collections
were transferred in 1877. Favoured by a letter of introduction,
we were here fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of Dr.
Phillipi, the distinguished naturalist, who has for many years had
charge of the museum; and to whose courtesy and good nature
we were much indebted. The collections illustrative of South
American ornithology and ethnology were particularly fine. The
herbarium seemed to be very extensive, and was so excellently[91]
arranged as to afford ready access to any groups of specimens.
In the spacious hall devoted to this department, we saw a section
of a beech tree from Magellan which was more than seven feet
in diameter, and the silicified trunk of a tree fifty centimetres in
diameter, which had been found near Santa Barbara. The mammalian
collection included two specimens of the Huemul (Cervus
chilensis), one of which was said to be the original figured by
Gay in his "Historia Physica y Politica de Chilé." Among the
human crania were some very curious specimens illustrating the
extremes of dolichocephaly and brachycephaly. It is to be
regretted that the subsidy voted by the Chilian government for
the maintenance of this admirable museum does not exceed £100
a year, and Dr. Phillipi may well be congratulated on the results
of his self-sacrificing labours.


About the centre of the town of Santiago is a remarkable hill
called Santa Lucia, whose summit affords a very extended view.
It is a mass of columnar basalt rising abruptly from the plain to
a height of about 300 feet, and presenting on all sides boldly
scarped faces in which several flights of stone steps have been
ingeniously cut, so as to lead by various labyrinthine routes to the
summit. We made the ascent towards the close of day, and were
well repaid for our trouble by the really magnificent view. The
town lay extended at our feet with its various buildings and
monuments standing up in bold relief. As we raised our eyes, its
outskirts dwindled into the broad plain of Santiago valley, which
here seemed to form an immense amphitheatre, surrounded in the
distance by a chain of lofty hills whose snow-capped summits were
at this hour illumined with the lovely roseate colours so characteristic
of sunset in the Cordilleras.


On the following day we visited the site of the church of La
Compania, where the fire took place in the year 1863, when some
2,000 people, mostly women, were burnt to death. The church
was never rebuilt, but in its place now stands a handsome bronze
monument to commemorate the victims of this dreadful calamity.[92]
Immediately adjoining are the splendid buildings in which the
sittings of congress are held.


The morning of our return was cold and frosty, and the plain
of Santiago was enveloped in a dense mist, from which we did
not emerge until the train had entered the mountain valleys,
through which it wound towards the heights of Montenegro. Here
we rose above the gloomy mists, and were gladdened by the
bright and warm rays of a sun whose beams were as yet screened
from the lowlands. Wild ducks were to be seen in the marshes
near the railways, scarcely disturbed by the passage of the train;
flocks of doves rose from the bushes here and there; owls hovered
about in a scared sort of way, as if ashamed of being seen out in
the honest sunlight; and on many a tree top was perched a
solitary buzzard or vulture. Later in the forenoon small flocks of
the military starlings were frequently sighted, their brilliant scarlet
plumage showing to great advantage against the pale green bushes
of the hill sides. After passing the summit level we rattled down
the incline towards Llallai, at what seemed to me to be a very
high speed. I kept looking out of the window at first, watching
the engine disappearing from sight as it suddenly swept round an
abrupt curve and entered a cutting, and admiring the wriggling
of the train as it swiftly threaded its way in and out among the
hills. Sometimes our route would seem to lead us into a cul-de-sac
of the hills, and when apparently almost at the end of it, the
engine would abruptly alter her course and sweep away in a
direction nearly at right angles to its former course, dragging the
docile and flexible chain of carriages away with it. I had missed
all this on the upward journey—I suppose because our slower
speed then made curves and cuttings look less alarming. After
a while, I began to reflect on the probable consequences of our
suddenly coming upon a flock of heavy cattle in one of these
nasty cuttings, and the more I pondered the more I became
convinced that although the cow-catcher of our engine was well
able to cope with a single bullock or even two, yet that in the[93]
case of our colliding with a flock of half-a-dozen or so, something
unpleasant must surely happen. This was not a cheering subject
of thought, so I turned away from the window and tried to
interest myself in the contents of a Chilian newspaper. A few days
previously, I heard that a single bullock had been met with on
this same incline, and had been satisfactorily accounted for by the
"cow-catcher." The body was smashed to pieces and thrown off
the track, but the people in the train (one of whom was my
informant) experienced only a very slight shock. At Llallai station
we stopped for breakfast, for which the cold air of the morning
had sufficiently prepared us, and in the afternoon we arrived
comfortably at Valparaiso.


We again stayed at Coquimbo from the 23rd to the 30th of
August, having been obliged to return there on account of a
court-martial. The appearance of the country had changed very
much since our previous visit. Bare tracts of sand had given
place to an uniform coating of verdure, and a great variety of
flowering plants were visible in full bloom. There was a species
of Aristolochia very common on the rocky hills, whose large
pitcher-shaped perianth frequently imprisoned a number of flies
of different species, and I found that I could add materially to
my entomological collection by examining these plants, and
despoiling them of their living prey, for most of the pitchers
contained living flies, and some of them the remains of insects
apparently in a half-digested state. This flower constitutes a
very effectual fly-trap; and I once noticed a great bluebottle-fly
endeavouring in vain to work his way over the "chevaux-de-frise"
of white hairs, which, with their ends pointing inwards,
studded the interior of the tube.


During this stay I made a trip to the copper mines of
Brillador, which are worked in connection with the smelting
houses at Compañia. Both establishments are the property
of Mr. Lambert, an English gentleman residing at Swansea,
whose Chilian manager is Mr. Weir, to whom I have already[94]
alluded. I went by train to Compañia, which is the terminus
of that branch of the line, and spent the night at the residence
of Mr. Weir, by whose kind invitation I was enabled to
make this interesting excursion. On the following morning we
started on horseback, and rode over the hills to Brillador. The
mines are eight miles distant from Compañia, and are situated
at an elevation of 1,500 feet above the sea level. Here we
put ourselves under the guidance of Mr. Richards, the courteous
engineer, who clothed us in canvas mining suits, and supplied
each of us with an oil lamp hung on gimbals at the extremity
of a long stick; and thus equipped we entered one of the adit
levels opening on to a steep hillside, and bade adieu for some
hours to the friendly daylight. One of the peculiarities of a
Chilian mine is that the ordinary ladder of civilization is replaced
by a notched pole, and that, by means of a succession of these
poles, the descent and ascent of the shaft of the mine is accomplished.
Another is that the ore is conveyed from the works
at the bottom of the shaft in sacks of hide, each man thus
carrying on his shoulders the enormous weight of 200 lbs. The
miners whom I saw employed in this work were naked to the
waist, and exhibited splendid muscular development of chest
and arm. I examined one of the sacks of ore, and found that
I could barely raise it off the ground. These fine athletic
fellows are fed principally upon maize, figs, and bread, few of
them eating meat. Three kinds of copper ore are found in
this mine. Near the surface is a light green carbonate of copper
which is easily smelted, and when rich in metal (i.e., free from
extraneous mineral matter) is in much request; but even when
of low percentage it can be advantageously used for the manufacture
of sulphate of copper. Next in order of depth is found
a purple ore, which is a double sulphide of copper and iron;
and at the bottom of the lode is the yellow sulphide of copper,
commonly known in Chili as "bronce." Here we saw a most
ingenious "rock drill," working at the end of a new level cutting.[95]
The apparatus, which is simple and most effective, consists of
a solid piston working in a very strong cylinder and driven to
and fro by compressed air, whose action is regulated by a slide
valve. The drill is fitted directly into the end of the piston
rod, and by an ingenious arrangement it is made to perform a
partial movement of rotation during each backward motion, so
that it may strike the rock in a new direction each time. The
working pressure of air was 50 lbs. per square inch. We noted
the time while a boring was being made, and found that it took
exactly nine minutes to make a hole nine inches deep, through
the hard rock. The power is originated by a double-acting
steam-engine, situated at the inner extremity of the main adit
level, from whence a supply of compressed air is conveyed in
flexible pipes along the various tunnels in which boring is being
done. In subsequently blasting the rock, gunpowder is used in
preference to dynamite or other explosives, I believe on account
of the toughness of the ore, which therefore yields more satisfactorily
to a comparatively gradual explosive. In the evening
we rode back to Mr. Weir's residence at Compañia, and on the
following day I returned on board the ship, which weighed anchor
the same afternoon, and proceeded southward towards Talcahuano.


Talcahuano, where we lay from the 4th of September to the
4th of October, is the most important seaport in southern Chili,
and possesses an excellent and roomy anchorage. It is situated
in a fertile and picturesque country; and it is in direct communication
by rail, not only with Concepcion and all the more
important towns of the south and central provinces, but also by
branch line with an extensive grain-producing territory bordering
on Araucania, whose produce it receives. Concepcion, which
takes rank as the third city in the Republic, is nine miles from
Talcahuano, and lies on the bank of the Bio Bio, a broad, shallow,
and sluggish river. The houses and public buildings there have
the appearance of considerable antiquity, although in reality the
greater number must have been rebuilt since the great earthquake[96]
of 1835, when the city was reduced to ruins. Penco, the old
Spanish capital of the province of Concepcion, was situated in
the eastern extremity of the Bay of Concepcion; but when it
was destroyed by a tidal wave in 1730, the people moved inland
and established themselves near the site of the present city.
However, by the cataclysm of 1751, the newly-founded city of
Concepcion shared the fate of Penco, but was soon rebuilt, as it
was again, in great part, after the earthquake of 1835.


We had intended to make only a short stay at Talcahuano,
but on the day preceding our arrival there, a case of small-pox
appeared among the crew, followed by a second and third, and
we were therefore obliged to remain in this harbour until our
patients should be sufficiently well to return on board.


There was a long, low, sandy island (Isla de los Reyes) lying
across the head of Talcahuano Bay, and inhabited only by a
couple of shepherds who were looking after a herd of cattle
and horses. There being no available hospital to which our
patients could be sent, we obtained leave from the Chilian authorities
to establish a temporary quarantine station on the island.
Accordingly, on the day of our arrival we set up tents on an
unfrequented and particularly airy part of the island, and having
supplied them with provisions and all the necessary appliances,
we installed our patients in their new quarters. They made
good recoveries. My medical duties required me to make
frequent visits to this little establishment, and I found it convenient
to make it the centre of my afternoon rambles. On
the mainland immediately adjoining the island, I found a great
marshy plain of many miles in extent, and intersected in various
directions by deep muddy ditches which communicated with the
sea, and at high tide brought supplies of sea-water to a chain of
broad, shallow lagoons, the home of multitudes of waterfowl.
Pintail ducks, widgeon, herons, curlew, flamingoes, turkey-buzzards,
gulls, lapwings, and sandpipers found here a congenial
home. The shrill, harsh cry of the spur-winged lapwing (the[97]
"terutero" of the Pampas so graphically described by Darwin)
was for ever scaring the other peacefully-disposed birds, and at
the same time invoking maledictions from the sportsman. The
plumage of this bird is very handsome, and the bright crimson
colour of the iris and eyelid during life gave it a strange fascinating
appearance, which can hardly be realized from a stuffed
specimen.


When the first ebb of the tide left bare the mudbanks in the
lagoons, the gulls and curlews collected in vast numbers for
their diurnal meal. Of the gulls only three kinds were seen,
viz., L. dominicanus, L. glaucoides, and L. maculipennis. The latter
were in various conditions of plumage; some birds having a deep
black hood, and others with a head almost entirely white, while
between these two extremes, there was every gradation. The
turkey-buzzards derived a plentiful supply of food from the
bodies of fish stranded on the beach. For some reason or other
dogfish were constantly coming to grief in this way, bodies of
fish, two and three feet long, being met with sometimes, all along
the beach, at average distances of about one hundred yards
apart.


One day we made an excursion up the river Andalien, which
flows into Talcahuano Bay, near the village of Penco, and which
at high tide is navigable for boats to a distance of seven miles
from its mouth. Our main object was to see something of the
nutria—a large rodent (Myopotamus coypu), which is common in
some of the rivers of southern Chili, and which the natives call
"Coypo." In a deep, narrow, ditch-like tributary of the Andalien,
we came across several of these animals, swimming and diving
about, some half-immersed clumps of bushes. At first sight their
manner of swimming and diving would lead one to imagine that
they were otters, but on closer inspection the broad muzzle with
its long bristly whiskers, and foxy-red hair, reveal their true character.
The "coypo" is distinguished from its northern ally, the
beaver, in having the scaly tail round instead of flat, and from the[98]
Chilian river otter, the "huillin" (Lutra huidobrio), it is easily
known by its dental characters as well as by its tail and feet.
The hind feet are webbed as in the beaver. I dissected one
which we shot, and found the stomach full of green vegetable
matter, and in the abdominal cavity, which was a good deal
injured by the shot, were fragments of a large tapeworm. This
specimen weighed 10 lbs., and measured 2 ft. 10 in. from snout
to extremity of tail.


Some days subsequently I accompanied Captain Maclear on
a railway trip up the country, Mr. Lawrence, the superintendent
of the line, having, with the courtesy so characteristic of English
residents in Chili, invited the captain and one other officer to
join him in a tour of inspection which he was about to make
along the Angol branch of the South Chilian railway. We
started from Concepcion at 9 a.m., on a small locomotive which
was set apart for the use of the superintendent. It was a lightly
built affair, partly "housed in" and partly open, and was fitted
to accommodate two or three passengers besides the driver and
fireman, so that it afforded us an exceedingly pleasant method of
seeing something of the country. This swift little vehicle was
called the "Quillapan," in commemoration of a distinguished native
chief of that name. Our driver was a most intelligent and well-informed
Englishman named Clark, who had lost his foot about
three years previously in a railway accident, at which I understood
that Lady Brassey, of the Sunbeam, had been present; and he
spoke gratefully of the kind attention which she paid to him. His
wooden leg did not seem to be much impediment to his engine-driving,
for he rattled us along round curves and down inclines at
a speed which, while possessing all the charms of novelty, had also
in no small degree the excitement of danger. However, we soon
got used to this, as well as to the jumping and jolting of the light
little engine.


For the first ten miles after leaving Concepcion, our route lay
along the right or northerly bank of the Bio Bio river. Here[99]
most of the railway cuttings were through a clay-slate rock, which
alternated with bands of black shale, and occasionally exhibited
thin seams of coal. Further on, and throughout the rest of the
journey to Angol, the cuttings were through banks of sand exhibiting
horizontal stratification, and being apparently of fluviatile
origin. A run of two hours brought us to the junction station
of San Rosendo, from whence the northerly line to Chillan,
Talca, and Santiago, and the S.E. line to Angol diverge. Here
we breakfasted, and stretched our legs by a stroll. Immediately
on resuming our journey we crossed the Lara,—a tributary of
the Bio Bio,—and then continued our course along the right
bank of the main river, until we had just passed the station of
Santa Fé. Here the line made a short semicircular sweep, and
crossed the Bio Bio by a low wooden bridge of about two hundred
yards in length. Clark, the driver, told us that during freshets the
water rose about fifteen feet above this bridge, completely stopping
the traffic. On asking him why they did not build a strong
high level bridge, he replied that a rude wooden structure such
as the present one cost little, and when swept away could be
readily and cheaply replaced; but that a bridge of durable style
would take too long to pay the cost of its own construction.
This explanation may not at first sight seem very lucid, but it
is worthy of consideration, for the principle which it involves is,
I fancy, applicable to many of the affairs of Chili.


We had now entered the great central valley of the country,
a broad plateau interposed between the coast range and the
Cordillera, and extending in one unbroken sheet of fertile land
from here to Santiago. Before us now, as far as the eye could
penetrate, lay a straight level track, so Mr. Clark turned the
steam full on, and the "Quillapan" responded to the tune of forty-five
miles an hour. When about a mile or two from a desolate
station called "Robleria," we were rapidly approaching a long
wooden bridge, when we saw a man appear on the track just
on our side of the bridge, and step leisurely from sleeper to[100]
sleeper. On hearing our whistle he looked round in a startled
attitude; but to our astonishment, instead of jumping to one
side of the line, he lost his head, and passing on to the bridge
made frantic efforts to cross before our engine came up. The
bridge was an open framework, consisting simply of wooden piles,
span-beams, and sleepers, and was so narrow that there was no
room for a foot-passenger at either side of a passing train. The
wretched man's misery must have been extreme, for as he crossed
the bridge he had to jump continually from sleeper to sleeper,
and could not of course look back again behind him to see how
things were going on. It was a moment of intense suspense to
us also, for it was now too late to stop the engine, Clark not
having calculated on the man attempting to cross before us.
However, he gained the off buttress of the bridge just in time
to throw himself down a bank on one side of the line, while the
"Quillapan" sped on like a whirlwind.


We reached the Angol terminus at 1.30 p.m., and on coming
to a standstill, found ourselves the centre of a small admiring
crowd, consisting of Chilian peasants and Araucanian Indians.
The latter wore very scanty clothing, in which the only distinctive
feature which I noticed was a band of red cloth tied
round the forehead and occiput. In stature and regular features
they somewhat resembled the Chilians, but their distinctly coppery
colour marked them out at once. Angol is now one of the
frontier settlements established recently by the Chilian Government
in Araucanian territory, and it is fortified against the marauding
expeditions of these hardy warriors by a chain of forts which
overlook the settlement, and are garrisoned by regular Chilian
troops. The district is of great value, on account of the richness
of the soil and its suitability for the cultivation of wheat, which
has now become the staple article of commerce in the southern
provinces of the Republic. Our stay at Angol was, unfortunately,
very short, as the station-master told us that a train due at Angol
that afternoon was even then telegraphed as waiting at one of the[101]
upper stations until our return, when the line would be clear for
it to move on.


On our journey back we narrowly escaped colliding seriously with
a herd of bullocks. We had just passed Robleria, when we noticed
some distance ahead of us a solitary bullock standing quietly on
the line. On the whistle being sounded he at once left the track,
so that the steam, which had been momentarily turned off, was
again put on, and the engine resumed her usual speed. We had
now approached to within forty yards of the place where the
animal had been, when suddenly from a dense clump of bushes
to the light there emerged a herd of half-a-dozen bullocks, who
with one accord began leisurely to cross the line. Quick as thought
Clark with one hand turned on the whistle, while with the other
he reversed the engine, leaving the steam valve wide open; and
immediately there was a great rattle of machinery below the
platform, and the engine checked her way considerably. And
now at the last moment, and when the cattle seemed to be almost
under the buffers of the engine, they, suddenly coming to a sense
of their danger, scattered, and sheered off; but not quickly enough
to prevent one unlucky animal being caught by the hind quarters
and chucked off like a football, its body rolling down the embankment
to the left in a cloud of dust as we whirled by. Clark
coolly replaced the reversing lever, and let the engine rush ahead
again as if nothing had happened. He remarked that if he had
been on one of the regular big engines he would not have bothered
himself about the beasts at all, but that half-a-dozen bullocks were
rather too much for the little "Quillapan."


Another trip which we made was to the Island of Quiriquina,
which lies in the entrance of the bay at about five miles' distance
from the anchorage of Talcahuano. An hour's run in the steam-cutter
brought us near the northern extremity of the island, where
we landed with difficulty in the Bay of Las Tablas. This name
has reference to the tabular form of the blocks of sandstone which
have fallen from the face of the cliffs and lie strewn on the beach,[102]
in which position they resembled the blocks of concrete which one
often sees near a pier or breakwater in course of construction.
Close to where we landed we found portions of the silicified trunk of
a tree, resting on the débris at the foot of the cliff, its fractured ends
exhibiting a jagged appearance, as if the fragment had not long
previously been broken from the parent stem. It was two and a half
feet long by a foot in diameter, and presented well-marked sections
of the concentric rings of growth. In one of the rock pools closely
adjoining we found also a smaller water-worn fragment, which we
were able to annex as a specimen. The sandstone cliff above us
exhibited well-marked lines of stratification, dipping to the southward
at an angle of about 15°, and in the talus at its base were
several large globular masses, which consisted almost entirely of
fossil shells, bound together by a matrix of soft clayey sandstone.
Conspicuous among these shells were examples of the genera
Baculites and Cardium. While the lowest rock in the series of
strata was a hard grey sandstone, full of fossil shells, and forming
a kind of level terrace skirting the beach, and a wash at high tide,
on the north side of the bay this last-mentioned rock was continuous
with another horizontal terrace, which ran at a somewhat
higher level, as if introduced there by a fault in the strata. It
was a coarse, unfossiliferous conglomerate, composed of angular
pieces of shingle bound together by a hard but very scanty matrix.


[103]


CHAPTER V.

OUR SECOND SEASON IN PATAGONIAN WATERS.


On the evening of the 4th October, our small-pox patients
being then sufficiently well to return on board, we sailed
from Talcahuano, and proceeded to the southward in order to
resume our surveying work in the Trinidad and Concepcion
channels.


We entered the Gulf of Peñas on the afternoon of the 9th
October, and as it was a clear, bright, sunshiny day, we had a
good view of Cape Tres Montes, which forms the northern horn
of the gulf, while ahead of us, and towards the S.E. bight, lay the
Sombrero, Wager, and Byron Islands, the first of which marks
the entrance of the Messier Channel. When we had got fairly
inside this channel, a Fuegian canoe of the customary pattern
was seen approaching from the western shore. We stopped to
allow her to communicate with us, and, of course, the usual bartering
of skins for knives and tobacco took place between the natives
and our seamen. There were about twelve persons in the canoe,
all of whom looked more than usually plump in regard to their
bodies, but had the characteristically stunted legs of this wandering
race. On leaving us they appeared to be quite sold out, and were
almost entirely naked, some of them completely so; however, they
seemed well pleased with the bit of traffic which they had accomplished.


[104]


We anchored for the night in Island Harbour. On the following
morning we got under way at an early hour, and steamed
down the Messier Channel and through the English Narrows,
reaching Eden Harbour about dusk.


We passed several small icebergs, which had probably reached
the channels from a glacier in Iceberg Sound. The largest was
about twenty yards across, and projected about six feet above the
surface. Most of the hills in this latitude were snow-clad as far
as the 1,000 feet line.


On the evening of the next day, the 11th October, we reached
the Trinidad Channel, and established ourselves for a time at
Cockle Cove, an anchorage on the south shore of this channel,
of which the survey was as yet incomplete.


It was now spring time on the west coast of Patagonia, but the
weather was as chilly and wet as it had been in the autumn of the
previous year, when we were moving north towards our winter
quarters; indeed, from the accounts furnished to us by the sealers,
as well as from our own experience, I am inclined to think that
there are no marked seasonal changes in the weather on the
west coast, whither the constant westerly winds are continually
delivering the burden of aqueous vapour which they accumulate
in their passage over the Southern Ocean. On the other hand,
the condition of the fauna and flora indicate the natural two-fold
division of the year as decisively as it is observed in the same
latitude in the northern hemisphere.


In the month of October at Cockle Cove the kelp geese and
steamer-ducks were preparing their nests, and the cormorants were
assembling at their rookeries; the holly-leaved berberry (Berberis
ilicifolia) was already displaying its gorgeous clusters of globular
orange flowers, and the giant creeper (Campsidium chilense) was
also in bloom, its scarlet bell-shaped flowers peeping from aloft
among the branches of the beech-trees, where they appear to seek
a position in which they may flourish safe from intrusion. Many
of the mosses and Jungermanniæ were also now in full fruit.




OUR FUEGIAN FRIENDS AT TILLY BAY, STRAITS OF MAGELLAN (p. 118).


[105]


We dredged several times at Cockle Cove. The bottom was
muddy, and abounded in a species of Mactra, which the men were
fond of eating; and as they commonly called these shells "cockles,"
the anchorage was given a name which would recall the memory
of these much-esteemed comestibles.


We also obtained numbers of a pale rose-coloured Gephyrean.
On placing one of these creatures in a globe of fresh sea-water it
seemed to feel quite at home, protruding its tentacles and puffing
out its worm-like body until it looked like a tiny jam-roll with a
star-fish attached to one end. These tentacles, which are eight in
number and surround the mouth, are each one provided with from
eight to ten finger-like processes. When there is only the former
number, the organ looks remarkably like a hand, and the resemblance
is rendered more striking when the tentacle is extended,
and grasps some minute particles in the water, which to all appearance
it conveys to its mouth. The usual shape assumed by
this protean animal is that of a long cylinder with rounded ends,
but it sometimes shows an annular construction about the middle
of the body, and sometimes the whole anterior half of the body
is retracted so as to give the animal a telescopic appearance.
These changes of shape are produced by the action of two distinct
systems of contractile fibres, transverse and longitudinal, the fibres
of the former being disposed closely together like minute hoops,
and girding the body from end to end, while the longitudinal fibres
are arranged in five broad and well-marked equidistant bands,
which extend uninterruptedly from one end of the cylindrical
body to the other.


One night a small petrel flew on board, into one of the hoisted-up
boats, where it was found by one of the seamen in the usual
apparently helpless state. It is odd that some species of the
family of petrels should find such difficulty about rising on the
wing from a ship's deck. A freshly-caught Cape pigeon, placed
on its legs on the deck, seems to forget utterly that it possesses
the power of flight, and does not even attempt to use its wings,[106]
but waddles about like an old farmyard duck. The petrel above
referred to was the little diver (Pelecanoides urinatrix), a bird not
uncommon in the channels, but yet very difficult to obtain.
During the previous season on the surveying ground, Sir George
Nares, who was the first to notice it, reported one day that he
had seen one of his old arctic friends, the "little auk," which
indeed in its habits it strongly resembles. It usually (at all
events during the day-time) sits on the surface of the water, and
on the least sign of danger takes a long dive like a grebe, and
on rising to the surface again flies away some few hundred yards,
keeping all the while close to the surface. Its flight is like that
of the grebe, but more feeble. In the Falkland Islands the
habits of this bird are somewhat different. The bill is peculiarly
broad and of a dark horn colour, the breast and belly of a dull
grey, and the upper parts black; the tarsi and feet lavender.
The body is short and plump, and is provided with disproportionately
short wings. Speaking of this bird, Mr. Darwin says
that it "offers an example of those extraordinary cases of a bird
evidently belonging to one well-marked family, yet both in its
habits and its structure allied to a very distant tribe."


There was a "rookery" of the red-cered cormorant (Phalacrocorax
magellanicus) near Cockle Cove, but the nests were
placed on almost inaccessible ledges in the face of the rocky
cliff, which was streaked all over with vertical white lines from
the droppings of the birds. This species of cormorant is very
abundant throughout all the channels. A second species, a jet
black bird (Phalacrocorax imperialis), builds its nest in trees;
and there was a characteristic "rookery" of this tree cormorant
at Port Bermejo, where we anchored in the month of November.
It was in a quiet sequestered place, where two old and leafless
beech trees overhung the margin of an inland pond. The nests
were constructed of dried grass, and were placed among the
terminal branches of the trees. These funereal-looking birds,
sitting on or perching by their scraggy nests on the bare[107]
superannuated trees, formed a truly dismal spectacle. They uttered,
too, a peculiar cawing sound, which was not cheerful, and so
remarkably like the grunting of a pig, that before I saw the
rookery I was for some time peeping through the bushes and
looking for tracks, imagining myself in the neighbourhood of
some new pachydermatous animal. It seemed as if the birds
took the grunting business by turns, only one at a time giving
tongue.


I was surprised to see how neatly they alighted on the branches.
There was none of the awkward shuffling motion of wings and
feet which they exhibit when alighting on the ground or on the
water; but, on the contrary, each fresh arrival soared on to its
perching place as smoothly and cleverly as a hawk, and grasped
the branch firmly with its claws. At another tree rookery in
Swallow Bay I noticed that when some of the birds on flying
in observed my presence, they would rise high above the tree, and
remain soaring around in circles till I had gone away. The
method of soaring was to all appearance as smooth, steady, and
devoid of effort as that of a vulture. And yet the cormorant is a
heavy short-winged bird, that rises from the ground with difficulty,
and whose ordinary method of flight is most laborious.


The handsomest bird in this region is the kingfisher (Ceryle
stellata). It is commonly to be seen perched on some withered
branches overhanging the water, where it will remain in a
huddled-up sleeping attitude, its head turned sideways, but with
an eye all the time fixed intently on the water beneath, until
it espies a fish, when it drops like a stone, cleaving the water
with a short sharp splash, and a moment afterwards emerges
with an upward impulse, which raises it clear of the water, and
enables it to fly away at once without any preliminary shaking
or fluttering. It is an exceedingly unsuspicious and fearless
bird, and when perched on its place of observation, will often
allow one in a boat to approach within arm's reach of it. Mossy
banks overhanging low sea cliffs are its usual nesting places,[108]
and there it excavates a tunnel through the soft moss and turfy
soil, and at a distance of more than two feet from the aperture
forms its nest.


There is a very peculiar and constant feature in the scenery
of the woodlands about the summits of the low hills, which has
given rise to much speculation amongst us. It is that many of
the rounded bosses of syenite rock, which project for a few feet
above the level of the swampy land, exhibit on their highest
parts isolated mossy tufts, which look at a little distance like
small piles of rubbish placed artificially in prominent places as
landmarks, or like the marks which mountain climbers are so
fond of setting up on rocky pinnacles as records of their feats.
The usual shape is that of a cylinder about eighteen inches high
and ten inches in diameter, with a rounded top; and it adheres to
the rock by a well-defined base of matted fibres. It is composed
of a very compact moss (Tetraplodon mnioides), which is of a
rich green colour on the summit of the tuft when it is in a
flourishing condition, and whose decaying remains, converted into
a peaty mould entangled in a fibrous network of roots, form the
body and base of the tuft. When this moss is in fruit, its long
spore-bearing stalks, which rise to a height of three inches above
its surface, are of a dark-red colour where they emerge from the
green surface, this colour gradually changing into a beautiful
golden-yellow above, where the spore-cases are supported. It
is then an exceedingly pretty object. If one of these tufts be
torn away from its rocky foundation, which is very easily done,
and is a most tempting work of destruction, a white scar is left
on the rock which will catch the eye at the distance of a mile,
and which strongly resembles the small white-washed marks
set up on the coasts by our surveyors for shooting theodolite
angles at. Now the question is, why does the moss establish
itself in this peculiar position, on the otherwise bare and exposed
rock? It is all the same whether the rock be dome-shaped, as
it most commonly is on the low hill-tops, or pyramidal, or wedge-shaped,[109]
the tuft—if there is one present—is invariably to be
found perched on the highest part of it. I can only attribute
this to the peculiar habit of growth of the moss, adapting it
specially to this shape and this situation; a situation to which
moreover it gives a decided preference, for I have not observed
it growing elsewhere. Sometimes on climbing a rocky mountain
hereabouts, one sees from afar off one of these tufts perched on
a commanding pinnacle at the summit; then one thinks that
surely this must be a cairn erected by some desolate traveller, and
it is only on approaching closely that the delusion vanishes. It
will then, perhaps, be found that the tuft stands alone, surrounded
in all directions by a sloping surface of bare rock which isolates
it by a radius of forty yards from all other vegetation; the little
tuft bearing itself up bravely as if in obstinate defiance of the
wind and rain, which one is at first inclined to think must have
swept away an old uniform mantle of vegetation from the rocky
surface, leaving the mossy tuft on the summit the sole survivor.


There is another peculiar form of vegetable growth which is a
characteristic of the landscape in certain parts of this region, and
which I have not noticed to the same extent elsewhere. It is this.
Whenever a mass of bushes happens to be exposed to the prevailing
westerly wind, as in the case of promontories which receive
the unbroken blast on one of their sides, or of exposed islets in
mid-channel, it will be seen that the bushes not only lean away
permanently from the direction of the prevailing wind (as is usual
everywhere), but that their summits are cut off evenly to a common
plane which slopes gently upwards, and thus presents as
trim an appearance as if the bushes had been carefully clipped to
that shape with a gardening shears. Our surveying parties have
sometimes been disappointed at finding that a headland, which
seemed from a short distance to be covered with an inviting mantle
of short grass, and which therefore looked a convenient place on
which to establish an observing station, was in reality defended by
a dense growth of bushes, which exhibited the phenomenon in[110]
question, and over, under, or through which it was almost impossible
to get. Sometimes one could get over these bushes by
lying down at full length and rolling sideways down the incline;
but this method was objectionable, for it was sometimes ten or
fifteen feet from the surface to the hard ground beneath. The
reason of this curious growth is obvious enough. Each aspiring
leafy twig that happens by a too luxuriant growth to shoot
above its fellows, is cut down by the relentless blast before it
can acquire strength enough to make good its footing; and
those branches alone survive in the struggle which grow uniformly
with their neighbours, and which thus present a sufficiently compact
surface to withstand the blighting influence of the westerly gales.


One day, when we were lying at our old anchorage in Tom
Bay, I saw a cormorant rise to the surface with a large fish in its
mouth, which, for several minutes, it vainly attempted to swallow.
I noticed it chucking the fish about until it had got hold of it by
the head, but even then it seemed unable to "strike down" the
savoury morsel. A flock of dominican gulls now appeared on
the scene, and seeing the state of affairs at once swooped down
on the unlucky cormorant, but the wily bird discomfited them by
diving and carrying the fish with it. It was now most ludicrous
to witness the disappointed appearance of the gulls, as they sat in
a group on the water looking foolishly about, and apparently
overcome with grief at their inability to follow up the chase by
diving. After an interval of about half-a-minute the cormorant
reappeared some distance off with the fish still in its mouth, and
now one of the gulls succeeded at last in snatching the fish from
its grasp, and flew away with it rapidly up a long winding arm of
the sea. At this critical moment a skua (Stercorarius chilensis),
hove in sight, and gave chase to the fugitive gull, until, unfortunately,
a turn in the creek concealed both birds from our sight,
but left us to safely conjecture that the last comer had ultimately
the satisfaction of consuming the wretched fish.


I have often wondered at the apparently stupid manner in[111]
which long files of cormorants will continue on their course
over the surface of the water without deviating so as to avoid a
dangerous locality until they are close to the place or object to be
avoided. Many persons are doubtless familiar with the appearance
of these birds as they fly towards a boat which happens to lie in
their route, and may remember the startled way in which, when
about twenty or thirty yards off, they will alter their course with a
vigorous swish of the tail and sheer off confusedly from the danger.
Again, how eager they are to take advantage of the (probably)
acuter vision of terns and gulls, when they observe that either of the
latter have discovered a shoal of fish. Is it not therefore probable
that cormorants are naturally short-sighted?—a disadvantage for
which they are amply compensated by their superior diving powers.


The required survey of the Trinidad Channel was completed
by the middle of the month of December; but before leaving this
part of the coast, one day was devoted to an exploration of the
"Brazo del Norte," a sound running in a northerly direction from
the Trinidad Channel, and piercing the so-called Wellington Island.
We got under way from Tom Bay early in the morning, and
steaming across the Trinidad Channel, entered "Brazo del Norte,"
and explored it to a distance of twenty-six miles from the entrance.
We were then obliged to turn back in order to reach Tom Bay
before nightfall. It was a great pity that time did not permit us
to trace this magnificent Sound to its northern extremity; for so
far as we could judge there seemed every probability of its communicating
directly with the Fallos Channel, which is known to
extend southwards from the Gulf of Peñas to within a few miles
of the place where we turned back. In this event it would prove
a good sheltered route for vessels using the Straits of Magellan,
and if free from the objectionable restrictions which close the
Messier Channel route to large steamers, would be used not only
in preference to it but to Trinidad Channel itself, whose approach
from seaward is at least uninviting, if not hazardous.


On leaving Tom Bay we moved gradually down the Concepcion[112]
and Inocentes Channels, always anchoring for the night, and
sometimes stopping for a day or two in order to examine some
new port.


At Latitude Cove a black-necked swan (Cygnus nigricollis)—besides
which only one other was ever seen by us in the western
channels—was shot. It proved to be a male bird, weighing only
seven pounds, and was in poor condition, having strayed far from
its own happy hunting grounds among the lagoons of central
Patagonia.


We anchored at Sandy Point in the Strait of Magellan on the
2nd January, and remained there eleven days in order to provision
the ship, and to give the crew a change of air.


Here I made the acquaintance of the master of a sealing
schooner, an intelligent man named John Stole—a Norwegian by
birth—from whom we obtained much interesting information
about the natives of Tierra del Fuego. At the time of our visit he
was laid up with a bad leg, on account of which he had had to
relinquish the command of his vessel the Rescue for this season's
cruise. His favourite sealing ground was among the rocky islets
about the S.W. parts of Tierra del Fuego; but in the course of
his wanderings he had visited most of the islets and coasts extending
from the mouth of the river Plate on the eastern coast to the
Gulf of Peñas in the westward. During his last cruise, he had the
misfortune to be attacked by a party of natives in the Beagle
Channel, at a place not far from the missionary station of Ushuwia.
He gave us a most graphic description of the affair. His schooner
had been lying quietly at anchor in a rather desolate part of the
channel, having at the time only five men, including himself, on
board, when a canoe containing ten Fuegians—eight men and two
women—came alongside. Not suspecting any treachery, he went
below to have his tea, leaving one man on the forecastle to look
after the vessel. Presently hearing a scuffle on deck, he put up
his head through the small hatch of his cabin, when a native
standing above made a blow at him with a canoe paddle. The[113]
blow failed to take effect, as he had just time to duck his head
under the boom of the mainsail which was secured amidships over
the hatchway. He now retreated to his cabin, snatched up a
revolver which was lying ready loaded, and returning to the hatch
quietly shot the native who was waiting to strike another blow at
his head. Two others now followed up the attack, armed with
heavy stones, but they were shot in quick succession, one of them
falling overboard and capsizing the canoe. As Stole now raised
himself through the hatch, a fourth native attacked him from
behind, but he turned half round, rested the barrel of the revolver
on his left arm, and fired into his assailant's eye, the entire charge
passing through the wretched creature's head. In the meantime
the crew were successful in expelling the four natives who had
attacked the fore part of the vessel, and all of whom were killed.
The two women in the boat had been passing up stones as ammunition
for their male companions, and when the canoe capsized one
of them was drowned. When the fight was over, the deck presented
a ghastly sight, being sloppy all over with blood in which
were lying the bodies of the dead and dying savages, as well as
quantities of stones which before the attack began had been passed
up from the canoe to be expended in storming the hold of the
vessel. Of the ten natives, eight men had been killed, and one
woman drowned, the surviving woman being taken prisoner. The
sealers now got under way, and proceeded to the mission of Ushuwia,
where they reported the matter to Mr. Bridges, the manager of the
station. He investigated the case, and on finding that the account
given by the sealers was corroborated by the evidence of the
surviving woman, exonerated the former of any misconduct in the
energetic measures which they had taken to defend their lives, and
to defeat the object of the natives, which of course was to obtain
the possession of the schooner.


The first of the small sealing fleet to arrive at Sandy Point
this season was the Felis, of Stanley, a small rakish schooner,
commanded by an Irishman named Buckley. He had a cargo of[114]
500 sealskins, which he sold to a German dealer on shore, at the
rate of 30s. a skin, this being considered a good price for Sandy
Point, and generally only given for the first arrivals in port;
cargoes arriving late in the season not realizing more than 25s.
a skin. In the present state of the home market, furs being in
request, these skins, on being landed in England, whither they
are conveyed by the mail-steamers, are bought by the furriers
for about £4 apiece; so that the dealers at Sandy Point make a
large profit by their share in the trade. Sealers fitting out at
Sandy Point also usually get their stores and provisions on credit,
and at an exorbitant valuation, from the same dealer to whom
they subsequently sell their skins. The produce of the skins,
moreover, as they are sold to the dealers at Sandy Point, is
divided into three equal lots, of which one is divided among the
crew, while the remaining two go to the owner, out of which
he has to pay for the provisions and stores consumed on the
cruise. It is calculated that the outlay on the stores swallows
up about one-third of the entire sum, so that eventually
about one-third of the value of the skins remains as the profit
of the owner. In a very good season, the master and owner of
a sealing schooner of thirty tons will make a clear profit of as
much as £2,000, while each man of the crew (usually twelve
in number) would get a share amounting to £80, on which to
spend the blank eleven months of the off-season in idleness and
debauchery.


The Magellan sealing season extends over the months of
December and January. In or about the last week of November,
the fur seal (Arctocephalus falklandicus) and the sea lion (Otaria
jubata) "haul up" on the rocks of the outer coasts, and bring
forth their young. The breeding places, or "rookeries," which
they usually select, are small, low-lying, rocky islets, which are
exposed to the swell of the great ocean, and over which, in heavy
weather, the sea makes a more or less clean sweep. Situated as
these rocks are, it is often a very difficult and dangerous matter[115]
to effect a landing, so that, to make sure of it, a sealing master
usually arranges his cruise so that he may reach the vicinity of
the rookery about a month before the breeding time. He then
takes advantage of the first fine day to land a party of men on
the rock with fuel, camping arrangements, and a large supply of
provisions. The latter is essential, for it may be two or three
months after the season is over before he can get a favourable
day for embarking the men and the stock of skins. Cases have
occurred where men have been weather-bound on the rocks for
months, and reduced to the brink of starvation, although making
use of seal-flesh and shell-fish as long as they could get them. The
different sealing captains are, of course, very careful to conceal
from each other the position of the "rookeries" of which they
know; and they have got so much into the habit of deceiving
each other in this respect, that it may be laid down as a safe rule,
that if a sealing master says he has landed his men on some rocks
to the northward, it is more than probable that the real locality is
somewhere in a southerly direction. After the camping parties
have been established at the "rookeries," the sealing vessel with
the crew, now reduced to a very small number, is employed for
the next month or two in cruising in search of new hunting-grounds.
In this pursuit they sometimes wander for hundreds of
miles from the place where the men have been landed, traversing
unsurveyed channels and islets, trusting confidently that at night
time they can always find some sheltered place where they can
either anchor close in shore, or, if the water be too deep, as it
generally is, make fast to a tree. When cruising in this way,
they kill numbers of the Magellan sea-otter (Lutra felina), an
animal which they include in their line of business, although not
at all to the same extent as the fur seal. The fur of the otter
when dressed is of great beauty; but as it is not now in fashion
in Europe, it commands a very small price in the market, the
salted skins, on delivery in England, only realizing about 2s. apiece.
When the long brown hairs which form the animal's apparent coat[116]
have been removed, the underlying fur is seen to be of a beautiful
golden-yellow colour. The otters are obtained by sealers in a
great measure by bartering with native canoes (the Fuegians
catching them with dogs), and also by shooting them, as they
swim through the kelp close to the beach. Both the otter and
sealskin are salted dry,—that is to say, each skin is spread out
flat, salt is sprinkled plentifully over the inside, and the skin is
then rolled up with the hair outside, and tied up into a round
bundle. The old fur seals are killed just as they are met with,
and without any regard to the preservation of the stock. The
sealers commonly call the females "claphatches," and the males
"wigs;" the skin of the former is much the more valuable of the
two. The sea lions (another species of seal) are seldom meddled
with; but occasionally a sealer, in default of the regular article,
will kill them for the sake of the oil, and take some of the
hides, for which there is a certain demand for making "machine
belting."


Buckley, the master of the Felis, told us that he had observed
that in the case of the fur seal there was an interval of only
one or two weeks between the date of parturition and that of
coupling, and that, in the case of the "hair seal," coupling took
place almost immediately after the young were brought forth.
If this be true, the period of gestation cannot be less than eleven
months.


Buckley presented the captain with a young fur seal—a male,
six weeks old—which had been caught on the rocks, and nursed
carefully by one of his crew, an Italian seaman, who had been
"bottle-feeding" it with milk, and had taught it to answer to the
call of a whistle. It trotted about our decks in a most lively
manner, its hind feet, when trotting or walking, being turned
forwards and outwards in the manner peculiar to seals of its
genus. On whistling to it, it uttered a strange cry—half wail,
half bark—and came to the call like a dog. When taken up in
the arms and petted like a child, it lay quite still, closed its eyes[117]
and seemed to go off into a gentle sleep. It, unfortunately, died
on the following day—perhaps through fretting for its Italian
nurse—and its body then came into my hands as a zoological
specimen.


Dr. Fenton, whose acquaintance we had made on our first visit
just a year previously, was still residing at Sandy Point as medical
officer of the settlement, and, with great good nature, put his
house and horses at our disposal. He told me of an experiment
he had been trying on the flying powers of a condor, which
had been caught alive. He perforated the quills of the wing
and tail feathers, so as to allow the ingress and egress of air,
and on then throwing the bird up in the air found that it could
neither fly nor soar. The inference is that the bird derives its
buoyancy in a great measure from the formation of a vacuum
in the quills of these feathers, and consequently, on air being
admitted, the flapping of the wings, unaided by the buoyancy
derived from the rarefied air, was insufficient either to raise
or support the bird's weight. If this theory be correct, it is
probable that the mechanism by which this vacuum is produced
is actuated by the wing muscles, which thus discharge a two-fold
office.


From the 13th of January to the 25th of March, after leaving
Sandy Point, we proceeded to the western part of Magellan
Straits, where we were for about nine weeks, occupied in making
additions to the old surveys, principally in the narrow and tortuous
part of the Strait which is called the "Crooked Reach." The
scenery here is remarkably fine, and on a dry clear day—an event,
however, of rare occurrence—one can fully realize the truth of old
Pigafetta's remark, that "there is not in the world a more beautiful
country, or better strait, than this one."


We made several stays, each of a day's duration, at Tilly Bay,
a small land-locked anchorage on the north shore of Santa Ines
Island, and immediately opposite to the mouth of the Jerome
Channel, which leads into the Otway Water. At the head of the[118]
bay a stretch of open moorland, dotted here and there with
clumps of cedar trees, led by a gentle ascent to a sort of upland
plateau, formed of moss-covered undulating land with sheets of
still water occupying the hollows. Not a trace of a bird was
to be seen, and I was never more struck with the extreme
paucity of animal life in the interior of these islands than when
standing on the shore of one of these desolate lakes in Santa
Ines Island.


We frequently noticed, in the deep spongy moss over which we
walked, the nests of a Trap-door Spider. They appeared externally
as round apertures in the surface of the moss, about an inch and
a half in diameter, which were covered over with a closely woven
disc of web. On removing the cover from one of them, and
clearing away the surrounding moss, I found that the burrow
descended vertically for a distance of about eight inches, and was
lined throughout with a silky network of spider web, so that the
entire web structure, i.e., the tube and lid combined, resembled in
general shape some of the commoner forms of Aspergillum. At
the bottom of the hole lay a great spider, embracing with its legs
a spherical cocoon, three-eighths of an inch in diameter, which it
seemed resolved on defending to the last extremity. I examined
other nests with similar results.


While we were at Tilly Bay, a small party of Fuegians came
in and took up their quarters in an old camping place close to
the ship. They were a comparatively friendly lot, and had no
hesitation about coming on board, especially about our meal hours,
which they very soon got to understand. The party consisted of one
adult man, a boy aged about seventeen, a woman about nineteen,
with four small children, and two or three dogs of the usual kind.
The canoe was made of planks, and was of the same build as those
which we had seen about the Trinidad Channel. Lying in the
bottom of the canoe were the putrid remains of two seals, a sea
lion, and a fur-seal, whose heads I obtained. We got on such intimate
terms with this family, that little by little we induced them[119]
to show us all their properties, even to the much-cherished
materials for producing fire. These were kept in a wooden box
somewhat of the shape of a small band-box, and made of Winter's
bark sewn together roughly with strips of hide. The tinder,
which seemed to consist of dried moss, was stowed away carefully
in little bags formed of dried seal's intestines tied up at the
ends.


I also obtained by barter two very dirty bits of iron pyrites
which they used for igniting the tinder, and on striking them
together they certainly emitted showers of sparks. The box also
contained glass arrow-heads, glass spear-heads, bone harpoon-heads,
a noose made of a strip of baleen and apparently
intended for trapping otters, and a very strong net made out
of seal-hide, which the old man gave us to understand was
used for catching seals. The net was nearly square, measuring
about six feet both ways, and the meshes were about eight
inches across. This last was evidently considered a great work
of art, for as the old man displayed it his eyes glittered with
pride, and he assumed an air of importance, as if to imply—"See
that and die!"


Subsequently two more canoes turned up, bringing a large party
of natives, and as I was curious to ascertain the method by which
they fashioned their glass implements, I visited the encampment
one day, bringing with me an empty pickle bottle, and intimated
by signs that I wished to have it broken up and to see a spear-head
or arrow-head made. They understood readily enough what
was required, and one of the men, coming forward, took hold of the
bottle, smashed it against the stones, and selecting a suitable
fragment, set to work at it. He held the piece of glass firmly in
his left hand, protecting the fingers with a bit of cloth, while, with
his right, he grasped a chipping tool, which consisted of a large
blunt-pointed iron nail fixed in a stout wooden handle, serving the
double purpose of a chipping tool and a means of caulking the
seams of the canoe. Holding it with the iron point directed[120]
towards his waist, he made steady pressure against the fractured
edge of the glass, so as to make small chips flake off from the
edge towards the smooth side surface. In effecting this he was
able to use great force, because, while the left hand, which held
the glass, was supported rigidly against his chest, the manner in
which he held the fashioning tool enabled him to bring the whole
strength of his wrist to bear upon the edge of the glass. After
having bevelled off one side of the edge, he turned the glass round
and bevelled the other side in a similar manner. Having once
imparted a double bevel to the edge, he was easily able, by operating
on each side alternately, to reduce the substance of the margin
in any one place until the glass had assumed the outline required.
Proceeding in this way, the formation of the barbs and the recessing
of the base for the ligature which would secure it to the shaft,
were effected to all appearance with the greatest facility. The
most difficult part of the business was now the formation of the
fine point, as the chipping and flaking had to be conducted with
the greatest nicety. However, after half-an-hour's steady work,
he triumphantly produced a spear-head two and a half inches long,
and of the form shown in the annexed sketch. The arrow-heads
are made in the same way, and are about one inch in length.


We had the chipping operation repeated on many subsequent
occasions, and by various individuals, and found that all adopted
the same method; the essential feature of which was that the
fashioning of the glass was effected entirely by pressure, and that
no striking implement was used. I induced one of the men to
try an old flat file, instead of his own chipping instrument, but he
soon discarded it; however he found a blunt-edged ship's knife
very convenient for giving the finishing touches to the point of
the spear-head. With the experience gained from the Fuegians,
I soon learnt to turn out very fair imitations of their work; and
after practising on various kinds of glass, I found that the easiest
to work with was black bottle-glass, and the most difficult plate-glass.
Green pickle bottle-glass is about a mean between the[121]
two, and as it is tolerably thick the natives prefer it for their
spear-heads; but for the arrow-heads they use the black glass.
Crown-glass was easy to work, but flaked off in rather short
pieces. I also experimented with some black flint, which happened
to be on board, and found it could be worked in precisely the
same way as the glass, but was certainly more difficult to fashion
into shape. Then I tried different kinds of working tools, and
soon found, to my surprise, that hard steel was the worst of all,
for it scratched and slipped off the edge of the glass without
chipping it at all; whereas soft iron, which was much preferable,
could be manipulated so that it would bite only the extreme edge
of the glass, and by this means very thin and broad flakes could
be detached. Even an old bone harpoon-head answered very
well indeed, but of course was worn away more rapidly than the
soft iron.




FUEGIAN HUT AT TILLY BAY.



One day, when the old man of the first canoe party was on
board, and in an amiable mood, I succeeded in getting some
Fuegian words from him, a matter often previously attempted in
vain. As a rule, they merely repeat—and that most accurately—the
gestures or ejaculations which one makes in drawing their
attention to any particular object. I brought this old fellow into
my workshop, and pointed out to him several objects which I had
collected in the straits, and which were sure to be familiar to him.
After some time he got fairly hold of the idea, and then became
very communicative, eventually giving me the names for all the
familiar objects which I could at the time command. I subsequently
checked the vocabulary thus obtained, by reversing the
process and repeating the words to him, and making him indicate
their meaning, and in this way I made certain that my list, small
though it was, had at all events the merit of being accurate. In
fact, I tested some of the words afterwards on another party of
natives, whom we met at Port Gallant, and found that they went
off all right.


[122]


VOCABULARY OF FUEGIAN WORDS.


Obtained from natives at Tilly Bay, Straits of Magellan.






Basket (netted)=
cheebass.
Mussel=
chaloux.


"(plaited)"
dawyer.
Necklace"
heskouna.


Beard"
port.
Nose"
los.


Bottle"
kushki.
Nutria-skull"
theerkusthads.


Breast"
poan.
Otter-skin"
lalthers.


Calf"
kutchoice.
Paddle"
chetarias.


Canoe"
ayoux.
Paroquet"
parabas.


Crab"
karabous-kalpers.
Sea-egg"
kawotchi.


Deer"
halchun.
Seal-skull"
arougsis.


Dog"
sharkiss.
Ship's boat"
sherroux.


Ear"
hawish.
Skin of seal"
harkusis-hushkei.


Eye"
sthole.
Spear (for fish)"
kip-thatharsh.


Eyebrow"
theseoux.
Spear (for seals)"
uäakutsh.


Eyelash"
thesseriss.
Starfish"
hiapparoux.


Fingers"
sthœn.
Steamer-duck"
karawus-poug.


Finger-nails"
tharsh.
Stomach"
kutshiss.


Fish"
areous-areersh.
Stone axe"
kesaoux.


Flint"
kosil.
Teeth"
pathers.


Foot"
kadthakous.
Thigh"
athursh.


Hair"
therkous.
Tongue"
lekiss.


Hand"
therrawaus.
Tooth (of seal)"
sheriquish.


Head"
iakalus.
Trumpet-shell"
tharagskar.


Ironstone"
iuksthaads.
Upland Goose"
harrawaloux.


Limpet"
ithashaquash.
Volute-shell"
tharaquakorass.


Mouse"
akraceps.
Water"
nupp.




NAMES OF FUEGIAN CHILDREN AT TILLY BAY.






Alkeress.Gounaco.


Ilchabesakodotis.Gounaco Chikachikis.


Kelchuarkuss. 




We anchored at Port Gallant for three days in the latter end
of January, and while we were there a bark canoe came alongside.
It was of the kind which King describes as peculiar to the tribe
inhabiting the western part of the Magellan Straits, and to whom
he assigned the name "Pecherai," from their habit of frequently
using that word. The canoe was much smaller and lighter than
the plank canoes of the western channels, and was propelled
entirely by paddles instead of oars. Two old women, who sat in[123]
the stern end, wore cloaks of deer skin, and were very noisy and
talkative, so that we did not encourage them to come on board.
The basket, in which they carried their stock of shell-fish, was
much more elaborately plaited than were those of the "Channel
Fuegians." We did not observe any difference in their hunting
implements, except that bows and arrows were more abundant
with them.


On the 25th, a large iron steamship, the Maranhense, came in
from the westward and anchored near us. It appeared that about
six months previously she had come out from Antwerp, bringing
a cargo of arms for the Chilian Government, and that she was
now homeward bound, carrying a general cargo. As she was
coming down the Messier Channel, she had touched the ground
in the English Narrows, and been so much injured in the bows
that her collision compartment was full of water. Captain
Leadbetter came on board to solicit the services of our diver,
which were of course granted; and on an examination being
made, it was found that there was a hole in her bows big enough
for a man to crawl through. For several days subsequently
ineffectual attempts were made to stop it up, and on the 30th of
January both vessels moved up to Sandy Point. Here we met
a German man-of-war, the Freia, whose crew rendered further
assistance to the disabled vessel, but all in vain. At length, our
diver was sent down to make a complete examination of her
bottom, and he came up with the unpleasant news that there
was another great hole in her bottom, 71⁄2 feet in length, under
the after-hold, that the iron skin and part of the keel had been
torn away, and that the cement alone, with which her bottom was
lined, prevented the water from coming in. In view now of the
possibility of the cement suddenly giving way, and the vessel
sinking, steam was got up, the anchor was raised, and she was
moved into shallower water further inshore, so that in the event
of her sinking, the hull might not be entirely submerged. The
master of the Maranhense now decided on sending to Monte[124]
Video for artificers and material to repair the bottom, and for a
new crank-shaft for her engines, which had also recently come to
grief.


On the 9th of February we bade good-bye to the officers of
the Maranhense, and steamed back to Port Gallant.


Some days subsequently we moved westward to Playa Parda
Cove in Crooked Reach, our boats having been meanwhile engaged
in charting the coastline.


On February 18th a small party of us made a trip in the steam-cutter
from Playa Parda Cove to visit a glacier which is situated
about six miles to the eastward. We steamed round to the inlet,
which is marked on the chart as Glacier Bay, and moored the
cutter under a lofty cliff near the head of the bay. The land
here was low and flat, covered with a dense forest, and bounded
on either side by precipitous lofty cliffs, whose smooth faces
exhibited planings and scorings due to the abrading action of old
glaciers. I landed about the middle of the low muddy beach,
which extended from cliff to cliff, and proceeded to penetrate the
forest in the direction of the glacier. Here I at first found some
difficulty in advancing, for after tearing my way through a dense
prickly scrub of barberry bushes, I came upon an even more
serious obstacle, in the shape of a broad and rapid torrent of
mud-coloured water, which it was absolutely necessary to cross.
This was one of the streams which flowed from under the glacier.
Cautiously feeling my way, and steadying myself against the
rushing water, I just managed to get across, finding the process
rather cold; and now, after traversing a belt of forest, which was
only half a mile in width, but which gave me forty-five minutes
hard work, I emerged all at once from the gloomy shade of the
beech trees to find my eyes dazzled by a glare of white light, and
the foot of the glacier straight before me. The line of trees was
separated from the snout of the glacier by a freshly-accumulating
terminal moraine, of about one hundred yards in width; and
where this moraine adjoined the sharply-defined edge of the forest,[125]
its advancing condition was evident from the piles of rubble which
were in places shot in among the green trees, and from the overturned
condition of many of those on the margin of the forest, as
they gave way before the advancing piles of rubbish. It was a
strange sight, standing in the middle of this terminal moraine, to
see, on the one hand, a fresh evergreen forest abounding in the
most delicate ferns and mosses; and, on the other, a huge mass
of cold blue-veined ice, which was slowly and irresistibly gouging
its passage downwards to the sea. The stones of the moraine
were composed of syenite and greenstone, the former predominating,
and mixed up with them I saw many trunks of trees,
which were crushed, torn, and distorted out of all shape. These
were probably the remains of a portion of the forest, which had
at one time extended further up the valley, and which had been
annihilated by the advance of the glacier; and this circumstance,
with the other which I have mentioned, showed clearly that the
glacier was now extending its limits and approaching the sea. A
few days afterwards, we paid a second visit to Glacier Bay, when
a good photo was obtained.




FOOT OF GLACIER AT GLACIER BAY, STRAITS OF MAGELLAN.


We stayed for a fortnight at Swallow Bay, a port in Crooked
Reach, a few miles to the westward of Tilly Bay. It would seem
that this locality had been greatly resorted to by the natives
for catching fish, for we found several of their "stone weirs,"
in a more or less perfect state. The places selected for these
weirs were usually small smooth-bottomed coves, and the weir,
which consists of a sort of dam built of loose stones about three
feet high, is placed across the mouth of one of these coves in
such a manner, that when it is complete, any fish which may
be inside it will be imprisoned. When it is low water, and the
cove is almost dry, a gap is left in the centre of the weir through
which the fish may enter with the rising tide; at high tide the
gap is closed up, so that when the water flows away through
the interstices of the dam with the falling tide, the fish remain
imprisoned in a shallow pool where they can easily be caught.[126]
These shallow mud-bottomed coves are the favourite haunts of
the grey mullets, who collect there in great numbers, and who
sometimes on bright fine days may be seen resting on the mud
with only a few inches of water over them, as they lie apparently
basking in the sunshine.


Here, at Swallow Bay, a party of our men captured and
brought to me a male specimen of the Magellan nutria, an
animal which is abundant throughout the straits and western
channels, but which is nevertheless very rarely seen. We had
often previously seen its bones in the Fuegian midden heaps,
where its skull, with the long curved orange-coloured incisors,
was a conspicuous object; but this was the first recent specimen
we succeeded in getting hold of. It was started from the brushwood
by a retriever dog belonging to the ship, and on taking
to the water was killed after a most exciting chase on the part
of our bluejackets. It proved to be identical with the Chilian
species, Myopotamus coypu.


[127]


CHAPTER VI.

EXPLORATIONS IN SKYRING WATER.


On the occasion of our last visit to Sandy Point, the captain
received despatches from the Admiralty, which authorised
him to proceed to Skyring Water in order to investigate the nature
of the coal which was then being worked on the north-east of that
basin, and to ascertain if it could be made available for the use
of men-of-war or merchant vessels, passing through the Straits
of Magellan. A favourable opportunity occurring on March 5th,
the Alert accordingly got under way from her anchorage at
Tilly Bay, and steaming northwards across the Strait, entered the
Jerome Channel. Here we experienced a strong current from
the northward, which was attributed by Mr. Petley, our navigating
officer, to the ebb tide flowing from the Otway Water.
This channel is twenty miles in length, from its southern opening
opposite Tilly Bay to its northern extremity abreast of Corona
Island, where it dilates into the wide expanse of Otway Water.
Its shores are lined by precipitous mountains of an average
height of 1,000 feet, and clothed to their summits with the
dense evergreen forest which characterizes the scenery of the
western half of the Magellan Straits. Behind, and towering
above this coast range, were hills of a still greater altitude,
whose summits were clothed with a mantle of snow and ice—the
source of the glaciers flowing to the southward into the main
straits. As we entered Otway Water, we saw on our starboard[128]
hand a broad expanse of rippling water, limited in the distance
by a coastline of comparatively low land, while on our port side
there was a marked transition from the lofty mountains of the
Cordillera to an upland plain of undulating hills covered with
forest, and sloping gradually downwards into low flat land as it
extended to the eastward. In fact, we had passed through the
backbone of the Cordillera, and were now approaching the
alluvial plains of Patagonia; and it was also clear to us that
we were crossing the line of demarcation between two climatic
zones, for we found that we were exchanging the cloudy sky of
the Magellan region for brilliant sunshine and a clear blue sky,
a change only to be fully appreciated by those who have spent
many months in the damp, cloud-collecting region of the Western
Straits.


The north shore of Otway Water was low and shelving,
presenting a glistening margin of sandy beach, and fringed by
a wide belt of very shallow water. In the afternoon we entered
the Canal of Fitzroy, where we encountered a strong current from
the northward (i.e., from Skyring Water), which considerably
impeded our progress. Indeed, at 4 p.m. we grounded on a
sandbank, getting off, however, without much difficulty, and in
an hour afterwards we dropped anchor in a bight where an
S-shaped curvature in the canal afforded us shelter from the
current.


Both shores of the canal are low, and formed of alluvial soil,
of which the crumbling banks in places exhibited good sections.
Well-marked terrace-levels bore testimony to the fact that the
land must have been subjected to upheaval, with reference to the
sea-level, at some period in the world's history. The country
on the western side of the canal is covered with thick scrubby
bush, while that on the eastern side, where we landed for a few
hours, was a sort of open park-land disposed in undulating hills,
covered with a luxuriant growth of grass, and studded here and
there with isolated clumps of trees and bushes, among which we[129]
noticed the antarctic beech, an embothrium, a barberry, and a
cheilobothrium. The ground in the middle of these clumps was
worn bare from having been used as a resting-place by the wild
cattle. Herbaceous composite plants grew in great profusion, and
many specimens of a lychnis were seen, but unfortunately the
season was too far advanced for our obtaining useful specimens
of flowering plants. I was surprised at the great variety of
grasses which flourished on the dark loamy soil. We saw countless
tracks of wild cattle and horses, and a few deer tracks, but
in the course of our ramble failed to meet with any of these
animals. The existence of a species of Ctenomys was evident
from the way in which the ground was in many places so
riddled with holes as to be exceedingly dangerous for incautious
horsemen; and while walking through the long grass I stumbled
over the skull of a puma. We did not see many species of birds.
Finches were abundant, and some flocks of the black starling,
and also of the military starling, were seen. I got a specimen of
a pteroptochus, which resembled the Tapaculo of Chili, but differed
from it in having a red iris; and on the beach I shot a cinclodes,
which seemed to be of a different species from the common kelp-bird
of the straits. A fine buzzard (I think Buteo erythronotus)
soared above my head, but out of range; and the tiny wren of
Magellan (Troglodytes), completed the list of birds which we saw.
During our absence great numbers of black-necked swans and
brown ducks were seen in the vicinity of the ship.


The western shore of Fitzroy Channel consisted of a low plain,
rising gradually towards the westward, covered with a dense
scrub of tall bushes, and contrasting strikingly with the open
moorland on the eastern shore.


At five o'clock on the following morning, we got under way and
continued our course through the Canal of Fitzroy, steaming for
hours through a dense interminable flock of black-necked swans,
that paddled lazily to either side as we advanced, as yet in happy
ignorance of the thirst for blood which characterizes the British[130]
sportsman. As we emerged from the canal, and skirted along
the eastern shore of Skyring Water, we noticed two men on foot,
walking along the beach. We afterwards learned that they had
a day or two previously left the coal mine where they had been
employed, and were now attempting the precarious task of travelling
on foot to the Chilian settlement, Punta Arenas, in the Straits
of Magellan, a distance of ninety miles.


At 10.30 a.m. we reached the bay of the mines (Rada de las
Minas), and came to an anchor about half-a-mile from the shore.
The settlement was larger than we had expected, and exhibited
fair signs of activity, several shingle-built houses, large store sheds,
and a steam sawmill, showing out conspicuously against the dark
background of forest which spreads for a few miles to either side,
and is seen extending inland to near the summit of Mount
Rogers, a hill to the northward which reaches an elevation of
1,000 feet.


For information concerning Skyring Water, we are mainly
indebted to Fitzroy's account of the short survey he made in the
year 1829, when in command of H.M.S. Beagle (which account
comprises information obtained from a sealer named Low, who
visited these waters in pursuit of his trade), and to some papers
published by the Chilian Government in the Anuario Hydrografico,
detailing the results of two visits made by Chilian men-of-war.
In November 1877 the Chilian gunboat Magellanes visited Skyring
Water, making a stay of three weeks, during which time her
boats were mainly employed in making a survey of the eastern
part of the basin. The results of this survey, so far as it went,
favoured the idea of there being a channel connecting Skyring
Water with Smyth's Channel to the westward. It was brought to
an abrupt termination by the terrible mutiny which took place at
Sandy Point in November 1877; however, in the months of
December 1878, and January and February 1879, Captain Latorre,
of the corvette Magellanes, made a second incomplete examination
of Skyring Water. One of his boat parties penetrated a[131]
considerable distance to the westward, where the basin is continuous
with a number of long, narrow, winding inlets or channels,
which enter the hills of the coast range. Here they met with a
party of Fuegians, who were in all respects similar to those of the
western channels, possessing the usual canoe and hunting implements.
They also found numerous traces of Fuegians in all the
sheltered coves which they examined among the inlets towards
the western part of Skyring Water. This would seem to indicate
a direct water communication with Smyth's Channel, but on the
other hand, the range of tide being found to be exceedingly small,
would tend to prove that its connection with the ocean was at all
events remote. This survey was brought to a close in a most
unsatisfactory way when almost on the eve of clearing up the
doubtful question as to the existence of through communication;
the Magellanes having been ordered north on the outbreak of the
war between Chili and Peru.


The Skyring coal mines were originally started in the year
1877 by an enterprising German named Haase, who opened the
seam, extracted some coal, and erected sheds, but soon afterwards
(I believe through want of funds) abandoned the undertaking, so
that when the Chilian corvette Magellanes arrived here in October
1877, the settlement was found to be in a deserted condition.
Captain Latorre then made a trial of some coal which he found
lying in a heap near the pit's mouth, and after executing a partial
survey of Skyring Water was recalled to Sandy Point, on receiving
news of a disastrous mutiny in that colony.


The settlement remained uninhabited from a few months before
the Magellanes' first visit until the 15th of November, 1879,
when the mine was reopened by Mr. Haase, provided with money,
furnished by a company which had been formed at Buenos Ayres.
Since that time the work has progressed steadily, so that the
mine and adjoining works are now in a tolerably efficient state.
At the time of our visit, the mines and the settlement were in
charge of Monsieur Arnaud, a French engineer, Mr. Haase having[132]
some days previously gone on a trip to Buenos Ayres. The
people numbered about twenty altogether; but as there were as
yet no customers to buy the coal, and as consequently no wages
had been paid for a long time back, the miners were gradually
deserting and making tracks for Sandy Point.


The edge of the coal seam, which is now being worked, was
visible in the face of a low cliff on the north-west promontory
south of the bay of the mines. The outcrop of the seam is in a
north and south direction, and it dips to the south-east at an
angle of about 45°. From a cursory examination which I made
of sections afforded by the cliffs adjoining the mines, I ascertained
that the coal was overlain by a bed of clayey sandstone, overlying
which was a stratum of hard limestone containing fossil shells,
among which large Ostræas were the most conspicuous. Above
this, and lying conformably to it, was a layer of soft sandstone
containing numerous comminuted fragments of shells in a sub-fossil
state. The coal seam itself was about twelve feet thick.


The mine seemed to be in a most efficient state. A pit, sunk
obliquely, descended to a depth of thirty-six feet, where it communicated
with a horizontal cutting about sixty yards in length.
At the end of this gallery the coal was being worked, whence it
was conveyed in trolleys to the foot of the pit, and then hauled
up the incline by means of a stationary engine working at the
pit's mouth. From there a line of tram rails extended about
150 yards to the end of a strong wooden mole, where the water
was deep enough to float heavy barges, and where a large pile
was stored under a shed, and ready for shipment. It was of
good black colour, but light and friable; very much resembling
the Lota coal, to which it was little inferior in quality. A
sample was taken on board, and submitted to various practical
tests, by Mr. Dinwoodie, our chief engineer. It was of jet-black
colour, and glistening appearance; leaving a faint black mark on
rubbing. S.G. = 1·3. It contained sulphur and iron, burned with
very little smoke, and produced a rust-coloured ash, which formed[133]
a proportion of 18 per cent. When used in the furnace, it formed
large caky masses of a hard tenacious clinker, which adhered to
the fire-bars, and so clogged the fires that it was found impossible
to raise steam to more than thirty pounds' pressure. In an open
grate it burnt freely enough, but without giving out much heat.
It was, therefore, unsuited for engines using high pressure steam
such as ours.


We were much disappointed on learning that game was now
very scarce in the immediate vicinity of the settlement, and that
as a matter of fact the miners were victualled on salt and preserved
meats. Beyond a range of five miles, deer, guanacos,
ostriches, and wild cattle might be had, but could not be taken
without the aid of horses, with which useful animals the settlers
were at present (apparently through pecuniary embarrassments)
unprovided. Foxes were abundant in the forest, and at night
time prowled about the settlement, while recently a puma had
paid it a nocturnal visit, to the great alarm of the pigs and other
domestic animals. We walked into the "camp," to a distance of
about five miles from the settlement, and were surprised at the
scarcity of birds. We saw, however, a flock of black-necked swans,
numbering about sixty, in the water near the seashore, but found
them too wary for us. A paroquet, a few starlings, a finch, a
wren, a buzzard, and the ubiquitous cinclodes were the only land-birds
seen. On subsequently penetrating into the forest in the
rear of the settlement, I saw many examples of a bird of the
"tree-creeper" family, which the Chilians call "carpintero," from
its habit of making a "tap-tap" sound when digging its bill against
the bark of trees, in pursuit of the insect-larva on which it feeds.
These birds behave in many respects like wood-peckers, producing
a similar noise, using the same food, travelling over the boles of
the trees in a spiral fashion, and creeping with ease along the
under surface of horizontal branches. I shot two of them when
in the position last-mentioned, and noticed that for some seconds
after they had been shot they remained suspended by the legs,[134]
with the heads hanging vertically downwards, until the complete
relaxation of the muscles allowed them to fall. The toes, of
which there are three directed forwards and one backwards, are
furnished with long and sharp claws. The bill is long, stout, and
pyramidal, and the shafts of the tail-feathers project beyond the
webs.


On the 7th of March, a small party of us got the use of one
of the steam-cutters, and made a trip to Altamirano Bay, an
anchorage about seven miles to the westward of the "bay of the
mines," which was originally explored and surveyed by the Chilian
vessel Magellanes. We reached the bay after steaming for two
hours against a westerly breeze and chopping sea, and landed on
its western shore. Here we found an open grass-land interspersed
with clumps of low trees and bushes, among which the most
abundant were an embothrium, a panax, an escallonia, a berberis,
a cheilobothrium, and the black currant of Magellan—the Ribes
magellanica. The tree-clumps showed evident signs of their being
the resting-places of wild cattle and horses, of which we saw also
numerous tracks in the open; none, however, being of recent date.
We could find no fresh water of any kind, and therefore concluded
that the deer, guanacos, ostriches, and horses, which were reported
to be abundant here, had gone up the hills during this dry season,
and only resorted to the lowlands hereabouts during the winter
time. There was certainly splendid pasturage for them, and I
was much struck by the abundance and variety of the grasses.
The land-birds were similar to those noticed previously in the
neighbourhood of the coal mines. The plain of grass-covered land
over which we walked seemed to extend for a long way to the
westward, but from the head of the bay a dense forest of beech-trees
stretched away to the northward.


Skirting the shore of the bay, although overgrown with scrub
and forest, were two distinct terraced levels, which testified to an
upraising of the land. The rock formation, as far as could be
judged from the rock in situ visible on the foreshore, was a clayey[135]
sandstone, devoid of fossils, and bedded horizontally. Erratic
boulders of syenite and gneiss—some of considerable size—lay
scattered about the beach.


The shores of the bay indicated a scanty littoral marine fauna.
Shells of a small mussel were sparsely strewn about, and were the
only molluscan remains noticed. The débris of a small, reddish
alga was strewn along the beach in undulating lines; but no kelp
was seen at all, either on the shore or adhering to submerged
rocks.


During our four hours' stay, very little change was noticed in
the level of the tide, an argument rather against the likelihood of
a channel existing to connect Skyring Water with the ocean to the
westward.


In the meantime those on board the ship were engaged in
coaling. We purchased twenty-five tons of the new coal at £1
a ton, a quantity quite sufficient to enable us to test practically
its value. The mining engineer, Monsieur Arnaud, was of opinion
that on sinking deeper into the coal-seam a better quality would
be met with. The present workings are at a depth of only thirty-six
feet from the surface, and as the angle of dip is about 45°, it
is not improbable that on sinking a deeper shaft his expectations
may be realized. Should this be the case, the long-cherished
scheme of establishing tug-steamers in the straits to tow sailing
vessels from ocean to ocean, will probably be revived, and a great
impetus will thus be given to the Straits of Magellan as an
avenue for commerce. Moreover, should a permanent settlement
be established at the Skyring Water coal mines, intending colonists
will find in the surrounding country a splendid field for their
energies. The soil of the pampas is of excellent quality, for from
its proximity to the Cordillera, where the eastern drifting Pacific
clouds deposit their watery contents, it receives enough moisture
to remove from it that arid dryness which has rendered the eastern
part of Patagonia unsuited for the agriculturist. There is at
present excellent pasturage for cattle, and from all that we know[136]
of the climate, I see no reason why cereal crops should not
flourish. The day, I trust, is not far distant when this part of
Western Patagonia will prove a fertile field of labour for the stock
farmer and the agriculturist.


On the afternoon of the 8th of March we again weighed anchor,
and steamed over to the Fitzroy Channel, anchoring for the night
at a place in the fairway about five miles from the north entrance.
Some of our officers were now employed for an hour or two in
sounding out the channel, while others, more fortunate, amused
themselves by waging war against the brown ducks (Anas cristata),
and black-necked swans (Cygnus nigricollis), which were abundant
enough, but more wary than on our first meeting them. I did
not see a single specimen of the Cygnus coscoroba. On the western,
or Fuegian shore, the recent tracks of a deer were seen by one of
our party.


We got under way early on the following morning, and after
passing through the Fitzroy Channel, recrossed Otway Water, and
re-entered the Jerome Channel. On the south shore of this latter
we noticed a large fur seal "rookery" (i.e., breeding place), and
stopped to examine it for some minutes. There were about
thirty large seals hauled up on the rocks, besides a large number
that were swimming about in the adjoining water. Some of those
on the rock were hauled up about thirty feet above the sea-level.
We fired a shell into their midst at about 800 yards range, which
had the effect of making them tumble off hurriedly into the
water, where they made a great tumult, turning somersaults and
jumping clear out of the water, after the usual manner of fur seals.
The seals in this rookery were probably congregated for the hair-shedding
season. Later in the evening we reached our former
anchorage in Tilly Bay, where we came to an anchor for the
night.


Swallow Bay, 11th to 24th of March.—We steamed over to
this anchorage, which lies a few miles to the west of Tilly Bay, in
continuation of our surveying work. A most curious and interesting[137]
fish (Neophrynichthys latus) was here obtained. It was
brought to me by one of our seamen, who found it lying dead on
the beach, and bearing marks of having been torn by vultures.
Of this fish, which was discovered by Mr. Hutton a few years ago
in New Zealand, Dr. Günther says that it only differs from the
New Zealand specimen in colouration, and in the presence of
small tentacles, which are developed over the eye and on some
parts of the body.


One day, when paddling round a small rocky islet, we saw
perched on a stone, and apparently sleeping, as it remained
motionless with bill resting on the stone, a large snipe (Gallinago
stricklandi), one of the very few examples of the species which
were observed during our cruise. It was shot and preserved.


Two mammalians were also obtained at Swallow Bay. One
was the common Magellan otter (Lutra felina), the other a nutria
(Myopotamus coypu).


On March 25th, our supply of coal running short, it was decided
to conclude our survey of Magellan Straits, and to proceed northwards,
viâ Smyth's Channel, to Puerto Bueno. There we took
on board the residue of a depôt of coal which had been made for
us during the previous season, and continued to pursue our way
northwards, stopping for the nights at various anchorages. On
April 2nd, we passed our old cruising ground in the Trinidad
Channel, and entered Wide Channel, proceeding from thence viâ
Indian Reach.


As we passed the entrance of Icy Inlet, we saw large patches
of loose berg-ice floating tranquilly over its surface, and evidently
derived from the glacier at its head. Contrary to our expectations,
Eyre Sound was almost clear of ice, only a single small
floating piece being seen; but to repay us for this disappointment
we had a fine view of the magnificent glacier at its head.


Port Riofrio, 3rd to 10th of April.—We were detained for
a week at this port, while our surveyors were occupied in examining
the rocks and islets of the neighbouring "Covadonga[138]
Group," of which the survey—commenced by the Chilians—was
as yet incomplete. Port Riofrio is situated on the eastern side
of Wellington Island, and derives its name from a large mountain
torrent which pours its water into the bay nearly opposite
to the entrance, for which it also forms one of the principal
leading marks. On the western side of the anchorage, and forming
a sort of mighty dam across the valley through which this
torrent flows, is a remarkable raised beach, whose brow stretches
horizontally from ridge to ridge, its continuity being only broken
by a narrow fissure through which the torrent rushes, descending
thence by a series of cascades to the sea. Inside this barrier
the land slopes gradually but slightly downward to an extensive
plateau, which forms the bed of the valley between the two mountain
ranges. Opinions differed on board as to whether this
barrier was a raised beach or an old terminal moraine; but I
inclined to the former view, from the fact of its brow being so
regular and horizontal, from its stretching evenly from hill to hill,
from the absence of any vestige of lateral moraine on the hillsides,
and from the slight difference in actual level between the
brow of the barrier and the general surface of the plain within.
It was covered with the usual swampy soilcap, and the plain was
for the most part occupied by an extensive swamp. Here I
collected fine fruiting specimens of a handsome velvety moss,
Tetraplodon mnioides, of a rich green colour, which I have before
alluded to as forming curious tufts on the summits of boulders,
on rocky pinnacles, and on the stumps of dead trees.


On the shores of this anchorage grew several plants which we
had not previously seen in the Straits. Among these was the
Mitraria coccinea, a climbing shrub, easily recognised by its dark-green
glossy ovate-acute leaves, and short tubular scarlet flowers.
Another was the Weinmannia trichosperma, a tall erect shrub with
serrated pinnate leaves, and jointed petioles winged in a curious
rhomboidal fashion. I was in hopes of finding here the beautiful
Hymenophyllum cruentum, which we obtained last year at an island[139]
in the English Narrows, some miles to the northward, but was
disappointed, its range probably not extending so far south.


Two animals new to science were here obtained, viz., a small
frog of a dirty yellow colour, which has since been described by
Dr. Günther as a new species of "Cacotus," and an Uncinated
calamary, which has since been examined by Mr. Edgar Smith,
and found to represent a new species, to which he assigns the
name "Onychoteuthis ingens." The last-mentioned specimen was
found stranded on the beach. The body, from oral aperture to
extremity of caudal appendage, measured fifteen inches, and the
total length from caudal appendage to anterior extremity of
tentacles was two feet nine inches. The tentacular hooks were
very formidable. No other example of this species of squid was
encountered.


Having completed the survey of the Covadonga Group, we
again proceeded on our way northwards. On the first night we
stopped at Gray Harbour, a port immediately to the northward
of the English Narrows. As soon as we had anchored, Lieutenant
Rooper and I took advantage of the few remaining hours of
twilight and started off in the skiff, directing our course towards
the head of the bay, where a fair-sized river entered the sea. We
proceeded up the river for about a quarter of a mile, finding its
banks composed of a bluish clay, and passing at its mouth a low
triangular island, which seemed to be a delta formed of clay and
sand washed down from the hills, and piled up here at the outlet
where the fresh-water flow was dammed up in a measure by its
contact with the sea. On the pebbly shores of the river we
picked up several specimens of a pond snail—a species of Chilinia,
I believe; and on working a light dredge in mid-stream, we
obtained many more specimens of the same. The location was
one eminently suggestive of the haunts of otters, nutria, and
waterfowl, but not a solitary animal of the kind was to be seen.
The disappointment, however, was one which our experience of
similar and equally tempting localities had taught us to be[140]
prepared for. The surrounding country bore recent signs of
having been devastated by a great fire, the mountain sides for
miles being covered with the charred remains of a dense forest.


Owing to its proximity to the English Narrows, Gray Harbour
is probably frequently used as a stopping place by passing
steamers, whose occupants amuse themselves by firing the forest.
It is rarely indeed in this habitually wet region that the forest
is sufficiently dry to allow a fire to spread over any great extent
of country.


We got under way at an early hour on the following morning
(April 11th). It was a fine clear day, and the channels showed to
great advantage, so that we were able once more to confirm the
remark of old Pigafetta, that in fine weather there is in no part
of the world scenery more lovely. At about four o'clock in the
afternoon we anchored at Hale Cove, a port situated close to the
northern outlet of the Patagonian Channels, and here for the last
time we anchored in Patagonian waters. Rain awnings were now
stowed away, top-gallant masts were sent up, boats were topped
and lashed, and all other requisite arrangements were made for
our final departure from the Magellan region, and for encountering
the long heavy ocean swell which we were sure to find awaiting
us to seaward.


I had a run on shore for a few hours before nightfall, and was
much gratified at finding two plants which I had not previously
met with in these channels. One was a tall branching fern of
the genus Alsophila, whose long slender woody stems, rising
obliquely from the ground to a height of six feet, were crowned
with a magnificent spray of dark-green glossy fronds. The other
was a shrub of creeping habit, probably of the family Vacciniaceæ,
with smooth ovate-acute leaves resembling those of the laurel,
and bearing clusters of an egg-shaped fruit. No flowering
specimens were seen. The trunks of the large trees were
clothed with the beautiful fronds of the delicate Hymenophyllum
cruentum, which here grows in great abundance. On the morning[141]
of the 12th of April we bade a final adieu to the Patagonian
Channels.


During our passage northwards along the Chilian coast, sea-birds
of various kinds hovered round us. Of these our most
constant companions were the Cape pigeons (Daption capensis),
albatrosses of two species (Diomedea fuliginosa and D. melanophrys),
a small storm petrel (Oceanites grallaria), a Fulmar petrel
(Thalassœca glacialoides), and a white-breasted petrel (Œstrelata
defilippiana). A brown skua (Lestris antarctica) appeared on the
scene now and then, creating consternation among the smaller
petrels.


We arrived at Talcahuano, one of the most interesting of the
Chilian ports, on the morning of the 20th of April, and were
surprised and grieved to hear that a severe epidemic of small-pox
prevailed at the town of Concepcion, some nine miles inland.
The epidemic had begun in January, and we were informed by
Mr. Elton, the British Vice-Consul, that since then no less than
1,500 deaths had occurred, the mortality of those attacked having
been at the extraordinarily high rate of 90 per cent. Ominous
rumours reaching us as to the epidemic having already extended
to Talcahuano, our stay was wisely cut short, and the vessel was
moved on to Valparaiso, and subsequently after a short stay to
Coquimbo.


The passage from Valparaiso to Coquimbo occupied two days.
As we were sitting at dinner on the evening of the 3rd of May,
the officer of the watch reported that the ship was moving through
patches of light-coloured stuff resembling shoal water. On going
on deck, we saw wavy bands of straw-coloured water, about one
hundred yards in length by twenty in width, which were plainly
visible through the gloom of the night, the light-coloured patches
having distinctly circumscribed margins, which showed out clearly
against the surrounding dark water. At the same time, the sea
in our wake was brilliantly phosphorescent. On plying the tow-net
for a few minutes, I obtained a quantity of entomostracous[142]
crustaceans, and mingled with them a number of milk-coloured
annelids, a species of Tomopteris, about one-eighth of an inch in
length. A fringe of lateral appendages bordered its long, slender
body, from whose anterior extremity projected two long antennæ,
curving gracefully upwards and backwards. There were fifteen
pairs of parapodia, the ends of which were furnished with tufts
of cirri, which acted as swimming paddles for propulsion.


Our stay at Coquimbo this season extended from the 4th of
May to the 14th of June, having been somewhat prolonged owing
to the occurrence of a case of small-pox on board. Our principal
amusement consisted in shooting excursions after the golden
plover, or "pachuros," as the Chilians call them. These birds
frequent the sandy plains, which form an elevated table-land,
fringing the bases of the coast range of hills. One of our
shooting-grounds was on a rather bare plain, encircling the base
of a pyramidal hill called the Pan de Azucar, which lay at a
distance of about eight miles from Coquimbo. It was a great
undulating plain of waste sandy ground, with stunted shrubs
growing here and there, but not affording any cover. Walking
over it was laborious, for the ground was almost everywhere
riddled with the burrows of the upucerthia, a sort of ant-thrush,
which seems to make extensive underground tunnels in search of
insect larvæ. I obtained a specimen, and found its stomach
crammed full of insects. This bird is smaller than the U. dumetaria,
and has a much shorter bill; moreover, in flying, the
secondary feathers, which are of a brick-red colour, are very
conspicuous. Sometimes, when walking over a riddled patch of
ground, one heard a curious half-smothered "took, took," not
unlike the cry of a ctenomys; and on treading firmly over the
place from whence the noise seemed to issue, no sound would be
audible for a minute or two, when the same noise would go on
again from a place a yard or so away. The bird, of course, had
moved along, for the tunnels communicate so that it is able to
travel underground over a considerable area. The burrows of[143]
the ctenomys are larger and otherwise different from those now
referred to. At the time of our visit the birds were not at all
shy, allowing one to approach within a few yards of them. These
are gregarious—at least at this time of the year—moving in
flocks from place to place over the sandy plain; and it was
sometimes rather astonishing to see a flock suddenly emerge from
a number of burrow openings, and rise on the wing from a bare
sandy patch of ground, where a moment previously there had
been no sign of life.




FISH HOOKS OF UNION ISLANDERS (see p. 157.)


[144]


CHAPTER VII.

TAHITI.—NASSAU ISLAND.—UNION GROUP.


We sailed from Coquimbo on the 14th of June; and after
a somewhat uneventful voyage across the Pacific, which
was considerably prolonged by sounding operations, and which
lasted fifty-three days, we arrived at Tahiti.


Tahiti was discovered, in the year 1606, by a Spanish exploring
expedition, which set out from Peru under the command of Pedro
Fernandez de Quiros, a navigator who had previously acquired
some renown in Mendaña's exploration of the New Hebrides
group. One of his vessels anchored for a short time off the
island; but as a landing could not be safely effected by means
of the ship's boats, an adventurous young Spanish sailor stripped
and swam to the shore, where he was well received by the
natives; so that the honour of having discovered Tahiti and
communicated with the natives is justly due to this expedition.
The name then given to the island by Quiros was "La Sagittaria."


In 1767 Tahiti was visited by an English exploring ship, the
Dolphin, commanded by Captain Wallis, who, unaware of the visit
of Quiros, and imagining himself to be the original discoverer, set
up an English flag at Matavai Bay, took possession in the name
of King George III., and named the island "King George's
Island." The account given by Wallis of this visit (published in
Hawksworth's "Voyages") is full of most curious and interesting
information, and perhaps in this respect equals the well-known[145]
narrative subsequently given to the world by our greatest navigator,
Cook.




WOMAN OF TAHITI (p. 147).


In the following year (1768), M. de Bougainville, of the French
frigate Boudeuse, arrived independently at Tahiti, and, being in
ignorance of the priority of Spanish and English explorers, gave
to the island its third name, "Nouvelle Cythére."


On the 12th of April, 1769, the expedition sent out from
England under the command of Captain Cook, to observe the
transit of Venus, arrived at Tahiti, and anchored at Matavai Bay.
To protect the astronomers from the intrusion of the natives, a
small fort was erected on the north shore of the bay, and from
this position the transit was observed on the 3rd of June of the
same year.


Through a misconception of the native pronunciation, the name
of the island, "Otaheite," was now brought into general use by
Cook; and although it was clearly pointed out by Ellis—the
missionary who wrote in 1832—that Tahiti was really the native
name, the term "Otaheite," erroneously assigned by Cook, remained
in use for many years subsequent to the time of Ellis.


About the beginning of the present century the English missionaries,
who had previously established themselves in Western
Polynesia, extended their labours to Tahiti, where they met with
great success in their efforts to Christianize the inhabitants. They
retained their influence over the natives until the year 1838,
when two French Catholic missionaries arrived at Tahiti, with the
intention of preaching the doctrines of their Church. They were
not, however, allowed to obtain a footing on the island, but were
forcibly expelled. They accordingly sought the protection of the
French admiral, Du Petit Thouars, then commanding the frigate
La Venus in the Pacific, and in the year 1842 he demanded
satisfaction in the name of his government; and on Queen Pomare
of Tahiti refusing to accede to his demand, he declared war
against the Tahitians. The islanders were compelled to submit
to the superior power of the French; and on coming to terms[146]
with their conquerors, it was agreed that the Tahitians should be
allowed to retain their own form of government, but under a
French Protectorate, and that freedom should be given to all
persons to practise or preach whatever religion they pleased.


The Protectorate continued in force until July 1880, when, at
the request of King Pomare V. and the native chiefs, the island
and its dependencies were definitely ceded to France, so that they
now form an integral part of the French Republic.


Our visit to Tahiti took place a few weeks after the French
annexation. At daybreak on the 6th August, 1880, we sighted
the south-eastern extremity of the island, and on closing the land
skirted along its north-east coast, having thus on our port hand a
magnificent panoramic view of this lovely island. As we passed
abreast of some of the deeper valleys, we got glimpses of the famous
Diadem Peak, which rises to an altitude of 7,000 feet. Its summit
is jagged, so as to present a very distinct resemblance to a royal
crown, and hence the name "crown" or "diadem" so aptly assigned.
I was much struck by the resemblance which the scenery here
presented to that of Madeira. The conformation of the volcanic
peaks and ridges is very similar, but the vegetable covering is of
a sap green tint, whereas that of Madeira, seen from a similar
distance, appears of a bronze hue. At the distance from the land
which the barrier reef obliged us to maintain, the belt of cocoa-nut
trees which covers the shore platform was only visible through
the telescope.


In the harbour of Papiété, where we anchored, were the French
flagship Victorieuse, an ironclad, and a wooden sloop the Dayot.
Here we had abundant evidence of the extreme care taken by the
French Government to render the harbour and its surroundings as
perfect in every respect as a lavish expenditure of money could
effect. A solidly-built sea-wall, alongside of which merchant
vessels were landing and shipping cargoes, fronted the settlement;
a neatly-kept alameda, shaded by the luxuriant foliage of large
Hibiscus trees, covered what was formerly the coral foreshore;[147]
broad streets running in at right angles to the wharf traversed the
town; a dockyard with spacious sheds and storehouses covered
a low point jutting out on the northern side of the harbour; and
on a small picturesque island lying near the entrance was a gun
battery nestling under tall cocoa-nut trees, and yet so constructed
as not to detract from the romantic appearance of this beautiful
and marvellous work of nature. The Tahitians still retain and
deserve their old reputation for great amiability of disposition and
extraordinary good humour. One is greeted by almost every
native passed on the road with the friendly salutation "Yoronha"
(meaning "good-day"), accompanied by a merry smile. Indeed,
one cannot help being struck by the number of smiling, laughing
faces seen at Tahiti, and to my mind there is nothing more characteristic
of the Tahitians, as distinguished from all other islanders,
than the ever smiling face reflecting genuine good humour for
which there is no apparent cause. In many respects, however,
they seem to have improved but little since the time of Wallis.
Morality is still at a very low ebb, and the abuse of intoxicating
drinks is an evil which seems likely in time to create sad havoc
among them. For unfortunately, since the French annexation,
spirit shops have been thrown open to the natives, although, under
the old missionary régime, the possession of spirit of any kind
was forbidden by the command of Queen Pomare. Of late years
the population has been increasing, owing to the abolition of
infanticide, which was formerly the fashion of the country.


The principal products of the island are cotton, sugar, cocoa-nuts,
oranges, and vanilla. These articles are sent to San Francisco,
with which port there is monthly communication by means
of sailing vessels; the cocoa-nut trade being perhaps in this, as in
most other Polynesian islands, the most reliable industry. Usually
the sun-dried kernel, known commercially as "Copra," is exported,
but sometimes the nuts are shipped entire. The cultivation of
the cocoa-nut tree does not require much trouble. The ripe nuts,
if exposed on the ground in places where they are free from the[148]
depredations of land-crabs and centipedes, readily germinate, and
on being planted at distances of about five yards apart, they take
root and require no further care. However, those planted in good
soil give, as might be expected, an earlier and more productive
yield than is afforded by trees grown in the poor land which
usually adjoins the coral sea-beach. A cocoa-nut planted in
average soil commences to bear fruit in about the fifth year of its
existence, and from that time until it has attained the age of a
hundred years,—when it is probably blown down,—it yields about
twelve dozen nuts per annum.


A large trade is also done in oranges. They are packed up in
boxes and shipped to San Francisco, and although about half of
the cargo decays during the voyage, the profit derived from the
other half is found to yield a sufficient remuneration.


The cultivation of vanilla—an introduced plant—requires great
care, artificial aid being necessary to ensure the proper fertilization
of the flowers. Samples of the cured bean which we saw seemed
to be of very fair quality, and likely to command high prices in
the European markets. These are now sold at Tahiti at the rate
of 4s. per pound;—I should rather have said at the rate of a
dollar a pound, because, strange to say, the currency at Tahiti is
in Chilian silver dollars, whereas in Chili itself the currency is now
almost entirely in paper, a hard dollar being very rarely encountered
there.


The great war canoes are now things of the past, even the
single outrigger canoes being only used by the poorer classes
who cannot afford to buy boats of European build. The manufacture
of pandanus mats and native cloth is also becoming
obsolete, and it is said that the art of making these things is
almost unknown to the rising generation. At present the favourite
occupation of the natives, if we exclude dancing and lolling in the
sunshine, is fishing; and a well-to-do native, who can afford to
provide himself with an European fishing net, makes plenty of
dollars to spend in drink and gay-coloured clothes. The fishermen[149]
of the poorer class paddle out on the reef at night, and spear fish
by torchlight as of old, so that every night the reefs outside the
harbour are gaily illumined by these torch fires.




FISHERMAN OF TAHITI.


A few days after our arrival at Papiété, I made an excursion
to Point Venus, the northern extremity of Matavai Bay, in company
with a party of our surveying officers, who wished to take
sights at this station for chronometric measurements of longitude;
Point Venus being one of the secondary meridians to which longitudes
in the Pacific are referred. The distance from Papiété is
about six miles. We went in one of the ship's steam-cutters,
taking a small boat in tow; and after a somewhat hazardous
passage among the reefs, which here form an irregular barrier
along the coast, we reached Matavai Bay. We landed easily
upon a smooth sloping beach of black volcanic sand—the detritus
brought down from the hills by a neighbouring stream; and while
the observers established themselves and their instruments on a
grass plot near the base of the lighthouse, I took a stroll into the
surrounding country, having at my disposal about five hours.


The French keeper of the lighthouse, who was most obliging,
pointed out to us a square slab of coral rock imbedded in the
ground, and bearing on its surface a deeply-chiselled groove. It
was placed there some ten years ago, to replace one which had
been fixed there in the year 1839 by Captain Wilkes, of the
United States Exploring Expedition, and was, I understand, intended
to assist in determining the exact position of a submerged
coral knoll, some 100 yards from the shore, on which measurements
were made for determining the rate of growth of the coral.
We were also shown a large and venerable tamarind tree near the
lighthouse, which is said to have been planted more than 100
years ago by our own great navigator, Cook. Cocoa-nuts, bread-fruit,
oranges, bananas, and mangoes, grew in great profusion, and
the greatest and most good-natured eagerness was shown by the
natives in putting these delicious fruits at our disposal.


We also saw a large extent of cleared land devoted to the[150]
cultivation of cotton plants, and near one of the native huts
vanilla was growing successfully.


Nothing could exceed the civility of the natives in pressing
food upon us, and in furnishing us with information. They know
very little English, but many of them speak French, which the
rising generation are taught in the government schools.


In one of the larger and more pretentious style of native huts,
apparently that of a district chief, we read a proclamation, printed
in French and Tahitian on opposite columns, announcing to the
inhabitants the definitive annexation of the island and its dependencies;
and, after pointing out in glowing colours the great
advantages accruing to the natives from the complete establishment
of French rule, it wound up with, "Vive la France. Vive
Tahiti."


One is much struck by the great scarcity of birds in Tahiti.
There are, in fact, not more than six species of indigenous birds,
and of these an average day's walk will only afford examples
of the swallow; although in the mountain valleys, paroquets,
pigeons, and kingfishers are met with, though rarely.


In the course of an afternoon's walk about the environs of
Papiété, we were accosted by a portly native dressed in European
clothes, who, sitting in a four-wheeled buggy, and accompanied by
three native attendants, pulled up abreast of us. At his feet he
had a large demijohn of wine, from which he had evidently been
imbibing freely, for by way of salutation he greeted us with a
volley of most disgusting oaths and imprecations. This seemed
to be all the English he was acquainted with. A bystander informed
us that the name of this native gentleman was "Tamitao,"
and that he was no less a personage than the brother of King
Pomare V., the present monarch. The latter now only possesses
a nominal sovereignty; for on ceding his possessions to the
French, he relinquished all monarchical authority, and receives
instead an annual stipend of 8,000 dollars, a pension which, we
were told, would not be continued to his heir. It is said but[151]
I know not with what truth, that one of the principal reasons
which induced him to sell his birthright was a desire to exclude
from the succession his nominal son, whom he believes to be
illegitimate. Our conference with the royal brother was not an
agreeable one, for he presently gathered up the reins, and amid
a volley of imprecations delivered in the coarsest style of Billingsgate
English, this tatterdemalion prince of an ancient dynasty
flogged his horses into a gallop, and rattled away on his drunken
career.


On the evening before our departure we were present at a ball
which was given at the royal palace by the French inhabitants of
Tahiti. It was intended to celebrate the annexation of the island
by France, and was supposed to be the occasion for mutual
congratulations between King Pomare and his chiefs on the
one hand, and the Governor and French Admiral on the other.
Pomare was attired in a gorgeous dress richly embroidered with
gold lace, and the French officials appeared in full dress. The
native chiefs were, however, very shabbily turned out in faded
European clothes, and although for the most part very fine men,
yet they looked very much as if they were ashamed of themselves,
and were by no means at their ease in the richly-decorated
ball-room. Among the quasi chiefs was "Paofai," an old gentleman
who did duty as our washerman, wearing a black alpaca monkey-jacket,
and carrying under his arm a large white sun-helmet,
which he seemingly thought a becoming addition to his otherwise
somewhat incongruous attire. He and his confrères would have
shown to much more advantage in their ordinary native costume.
Supper began about midnight, and it was then, and not till then,
that the royal family and chiefs seemed to flourish in their proper
element, the quantity of food and drink which they stowed away
in their huge carcases being something prodigious.


A few days before the close of our visit to Tahiti, I received,
through the kindness of Monsieur Parrayon, captain of the French
man-of-war Dayot, a large coral of the Fungia group, which had[152]
just been removed from the bottom of his ship as the copper was
being cleaned by native divers. The occurrence is interesting as
illustrating the rapidity of the growth of coral in these waters.
There was the following history:—The Dayot had entered the
tropical waters of the South Pacific about seven months previously,
having come directly from the coast of Chili. She visited some
of the islands, but made no long stay in harbour until she
reached Manga Reva (Gambier Islands), where she remained for
two months in the still waters of a coral basin. On entering this
basin, she touched the reef slightly, and without sustaining any
damage. From Manga Reva she sailed to Tahiti, where she
arrived about the same time as the Alert.


Several specimens of living coral were found attached to the
copper sheathing, that which I received being the largest. It was
discoidal in shape, with its upper and under surfaces respectively
convex and concave, and near the centre of the under surface
there was a scar, where the pedicle by which it was attached to
the copper sheathing appeared to have been broken through. The
disc measured nine inches in diameter, and the weight of the
specimen, when half dry, was two pounds fourteen ounces. On
examining the under surface, another disc, three and three-quarter
inches in diameter, was visible, partly imbedded in the more recent
coral growth. Of this old disc about one-sixth part was dead and
uncovered by new coral, and was stained of a deep blue colour
from contact with the copper, while the outline of the rest of this
old disc was plainly discernible, although partially covered in by
plates of new coral.


It is probable that on touching the reef at Manga Reva nine
weeks previously, a young Fungia was jammed against the copper,
became attached, and subsequently grew until it attained its
present dimensions.


About midday of the 27th August we arrived off Nassau
Island, in latitude 11° 31′ S., longitude 165° 25′ W. It is of
coral formation, about half a mile long by a quarter of a mile[153]
broad, and somewhat elliptical in general outline. It was thickly
wooded with tall screw pines, rising from a scrub of matted brushwood,
and at the northern end of the island some cocoa-nuts were
seen. It was discovered in the year 1835 by an American whale-ship,
the Nassau, from which circumstance it derives its name.
There were then no inhabitants on the island.


When about three miles off we lay to and sounded, getting
bottom at 1,000 fathoms, on coral sand. At the same time a
party of us started off in a whale boat to land, but this we soon
found to be no easy matter, for the island was encircled by a
broad fringing reef, on the sharp outer edge of which the surf
everywhere broke heavily. Over our heads were flying and
screaming great numbers of sea-birds, among which I noticed a
dusky brown tern with a white forehead patch, and a large brown
gannet, of both of which I obtained specimens.


While we were vainly looking out for a landing-place, a white
man, accompanied by two Polynesians, launched a small outrigger
canoe from the reef edge, and paddled out to us. From the white
man we learned that the island belonged to a Mr. Halicott, an
American gentleman, for whom he had been acting as care-taker
for the previous five years, and that he and his native assistants
were engaged in planting cocoa-nuts, and hoped in time to do a
remunerative trade in copra. There were, he said, only three or
four trees bearing nuts, and the bread-fruit did not grow on the
island. The present population amounted to six, viz.—the white
man and his wife, and two natives from Danger Islands, with their
wives. As for live stock, they had only two dogs and two pigs,
and regarding the latter our informant remarked, with much concern,
that they were not in a condition to multiply. For supplies
of food, excepting fish, which was of course abundant, he depended
on a sailing vessel, which visited the island once a year, bringing
rice and meal. Water, fortunately, was plentiful.


Continuing on our course, on the following morning (August
28th), we sighted the Tema Reef, in latitude 10° 7′ S., longitude[154]
165° 32.5′ W., and steaming up to and around it, we made a
series of soundings, which occupied our surveyors for half the day.
The reef, a submerged one, is indicated by a circular patch of
breakers about a quarter of a mile in circumference, from one
part of which a long tapering line of surf extends in a north-east
direction, making the entire affair have some resemblance in outline
to a tadpole. A cloud of white spray overhung this great
mass of seething water, and the frightful tumble and confusion of
the crests of the breakers as they uprose in pyramids twenty feet
in height, made one shudder to think of the consequences to an
ill-fated vessel striking on this reef. Its position is given correctly
on the old charts.


On the same evening we passed about four miles to the northward
of the Danger Islands, a low coral group, which is found to
be about six miles to the eastward of the position assigned to it
on the charts on the authority of the Tuscarora (U. S.) Expedition.


In the forenoon of the 3rd September we sighted Fakaata, or
Bowditch Island, and some hours later Nukunono, which lies in
latitude 9° 24′ S., longitude 171° 27′ W. These two islands, with
Oatáfu, which lies further to the westward, constitute the Union
Group. They are all low lagoon-islands. At 3.30 p.m., when
abreast of Nukunono, we altered course and stood in towards the
land, and when about three miles off observed an outrigger canoe
with three men in it, paddling towards us. The crew consisted of
one white man and two Polynesian natives. The former came
on board, and proved to be a Portuguese, in a very attenuated
condition, and sadly in want of provisions. He told us in broken
English that he had lived on the island for sixteen years, that he
was the only white man there, and that the native population
amounted to eighty. A conspicuous white building which we had
noticed on the island was, he informed us, a church, presided over
by a native missionary teacher, there being at present no clergyman
on the island. He besought us to give some biscuit, salt meat,
and nails, for which he tendered payment in dollars, which was of[155]
course refused; but his heart was gladdened by a free gift of the
stores he required, as well as other useful articles. He said that
he very rarely saw any vessels—not more than once in ten months—and
that no "labour ships" visited the island. The latter are
small vessels whose owners make a living by conveying Polynesian
natives to the Australian colonies, where they are employed as
labourers, under—usually—a three years' contract.


The only native production was "copra," which was taken away
by trading vessels that made visits at long intervals.


Fish were at times abundant, and they had a good many pigs,
which were allowed to run wild. The natives, he said, were a
very friendly, well-disposed people, of whom we saw two very
promising examples in the canoe alongside.


We were obliged to get under way after only half an hour's
stay, when our Portuguese friend shoved off, heavily laden with
presents, and bidding us an affectionate farewell.


On the following morning (September 4th) we reached Oatáfu,
the most westerly island of the group, and the ship was hove to at
about three miles distance from that part of the island where the
native settlement is situated. A boat was then sent in, from
which a party landed, but not without some difficulty, it being
found necessary to anchor the boat outside the line of breakers,
and obtain the services of a native canoe to bring us through the
surf.


We were received by the natives with every demonstration of
good-will, and were at once conducted to the house of the native
missionary teacher, who seemed to a great extent to occupy the
position of a chief. We found the worthy old gentleman seated
on a mat in the corner of his hut, a position from which he never
stirred during the time of our visit. After drinking cocoa-nut
milk, and exchanging some ceremonious remarks with the teacher
through the imperfect medium of a native interpreter, we extricated
ourselves from the crowd of natives that hemmed us in, and started
on a stroll of inspection through the settlement.


[156]


The men are fine specimens of the Polynesian race, well-built
and with frank, open countenances; but the women are much inferior
to them, both in good looks, and, as it seemed to me, in manners.


A great number of both sexes were affected with a rather
unsightly skin-disease, evidently of a parasitic character, which
they call "peeter." It begins on the chest and shoulders in
small circular patches somewhat resembling "ringworm," and
eventually extends over the entire cutaneous surface, causing
desquamation of the cuticle, and giving rise to a very distressing
itching. When the disease has become well established, the skin
exhibits grooves of the "snail-track" pattern, which intersect each
other in various directions; so that on examining at a few yards
distance a man who is extensively diseased, he seems at first sight
as if covered with artificial cicatrices, arranged so as to represent
some hieroglyphic device. They possess no remedy for this
disease, and were therefore extremely anxious to obtain from us
some treatment for it. In other respects they seem to be a very
healthy people.


We crossed the narrow strip of land—only a few hundred yards
wide—on which lies the settlement, and then found ourselves on
the margin of an extensive lagoon, on the smooth sandy beach
of which outrigger canoes in great numbers were hauled up. The
island is an irregular atoll, that portion on which we were being
continuous for about three-fifths of the circle, while the remaining
portion was made up by a straggling chain of islets.


During our subsequent stroll through the settlement, I obtained
some information from an intelligent native who spoke a little
English, and seemed to be one of the principal people. He
seemed to be very proud of his small stock of knowledge concerning
"Britannia," as he called Great Britain, and was very
particular in explaining that he was a Protestant, and disapproved
strongly of Catholicism, which he looked on as the height of
infamy. He was therefore surprised and much crestfallen at
hearing that all Englishmen were not Protestants.


[157]


We were unable to obtain many curiosities in the way of
native implements, as according to the calendar of the island it
was the Sabbath day, and was as such strictly observed; although
with us, keeping eastern time and longitude, it was of course a
Saturday. However, by a judicious distribution of a few plugs of
tobacco, which I emphatically called "presents," and by bestowing
on my native friend a surgical lancet, which he was very anxious
to possess, I received—also as "presents"—a few implements,
viz., a large wooden shark-hook with rope snooding made of
cocoa-nut fibres, a small fish-hook, the stem of which was made
of pearl shell and the hook of turtle shell, a fish-hook made of
cocoa-nut husk, neatly carved, and the blade of an old native adze
fashioned out of a clamshell. I was very glad to get these
articles, for since the introduction of iron tools the ancient stone
and shell implements have been thrown away and lost sight of,
so that it is now exceedingly difficult to procure any of them.
No weapons of any kind are used, and the spear is not used even
for fishing. I entered one of the better class of native huts, and
found it clean and neatly arranged; and as in the hut of the
missionary teacher, pictures cut from the London illustrated
papers were stuck against the walls, and pointed out to us as
objects of special pride. The entire population at this time
numbered 260, and was presided over until a few weeks prior to
our visit by a king. The late monarch, however, having shown
himself to be a good-for-nothing sort of person, was deposed by
his subjects, who now get on very well without any form of
government excepting that of the missionaries.


There was one white man living on the island, a Scotchman
named Adam Mayne, who collects cocoa-nut oil on behalf of the
firm of Henderson and Macfarlane, of Auckland. He receives
supplies every three months or thereabouts from a trading vessel;
but as the latter was now three months overdue, he was very
glad to receive from us a present of biscuit and medical stores.


The Christianizing of the island has been undertaken by the[158]
London Missionary Society, who send at long intervals a missionary
clergyman to inspect the settlement, and confer with
their delegate, the native missionary.


The natural products are very limited, consisting solely of
cocoa-nuts and fish. The latter commodity abounds. Pearl shell
is obtained, but not in sufficient quantities to be an article of
commerce.


Adam Mayne told us that sharks were very numerous, and
were caught with the hook and line; but no case had ever
occurred of a native being injured by them, although they were
accustomed to swim in the open sea outside the reef, a fact of
which we ourselves had ocular proof. At the same time, curiously
enough, many instances had occurred at the Windward Islands,
Nukunono and Fakaata, of natives being taken down by sharks.
Turtle are occasionally caught, and of these the shell of the carapace
is used for making hooks for fishing, which native-made hooks
are, by-the-bye, preferred to our English ones. Indeed, they say
that the fish will not take our metal hooks at all.


On the afternoon of the same day (September 4th) we again
got under way, and continued on our course to the westward,
fixing the positions of islands and taking negative soundings
frequently. On the 13th of September we obtained soundings
on the Lalla Rookh bank in latitude 13° 5′ S., longitude 175° 26′
W., the depth ranging from twelve to seventeen fathoms. With
the snap-lead a sample of the bottom was brought up, consisting
of a lump of dead coral incrusted with red nullipores, and riddled
in all directions by the borings of annelids.


[159]


CHAPTER VIII.

FIJI AND TONGA.


The harbour of Levuka, in which we anchored on the 18th of
September, is situated on the north-east side of the island
of Ovalau, and from its central position in the Fiji Group has for
several years been the principal seat of commercial activity and
the favourite anchorage for men-of-war. Since the annexation in
1875, Levuka has been the seat of government for the colony,
and the official residence of the High Commissioner for the Pacific.
During our stay in harbour the ship was refitted and reprovisioned,
and our boats were occupied in making some additions to the
survey of the port.


A few days after our arrival I received a visit from the youngest
son of the redoubted King Cacobau, a fine-looking man, twenty-three
years old, whose proper designation is the "Ratu Joseph
Celua" ("Ratu" meaning prince), but who is more generally
known in Fiji as "Ratu Joe." It seems that soon after we had
anchored, he came on board accompanied by some other native
sight-seers, and as I had then shown him some slight civility,
he now came to express his gratitude by presenting me with a
large mat, made from the split leaves of the screw-pine. He
surprised us all by speaking exceedingly good English, and
possessing an intimate knowledge of the ways and manners of
civilized life. It appears that when Fiji was ceded to Great
Britain in 1875, he was taken to Sydney, in H.M.S. Dido, to be[160]
educated, and accordingly spent three years at the university
there. There was no topic of general interest on which he did
not possess a fair amount of knowledge. He wore his hair in
the fashion of the country, i.e., in a mop frizzled out to an immense
size, and in other respects he was got up as a native chief of
distinction. He spoke favourably of British rule, although, as
we were otherwise informed, he himself had recently acquired a
practical experience of the unpleasant consequences attending the
commission of an indictable offence, in having to undergo a
sentence of three months' hard labour.


On the 25th of September a party of us made an excursion in
one of the ship's steam-cutters to Bau, the old native capital of
the Fiji Group. We started from Levuka harbour at nine o'clock
in the morning, accompanied by our friend the Ratu Joe, who
most kindly and hospitably volunteered to pilot us over, and to
entertain us in his hut at Bau.


We steamed along in smooth water inside the barrier reef
which protects the S.E. side of Ovalau for about three miles,
when we passed out into the open sea through a narrow opening
in the reef. We then steamed for about five miles through deep
water, until we entered an intricate system of channels which
wind among the submerged reefs extending across the Strait
between Ovalau and Viti Levu. The distance from Levuka to
Bau is about twenty-four miles, and after a pleasant passage of
five hours we reached our destination and anchored the boat in
smooth water at about forty yards from the shore. After depositing
our baggage in Joe's hut, we went in a body to pay our
respects to King Cacobau the "Vunivalu" (kingly title meaning
the "Root of War"), to whom we were formally introduced
by Joe, the latter also acting as interpreter, for Cacobau does not
speak English at all. We were received in a small smoky hut, in
which the aged monarch spends most of his time during this, the
cold, season of Fiji. He seemed to be a feeble old man, aged
about seventy, and almost entirely blind, yet evidently possessing[161]
his mental faculties in full vigour, for he put to us many shrewd
questions concerning the work of our ship, and then, after a pause,
during which he seemed to be pondering over her name, asked if
we could give him some information regarding her previous work
of exploration in the Arctic regions. On this subject he seemed
to take much interest, and like many other people, did not fail to
put the rather puzzling question as to what could be the use of
exploring the uninhabited and inhospitable polar regions. During
the conference he sat cross-legged on a large mat, crouching over
a smoky wood fire. His hair was grey, and his upper teeth seemed
to be gone. From time to time messengers came into the hut,
who after assuming a respectful posture on the floor, asked for his
orders concerning various municipal affairs. To these functionaries
his replies were short, sharp, and decisive, and were acted
upon with such alacrity that it was fully evident to us that he
still retains no small part of his former control over his subjects.[2]




[2] The news of Cacobau's death has just reached England (April 1883). "Cacobau"
is pronounced "Thackombow."




KING CACOBAU OF FIJI (on right), WIFE, AND RATU JOE (on left).


It happened, by chance, that on the day of our arrival at Bau,
a feast was to be given by Cacobau to a tribe of natives who had
just brought to him a tribute offering, consisting of eighteen large
green turtle. As we were landing we saw the feast, which consisted
of eight good-sized pigs roasted whole, and several huge
piles of yams, spread out on a sort of common outside the enclosure
of the native town; but on the king being apprised of
our visit, he gave orders that the feast was to be transferred inside
the town palisades, and it was accordingly removed and spread
out on the grass in front of the small hut wherein he received us.
Then, at a signal from him, conveyed in the form of a fierce growl
delivered from his seat by the fire, the members of the stranger
tribe assembled round the roasted pigs, which were quickly cut
up into joints, and then carried by certain representatives of the
tribe into various huts, to be there quietly consumed. During all
this time the large trough-shaped wooden drums, called "Lalis,"[162]
were being vigorously sounded to summon the people to the feast.
Subsequently the old king shook himself together, came out from
the hut, and standing in the open surrounded by a large and
picturesque assemblage of his subjects, and assisted by his three
big sons, distributed large rolls of "tapa" (native cloth made from
the inner bark of the paper mulberry) to several leading personages
of the strange tribe. These presents were valuable, for some
of these pieces of "tapa" measured eighty yards in length by
about one yard in width.


About two months before the time of our visit, there had been
a great fire at Bau, which destroyed and reduced to ashes about
one-third of the town, and compelled some of the inhabitants to
move over to the main island of Viti Levu. Among the buildings
destroyed by this fire was the great Bure Kalou, or native temple,
where even so recently as thirty years ago the great cannibal
feasts used to take place. Close to one angle of the square mass
of earthwork on which the temple was raised, we saw a stone slab
projecting from the ground in a nearly upright position. This
was one of the famous stones—incorrectly styled "sacrificial"
against which the unfortunate people who were to be cooked for
"bakola" (human meat) had their brains dashed out. This interesting
relic of cannibalism has not escaped the ravages of modern
vandalism, numerous fragments having been chipped off as curios.
Indeed, we were told that quite recently one of the white traders
of Levuka had been endeavouring to carry off this stone altogether,
with a view to making money by exhibiting it at Sydney
and such places.


We saw another and somewhat similar stone near the water
side, and close to the remains of the Bure Kalou of the tribe of
fishermen, where the bodies of prisoners of war, brought in by
the "Lasikaus," or fishermen, were landed and mutilated. The
upright slab was worn quite smooth on one side, presumably by
the friction of human heads.


Certain honeycombed slabs of coral here formed a pavement[163]
of a few square yards in extent, and until recently it was usual
to find human teeth imbedded in the pores of the coral. They
have probably all been removed by curiosity hunters, for we
looked in vain for a single specimen.


In a few years hence the old Fijian double canoe (consisting
of two canoes placed side by side, and connected by a bridge)
will be seen no more; but we were lucky in having an opportunity
of seeing one good specimen at Bau. It was hauled up
on a slip beneath a large thatched shed, and although by no
means one of the largest of its kind, yet it greatly exceeded my
expectations. The depth of hold was about five feet, so that
standing on the bottom of either canoe, my neck was just on a
level with the edge of the hatch, and the total length of each
canoe was 72 feet; but what most surprised me was the enormous
size of the mast, which lay alongside the vessel. It was
about the size of the Alert's spanker boom. This canoe was
intended to carry 250 men, and I have no doubt it would hold
that number.


Single outrigger canoes are still largely used. We saw several
in course of construction on the small recessed slips which indented
the sea-wall of the island.


The genuine old native implements and weapons are now getting
very scarce, the demand for these articles in Europe having created
a trade which has almost exhausted the supplies of the country.
I inquired for stone adzes, and, after some difficulty, obtained one,
for which I paid a shilling; but on subsequently groping for myself
amongst the ruins of the burnt huts, I succeeded in finding several
perfect and imperfect specimens.


In the evening we witnessed the ceremony of angona drinking
in the king's state residence, where our friend the Ratu Joe presided
on this occasion instead of his father. The performance
began with a long monotonous chant, which was maintained
alternately by an elderly man, who seemed to hold the office of
master of the ceremonies, and by a body of elderly men, amounting[164]
to forty or fifty, who squatted close together on the floor. In the
meantime some boys were engaged in a gloomy corner of the hut
in chewing the angona root, and in spitting the pulpy masticated
mouthfuls of fibre into the large wooden bowl which was destined
to contain the liquor. Suddenly the chant ended with a simultaneous
and abrupt clapping of hands on the part of the singers; and now
the angona bowl was brought forward into the clear space in the
centre of the room, water was poured over the chewed pulp, and
finally the liquor was rudely strained by sponging it up with a
handful of hibiscus fibre, and filling the drinking cup with the
squeezed contents. Great respect was throughout shown to Joe,
the presiding chief; and on his emptying the bowl of angona,
which was handed to him solemnly by the cupbearer, all the
natives exclaimed in a loud voice, "Amadtha" (meaning, "It is
emptied"). Subsequently similar draughts were politely handed
to each of us guests by the official cupbearer, but notwithstanding
the historic interest attaching to this famous South Sea beverage,
and the impression made on us by the great concourse of native
dignitaries gathered together in solemn awe, few of us were
inclined to imitate the chief's example and do justice to the
flowing bowl.


However, we tasted it, and thought it rather nasty, giving one
the idea of a mixture of pepper and soapsuds.


The Fijians spoke very favourably of British rule, and it would
seem that the Governor (Sir Arthur Gordon) had very wisely and
successfully adopted the policy of retaining, so far as was practicable,
the old native laws, only modifying them as much as was
necessary for the establishment of a reasonable degree of civilization.
Thus the old feudal power of the chiefs has been retained,
and in many instances those among them who were well-behaved,
and displayed a suitable amount of administrative ability, have
been invested with magisterial power over the districts to which
they belong.


We slept for the night in Joe's hut, stretching ourselves out on[165]
the mats which covered the floor, and excepting a little trouble
from mosquitoes, were comfortable enough. Our return journey
to Levuka on the following evening was accomplished without
any incident worthy of note.


Some days later, I took part in a walking excursion across the
island of Ovalau, accompanied by Mr. Parr, an English gentleman
residing in the colony and the owner of a large plantation in the
Rewa River district of Viti Levu, and under the guidance of two
natives, who carried our small parcels of baggage. Starting from
Levuka on the morning of the 30th of September, we proceeded
up the Totoonga Valley, which stretches inland from the back of
the settlement, and after about two hours' hard walking, discovered
that our guides had lost their way, and had brought us up to the
summit of a thickly-wooded conical hill. Here, however, we were
compensated for our disappointment by finding several graves of
the Kaicolos, an old hill-inhabiting tribe of Fijians, who for a long
time held out against the aggressive policy of Cacobau, and struggled
vainly to maintain their independence.


We had now to descend from this hill to the main valley below,
from whence our guides made a fresh departure, by means of
which we were enabled, after a stiffish climb up the face of a
rather steep hillside, to attain a ridge 1,700 feet high, which
separates the watersheds of the east and west sides of the island.
After a brief stay here, we descended the other side by a steep
and almost obliterated track for about three hours more, when
we reached Livoni, the site of an old Kaicolo stronghold. Here,
amid the ruins of the town, we found a farmhouse of recent construction,
the property of a Mr. McCorkill, who had obtained a
three years' lease of the land, and was about to try his hand at
stock-farming. He had two hundred head of cattle, for which
he obtained a ready sale at Levuka, but the difficulties of transit
were considerable, and he did not seem hopeful as to the success
of his enterprise. He was, moreover, apprehensive that his house,
which was built close to the bank of a mountain torrent, was on a[166]
rather insecure site, and that the next heavy flood in the rainy
season would sweep away all his household belongings.


He pointed out close to his own house the characteristic raised
foundations of an old native temple (Bure Kalou), and told us
that his workmen, in clearing the ground for his garden and
paddock, frequently turned up human skulls and other bones.
He also very kindly promised to send me some Kaicolo crania on
the first opportunity; a promise which he amply redeemed some
weeks later by presenting me with two excellent specimens.


After a short stay in his house, and refreshed by a drink of
delicious milk, we continued our walk down this valley, following
the course of the river, which, as we advanced, rapidly increased
in size, and pursued so sinuous a course that we were obliged to
cross and recross it five or six times before we arrived at Buréta—a
native village on the west side of Ovalau—which we gained
just before nightfall. A further walk of about a mile brought
us to the residence of a friend of Mr. Parr's (Captain Morne), a
retired merchant captain, and now the owner of a large estate, by
whom we were most hospitably entertained and lodged for the
night.


This gentleman was doing a large trade in pine-apples, of which
he has about twenty acres under cultivation. He sends the
produce periodically to Sydney by steamer, packed in wooden
boxes, where they fetch about 20s. per dozen. On the following
morning we spent some hours in strolling about the estate, and
in a creek near the outlet of the Livoni River we saw the curious
mud-fish Periophthalmus jumping about on the moist beach in the
ludicrous manner which has been so well described by Mr. Moseley
in his "Notes of a Naturalist," its pectoral fins being used for
terrestrial progression.


We made the return journey by the south side of the island,
Captain Morne very considerately sending us on in one of his
boats as far as the south-west extreme of Ovalau, from whence a
three hours' walk along the seashore brought us back to Levuka.


[167]




TOTOONGA VALLEY, OVALAU, FIJI.


On the morning of the 11th of October we got under way
from Levuka, and spent the day in steaming over to Suva, a commodious
harbour, situated on the south-east side of Viti Levu,
where it was our intention to coal ship from a stationary hulk
which supplies the steamers plying between Sydney and the Fijian
ports. It is said that Suva, from the accommodation which its
harbour affords, and from its position on an easily accessible part
of the largest island of the group, is destined to become the seat
of government and the future capital of Fiji; but at the time of
our visit the settlement was very insignificant, and looked a mere
speck in the great extent of wooded land which seemed from our
anchorage to spread before us in a vast semicircle.


Leaving the ship on the morning of the following day, I started
for a walk on shore, taking my gun, insect bottle, and collecting
boxes. I at first directed my steps inland along the main road,
and for about three miles proceeded over an upland plain of
undulating land, thickly covered with tall reeds, and showing here
and there patches of brush in the wet hollows. In the last-mentioned
localities a good many birds, chiefly parrots, were to
be heard screaming shrilly, but owing to the denseness of the
foliage, few were visible.


In the afternoon I returned to the settlement, and from thence
proceeded along the beach towards the low point which shelters
the harbour from the north-east winds. Here, as the tide fell
and laid bare broad flats of mud and coral, several flocks of sandpipers,
whose general plumage resembled that of the snipe, came
in from seaward, settled, and commenced to feed. A brace of
duck and a large grey tern were the only other birds seen.


We learned that the country in the immediate vicinity of Suva
was exceedingly unproductive. The soil was very thin, and the
sub-soil was a stiff pasty clay of a grey colour—in places resembling
soapstone—and so impervious to drainage as to render all attempts
at agriculture hitherto abortive.


We left Suva on October 13th, and sailed for Tongatabu,[168]
searching on the way for certain reefs and banks of doubtful
existence, which it was desirable on proper evidence to expunge
from the charts.


During the traverses which we made in sounding for these, I
had a good opportunity of plying the tow-net. Among the forms
thus obtained were a minute conferva, a brilliantly phosphorescent
pyrosoma, measuring three inches in length, and a small shell-less
pteropod, the Eurybia gaudichaudi. A specimen of the latter,
which I examined in a glass trough, measured one-twelfth of an
inch across the body. After giving it about half-an-hour's rest,
it protruded its epipodia and tentacles, and commenced to swim
about vigorously. The caudal portion of the body was furnished
with cilia, and the digestive organs presented the appearance of
a dark-red opaque mass, surrounded by a transparent envelope
of a gelatinous consistency, whose surface exhibited a reticulated
structure.


Tongatabu, Friendly Islands, 8th to 18th of November.—The
credit of discovering the Tonga Islands rests with Tasman, who
saw them on the 20th of January, 1643, and subsequently
anchored his ship on the north-west side of the large island,
Tongatabu. Cook saw the islands during his second voyage in
October 1773, and on his third voyage in 1777 he made a stay
of three months at the group, for more than a month of which
time he was anchored at Tongatabu, the principal and most
southward island of the group. The islands were subsequently
visited by D'Entrecasteaux, Maurelle (1781), Lieutenant Bligh
of the Bounty, Captain Edwards of the Pandora (1791), and other
explorers of the eighteenth century.


In the month of November 1806, an English privateer, the
Port-au-Prince, arrived at Lifonga, one of the Hapai Islands,
where the ship was seized by the natives, and most of the crew
massacred. Among the few whose lives were spared was a young
man named Mariner, who acquired the friendship of the chief,
Finow, and lived peacefully with the natives for the space of[169]
four years, accumulating during that time a vast amount of
information concerning their manners and habits. Mariner's
narrative was subsequently published in a book written by Dr.
John Martin, which is still regarded as the standard work on
the Tonga Islands.


The Wesleyan missionaries established themselves here in the
year 1822, and were well received; and some years subsequently
a French Roman Catholic mission was also successfully established.
At the time of our visit the entire population of the Tonga
Islands, including Tongatabu, Hapai, and Vavau, amounted to
25,000, while that of Tongatabu alone was 12,000. Of the latter
number, 8,000 belonged to the Wesleyan, and 4,000 to the
Catholic, Church.


We anchored in the harbour of Tongatabu, off the town of
Nukualofa, on the 8th of November, at about midday. The
anchorage looked very bare indeed, there being only one vessel
beside ours, a merchant barque belonging to Godeffroy and Co., of
Hamburg, the well-known South Sea Island traders.


The most striking objects on shore, as viewed from our position
in the anchorage, were the Wesleyan Church—an old dilapidated
wooden building crowning the summit of a round-topped hill,
about sixty feet high, and said to be the highest point on the
island—and the king's palace, a very neat-looking villa-edifice
abounding in plate-glass windows, and surrounded by a low wall,
in which remained two breaches, intended for the reception of
massive iron gates, which, through a series of untoward circumstances,
are not likely to be ever placed in position. It
appears that some time ago the king gave a carte blanche order
for two pairs of gates to be sent out from England, and when,
after a long series of delays, owing to mistakes in the shipping
arrangements, they at length reached Tongatabu, he was rather
unpleasantly surprised to find that the excessive charges for
freightage had run up the entire cost to the sum of £800. They
were then found to be so large and massive as to be quite unsuited[170]
for the purpose for which they were intended, so they were thrown
down on the ground in a disjointed condition, where they now lie,
rusting and half-buried in weeds. Somewhat in the rear of the
royal palace is seen a rather imposing private dwelling-house, the
residence of Mr. Baker, formerly a Wesleyan minister, and now
the political prime minister of the kingdom.


In the afternoon some of us walked out to see the old fortified
town of Bea, which is distant from Nukualofa about four miles in
a southerly direction, and is reached by a very good cart-road.
This town—or, more properly speaking, village, for it is now but
thinly populated—was formerly the stronghold of a party of
Tongans, who objected to the introduction of Christianity, and
were consequently obliged to defend themselves against the followers
of the Wesleyan missionaries. The village is encircled by
a rampart and moat, which have for many years past been allowed
to go to decay, so that the moat is now partly obliterated with
weeds and rubbish, and the strong palisades, which in former times
added considerably to the defensive strength of the ramparts,
have almost entirely disappeared.


As we entered the village by a cutting which pierced the
ramparts on the north side, we saw the spot where Captain
Croker, of H.M.S. Favourite, was shot down in 1848, when heading
an armed party of bluejackets, with whom he was assisting the
missionary party in an attack upon the irreconcilables. It seems
to have been altogether a most disastrous and ill-advised undertaking,
and of its effects some traces still remain in an assumption
of physical superiority over their white fellow-creatures, which may
be seen among some of the Tongans.


Nowhere have I seen the cocoa-nut trees growing in such luxuriance
as at Tongatabu. Here they grow over the whole interior
of the island, as well as near the seashore; a circumstance which
may be attributed to the mean level of the island being only a
few feet above high-water mark, and to the coral sub-soil extending
over the entire island. The latter is everywhere penetrated to a[171]
greater or less degree by the sea-water, as evidenced by the
brackish water which is reached on sinking a well to a depth of
two or three yards.


We made shooting excursions for several miles to the eastward
and westward of Nukualofa, and on one of the latter we met with
an intelligent native, who excited in us hopes of obtaining some
good duck-shooting, and undertook to bring us to the right place.
Under his guidance we reached a series of extensive salt-water
lagoons, which seemed likely places enough. However, on this
occasion he proved to be a false prophet; and as he was anxious
to make amends for our disappointment, he induced us to follow
him into the bush in quest of pigeons. Of these, on reaching a
thick part of the forest, we heard a good many; but owing to
the dense foliage of the shrubs, which obscured our view aloft, we
got very few glimpses of the birds, which, as a rule, keep to the
summits of the tallest trees. Nevertheless, by dint of "cooing,"
to evoke responses from the birds and thus ascertain their whereabouts,
we at length succeeded in shooting a good specimen of
the great "fruit pigeon."


Our guide, "Davita," was most elaborately tattooed from the
waist to the knees. He was a well-to-do man, and the chief of
a district; and was also, as he informed us, a member of the
"royal guard," whose duty it is to act as sentries in front of the
door of the king's palace. "Davita" accompanied us back to
the town, and after receiving his honorarium and bidding us good-bye,
he went off to procure his military uniform, and subsequently,
as we walked by the palace on our way to the boat, we saw our
friend in full toggery doing sentry. He was a very fine man, but
did not look half so well in a soldier's uniform as in his native
garb, which consisted simply of a waistcloth, above and below
which appeared the margins of his beautiful blue tattooing.


There are evidences of recent elevation of the land both to the
eastward and westward of Nukualofa. I noticed above high-water
mark extensive flats of almost barren land, composed of level[172]
patches of coral, the interstices of which were gradually getting
filled up with coral detritus, and the decayed remains of stunted
plants. The mangrove bushes here seemed with difficulty to eke
out an existence, their roots being no longer bathed in sea water;
but on the other hand a few Ivi trees (Aleurites sp.?) had gained
a footing. An amazing quantity of crabs of the genus Gelasimus
inhabit these desolate flats, where they will have an opportunity
of gradually adapting themselves to a terrestrial existence. I
noticed two species, one of which was covered with a hairy brown
integument, and was rather sluggish in its movements, waddling
awkwardly into its burrow while it held aloft one of its hands in
a most ridiculous fashion. The other was a smaller crab, with a
greenish body, and having one of its pincer-claws, which was of
a brilliant orange colour, of a huge size compared with its fellow.
Probably, after the lapse of a few years, these flats will form part
of the general forest land, when the crabs may undergo further
adaptive changes.


We saw little of King George during our stay, as being now
advanced in years he leads a retired life, passing his days in
a small room in the rear of the palace, and only coming out of
doors after sunset for a little airing. However, his grandson,
"Wellington Gnu," who is governor of Nukualofa, and heir presumptive
to the throne, was most civil and obliging. He is a
remarkably fine-looking man, being six feet two inches in height,
and stout in proportion; his face beams with amiability and intelligence;
and he possesses all the manners and bearing of a polished
gentleman. Although the lineal heir to the throne by direct
descent, it is very doubtful whether he will succeed the present
king, as Maafu, his cousin, and the son of a deceased brother of
King George, is older in years, and is consequently by the Tongan
laws the legitimate heir to the throne.[3]




[3] Since the above was written I have heard of the death of Maafu.


Wellington entertained us most hospitably, and drove us in his
buggies to various places of interest in the island. On one occasion[173]
he took three of our officers to Moa, a native town situated
near the south-east extremity of the island. From there they
went on to a place eight miles to the southward, where there is
a famous megalithic structure of unknown origin, which has been
described and figured by Brenchley in his "Voyage of the Curaçoa."
As our experience differs somewhat from Brenchley's, I may be
excused for making a few remarks thereon. The monument—if
such it can be called—consists of three large slabs of coral rock,
two of which are planted vertically in the ground at a distance
of about fifteen feet apart, while the third forms a horizontal span,
resting on its edges in slots made in the summits of the vertical
slabs. The height of the structure, of which the picture gives
a good idea, is about fifteen feet. We were, I regret to say,
unable to obtain any information—legendary or otherwise—concerning
the origin of this remarkable structure.


He also took us on a very pleasant excursion to a village called
Hifo, which lies about eleven miles to the south-west of Nukualofa.
The party consisted of Wellington Gnu (pronounced "Mou"), David
Tonga, the principal of the native school, Captain Maclear, and
myself. Our means of locomotion consisted of two buggies, in
which we started on the outward journey by a circuitous route,
so as to take in the village of Bea and four or five others on our
way. On arriving at Hifo, we halted in the centre of the village,
on an open patch of sward under the shade of several large vi
trees (Spondias dulcis), on whose branches were hanging large
numbers of fox bats (Pteropus keraudrenii), of which we obtained
specimens. We were now formally introduced to the chief of
Hifo, who at once announced that a feast would speedily be prepared
in honour of our visit, and pending the necessary culinary
arrangements, invited us to walk through his dominions. In an
adjacent bay we were pointed out the place where Cook had
formerly anchored his vessel, a matter of great interest to the
Tongans, who are keenly alive to the fact that the period of
Cook's visit formed the great turning-point in their history.


[174]


As we returned to the village we found that the natives had
collected in great numbers under the shade of the trees before
mentioned; so we squatted down on the grass, taking up our
places with the chief's party, so as to occupy the base-line of a
large horseshoe-shaped gathering of natives. The ceremony began
with the preparation of the kava, in which respect the Tongans
now differ from the Fijians in reducing the root to a pulpy condition
by pounding it between stones instead of the rather disgusting
process of mastication. While the national beverage was
being prepared, a large procession of women, gaily dressed, and
bearing garlands, shells, and similar offerings, filed solemnly into
the centre of the group, and deposited their presents at the feet
of Captain Maclear and myself, who were the distinguished guests
on this occasion. Sometimes a frolicsome girl would place a
garland round one of our necks, and then trip away, laughing
merrily. When the kava was ready, a fine-looking elderly man,
the second in authority in the village, acted as master of the ceremonies,
and gave the orders for carrying out the various details
of the function. As the cupbearer advanced with each successive
bowl of liquor, this venerable functionary called out in order of
precedence the names of the different persons who were to be
served, beginning with the visitors, and continuing to indicate
each one by name, until every one of the whole vast assemblage—men
and women—had partaken. As soon as the kava drinking
was over, a procession of young men advanced into the midst
of the assemblage, bearing on their shoulders palm-leaf baskets
which contained pigs roasted whole, large bunches of bananas,
and cocoa-nuts, which they deposited seriatim at our feet. The
district chief then made a short speech, informing us, through
Wellington's interpretation, that these precious gifts were also at
our disposal. Captain Maclear replied, to the effect that we
gratefully accepted the present, and requested that it might be
distributed for consumption among the villagers. Accordingly
the feast was spread, and eating, drinking, and merry-making[175]
became general. Occasionally one of the girls would rise from
her place, and after lighting a cigarette, of which the cylinder
was composed of pandanus leaf instead of paper, would give a
few puffs from her own swarthy lips, and then present it courteously
to one of us. The act was looked on as a delicate way
of paying a compliment, and was on each occasion loudly applauded,
the damsel, as she returned among her friends, seeming
as if overcome with confusion at her own temerity. When the
time fixed for our departure arrived, a most affectionate shaking
of hands took place, and we bade good-bye to the happy little
village of Hifo, delighted with the kindness, hospitality, and good
nature of these far-famed Friendly Islanders.




ANCIENT STONE MONUMENT AT TONGATABU (p. 173).


On the last day previous to our departure from Tongatabu, we
made an excursion to the south side of the island, under the
guidance of Mr. Symonds, the British Consul, and Mr. Hanslip,
the consular interpreter, in order to examine some caves which
were said to be of an unusually wonderful nature. They had, of
course, never been thoroughly explored, and were consequently
said to be of prodigious extent, forming long tunnels through the
island. One story was to the effect that an adventurous woman
had penetrated one branch of the cave, entering on the south side
of the island, and threading its dark recesses for many days,
until she finally emerged into the light of day somewhere near
Nukualofa, on the north side of the island.


A pleasant drive of about ten miles brought us to the shore
of a small bay exposed to the prevailing wind, and receiving on
its beach the full fury of the swell of the main ocean. The
foreshore was strewn with coral débris, and above high-water
mark were quantities of pumice-stone, probably washed up from
the sides of the neighbouring volcanic island of Uea. On either
side, the bay was hemmed in by bold projecting crags of coral
rock, whose faces indicated, by parallel tide erosions, that they
had been elevated by sudden upheaval into their present position.
About one hundred yards from the beach, and forty feet above[176]
the sea-level, was the entrance to the caves, a narrow aperture
in the upraised coral rock, leading by a rapid incline into a
spacious vaulted chamber, from whose gloomy recesses dark and
forbidding passages led in various directions. In the floor of the
chamber were deep pools of water, probably communicating with
the sea, and said to be tenanted by a species of blind eel, about
two feet long, which we were told the natives sometimes caught
with hook and line, and fed upon. I was provided with fishing-tackle
for capturing a specimen of this singular creature; but as
several of our party were induced to relieve themselves of the
intolerable heat of the cave by bathing in these pools, the fish
were probably scared away, and I was unable to obtain a single
specimen.


The rock pierced by the caverns was everywhere of coral
formation, and as water freely penetrated through from the
soilcap above, the roof and floor were abundantly decorated with
stalactites and stalagmites in all their usual fantastic splendour.
I noticed that many parts of the floor of the cave were speckled
with white spots resembling bird-droppings, on which drops of
water were frequently falling from the roof above, and I formed
the opinion that the white colour of these spots was due to the
drops of water which pattered on them having traversed a portion
of the ground above, from which they did not receive a charge of
lime salts, and consequently washing clean the portion of the
coral floor on which they fell, instead of depositing thereon a
calcareous stalagmite. This surmise was strengthened by observing
the absence of stalactites depending from the roof in these
situations.


Numbers of small swifts, apparently the same species which is
common on the island (Collocalia spodiopygia), flitted about the
vaulted parts of the cave, looking in the torchlight like bats,
which at first sight I felt sure they must be, until our native
guide succeeded in catching one specimen, which resolved our
doubts. We traversed the more open parts of the cave to a[177]
distance of about one hundred yards from the entrance; but
finding further progress all but impracticable, from the narrowness
of the passages, and the quantity of water of uncertain depth to
be encountered, we soon gave up the attempt, and were glad to
return to the cool and clear atmosphere of the upper air.


During the voyage from Tonga to Fiji, we spent a good deal
of time in hunting up the reputed positions of certain doubtful
"banks," viz., the "Culebras" and "La Rance" banks, with a
view to clearing up the question as to their having any real
existence except in the too vivid imaginations of the discoverers.
On the 24th of November, when in latitude 24° 25′ S., longitude
184° 0′ W., we steamed over the position assigned by the chart
to the "La Rance" bank, and here our sounding line ran out to
three hundred fathoms without touching bottom, thus sufficiently
establishing the non-existence of any such "bank." Our position
at this time may be roughly stated as some two hundred miles to
the southward of Tongatabu. During the greater portion of the
day, the sea-surface exhibited large patches of discoloured water,
due to the presence of a fluffy substance of a dull brown colour,
which in consistency and general arrangement resembled the
vegetable scum commonly seen floating on the stagnant water of
ditches. This matter floated on the surface in irregularly-shaped
streaky patches, and also in finely-divided particles impregnated
the sea-water to a depth of several feet. Samples were obtained
by "dipping" with a bucket as well as with the tow-net, and
when submitted to microscopic examination it proved to be
composed of multitudes of minute confervoid algæ. On slightly
agitating the water in a glass jar, the fluffy masses broke up into
small particles, which, under a magnifying power of sixty diameters,
were seen to be composed of spindle-shaped bundles of filaments.
Under a power of five hundred diameters, these filaments were
further resolved into straight or slightly-curved rods, articulated
but not branching, and divided by transverse septa into cylindrical
cells, which contained irregularly-shaped masses of granular matter.[178]
These rods, which seemed to represent the adult plant, measured
1⁄2000 inch in width. On careful examination of many specimens,
some filaments were observed, portions of which seemed to have
undergone a sort of varicose enlargement, having a width two or
three times that of the normal filaments. These propagating
filaments (if I am right in so calling them) were invested by a
delicate tubular membrane, and were filled with a granular semi-transparent
matter, in which were imbedded a number of discoid
bodies which were being discharged one by one from the ruptured
extremity of the tube. These bodies measured 1⁄1000 of an inch
in diameter: when viewed edgewise they presented a lozenge-shaped
appearance, and they were devoid of cilia or striæ. A jar
full of the sea-water was put by until the following day, when it
was found that the confervoid matter had all risen to the surface,
forming a thick scum of a dull green colour, while the underlying
water was of a pale purple colour, resembling the tint produced
by a weak solution of permanganate of potash.


From the 24th to the 29th of November, during which time
the ship traversed a distance of three hundred miles, we were
surrounded by these organisms; during the first three days the
large patches were frequently in sight, and for the rest of the
time the sea presented a dusty appearance, from the presence of
finely-divided particles. On the evening of the 25th an unusually
dense patch was sighted, and mistaken for a reef, being reported
as such by the look-out man aloft.


On the 28th November I encountered among the proceeds of
the tow-net another minute alga, of quite a different appearance
from that just described. It was composed of vermiform rods
1⁄1000 inch in width, and breaking up into cylindrical segments
with biconcave ends.


We returned to Levuka on the 4th of December, and stayed
in harbour for ten days. At this time we had dismal wet weather,
and consequently little was done in the way of exploration. I
received a visit from a Mr. Boyd of Waidou, a colonist, who has[179]
resided for the last sixteen years in Fiji, and who has spent a
great deal of his time in collecting natural history specimens.
He very kindly presented me with some crania, three of natives
of Mallicollo, New Hebrides, and two from Merilava in Bank's
Group.


We anchored at Suva for part of a day, in order to fill up
with coal, and then proceeded on our voyage to Sydney.


I made frequent use of the tow-net during this cruise, obtaining
thereby a great quantity and variety of surface organisms. Among
these were representatives of Thalassicolla, Pyrocystis, Phyllosoma,
Sagitta, Eurybia, Atlanta, etc. I obtained one specimen of a
curious Annelid. It was two inches in width, had two prominent
ruby-coloured eyes, and was marked along its snakelike body by
a double row of conspicuous black dots.


One day, as were lying almost becalmed, a few hundred miles
from the Australian coast, we passed into the midst of a great
flock of brown petrels, who were sitting on the water grouped in
the form of a chain, and apparently feeding. I had the tow-net
out, and after dragging it for about half a mile, brought it in, and
found it to contain a mass of yellow-coloured cylindrical and
oval bodies belonging to the group Thalassicollidæ. The cylindrical
bodies were about one inch in long diameter, by 1⁄8 of an
inch in width, and those of an oval shape were about 3⁄16 inch in
long diameter. They proved to be mere gelatinous sacks, without
any appearance of digestive or locomotory organs. The thin
membranous wall was dotted over thickly with dark cells of a
spherical or oval shape, each of which contained from three to
nine light-coloured nuclei. On examining one of the oval bodies
under a magnifying power of forty diameters, the clear transparent
nature of the interior of the organism allowed the cells on the
distal side to be seen out of focus with misty outlines, while the
cells on the proximal wall, which was in focus, came out sharp
and clear, and vice versâ.


[180]


CHAPTER IX.

THE EAST COAST OF AUSTRALIA.


We remained at Sydney, refitting ship and enjoying the unaccustomed
pleasures of civilized society, from the 23rd of
January, 1881, until the 16th of April, 1881, but as little of
general interest occurred during this period, and as Sydney with
its surroundings is a place about which so much has been written
by better pens than mine, I think I shall be exercising a judicious
discretion by passing over this period in silence, and resuming the
narrative from the time when we started on our next surveying
cruise.


On leaving Sydney we received a welcome addition to our
numbers in the person of Mr. W. A. Haswell, a professional
zoologist, residing at Sydney, who expressed a wish to accompany
us as far as Torres Straits, in order that he might have opportunities
of studying the crustacean fauna of the east coast of Australia.
He was consequently enrolled as an honorary member of our
mess, and Captain Maclear kindly accommodated him with a
sleeping place in his cabin. I am indebted to Mr. Haswell for
much valuable information concerning the marine zoology of
Australia.


Steaming northwards, along the east coast of Australia, the first
place at which we anchored was Port Curtis, in Queensland, where
we took up a berth in the outer roads close to the Gatcombe Head
lighthouse. The place bore a rather desolate appearance. There[181]
was no building in sight except the lighthouse. The beach was
lined with a dense fringe of mangrove bushes, behind which rose
a straggling forest of gums and grass trees (Xanthorrhœa), and for
a long time we saw no living thing excepting several large fish-eagles
(Haliæetus leucogaster), and an odd gull that hovered about
our stern, picking up the garbage that drifted away from the ship.


On the following morning two of us landed and set to work to
explore the mudflats, which, stretching out for a long distance
from the beach, were laid bare by the ebb tide. As we ranged
along in search of marine curiosities, we encountered a solitary
individual attired in the light and airy costume of a pajama sleeping
suit, and carrying a Westly-Richards rifle on his shoulder.
We soon made his acquaintance, and found that he was in quest
of wild goats, the descendants of some domestic animals originally
let loose by the keeper of the lighthouse. He was an Englishman
named Eastlake, and held the position of "government immigration
agent" on board a ninety-ton schooner, the Isabella, which at the
time was anchored just outside the lighthouse point, awaiting a
favourable wind to enable her to put to sea. She was engaged in
the "labour traffic" and was just then about to return to the Solomon
Islands with some "time-expired" native labourers. The Queensland
government compels every vessel engaged in the "labour
traffic" to carry an immigration agent, who is accredited to and
salaried by the government. His duty is to see that the natives
who are shipped from the islands for transit to Queensland come
of their own free will, and under a proper contract, and that during
the voyage they are treated well and are furnished with proper
accommodation, and are dieted according to a scale laid down by
the government. In the afternoon I accompanied Mr. Eastlake
on board. The Isabella, a vessel of ninety tons, was allowed to
carry eighty-five natives besides her crew of some half-a-dozen
hands. She had now on board about a dozen natives of New
Hebrides, who had completed their time as contract labourers in
Queensland, and were about to be returned to their island home.[182]
The skipper of the vessel was an old Welshman, who, in the true
spirit of hospitality, did the honours of the ship, and pressed me
to partake of such luxuries as the stores in his cuddy afforded.


Among the articles which the New Hebrides men had purchased
in Queensland with the proceeds of their labours were
a number of old muskets, which they seemed to set great store
by. These weapons are probably destined to be brought into
action against some future "labour vessel," or "slaver," as they
are commonly called by the Australians, which may violate the
provision of the "Kidnapping Act" by forcible abduction of
natives.


We worked the dredge from the ship as she swung round her
anchor in seven fathoms of water, and also dragged it from a boat
in shallower water inshore. Conspicuous by their abundance
amongst the contents of the dredge, and by their curious habit
of making a loud snapping noise with the large pincer-claw, were
the shrimps of the genus Alpheus. When placed in water in a
glass jar, the sound produced exactly resembles the snap which is
heard when a tumbler is cracked from unequal expansion by hot
water. We also obtained a good many whitish fleshy Gorgoniæ,
and among Polyzoa the genera Crisia and Eschara afforded a good
many specimens. A moderate-sized brownish Astrophyton was
generally found entangled in the swabs, but in most cases some
of its brittle limbs had parted company with the disc, so that we
got scarcely a single perfect specimen. A good many crabs were
found on the foreshore; among others were species of the genera
Ozius, Gelasimus, and Thalassina; the latter a lobster-like crustacean
which burrows deeply in the mud about the mangrove
bushes, and throws up around the aperture of its burrow a conical
pile of mud.


On April 23rd we got under way, and steamed for five miles
further up the bay, anchoring immediately off the settlement of
"Gladstone." Nothing could exceed the hospitality shown to us
by the inhabitants of this quiet little Utopia. Our stay of five[183]
days was occupied by an almost continuous round of festivities,
during which we were driven about the country, had a cricket-match,
shooting expeditions, two balls in the Town Hall, and
sundry other amusements. The settlement contains a population
of only 300, and seems to have been of late years rather receding
than advancing in numbers, as many of the settlers had moved on
to other more promising centres of industry. There was the old
story of a projected railway which was to open up the country,
develop its hidden resources, connect it with the neighbouring
town of Rockhampton—distant about eighty miles—and give a
fresh impetus to trade; but the hopes of its construction were
visionary.


We made several shooting excursions in quest of bird specimens,
and found the pied grallina (G. picata), the butcher bird (a species
of Grauculus), the garrulous honeyeater (Myzantha garrula), the
laughing jackass (Dacelo gigas), and many doves and flycatchers
abundant in the immediate vicinity of the settlement. Walking
one day through the forest about two miles inland, we came upon
a grove of tall eucalyptus trees, on the upper branches of which
were myriads of paroquets, making an almost deafening noise as
they flew hither and thither, feeding on the fragrant blossoms.
Among them were three species of Trichoglossus, viz., T. novæhollandiæ,
T. rubritorquis, and T. chrysocolla. We also shot specimens
of the friar bird (Tropidorhynchus corniculatus), and several
honeyeaters, flycatchers, and shrikes; so that as a place for bird
collecting it was exceedingly rich, both in numbers and species.


We got under way on the 30th of April, in the morning, and
on the following day anchored off the largest and most northern
of the Percy Islands. I landed with Haswell in the afternoon,
and after exploring the beach in search of marine specimens, we
directed our steps towards the interior of the island. We followed
a narrow winding foot track, which led us to a rudely-built hut, in
which dwelt an old Australian colonist named Captain Allen, to
whom the island virtually belongs. He had a small kitchen[184]
garden in the bed of a valley, through which ran a tiny stream;
and his live stock consisted of a herd of goats and a number of
poultry. We understood that he intended eventually to undertake
regular farming operations, but that he at present merely occupied
the land in order to retain the "pre-emptive" right until the
Queensland government should be in a position to sell or let it.
It appeared that as yet it was not certain whether the colonial
government had a clear title to the group of islands, or whether—being
on the Great Barrier Reef, and detached from the mainland
by a considerable distance—it was still under the control and
jurisdiction of the imperial government.


We noticed very few birds: among these were a Ptilotis, a flycatcher,
a crow, and a heron; but we were told that in the less
frequented parts of the island there were brush turkeys, native
pheasants, and black cockatoos.


Among the rocks bordering the shore, a large white-tailed rat—probably
of the genus Hydromys—was said to be abundant.
The only other mammal recorded was a large fox-bat, a skeleton
of which was found hanging on a mangrove bush.


We left our anchorage at the Percy Islands on the morning of
the 2nd of May, and on the forenoon of the 3rd steamed into the
sheltered waters of Port Molle, i.e., into the strait which separates
Long Island from the main shore of Queensland; and we finally
came to an anchor in a shallow bay on the west side of Long
Island, where we lay at a distance of about half-a-mile from the
shore.


The island presented the appearance of undulating hills, covered
for the most part with a thick growth of tropical forms of vegetation,
but exhibiting a few patches of land devoid of trees, and
bearing a rich crop of long tangled grasses. On landing, we
found that there was no soil, properly so-called, but that the
forest trees, scrub, and grass sprung from a surface layer of shingle,
which on close inspection contrasted strangely with the rich and
verdant flora which it nourished. Small flocks of great white[185]
cockatoos flew around and above the summits of the tallest trees,
and by the incessant screaming which they maintained, gave one
the idea that the avifauna was more abundant than we eventually
found it to be. On the beach we collected shells of the genera
Nerita, Terebra, Siliquaria, and Ostræa, and among the dry hot
stones above high-water mark we found in great numbers an
Isopod Crustacean, and as the females were bearing ova, Haswell
took the opportunity to make some researches into the mode of
development of the embryo.


I spent another day accompanying Navigating-Lieutenant Petley,
who was then cruising from point to point in one of our whale-boats,
determining on the positions for main triangulation. In the
course of the day we visited the lighthouse on Dean Island, and
on arriving there found a large concourse of blacks on the hill
above, looking on our intrusion with great consternation. The
lighthouse people told us that the natives, from their different
camps on the island, had observed our approach while we were
yet a long distance off, and hastily concluding that we were a
party of black police coming to disperse (i.e., shoot) them, had
fled with precipitation from all parts of the island, to seek the
protection of the white inhabitants of the lighthouse. It appeared
that some few years previously the natives of Port Molle had
treacherously attacked and murdered the shipwrecked crew of a
schooner, and in requital for this the Queensland Government had
made an example of them by letting loose a party of "black
police," who, with their rifles, had made fearful havoc among the
comparatively unarmed natives. The "black police," or "black
troopers," as they are more commonly called, are a gang of half-reclaimed
aborigines, enrolled and armed as policemen, who are
distributed over various parts of the colony, and are under the
immediate direction of the white police inspectors. Their skill
as bush "trackers" is too well known to need description, and
the peculiar ferocity with which they behave towards their own
countrymen is due to the fact that they are drawn from a part[186]
of the continent remote from the scene of their future labours, and
from tribes hostile to those against which they are intended to act.
Through their instrumentality the aborigines of Queensland are
being gradually exterminated. In the official reports of their
proceedings, when sent to operate against a troublesome party of
natives, the verb "to disperse" is playfully substituted for the
harsher term "to shoot."


But to return to our friends at Dean Island. Our peaceful
aspect, and a satisfactory explanation on the part of the white
people in charge of the lighthouse, soon set matters right, and
the wretched blacks were now so delighted at finding their fears
to be groundless, that they crowded about us—male and female—to
the number of forty or fifty, brought us some boomerangs
for barter, and finally shared our lunch of preserved meat and
coffee, of which we partook on the rocks near where the boat was
moored. I was surprised at noticing a large proportion of children,
a circumstance which does not support one of the views put forward
to account for the rapid decrease in numbers of the race.


Most of the men had a certain amount of clothing, scanty and
ragged though it was, but the children were all stark naked, and
some of the women were so scantily attired that the requirements
of decency were not at all provided for. They seemed to be
fairly well nourished, and from their cheerful disposition I should
imagine that they were not undergoing any privations which to
them would be irksome.


On re-embarking, we sailed along the western shore of the island,
and again landed in a small bay about a mile to the northward of
the lighthouse. We then proceeded to ascend a hill, on which
Petley wished to erect a mark for surveying purposes. The
natives, although quick enough about following us along the seashore,
showed no inclination to follow us up the hillside, and
before we had gone a few hundred yards they had all dropped
off. Possibly the fear of snakes was the deterring influence.


Port Molle proved to be an excellent place for obtaining[187]
examples of the marine fauna of this part of the coast. A great
extent of reefs was exposed at low spring tides, exhibiting Corals
of the groups Astræa, Meandrina, Porites, Tubipora, Orbicella,
and Caryophyllia, besides a profusion of soft Alcyonarian Polyps.
Holothurians were abundant, as were also some large Tubicolous
Annelids, with very long gelatinous thread-like tentacles. We
also got a few Polynæ, and several other annelids of the family
Amphinomidæ. A Squilla, with variegated greenish markings on
the test, made itself remarkable by the vigour with which it
resented one's attempts, for the most part unintentional, to invade
the privacy of its retreat. An active black Goniograpsus was a
common object on the reefs, and the widely distributed Grapsus
variegatus was also met with. Haswell obtained from the interior
of the large Pinna shells examples of a curious small lobster-like
crustacean, which is of parasitic—or perhaps rather commensal—habit,
like Pinnotheres. Not uncommon in the rock pools was a
bivalve shell of the genus Lima, which on being disturbed swims
about in a most lively manner by flapping its elongated valves,
exhibiting at the same time a scarlet mantle fringed with a row
of long prehensile tentacles. Shells of the genera Arca, Tridacna,
and Hippopus were common, and three or four species of Cypræa
were seen.


We dredged several times with one of the steam-cutters in
depths varying from twelve to twenty fathoms, obtaining several
species of Comatulas, two or three Astrophytons, Starfishes,
Ophiurids, Echini of the genera Salmacis and Goniocidaris, small
Holothurians, many species of Annelids, two or three Sponges,
a great variety of handsome Gorgoniæ, Hydroids of the group
Sertularia and Plumularia, Polyzoa of the genera Eschara, Retepora,
Myriozoum, Cellepora, Biflustra, Salicornaria, Crisia, Scrupocellaria,
Amathia, etc., and Crustaceans of the genera Myra, Hiastemis,
Lambrus, Alpheus, Huenia, and many others. Among the Annelids
was one with long glassy opalescent bristles surrounding the oral
aperture, and projecting forwards to a distance of one and a half[188]
inches from the prostomium. Another Annelid (species unknown)
was peculiar in having two long barb-like tentacles projecting backwards
from the under part of the head. On examining the proboscis
of the latter, while it was resting in sea-water in a glass
trough, Haswell noticed a number of singular bodies being extruded
from the mouth, which he eventually ascertained, to his great
astonishment, were the partially developed young of the worm.


One of the large Astrophytons which came up with the dredge
was seen to exhibit nodular swellings on several parts of the
arms, but principally at the points of bifurcation. Each of these
swellings was provided with one or more small apertures, and had
the general appearance of being a morbid growth. On incising
the dense cyst-wall a cavity was exposed, containing a tiny red
gastropodous mollusc (of the genus Stilifer), enveloped in a mass
of cheesy matter, which contained moreover one or two spherical
white pellets of (probably) fæcal matter. Haswell obtained about
a dozen specimens of the shell from a single astrophyton.


Port Denison is only forty miles to the northward of Port
Molle, so that we accomplished the passage in about six hours,
and before dusk took up a berth in the shallow bay about a mile
and a half from the shore, and three-quarters from the end of a
long wooden pier, which was built some years ago in the vain hope
of developing the shipping trade of the port. The township of
"Bowen" is built on a larger scale than "Gladstone"—of which
we had such pleasant reminiscences—but did not appear to be in
a more flourishing condition, a "gold-rush" further to the northward
having drawn off part of the population, and some of the
trade which had previously gone through the port. On the outskirts
of the town were some large encampments of the blacks,
who lived in a primitive condition, and afforded an interesting
study for an ethnologist. Like most of the Australian aborigines,
their huts were little better than shelter screens to protect them
from the wind and sun. In some instances the twigs on the lee
side of a bush, rudely interlaced with a few leafy boughs torn from[189]
the neighbouring trees, afforded all the shelter that was required.
Both men and women, especially the latter, seemed to be in a
filthy, degraded state. They had just received their yearly gifts
of blankets from the Queensland Government—I believe the only
return which they receive for the appropriation of their land. It
appears, however, that they do not much appreciate the donation,
for soon after the general issue many of the blankets are bartered
with the whites for tobacco and grog. Some of the young men
are really fine-looking fellows, and seemed to feel all the pride of
life and liberty as they strutted about encumbered with a variety
of their native weapons, among which I saw the nulla, waddy,
shield, huge wooden sword, spear without throwing-stick, and
different patterns of boomerangs. They are very expert in the use
of the latter. It was the first time that I had seen the boomerang
thrown, and I can safely say that its performances, when manipulated
by a skilful hand, fully realized my expectations. I noticed
that whatever gyrations it was intended to execute, it was always
delivered from the hand of the thrower with its concave side foremost—a
circumstance I was not previously aware of. Some of
the children were amusing themselves in practising the art, using
instead of the regular boomerang short pieces of rounded stick
bent to about the usual angle of the finished weapon; and I was
surprised at noticing that even these rude substitutes could be
made to dart forward, wheel in the air, and return to near the
feet of the thrower. I had always imagined up to this time that
the flat surface was an essential feature in the boomerang.


The foreshore at low-water afforded us examples of a great
many flat Echinoderms of the genus Peronella, Starfishes of the
genus Asteracanthus, and Crustaceans of the genera Macrophthalmus,
Matuta, Mycteris, etc. We made several hauls of the dredge
in four to five fathoms of water, obtaining a quantity of large
Starfishes and Gorgonias, and Crustaceans of the family Porcellanidæ.


We left Port Denison on the 24th of May, and continued our[190]
coasting voyage northward, anchoring successive nights off Cape
Bowling Green, Hinchinbrock Island, Fitzroy Island, Cooktown,
and Lizard Island. We landed at the island last mentioned for
a few hours. On the shore of the bay in which we anchored was
a "Beche-de-mer" establishment, belonging to a Cooktown firm,
and worked by a party of two white men, three Chinese, and six
Kanakas. The buildings consisted of two or three rudely-built
dwelling huts, and a couple of sheds for curing and storing the
trepangs. We learned from the "Boss" that his men had been
working the district for the previous twelve months, and having
now cleared off the trepangs from all the neighbouring reefs,
he expected soon to move on to some other location further
north.


The Beche-de-mer industry seems simple enough to conduct.
The sluggish animals are picked off the reefs at low tide, and at
the close of each day the produce as soon as landed is transferred
to a huge iron tank, propped up on stones, in which it is boiled.
The trepangs are then slit open, cleaned, and spread out on
gratings in a smoke-house until dry, when they are ready for
shipping to the Chinese market. The best trepangs are the short
stiff black ones with prominent tubercles.


Since the above notes were written, a horrible catastrophe
occurred at Lizard Island. The bulk of the party had gone on
a cruise among the islands to the northward, leaving the station
in charge of a white woman—wife of one of the proprietors—and
two Chinamen. A party of Queensland blacks came over from
the mainland, massacred these three wretched people, and destroyed
all the property on the station.


On the evening of the 29th of May we anchored off Flinders
Island, in latitude 14° 8′ S., and before darkness came on we
spent a few hours in exploring. The shore on which we landed
was covered with large blocks of quartzite stained with oxide of
iron, and disseminated among them were many large irregularly-shaped
masses of hæmatite. Immediately above the beach, and[191]
among the familiar screw-pines, we saw a few fan palms, the first
met with on our northern voyage.


Groping among the rocks of the foreshore, I encountered a
multitude of crabs of the genera Porcellana and Grapsus, and
caught after much trouble a large and uncommonly fierce specimen
of the Parampelia saxicola. On anchoring, the dredge had
been lowered from the ship, and when hauled up after the ship
had swung somewhat with the tide, a curious species of Spatangus,
a Leucosia, and a somewhat mutilated Phlyxia, were obtained.


Early on the following morning I accompanied Captain Maclear
and Mr. Haswell on a boat trip to Clack Island (five miles from
our anchorage). We were anxious to see and examine some
drawings by the Australian aborigines, which were discovered in
the year 1821 by Mr. Cunningham, of the Beagle, (see "King's
Australia," vol. ii., p. 25), and since probably unvisited. After
about an hour's sailing we reached the island—a bold mass of
dark rock resembling in shape a gunner's quoin; but we now
found it no easy matter to find a landing-place. On the south-east
extremity was a precipitous rocky bluff about eighty feet in
height, against whose base the sea broke heavily, while the rest of
the island—low and fringed with mangroves—was fenced in by
a broad zone of shallow water, strewn with boulders and coral
knolls, over which the sea rose and fell in a manner dangerous to
the integrity of the boat. After many trials and much risk to the
boat, we at length succeeded in jumping ashore near the south-east
or weather extremity of the island. Here we found abundant
traces of its having been frequently visited by natives, but it
did not appear as if they had been there during at least half-a-dozen
years prior to the time of our visit. We saw the drawings,
as described by Cunningham, covering the sides and roofs of
galleries and grottoes, which seemed to have been excavated by
atmospheric influences in a black fissile shale. This shale, which
gave a banded appearance to the cliff, was disposed in strata of
about five feet in thickness, and was interbedded with strata of[192]
pebbly conglomerate—the common rock of the islet. In these
excavations, almost every available surface of smooth shale was
covered with drawings, even including the roofs of low crevices
where the artist must have worked lying prone on his back, and
with his nose almost touching his work. Most of the drawings
were executed in red ochre, and had their outlines accentuated
by rows of white dots, which seemed to be composed of a sort
of pipe-clay. Some, however, were executed in pale yellow on
a brick-red ground, and in many instances the objects depicted
were banded with rows of white dots crossing each other irregularly,
and perhaps intended in a rudimentary way to convey
the idea of light and shade. The objects delineated (of which
I made such sketches as I was able) were sharks, dolphins,
dugong, turtle, boomerangs, waddies, shields, woomerahs, pigs,
dogs, birds, jelly-fish, etc. There was one well-defined sketch of
a medusa, showing the position of the radiating canals and eight
marginal tentacles. Trochus shells in great profusion were strewn
about the old camping places, as well as bones of the dugong
and turtle, the pursuit of the latter having been probably the
main inducement to visit the island.


A careful hunting of the holes and crevices in the face of the
cliff resulted in the acquisition of some portable specimens of
native art in the shape of drawings on old pieces of driftwood,
on Melo shells, turtle skulls, and tortoise shell. These luckily
afforded us good examples of the style of art, and were accordingly,
and without many conscientious scruples as to the sacred
rights of ownership, carried off in triumph and deposited on
board.


After leaving Flinders Island, we continued our voyage northward,
anchoring each of the three following nights successively
at Clairmont Island No. 6, Clairmont Island No. 10, and Bird
Island. On each occasion we dredged to a small extent, and
collected specimens from the reefs and beaches. On the evening
of the 2nd of June we entered the narrow strait which separates[193]
Albany Island from the mainland of north-east Australia, having
the small settlement of Somerset on our port hand, and on our
starboard side a pearl-shell station known as Port Albany. The
anchorage at Somerset being of bad repute on account of the
strong currents which sweep through it, we steamed on to the
northern extremity of Albany Island, where at about 4 o'clock in
the evening we dropped our anchor in six fathoms. A party of
officers landed at once on the shore of the mainland, and while
some wandered through the woods in search of birds, the boat
was employed in dredging over the bottom of mud and sand in
depths varying from three to five fathoms. Among the contents
of several hauls were a large number of Comatulas, a few Ophiurids,
several examples of a Pentaceros, a Goniocidaris, a spider-crab of
the genus "Egeria," an Alpheus, a Galathea clinging to the
feathered arms of a purple Comatula, and many specimens of an
Isopod adhering to the oral surfaces of the comatula discs.
There were also a few shrimps, two species of Murex, and a
volute. Some small fishes were also brought up—apparently a
species of Platycephalus.




FACSIMILE OF DRAWINGS BY AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES.


1. Medusæ. 2. Lizard. 3. Steamship. 4. (?). 5. (?). 6. Gourd. 7. Turtle. 8. Bird on branch of tree.


On the following morning some of the boats were employed in
searching for an uncharted rock which was reported by the
pearl fishermen as existing somewhere near our anchorage, while
Haswell and I had the use of a whaleboat for a couple of hours'
dredging. We worked across the channel towards the mainland
in eight fathoms over a bottom of mud and sand, obtaining a
quantity of Comatulas and Gorgonias, a large grotesque Murex,
several small Synapta, and a large flat sponge.


[194]


CHAPTER X.

TORRES STRAITS ISLANDS.


We remained for nearly four months anchored at or in the
neighbourhood of Thursday Island. During this period
our boats were employed in making a survey of the Prince of Wales
Channel, which is now the route almost invariably used by steamers
and sailing ships in passing through Torres Straits. There is a small
settlement at Thursday Island consisting of about dozen houses,
wooden built, which are occupied by white families and their
coloured domestics. There is a police magistrate, whose jurisdiction,
as an official of the Queensland government, extends over
all the islands in Torres Straits; an officer of customs, through
whose hands passes all the trade of the Straits; a staff of white
policemen to enforce the Queensland law; a prison for the incarceration
of the refractory pearl shellers; a store for the supply of
tinned provisions and all the miscellaneous requirements of the
pearl shell trade; and, finally, there are two public-houses which
do a flourishing business and supply ample material for the official
ministration of the police. The entire population, white and
coloured, does not exceed a hundred.


Thursday Island owes its importance to being the shipping port
for the produce of all the pearl shell fisheries in Torres Straits. It
is visited monthly by steamers of the "British India" and "Eastern
and Australian" Steamship Companies, and also by a small coasting
steamer, the Corea, belonging to an Australian firm. The
latter plies regularly and constantly between Thursday Island[195]
and Sydney, and does most of the business in connection with the
fisheries, conveying the shell to Sydney, and returning with a
cargo of tinned provisions, slops, and other stores for the use of
the pearl shellers. The inhabitants of Thursday Island, and those
belonging to the various pearl shell stations scattered through the
group of islands, are dependent for support upon extraneous
supplies of provisions. Cattle will not thrive on the islands, owing
to the poisonous nature of the grass, and as yet all attempts at
growing fruit and vegetables have in most cases proved unsuccessful.


The native inhabitants of the Torres Straits Islands are a small
tribe of Papuan origin, who lead a wandering life, and show little
inclination to hold intercourse with either white or coloured
colonists. They have the frizzled hair, the aquiline hooked nose,
and the wide curved lips of the Papuans; and among their implements
are the long "hour-glass" drum, headed with lizard skin,
the tortoise-shell mask worn at corroborees, and the pearl shell
ornaments dangling from the neck; but their intercourse with the
North Australian aborigines is shown by their having acquired the
practice of using the "throwing sticks" for their spears. Their
food being almost solely of marine origin, their camps are only
found on the shores of the islands. At certain seasons in the
year they catch the turtle and dugong, and apparently in great
numbers, if one can judge by the quantity of bones of these
animals seen by us in the midden-heaps. Fish they obtain in
abundance by means of the hook and line, and the shore molluscs
also supply them with food; so that it is not to be wondered at
that we generally found them to be in a well-nourished condition,
and not at all anxious to barter their fish for such a commodity
as ship's biscuit. Their boats are long dug-out canoes, fitted with
double outriggers, and very rudely constructed. Whether under
sail or paddle, they manœuvred very badly, and were on the whole
very poor specimens of naval architecture, even for a tribe of
savages.


[196]


In 1879 the population of the shelling stations amounted to
720, while that of the settlement at Thursday Island was only
80. In 1880 the shelling population amounted to 815, showing
an increase of nearly a hundred on that of the previous year.
As far as I could ascertain, any change that has taken place
during the last two years has been indicative of the increasing
prosperity of the pearl shell industry. Indeed I was informed by
a resident gentleman connected with the fisheries, that the shareholders
in one of the stations had that year received a dividend
of seventy per cent. on the capital invested. I made the acquaintance
of several of the managers (or "bosses" as they are commonly
called) of the pearl shell establishments, and through their civility
had opportunities of visiting many stations within a range of
twenty-five miles from our anchorage at Thursday Island. They
are all constructed more or less on the same general model;
consisting usually of one white-washed house,—the residence of the
white manager,—a store-house, and a couple of sheds for the
stowage of boat appliances and pearl shell, and a few large grass
built huts in which the labourers employed at the depôt are
housed. These men, who are spoken of under the comprehensive
term of "Kanakas," are for the most part Malays: the remainder
being a motley collection of Manila men, Fijians, natives of New
Hebrides, and brown-skinned Polynesians from various Pacific
Islands. There is usually but one white man to each station,
viz., the manager. The shelling boats—called "apparatus boats"—are
entirely under the control of Kanakas. They are each of
between five and eight tons burden, are rigged with standing lugsails,
and are provided with the most approved air pump diving
apparatus. The crew of one of these boats usually consists of five
men, one of whom is the diver; another steers, and the remaining
three look after the air pump and signal rope. The time selected
for diving operations is usually when there is a "weather tide";
the vessel is then hove-to under easy canvas, so that she may drift
slowly to windward, while the diver, following her movements,[197]
gropes about the bottom in search of pearl shell. The work is
carried on at depths varying between five and sixteen fathoms,
and in order to provide against accidents from inequalities in the
bottom, as well as to allow the diver greater freedom in his movements,
the length of the pipes connecting his dress with the air
pump is usually twice the mean depth of the water in which he is
working. The signal rope is of a similar length, so that it may
be used for hauling up the shell-bag which the diver fills from
time to time, without his having to release the end attached to his
body, or to make use of a second line. The bag is therefore
attached about the middle of the line.


When diving apparatus was first used in Torres Straits, white
divers were exclusively employed, and at the same time the
Kanakas continued to work as "swimming divers" in the tedious
old-fashioned way. As soon, however, as the Kanakas were tried
in the diving dresses, it was found that they were far superior to
any professional white divers, for not only could they remain
much longer under water, but they were also able to move about
on the bottom more independently, and to dispense altogether
with the weighted rope ladder which the white divers used to look
upon as essential. Since the introduction of boats fitted with
diving apparatus, the pearl shell trade of Torres Straits has
become highly remunerative, and the export of shells has increased
enormously.


The shells obtained are classified into two qualities: firstly,
young shells, known to the trade as "chicken shell," which are
the most valuable, and average about 2,000 to the ton; and
secondly, adult shells, about 700 of which weigh one ton. It is
calculated that the annual take of a single boat is about seven
tons, of which five tons cover the outlay, and two tons may be
reckoned as clear profit. The value per ton has a wide range,
varying according to the state of the home market, and may be
estimated at from £100 to £300. The number of boats employed
last year was 100. In the year 1878, shells to the weight of[198]
449 tons, and valued at £53,021, were exported; and during the
same year pearls to the value of £230. Most of the pearls taken
are of poor quality, and are so few as to be comparatively valueless;
although a fairly good one, without a flaw, and about the
size of a pea, is said to be worth £5. Coarse ones of extraordinary
size are sometimes obtained. A proprietor and manager
(Captain Tucker), who was considered exceptionally fortunate in
obtaining pearls, once showed me the proceeds of nine tons of
shell which he had just brought in from the fishing-ground. The
pearls were of all sorts and sizes; one was as big as a large hazel
nut, others were like millet seeds. Altogether they were just
sufficient to fill a common matchbox, in which indeed he carried
them. Official statistics regarding the take of pearls are only to
a small extent reliable, as many—probably most—never reach
the hands of the proprietors, but are retained as perquisites by
the Kanaka divers, who dispose of them secretly.


Most of the shell is sent to Sydney by the steamship Corea,
where it is purchased by merchants, who send it to Europe for
manufacture. Since the establishment of the Queensland Royal
Mail-steamers, which traverse Torres Straits, some of the shell has
been by them conveyed direct to England, where it is consigned
to the manufacturers, to the greater profit of the pearl shellers.
Most of the shelling establishments in Torres Straits are the
property of companies consisting of two or more capitalists, who
for the most part reside in Sydney, and it is indeed a rather odd
anomaly that a lucrative industry subject to the jurisdiction of
the Queensland government should be worked by capital from
New South Wales.


Much of my time was occupied in giving medical aid to the
people of Thursday Island, and to the employés of the pearl-shell
stations. My spare time, as opportunities offered, I spent in
exploring the group of islands within reach, viz., Horn Island,
Prince of Wales Island, Hammond Island, Fitzroy Island, Goode
Island, Thursday Island, Possession Island, West Island, and[199]
Booby Island. In geological formation they are all much alike,
a quartzite or quartz porphyry being the prevailing form of rock.
The land is covered with rank grass, and is for the most part
lightly timbered with gum-trees. On the latter a parasitic plant,
resembling mistletoe, is commonly met with. Water is scarce,
and during a great part of the year some of the islands are
practically without any. In searching for water-holes or for damp
spots, where water has at some period of the year been present,
Pandanus trees are in many instances considered to be a safe
guide. The rule, however, seems to be that where moisture
habitually collects, Pandanus trees will be found growing, and
not the converse. Attached to rocky surfaces, and to the bark
of trees in shady places, the eye is frequently arrested by the
sight of most beautiful orchids, principally of the genus Dendrobium.
These orchids are objects of much concern to the more enterprising
colonists, as there is an oft-repeated story that some years ago a
white-flowered Dendrobium was found on Goode Island, and on
being sent to England was sold for £200. Consequently everyone
collecting orchids is supposed to be in quest of the famous white
species.


Lizards are abundant, especially a large Monitor, which, when
disturbed, astonishes one by the noise which it makes in scampering
over the stones and dead twigs to its burrow, or if this be not at
hand, to seek the protection of some friendly tree, up which it
climbs with extraordinary facility. They are easily shot. When
first I saw their burrows, I considered them to be the work of
some burrowing marsupial, and accordingly set a cage-trap opposite
the entrance of one. On returning next day, I found, to my
surprise, a large Monitor coiled up inside the trap, whose
dimensions were so small in proportion to the size of the
reptile, that the wonder was how he ever managed to stow
himself inside. We encountered few snakes, and from inquiries
were led to believe that few, if any, poisonous ones existed.
However, they are said not to show themselves much during[200]
the dry season, which among these islands is supposed to be
their time for hybernating.


One day, when exploring in company with Haswell, we found
portions of the carapace and pincer-claw of a land-crab (most
likely a species of Geograpsus), an animal not previously recorded
from the islands. On examining the beds of dry mountain gullies,
and digging into sand-choked crevices between spurs of rock,
where a certain amount of moisture existed, I subsequently obtained
several live specimens. No doubt, during the wet season they
might be more easily obtained.


Thursday Island possesses six species of land-shells. They are
Helix kreffti, H. delessertiana, H. spaldingi, H. buxtoni, Bulimus
beddomei, and Helicina reticulata. During our stay the island was
fired, in order to remove the "spear-grass," which is so destructive
to cattle. The fire spread over the whole island, and continued
to rage for several days, consuming not only all the grass, but
also a great quantity of scrub, and laying bare a vast extent of
arid stony surface. It was now an easy matter to collect land-shells,
for they lay dead in prodigious numbers on the bare
summits of the hills as well as in the hollows, gullies, and other
more likely places.


This fire was a great blow to my hopes of collecting plants,
almost all the herbaceous ones and many of the creepers having
been consumed or shrivelled up by the heat of the conflagration.
After much trouble I succeeded in obtaining five species of ferns,
which I fancy is not far short of the entire number. Among
these were the Nephrolepis acuta, Pulæa nitida, Polypodium quercifolium,
Lindsaya ensifolia, and the common Australian form,
Lygodium scandens.


The avifauna of the different islands is, as might be expected,
of a similar character to, and differs very little, if at all, from that
of the adjoining part of the mainland of Australia. The list of
birds includes species of the genera Campephaga, Ptilotis, Pachycephala,
Myzomela, Nectarinia, Dicæum, Trichoglossus, Artamus,[201]
Mimeta, Halcyon, Nycticorax, Plictolophus, Chalcophaps, Erythrauchena,
Geopelia, Ptilinopus, Myiagra, Sauloprocta, Sphecotheres,
Chibia, Centropus, Graucalus, Grallina, Donacola, Tropidorhynchus,
Climacteris, Megapodius, Œdicnemus, Ægialitis, Merops, Dacelo,
Bruchigavia, Sterna, Pelicanus, Hæmatopus, and others. At Booby
Island, a small rocky islet in mid-channel, affording no cover
beyond a few bushes growing in a cleft in the rocks, we found no
less than twelve species of land-birds. These were the Ptilinopus
superbus, P. swainsoni, Myiagra plumbea, Nectarinia australis,
Megapodius tumulus, Porphyrio melanotus, Halcyon sanctus, Nycticorax
caledonicus, a Zosterops, a yellow-breasted flycatcher, a landrail,
and a quail. From the discrepancies between the different
records of the birds found on this island, there is reason to believe
that it is mainly used as a temporary resting-place for birds of
passage. The "mound bird" (Megapodius tumulus) is probably,
however, a regular inhabitant.


In examining the cliffs of this island, in quest of sea-birds' nests,
I noticed, considerably above the reach of the highest tide, some
smooth basin-shaped cavities in the rock containing rounded
water-worn stones, such as one sees in the rock pools between tide
marks. This circumstance would point to an upheaval of the
island during recent geological times.


We sailed from Torres Straits on October 1st, and proceeded
under steam towards Port Darwin, in North-West Australia,
sounding and dredging on our way, and eventually coming to an
anchor in Port Darwin on October 20th. The settlement of
Palmerston, off which we lay, is the seat of government for the
northern territory of the colony of South Australia, whose capital,
Adelaide, is about 1,800 miles away on the south coast, and is
separated from Port Darwin by an enormous patch of uncivilized
country extending for about 1,500 miles in a north and south
direction.


The foundation of a settlement at Port Darwin, which took
place about ten years ago (1872), was practically due to the[202]
completion of the submarine cable and land telegraph lines, which
have each got terminal stations at Port Darwin, where the
"through" messages are transferred. Its subsequent progress,
such as it has been, was encouraged and fostered by the trade
in provisions and gold induced by the workers at the northern
territory gold-fields. There are now two submarine cables connecting
Port Darwin with Singapore, viâ Java, and thence with
Europe. The first was laid in 1872, and was found most difficult
to maintain on account of the ravages made in it by a boring
mollusc, a species of Teredo, which in an amazingly short space of
time pierced the galvanized iron-wire sheathing of the cable, and
destroyed the insulation of the copper core. The repairs of this
cable necessitated an outlay of £20,000 per annum, a circumstance
contrasting strangely with the condition of a similar cable in the
China and India seas, which is not attacked by the Teredo.
Recently a duplicate cable has been laid, in the construction of
which a tape of muntz metal was wound round in a spiral fashion
between the insulating material and the twisted wire sheathing.
By this provision the new cable has been rendered proof against
the boring effects of the Teredo, and has hitherto worked successfully
without the slightest hitch.


The land telegraph line stretches directly from Port Darwin to
Adelaide, a distance of about 1,800 miles, and thus serves to
connect all the principal towns of Australia with the station of
the Cable Company at Port Darwin. It was at one time
thought that there would have been much difficulty in inducing
the aborigines to abstain from meddling with the overland wire,
but experience has not justified this impression. It appears that
the black fellows hold it sacred, looking on it as a sort of boundary
mark to separate the white man's territory from theirs.


Palmerston contains a police magistrate, who is the chief
executive authority in the northern territory; a lands department,
with its staff of surveyors; a police inspector, with a detachment
of white troopers; a government doctor; the two telegraph[203]
stations, with their separate staffs of telegraphists; and, of necessity,
a jail.


Our acquaintances on shore spoke in sanguine terms of the
prospects of the settlement, and the future greatness which is in
store for the northern territory; but to us strangers the appearance
of Port Darwin and the surrounding country was by no
means indicative of progress, or suggestive of a superabundance
of the elements of greatness. Indeed, although the settlement
has been in existence since 1872, yet the white population of the
whole northern territory does not exceed two hundred; and if it
were not for the Chinamen, who have been attracted thither by
the "gold-rush," and whose numbers—including those at Port
Darwin, Southport, and the gold-fields—amount to 6,000, there
would be almost no manual labour available for the white colonists.


The auriferous quartz reefs, which here constitute what are
called the "gold-fields," are situated on the side of a range of
hills beginning at a distance of about one hundred miles from
Port Darwin, in a southerly direction. The usual route thither
is by steamboat for twenty-five miles to Southport, a small
settlement at the southern extremity of one of the arms of the
inlet, and thence by cart track for eighty miles. Unfortunately,
during the wet season this track is almost impassable. The gold is
obtained from the ore by crushing and amalgamating with mercury
in the usual way. In this country the crushing or stamping
machines are known as "batteries," and I believe in the northern
territory they are worked entirely by steam power. The average
yield of gold from the reefs ranges from one and a quarter to one
and a half ounces per ton of crushed material, although rock has
been met with containing no less than twenty ounces per ton.
The latter, however, is altogether exceptional. There are in the
same localities alluvial diggings worked in a small way by Chinamen,
but the yield of gold is insignificant compared with that
from the reefs. I find it stated in the returns furnished by the
customs officer at Port Darwin that during the year ending 31st[204]
of March, 1881, the northern territory exported 10,1071⁄2 ounces,
valued at £36,227.


I was told that at the time of our visit there were only two
genuine squatters in the whole northern territory. From their
stations is drawn the beef supply for the people living at Port
Darwin, Southport, and the gold-fields, and it would seem that
the supply was quite equal to the demand. Most of the land in
the territory is now held on lease by speculators, who pay to the
South Australian Government an annual rental of sixpence per
square mile, which gives them, under certain conditions, a right
of pre-emption, and these speculators now hold on to the land
with a view to ultimately disposing of their interest to bonâ fide
settlers at a large profit to themselves. But until the Colonial
Government takes the initiative in affording facilities for the
conveyance of produce from the interior to Port Darwin, there
seems little likelihood of the land being taken up for either agricultural
or pastoral purposes.


The aboriginal inhabitants are numerous in this part of
Australia. Those in the vicinity of Port Darwin are of the
tribe of "Larikias." In company with Dr. Morice, the government
medical officer, I visited two native encampments, which
were situated a few hundred yards apart, and at a distance of
about half-a-mile from the settlement. One of the camps was
on an elevated plateau, covered with thin grass and a sprinkling
of scraggy bushes, while the other was at the foot of a high cliff,
and immediately adjoining the beach. We found in camp a large
number of men, women, and children, most of whom were lolling
about on the ground, smoking short wooden pipes, polishing their
skins with red ochre, and producing a rude burlesque of music
out of pieces of hollow reed about four feet long, which they blew
like cow-horns. The stature of the men was much superior to
that of the natives we had seen previously on the east coast; but
although strong and active, they presented a slim lanky appearance,
especially as regards their lower extremities. Their features[205]
were regular, and for the most part pleasing; the hair was long,
black, and wavy, sometimes hanging in ringlets; the nose was
aquiline, with broad alæ nasi, and having the septum perforated
for the reception of a white stick like a pipe-stem; the upper
lip, cheek, and chin were furnished with a moderate growth of
hair; the teeth were regular—no incisors removed; trunk and
extremities almost devoid of hair; the skin of the arms, chest,
and abdomen was decorated with cicatrices which stood out from
the skin in bold relief, having the form and consistency of cords.
On the arms these scars were disposed in parallel vertical lines,
while on the chest and abdomen they were in horizontal curves.
Dr. Morice informed me that these ghastly decorations were
produced in some way unknown by means of a sharp cutting
instrument, and that no foreign substance is introduced into the
wound. He had been unsuccessful in all his efforts to ascertain
how the peculiar raised and indurated character of the sore is
produced. The women had fewer scar decorations than the men,
but had the same nasal perforation, in which they also wore sticks.
All seemed cheerful, happy, and contented with their lot. Their
huts were of the usual unsubstantial character, but were, however,
an improvement on the "shelter-screens" of the eastern aborigines.
They were constructed of boughs of trees supplemented with
stray bits of iron sheeting, and other scraps of wood and iron
gleaned from the settlement, and they were provided with an
arched roof, so that the whole structure was of the shape of a
half cylinder lying on its side. Many, however, were little more
than "shelter screens," to protect them from the prevailing winds.




ABORIGINES OF NORTH-WEST AUSTRALIA.


Their weapons consisted of spears and clubs. The spears were
of different shapes and sizes, some being provided with two or
three long slender tapering points of hard wood, deeply serrated
along one side, while others were tipped with rudely chipped
pieces of sandstone. The former is used for spearing fish, the
latter for fighting purposes. The "woomerahs," or throwing
sticks, which they always use in propelling their spears, are of[206]
two kinds. The most common is about four feet in length, flat
and lathlike, and is peculiar in having the angular hook, which
engages the butt of the spear, projecting in a plane at right
angles to the flat surface of the stick. The other is a light
cylindrical stick tapering from the handle end, and its hook
consists of a conical-shaped piece of wood, which is secured at
an oblique angle to the distal end by means of gum and fibre
lashings. The clubs are about four feet long, are made of a hard
heavy wood of a red colour, and are fashioned with double
trenchant edges towards the striking end, so that a moderate
blow from one of these formidable weapons would effectually
cleave open any ordinary skull. The boomerang is not used in
this part of Australia.


Small-pox has made sad ravages among this tribe of natives, and
accounts for the large proportion whom we found to be wholly or
partially blind.


The season of the north-east monsoon had just come to a
close, and with it the drought and intermittent fever which render
Port Darwin an undesirable residence for six months of the year.
Calms usually prevail during the month of November, and in
December the N.W. monsoon is ushered in by copious showers of
rain, an event looked forward to with much satisfaction by the
inhabitants of Port Darwin. The annual rainfall during the last
half-a-dozen years has ranged from fifty-six to seventy-seven inches,
nearly all of which is precipitated during the months of December,
January, February, March, and April. Strange to say, during the
rainy season the settlement is healthy and entirely free from
malarial fever. But shortly before our arrival there had been an
epidemic of beriberi—a disease not indigenous to Australia—which
had probably been introduced by the Chinese immigrants.


I devoted one forenoon during low-water springtides to an
inspection of the beach between tide marks, but excepting a few
sponges obtained nothing of particular interest. The beaches in
the immediate vicinity of our anchorage were smothered with a[207]
thick coating of slimy mud, and were consequently not favourable
to marine life. With the dredge I was more successful. About
the centre of the harbour, in eleven fathoms, the bottom is of
sand, and here the fauna is abundant. Of Polyzoa I obtained
representatives of several genera, including Retepora, Eschara,
Crisia, Idmonea, Cellepora, and Lepralia; among Crustaceans the
genera Myra, Phlyxia, Hiastemis, and Lambrus afforded many
specimens. Many silicious Sponges were also found; among
Shells, Murex and Ranella were the principal genera observed;
and in hauling the dredge over some muddy ground I got a
Virgularia about eight inches long.


The commonest bird about the settlement was a brown kite
(Haliastur sp.?), which hovered about the refuse heaps on the look-out
for garbage, or, perched on the leafless branch of some dying
tree, remained huddled up in a lazy and unconcerned attitude, taking
no more notice of passers-by than do the hideous Turkey-buzzards
which act as scavengers in the towns of Central America. Our
ship was all day long surrounded by a flock of these kites, who
occupied themselves in picking up with their talons the morsels of
food which from time to time were, amid other refuse, cast overboard.
The thinly-wooded hollows in the immediate vicinity of
the settlement were thronged with numbers of a black and white
Grallina (Grallina picata) of about the size of a magpie, which, on
being disturbed, rose from the ground in flocks to perch on the
lower branches of the gum trees, and in company with them I
saw many examples of the Drongo (Chibia bracteata). Amidst
the foliage of the low bushes, a large black Shrike was frequently
seen, also a Zosterops, a flycatcher (Piezorhynchus nitidus), and
examples of a small finch-like bird (Donacola castaneothorax).
The latter were congregated in dense flocks, which shifted
frequently from tree to tree, making a loud whirring noise with
the rapid vibrations of so many tiny wings. When walking through
the short grass, numbers of small ground doves (Geopelia placida)
would start up from almost under one's feet, and alight again on[208]
the nearest tree, allowing one to approach them within a few
yards. Along the inner or landward edge of the mangrove fringe
I saw perched on the summits of the trees a large oriole (Mimeta),
of which I obtained two female specimens in full plumage; and
among some low prickly bushes which grew over the shell heaps
of the inner beach, I had a long, and finally successful, chase of a
goat-sucker, which had been dodging about under the bushes,
without rising on the wing. Large flocks of the New Holland
paroquet (Trichoglossus novæhollandiæ) flew about the topmost
branches of the large gum trees, screaming shrilly. I also
saw and obtained a specimen of T. rubritorquis, just now a scarce
bird, but at other times of the year said to be tolerably abundant.
One day I joined a party on a shooting excursion to a fresh-water
lagoon about twelve miles from the settlement. We were driven
to the ground by Mr. Gott, the superintendent of the British and
Australian telegraph station, who not only afforded us a pleasant
day's shooting, but on this and other occasions evinced the greatest
kindness and hospitality. A large black and white goose (Anseranas
melanoleuca) was met with in immense flocks in the lagoon;
and when started from their feeding ground, these birds, to our
surprise, betook themselves to the neighbouring gum trees, where
they perched with an apparent ease which was astonishing in such
great and unwieldy creatures. Although thus so easily circumstanced
for pot-shots, it was no easy matter to bring them down,
as they required very hard shooting to make any impression on
them; so that, notwithstanding a liberal expenditure of ammunition,
our united efforts did not produce at all so large a bag as we
had at first anticipated. The country through which we drove on
our way to and from the lagoon was of an extremely uninteresting
nature, being flat and arid, and thinly wooded with stunted gums.


[209]


CHAPTER XI.

SEYCHELLE AND AMIRANTE ISLANDS.


Our voyage from Port Darwin to Singapore took place
during the interval of calms which separates the north-west
and the south-east monsoons, so that we were enabled
to steam the entire distance of 2,000 miles in smooth water.
Our course lay among the islands of the Eastern Archipelago.
On the 5th of November we sighted Timor Island, and on
the following morning passed to the northward of its eastern
extremity, and then steered westward, having Timor on our
port hand, and the small island of Wetter to starboard. From
that date, the chain of islands which extends in a north-west
direction from Timor right up to the Malay Peninsula was
continually in sight. After dusk on the 7th, we saw away on
our port beam, and towering up into the blue and starlit sky, the
conical mountain which forms the island of Komba. On the 10th,
as we passed to the northward of Sumbawa, we had a fine view of
Tambora, a great volcanic pile 9,040 feet in height. On the same
day a handsome bird of the Gallinula tribe flew on board, and
came into my possession. On the following day a large swift of
the genus Chætura shared the same fate. On the morning of the
12th we passed through the strait which separates the islands of
Sapodie and Madura, and as we emerged from its northern outlet
found ourselves in the midst of a large fleet of Malay fishing boats,
of which no less than seventy were in sight at one time. These
boats were long narrow crafts, fitted with double outriggers, and[210]
having lofty curved bows and sterns. They carried a huge
triangular sail, which, when going before the wind, is set right
athwart-ships with the apex downwards, and when beating seemed
to be used like a reversible Fiji sail. On November 17th we
passed through the long strait which lays between the islands of
Banka and Sumatra, and on the afternoon of the following day
dropped our anchor in the roadstead of Singapore.


We made a stay of two and a half months at the great commercial
city of Singapore, and for the greater part of the time our
ship lay at the Tanjon Paggar dockyard, where she underwent a
thorough overhaul, while officers and men had abundant opportunities
for relaxation and amusements.


On February 5th, 1882, we again got under way, and quitting
the eastern Archipelago by the Straits of Malacca, steered for
Ceylon. On the 10th of February, in latitude 6° 15′ N., longitude
93° 30′ E., we passed through several remarkable patches of
broken water, resembling "tiderips." There was a light northerly
breeze, and the general surface of the sea was smooth, so that
these curious patches could be distinctly seen when a couple of
miles ahead of us, and as we entered each one the noise of tumbling
foaming waters was so loud as to attract one's attention forcibly,
even when sitting down below in the ward-room. The patches
were for the most part disposed in curves and more or less complete
circles of half-a-mile in diameter, so that at a distance they
bore a strong resemblance to lines of breakers. Soundings were
taken, but no inequality in the sea-bed was observed sufficient to
account for them. They were most probably due to circular
currents revolving in opposite directions, and producing the broken
water at their points of contact.


We stopped for two days, February the 17th and 18th, at
Colombo, the capital of Ceylon, and then steered for the "Eighth
Degree Channel," north of the Maldive Islands, after passing through
which we shaped a straight course for the Seychelle Islands.


On the morning of the 4th of March land was reported right[211]
ahead; but as we soon found out with our glasses, all that was
really visible above the horizon was a big tree, which by an
optical delusion appeared to be of a prodigious size, and on
account of the absence of the usual appearance of land was
thought by some of us to be only a sail. We were at this time
about ten miles to the north-east of Bird Island, the most
northerly of the Seychelle Group. About midday we anchored
in seven fathoms off the western end of the island, some dozen
or so large gannets coming off to meet us, and hovering inquisitively
about the ship.




"TRAVELLERS' TREES" IN GARDENS AT SINGAPORE.


Soon after, a party of officers, including myself, proceeded
to land. On touching the beach we were met by a pair of
negroes, who, we learned, formed the entire human population of
the island. They occupied some wretched huts which had been
hitherto screened from our view by a dense thicket of bushes,
which forms a fringe around the margin of the island, and gives
it, from the anchorage, the delusive appearance of being well
wooded.


Their occupation consisted in catching and drying fish, and in
salting, for consumption at Mahé, the bodies of sea-birds, which
breed on the island in vast numbers, and which are easily taken
on their nests during the breeding season—now just coming to
an end. The negroes spoke a French dialect, and, whether owing
to their habitual taciturnity, or to linguistic difficulties on our
part, we could not succeed in extracting much information from
them. We gathered, however, that turtle visited the island for
breeding purposes, but not at this time of the year.


Bird Island is half-a-mile long, and a quarter of a mile in
width, being thus more or less oval in outline. It is formed
entirely of coral, and is margined all round with white glistening
beaches of calcareous sand. Outside this extends a fringing reef,
which forms a submerged platform, on which there is some three
or four fathoms of water, and which has a mean width radially of
about a quarter of a mile. There is no encircling barrier reef,[212]
while the soundings are so regular as to exclude the existence of
coral knolls. The general surface of the island is quite flat, and
has a mean elevation above the sea-level of about eight feet.
Immediately within the sandy beach above mentioned is a raised
inner beach composed of blown sand and lumps of coral, on which
flourishes a belt of low green Tournefortia bushes. After traversing
this, one walks over a rugged plain of honeycombed coral
rock, the interstices of which are in some places filled with sand
and vegetable mould, which supports a more or less general
mantle of scrubby grass, interspersed with several introduced
plants gone wild. Among these were cotton, sugarcane, papaws,
yams, gourds, cocoa-nuts, and perhaps a few others. It appeared
that none of these had been found to thrive, which no doubt
accounts for their present neglected state. We now ascertained
that the large tree which had attracted our attention from the
offing was a Casuarina, of which there were altogether two or
perhaps three on the island.


There were no land-birds. Sea-birds, however, were very
abundant, and seemed in many ways to have partially adapted
themselves to the habits of their terrestrial congeners. The sand
and light soil, which in some places occupied the cavities in the
coral rock, were everywhere excavated by the burrows of petrels, so
that within an area of four square yards one might count as many
as a dozen. There were also smaller burrows—not admitting
the hand—in one of which I captured a land-crab. Walking
over the island—small as it was—proved to be very fatiguing
and aggravating, for after one had extracted a bruised ankle from
some treacherous hole in the coral, which the long grass concealed,
the next step, taken with misplaced confidence on an
inviting-looking patch of sand, would probably put the other foot
through the frail roof of a petrel burrow, into which it would
descend, to the alarm and indignation of its proper tenant, no less
than to the mortification of the explorer.


Many gannets were breeding on the island. I approached[213]
a large brown bird as it sat on its nest, and, being anxious to
obtain a specimen of the egg, endeavoured to frighten it off by
going within a couple of yards and shouting riotously. The bird,
however, did not seem to heed me. I then tried stones, but with
no better result. Eventually I had to resort to sterner measures,
which I forbear to mention, but which proved satisfactory. The
nest consisted of a few twigs and pieces of withered grass, placed
on the surface of the hard coral.


The terns, of which there were great numbers, either standing
quietly on the ground in flocks or perched singly on the low
bushes, had just concluded their breeding labours, and I found
a few abandoned eggs. Their nests were similar to those of the
gannet above mentioned. Consorting with the terns and gannets
were multitudes of white egrets, stalking about unconcernedly in
the long dry grass, or perching in a dreamy sort of way on the
topmost twigs of the bushes. All these birds, terns, gannets, and
egrets, seemed to be quite as much at home when perching on
the bushes or standing in the grass as in their usual attitude on
the wing. They seemed indeed very loth to fly, and after being
rudely disturbed soon settled down again. The beaches of the
weather or east side of the island were studded with great
flocks of turnstones and curlews, with which were a few oyster-catchers,
and soaring high overhead was a great flock of
frigate birds.


At an early hour on the following morning (March 5th) we
were again under way, and steering towards Port Mahé, which
lies sixty miles to the southward of Bird Island. The dredge
had been laid out from the stern of the ship soon after anchoring,
and on hauling it up just before weighing, one of the tangles was
found to have attached to it a large slab of dead coral, which
contained a great variety of forms of life. There were on its
surface several detached masses of growing Corals, comprising five
or six different species, and an equal number of Polyzoa, besides
some Nullipores and Millepores. In the interstices were several[214]
species of shells, worms, and Ophiurids, and two or three species
of sponge.


At three o'clock in the afternoon we anchored at Mahé, the
chief island of the Seychelle Group.


Seychelles, a term which is used to comprise the group of
eighty islands, has been a British colony since the year 1794,
when it was taken from the French by force of arms. Most of
the land is in the possession of descendants of the old French
settlers, men who have the reputation of being devoid of enterprise,
and of squandering the produce of their land in habits of dissipation.
We were told that among the upper classes there were only
about six Englishmen in the group, including the governor,
secretary, and doctor, etc. By a census taken in 1880, the total
population was 14,035, of which 2,029 was represented by African
negroes. The population of the chief island, Mahé, alone
amounted to 11,393, so that there remains less than 3,000 to be
divided among the remaining islands of the Group. The total
has since been increasing, owing to a stream of immigration having
set in from Mauritius, where there exists a commercial depression;
so that at the time of our visit it was said to amount to 18,000.


I think that to most people Seychelles is principally known as
the home of that eccentric palm, the double cocoa-nut, or "Coco
de Mer." Its range is indeed very restricted, being, in fact,
limited to Praslin,—one of the smaller islands of the Group,—and
even there it only grows in one particular valley. A few
have been introduced into Mahé, and great care is now being
taken in order to promote their extension. There was a handsome
specimen of the female tree growing in the grounds of
Government House, which was shown to me by Mr. Brodie, the
courteous Secretary to the Council. The tree being unisexual,
isolated specimens can only be made fruitful by artificial means.
In the present instance, the tree being over thirty years old, and
in the proper condition for impregnation, Mr. Brodie had taken
the trouble to obtain from Praslin the reproductive portion of a[215]
male plant, which he had placed over the immature fruits on the
female tree. The male tree bears a long thick spike, studded
with minute flowers, the pollen from which must be shaken over
the female flowers, in order to insure impregnation. The tree at
Mahé was about twenty feet high, but I was informed by Mr.
Brodie that fully grown trees in the island of Praslin attain a
height of a hundred feet. The mature nuts if left on the ground
readily germinate. The outer hard covering splits at the sulcus
of the nut, and from thence shoots out a rhizome, which after
extending underground for a few feet gives origin to the future
stem and rootlets, which proceed respectively upwards and downwards
from the termination of the rhizome. The Coco de Mer is
an article of trade, a good many being brought over annually to
Mahé, where some are sold to visitors as curiosities, while the
remainder are shipped to the Red Sea ports to be sold to the
Arabs, who have a profound belief in their medicinal properties.


In the gardens of Government House were also two fine
examples of the celebrated Land Tortoise of Aldabra, an animal
which, although indigenous in Aldabra Island alone, has of late
years been introduced into many of the neighbouring islands. The
pair at Mahé were male and female, and weighed respectively about
four hundred and five hundred pounds. The male seemed to have
no difficulty in bearing a man upon his back. At the time of
our visit the female had just commenced to lay, depositing her
eggs in holes which she excavated in the damp soil, and carefully
filled in.


From a commercial point of view, the Seychelle Islands are
now in a transition state. The cocoa-nut industry has of late
years been unprosperous, mainly owing to the ravages of a worm
which invades the roots and stem of the cocoa-nut trees, and
causes them to dwindle and perish. The produce of oil has consequently
been so reduced, and the freight charges continue to be
so high, on account of the absence of steamship competition, that
only a small margin of profit is left to the planter. This failure[216]
of the cocoa-nuts has led to a revival of the old spice industry,
which, under the early French settlers, was at one time deemed
likely to vie with that of the Moluccas. On looking over the
Blue Book Report, I find that in the year 1880 there were
12,000 acres of land planted with cocoa-nuts, which in spite of
the recent blight continue to be the staple product of the Group.
In the same year there were one hundred and fifty acres devoted
to the growth of vanilla; a hundred acres were planted with
cacao bushes, and a hundred and fifty were producing cloves;
besides a large extent of land bearing coffee plantations. Both the
Liberian and the common coffee plants have been introduced, and
found to grow remarkably well. Vanilla, in particular, seems to
find a congenial home in the Seychelle Islands, and, during our
short visit to the colony, we gathered that the future hopes of the
settlers were mainly centred upon the successful cultivation of this
plant. It grows rapidly, and although the flowers require to be
fertilized by hand, yet this process is so readily performed that
beans of large size and excellent quality are produced. It is as
yet only grown in a small way, most of the vanilleries, as these
plantations are called, covering only an extent of about five acres.
It is estimated that each plantation of this size represents an
annual produce of two hundred and fifty pounds' weight of vanilla
beans. We inspected some plants in the garden of Dr. Brookes,
an old resident, and noticed that the beans averaged eight inches
in length, and were otherwise well formed. He told us that he
had been most successful in the curing of these beans, and
expected that when they became well known they would command
a large price in the European markets, and that eventually
vanilla would become the staple produce of the Seychelle Islands.


The method employed at Seychelles for the expression of the
oil from the internal white lining of the cocoa-nut struck me as
being novel and primitive; and as it is said to be very efficient,
I shall try to give an intelligible description of a crushing mill
and its mode of construction. In principle it is a sort of gigantic[217]
pestle and mortar, in which the pestle is made to perform a movement
of circumduction, and whilst doing so to rotate against the
sides of the mortar, where the crushing process is effected. A
large-stemmed tree of very hard wood having been cut down, so
as to leave about three feet of the trunk projecting above the
ground, a bucket-shaped cavity is excavated in the stump. A
heavy round spar about ten feet in length is stepped into this
cavity, and is made to incline forcibly to one side by means of
a wooden outrigger, which is supported by a rope attached to the
head of the spar, and is weighted with heavy stones placed at its
outer extremity. The inner end of the outrigger is fitted with
wide U-shaped jaws, which engage in a collar scored in the tree
stump just above its point of emergence from the ground, while
the rope-lift which supports its outer extremity is so attached to
the head of the upright spar that the outrigger may be free to
move radially about the stump at the same time that the upright
spar rolls round on its long axis, as it presses heavily against the
sides of the trough. Finally a small hole is bored laterally, so as
to reach the bottom of the cavity in the tree stump, and into this
is thrust a short bamboo tube to act as an oil-tap. The broken-up
copra is thrown in around the lower extremity of the upright
spar, and a bullock is set to work to drag round the outrigger
arrangement. The only attendance required is that of a small
boy to feed the wooden trough with copra, and occasionally to
throw stones so as to accelerate the otherwise lazy motion of the
bullock. In the mill which I examined the oil was flowing
steadily from the bamboo tap in a clear limpid stream.


We dredged several times with the steam-cutter in the channel
between Mahé and St. Anne's Island, and also in St. Anne's
Channel. The depth of water in these channels ranged from
four to twelve fathoms, and the bottom consisted of sand and
coral. The fauna was abundant, and comprised Shells of the
genera Murex, Arca; large grey Holothurians; Echinoderms of
four or five species; Crustacea of the genera Thalamita, Galathea,[218]
Porcellana, Atergatis, Scylla, Alpheus, etc., and a large variety of
Corals and Polyzoa.


One of the most conspicuous objects about the foreshore at
Port Mahé is a curious fish of the genus Periophthalmus, which
may be seen not only jumping about the dry mud flats at low
water, but also climbing up the rugged vertical faces of the blocks
of granite of which the sea-wall and pier are formed. It is very
difficult indeed to catch one, as I have good reason to know.
Associated with them were several species of crabs, among which
I recognized representatives of the genera Macrophthalmus, Gelasimus,
Grapsus, and Ocypoda.


The Seychelles are peculiar in being the only small tropical
oceanic islands of granitic structure. All the others, excepting
St. Paul's Rocks, are either of volcanic or coral formation. The
rock about Port Mahé is a syenitic granite, in which the mica of
ordinary granite is replaced by hornblende. In some cases the
felspar is coloured blue, in others reddish, and in every instance
it occurred in large coarse crystals. The soilcap was a reddish
pasty clay, of great thickness. In one of the road cuttings near
the settlement a section of this clay fully ten feet in depth was
exposed.


We left Mahé on the 14th of March, and on the following day
anchored off a small coral islet, the northernmost of the Amirante
Group. This, with another similar islet adjoining, constitute the
African Islands. A party of surveyors immediately landed in
order to fix on a suitable place for taking midnight observations
of the stars, and I had soon afterwards an opportunity of landing
to explore. The islet is two hundred yards long, by about sixty
yards in width, is more or less elliptical in outline, low, and flat,
and for about three-fourths of its circumference is girt by a
smooth beach of coral sand, on the surface of which I noticed
a prodigious number of Orbitolites discs. The northern end of
the islet is composed of upraised coral sandstone, which has been
grooved and honeycombed into various fantastic shapes, so that[219]
for walking over it presents quite as unsatisfactory a surface as
volcanic clinker. All the central part of the islet within the
inner drift beach is covered with scrubby grass and low bushes
of the same character as those at Bird Island. There were one
or two young shoots of a Barringtonia; but nothing else in the
shape of an arborescent plant. Among the dead shells, light
driftwood, and bleached sponges and coral blown up on the inner
beach, I noticed some of the familiar rhomboidal fruits of a
Barringtonia.




"COPRA" CRUSHING-MILL IN USE AT SEYCHELLES (p. 217).


There were no land-birds. The sea-birds were identical with
those of Bird Island. Young unfledged gannets were waddling
about among the bushes, and as regards the other birds, their
nesting season also seemed to be over. I did not notice any
petrel burrows, but everywhere near the beach were the burrows
of a littoral crab, a species of the genus Ocypoda. On the rocks
at the northern extremity were multitudes of the widely distributed
Grapsus variegatus. When chasing them over the rocks of
the foreshore, I observed that they were reluctant to take to the
water, but preferred to keep clear of me by scampering away over
the coral further inshore. The cause of this strange behaviour on
their part soon became apparent; for the rock-pools about the
foreshore were tenanted by savage grey eels, ranging in length
from two to three feet, and I saw that the moment an unlucky
crab was forced to enter one of these pools, he was immediately
snapped up and devoured. I was surprised to see the coolness
with which an eel would every now and then raise its head above
the water in which it lay, and look about over the adjacent rocks
to see if any crabs were near. On starting an eel from its hiding
place, it would scuttle with astonishing rapidity over the low
rocks which separated it from the water's edge, so that it
was no easy matter to secure one without the aid of a gun.
Shooting them, as they wriggled off in this way, was rather
good sport.


The island is evidently visited by turtle during the breeding[220]
season, for we saw several of the excavations in which they were
in the habit of depositing their eggs.


We got under way at seven o'clock in the morning, and after
running several lines of soundings over the outer edge of the
Amirante bank, steamed over to Eagle Island, which lies about
thirteen miles to the southward of African Islands, and again
dropped anchor.


Eagle Island is somewhat oval in shape, and is a quarter of
a mile long by one-eighth in breadth. It is entirely of coral
formation, is low and flat, is covered with a thick growth of
stunted bushes, and in other physical features is much the same
as the African Islands. There was, however, an increase in the
fauna in the shape of a small red-legged partridge, which was very
abundant, and afforded us some good shooting. Owing to the
thickness of the scrub, and weedy undergrowth of grasses, ill-conditioned
gourds and calabashes, it was found very difficult to
recover the dead birds, so that I fear there were a good many
shot which were never bagged. The only other land-birds on the
island were domestic fowls gone wild. Of these we saw an old
cock and hen, and some three or four chickens, which, on being
disturbed, rose and took to flight like pheasants.


In the interior of the island, among a tangled scrub of bushes,
we found the remains of an old stone-built hut, which from the
solidity of its four walls would seem to have been originally
intended as a permanent dwelling for Europeans.


I took several specimens of a small species of lizard, and also
some of the tiny spherical eggs of the same. I stowed away the
eggs in a matchbox with some sand, and left it open on the table
of the deckhouse on board. After a day or two the young
lizards began to break out of their eggs, and to wander about
among the materials on my work-table. I broke open one egg,
and found that the youngster was at once able to run about.
After it had wandered about the table, and up and down the
sides of some bottles standing near, it returned to the matchbox[221]
and remained for a long time hovering about it, as if terrified at
the immensity of the world, and loth to venture away from its
former narrow dwelling.


In some small holes about the centre of the islet we found
a land-crab, apparently similar to that of Bird Island; and from
some large burrows issued the peculiar groaning sounds made by
the night petrel.


One of the most singular features in the zoology of the islet
was the abundance of a hermit crab,—occupying a Neritina shell,—which
was to be seen and heard creeping over the stems and
branches of the bushes in all directions. They seemed for the
time to have entirely adopted terrestrial habits.


We got under way again on the morning of the 20th of March,
and, after spending the day in sounding from the ship, steamed up
to Darros Island, and again anchored.


This island is somewhat circular in shape, and has a maximum
diameter of three-quarters of a mile. It is inhabited by a Frenchman
and his wife, who are assisted by nine negro labourers from
Mahé. Adjoining are nine small islets, bearing a rich crop of
cocoa-nuts. Darros Island itself as yet produces next to nothing,
but it contains a large plantation of young cocoa-nuts, which in
five or six years will doubtless be productive. Immediately
behind the Frenchman's house, and affording an agreeable shade,
was a handsome grove of Casuarinas about eighty feet in height.
They were nineteen years old, as we subsequently ascertained.
Many introduced plants—such as papaws, cotton, pumpkin, etc.—were
growing in a neglected state over the island.


We dredged from the ship as she lay at anchor in twenty-one
to twenty-two fathoms, over a bottom which was mainly composed
of coral débris, and among the living organisms brought
up were three species of stony corals. This circumstance is of
interest as regards the bathymetrical distribution of corals, inasmuch
as Dana, judging from the results of observations made by
various authorities, considers that twenty fathoms may be regarded[222]
as the limit in depth at which reef-forming corals live. Polyzoa
were numerous. I noticed representatives of the genera Retepora,
Crisia, Eschara, Cellepora, Lepralia, and Myriozoum. There were
also some examples of Sertularia and other flexible hydroids.


Our gropings over the platform of fringing reef, which formed
the foreshore at low water, resulted in the acquisition of several
species of holothurians. Among these was a large Synapta, which
was abundant, and a very tough-skinned holothurian—of the genus
Moliria—provided with organs resembling teeth at its posterior
extremity.


On March 23rd we moved over to Poivre Island—a few miles
distant—where we anchored, and remained for part of two days.


Poivre Island was colonized for the first time in the year 1820.
It is now the property of a Frenchman residing at Paris, and is
managed by his agent, a Monsieur Bertaut, who, with his wife
and family, and some twenty negroes and their wives, form the
population of the island, altogether amounting to twenty-seven.
Of course the staple produce is cocoa-nut oil, and the island
having been planted with cocoa-nuts at an early period in its
history, the trees are in good condition for bearing, and cover
every available spot of ground. Among the other trees on the
island I noticed a Casuarina and a Ficus. Two shrubs were common;
one, called the "Bois d'Aimanthe" (Suriana maritima), formed
a sort of hedge around the island, and the other was a Tournefortia,
which seems to be the first plant to establish itself on these
islands. The fauna included a black-and-white rabbit—of course
introduced—which was very abundant, and some pigeons of a
dark-brown plumage. Pigs and domestic poultry seemed to be
largely favoured by the colonists, and were indeed in a thriving
state.


Like all the Amirantes, Poivre Island is low and flat, and is
only exceptional in being the most prosperous island of the group,
for which it is indebted to the zeal of the earlier colonists who
planted its splendid grove of cocoa-nuts. The island is oval in[223]
shape, about two miles in circumference, and it has a broad fringing
reef composed of drift coral and sand, but exhibiting no live
corals and very few shells.


We cast anchor off the north-west side of Isle des Roches on
the evening of the 25th of March, and stayed there for four days.
This is the largest island of the Amirante Group, being three and
a half miles long, and having an average width of half-a-mile. It
is visible for a long distance off, on account of its possessing several
large groves of tall Casuarina trees, many of which are one hundred
and eleven feet in height. On the shore, immediately opposite to
our anchorage, was the settlement, which then exhibited a rather
desolate appearance, as many of the houses were in an abandoned
condition, most of the inhabitants having recently gone back to
Seychelles. Only two individuals remained, French creoles, who
seemed to have acquired, from their solitary situation, habits of
taciturnity, which they found it difficult to break through. At all
events, we could not succeed in extracting much information from
them. They were well off for supplies, having a large stock of
pigs and poultry, besides fruit and vegetables. Cocoa-nuts had
been planted extensively, but as yet few of these trees were old
enough to bear fruit. At the time of our visit, the natives were
engaged in planting vanilla cuttings about the bases of the
casuarina trees, which furnished excellent supports for the creeper
to attach itself to.


The flora was more extensive than that of the other islands.
There was a large-leafed shrub with thick branches like cabbage-stalks,
the Scævola kœnigii, which over ran the island. There
were also herbaceous plants of the families Malvaceæ, Solanaceæ,
Cinchonaceæ, and Convolvulaceæ. Among the trees I noticed a
Ficus, which, however, may have been introduced; and here I
obtained the only fern met with among the Amirantes, the
Nephrolepis exaltata; it was growing near the sea beach at the
eastern end of the island.


There were six land-birds: viz., a red-legged partridge, a pigeon,[224]
a large brown finch, and a small yellow-breasted finch, a red-capped
weaver-bird, and a waxbill (?). Of these I could only
obtain specimens of the small finch and the weaver-bird. The
yellow-breasted finch is gregarious, and mostly frequents the tops
of the cocoa-nut trees and the upper branches of the tall casuarinas,
where it keeps up an incessant melody of song, pleasant to the ear
in the variety and succession of the notes, and somewhat resembling
the song of the canary. In the large casuarina grove, near
the western end of the island, I succeeded, but with much difficulty,
in procuring some male specimens of the weaver-bird (Foudia
madagascariensis). The females were nesting. I observed one
of the latter flying away from the tree in which its nest was constructed,
and from which I had disturbed it. It differed from the
male in having the red-coloured feathers confined to the head, the
rest of the plumage being of a dull brown. The nest was an
oblong affair, having a lateral opening, and was constructed of a
parasitic plant of creeping habit, which the creoles use for making
a substitute for tea. The nest hung from the extremity of a
casuarina branch which projected horizontally. The male bird
was to be seen perched singly on the summits of the large
casuarinas, where it made its presence known by a peculiar
and characteristic twittering note which it emits about four
times in a minute. It was very wary, and difficult to
approach within a sixty yards' range, so that it was only
by most careful stalking that I could succeed in bringing down
a specimen. The brown finch was not abundant, and seemed
to confine its range to the plantations of young cocoa-nuts,
where it was continually shifting its perch. The waxbill was
a very small bird, which was to be seen every now and then
flitting in large flocks among the maize plants and low bushes.
I was much surprised to find that the four small birds above
mentioned were so very wary, as there were no predatory
birds on the island, and it was unlikely that they had ever
been shot at before. Nevertheless, the motion of raising one's[225]
gun at a distance of sixty yards or more was enough to scare
away any of them.


The partridge was identical with that already seen at Eagle
and Darros Islands. The pigeon, which I have included among
the list of the birds, I saw only once. But one of the creoles
living on the island told me that it was an indigenous species,
and was quite distinct from the domestic pigeons which roost
about and restrict their range to the houses and trees about the
settlement.


Although this island has been classed as one of the Amirante
Group, it would be more correct to look upon it as distinct and
apart from the main group, inasmuch as the bank on which it
rests is separated from the Amirante bank by a deep water
channel eleven miles wide. We sounded across this channel, and
obtained no bottom with one hundred fathoms of line. Isle des
Roches is, moreover, peculiar in forming part of an atoll, most of
which is submerged, and is covered with from two to five fathoms
of water. The circumscribed patch of deep water in the interior
has a depth of about fifteen fathoms.


During the week subsequent to our departure from Isle des
Roches, we anchored successively off the four remaining islets of
the group; viz., Etoile, Marie-Louise, Des Neufs, and Boudeuse.
They are mere cays, formed of coral and drift sand, and are
uninhabited. Owing to the heavy surf which broke all round their
shores, we found it unsafe to land.


With our brief visit to the islets just mentioned our survey of
the Amirante Group came to an end. I will, therefore, before
quitting the subject, make a few general remarks on the group as
a whole. The Amirante Group consists altogether of twenty-one
low coral islets, resting (with the exception of Isle des Roches,
which is on a separate bank) on an extensive coral bank, whose
long axis lies in a north-north-east and south-south-west direction,
and is eighty-nine miles in length, with an average breadth of
nineteen miles. It is included between the limits of 4° 501⁄2′ and[226]
6° 121⁄2′ south latitude, and 53° 45′ and 52° 501⁄2′ east longitude,
and is about seven hundred miles distant from the nearest part of
the East African coast. Some of the islets and cays of which it
is composed, and which are included in the above enumeration,
are so grouped into clusters, that for all practical purposes the
group may be considered as consisting of nine islets, which have
been named African Island, Eagle Island, Darros Island, Poivre
Island, Des Roches Island, Etoile Island, Marie-Louise Island, Des
Neufs Island, and Boudeuse Island. Of these only three are
inhabited; viz., Darros (including the adjoining islet "St. Joseph,"
which is occupied by part of the same establishment of creoles),
Poivre Island, and Isle des Roches; the population consisting of
French creoles and negroes imported from Seychelles, who make
a livelihood by cultivating cocoa-nuts, and altogether do not
exceed forty in number. The islets are all low and flat, are
formed entirely of coral and coral-sandstone, and their general
surface has an altitude above high-water mark not exceeding
fifteen feet, while in the case of African Island, the lowest, it is
not more than seven feet. Most of them, however, are conspicuous
from a long distance at sea, on account of their possessing clumps
and groves of casuarina trees, which tower to heights ranging from
eighty to one hundred and eleven feet above the soil, as ascertained
by trigonometrical measurement. The casuarinas at Darros Island,
which were eighty feet in height, had been planted nineteen years
prior to the time of our visit by a Frenchman named Hoyaeux,
whom we subsequently met at Providence Island.


All the islets above mentioned possess "fringing reefs," but are
distinguished from the coral islets of the South Pacific, and of the
other parts of the Indian Ocean, by the entire absence of "barrier
reefs." The soundings which we made over the Amirante bank
showed a general uniformity in the contour of its surface; whilst
at the same time there was abundant evidence that the central
portions were more depressed than the margins. Soundings in
the latter situation gave a depth ranging from ten to fourteen[227]
fathoms, and as each line of soundings reached the central depressed
area of the bank, a depth of about thirty fathoms. The
islands were for the most part situated near the margin of the
bank, and were in every case surrounded by a zone of shallow
water. Hence it is obvious that if the entire structure were
suddenly to undergo an elevation of about fourteen fathoms, or
eighty-four feet, it would present the appearance of an atoll
studded with comparatively lofty islets, and enclosing a lagoon
of still water sixteen fathoms in depth.


The outer edge of the bank was exceedingly abrupt, for within
a ship's length the soundings changed from ten or fourteen fathoms
on the margin, to no bottom with one hundred fathoms of line
immediately outside the edge. This precipitous character of the
reef-edge was found to be the same throughout its entire extent.
At various points over this area growing corals were obtained at
depths ranging from twelve to twenty-two fathoms, the latter
being somewhat greater than the limit in depth at which it is
generally agreed that reef-forming corals can live. It therefore
follows, that if the entire bank were now to subside bodily at a
faster rate than the corals can by their growth raise the surface
upwards, these organisms would soon be immersed below their
natural limit, and would consequently die. But we have no
evidence of a subsidence having occurred, beyond the fact that
the bank, as a whole, bears a resemblance to a submerged atoll,
while on the other hand there are some positive evidences of
elevation to be seen in the overlying islands. At Eagle Island,
the general surface—that is to say, all the land within the inner,
or coral-drift beach—is level, and consists of dead coral in situ;
so that if denuded of its present covering of low vegetable growth,
it would present much the same appearance that a broad platform
of fringing reef might, if elevated above high-water mark
and allowed to remain exposed to the weather for a few years.
The same is the case as regards the greater part of one of the
African Islands which we visited; while its northern extremity[228]
was composed of upraised coral sandstone, standing in situ, and
exhibiting excavated grottoes and jagged pinnacles, resulting from
old marine degradation. It may therefore be inferred that these
two islands have been subjected to a movement of elevation to
the extent of at least a few feet at some period subsequent to
the formation of their present reef-coral surfaces. Again, at Isle
des Roches, which, however, it should be remembered lies on a
separate, although adjacent bank, there were along its south-eastern
margin stratified beds of hard coral sandstone occupying
a position above high-water mark, and presenting to seaward an
abrupt eroded face of hard rock which was undergoing degradation,
and was being undermined by the action of the waves on a soft
subjacent stratum. As regards the other islands of the group, I
have seen no evidence of elevation beyond the fact that they are
higher than either African or Eagle Island; one of the most
southerly being as much as fifteen feet above high-water mark.
I may add that the absence of "barrier reefs" throughout the
group militates against the probability of subsidence having taken
place. There is, therefore, reason to believe that the entire group
have undergone elevation rather than subsidence; and if the
forces which produced this condition be still in operation, and
continue so until a further elevation of fourteen fathoms has been
effected, there will result an atoll over eighty miles long by twenty
in width, and studded with lofty coral islands, somewhat resembling
the high islands of the south-eastern Paumotus, such as
Elizabeth Island, which Dana describes as being eighty feet in
height.


The Amirante Group furnishes an illustration of the generally
accepted position that corals grow more luxuriantly on the
weather than on the lee side of banks and reefs. In this region,
a wind, varying in direction between east and south-east, prevails
throughout ten months of the year, and consequently gives rise
to a proportionately constant surface current; and, on looking
at the grouping of the islets, we find that of the eight which rest[229]
upon the same bank, six are situated on or about its eastern
margin, while the remaining two, which are placed on its south-western
side, are comparatively insignificant sand-cays. Again,
Isle des Roches, which rests on a bank to the eastward of the
Amirantes, from which it is separated by a deep-water channel
eleven miles wide, is situated on the eastern, or weather margin
of its own bank—also a partially-submerged atoll.


[230]


CHAPTER XII.

CONCLUSION.


On completing our surveying work at the Amirante Group
we steamed back to Port Mahé, Seychelles, in order to
replenish our stock of coals. After a stay of a few days we
again got under way (17th of April), and shaped a course for
Alphonse Island, which occupies an isolated position sixty
miles south-west-by-south of the southern extremity of the
Amirante bank.


We reached Alphonse Island on the 19th of April, about midday,
and saw that in shape, and general appearance, it much resembled
one of the Amirantes—for instance, Poivre; but, however,
in one important characteristic was different. It possessed a sort
of barrier reef little less than a wash, and sufficiently indicated
by a long line of heavy breakers. We steamed round the island,
holding a course parallel to the line of breakers, and within a few
ships' lengths of it, but we got no soundings with fifty fathoms of
line. On attaining a position opposite to the southern extremity
of the island, we saw a canoe approaching, the occupants of which,
an elderly white man and some negroes, soon afterwards boarded
us. The information which they gave us confirmed our impression
as to there being no anchorage suitable for a large ship
anywhere near the island. We learned that it was the property
of a Frenchman named Baudon, who resides in Europe, and that
the population consisted of twenty-eight, six being whites—viz.,[231]
John Hickey, the manager, with his wife and children—and the
remainder, mulattoes and negroes. The island seemed to us
to be covered with cocoa-nut trees, but we were told that only
a small number were old enough to bear nuts. The produce
consisted of copra, green turtle, hawk's-bill turtle, and pearl-shell.
Of the latter, two thousand shells had been exported within the
previous two years; and we also learned from Hickey that he
then had nine hundred in store awaiting shipment. The shells,
which are much smaller than those of Torres Straits, and have a
black internal margin like those of Ceylon, are obtained by negro
swimming-divers. They are found in the still-water pools, inside
the barrier reef, where they lie in four or five fathoms of water;
and on account of the danger from sharks they are only sought
for in these enclosed pools. Although a good many pearls of
small size are met with, the commercial value of the fishery
depends on the mother-of-pearl of the shells.


Fish are caught in great abundance, and as poultry thrive well,
a large stock of them are kept and allowed to run wild. Fresh
water being also plentiful, the inhabitants are not on the whole
badly off for the necessaries of life.


After a long interview with old Hickey, who most generously
presented us with some turkeys and ducks, we bade him a long
good-bye, and steamed away towards Providence Island.


We anchored off the west side of this island on the forenoon
of the 21st of April, and lay about a mile from the land, and a
quarter of a mile outside a long fringing reef, over the raised
outer edge of which the sea broke heavily, forming an almost
continuous line of rollers.


Providence Island lies two hundred and forty miles from the
Amirante Islands, in a south-west-by-south direction, and is two
hundred miles north-east-by-north from the northern extremity
of Madagascar. It is entirely of coral formation, is low and flat,
and measures two miles in length by one-third of a mile in width.
It is surrounded with broad submerged fringing reefs, which at[232]
the southern extremity of the island are continuous with a long
reef, extending in a southerly direction for a distance of sixteen
miles, and partially dry at low tide. At its southern termination
are three small islets, or rather sand-cays, which are termed
collectively Cerf Islands.


Providence Island belongs to two Seychelle gentlemen; viz.,
Mr. Dupuys and Dr. Brookes, for whom it is managed by an
elderly Frenchman named Hoyaeux. The population consists
of Hoyaeux, with his wife and nephew, and a gang of negroes,
male and female, amounting in all to thirty-four. The houses of
the settlement are situated on either side of a broad avenue which
traverses the middle of the island from east to west. The only
landing-place is at the western end of this avenue, opposite to
which we were anchored; and even here it was always somewhat
dangerous, and in bad weather quite impracticable to effect a
landing, on account of the rollers which broke over the outer edge
of the fringing reef. The latter forms the nearest approach to a
"barrier reef" which I have yet seen in these waters; excepting
that at Alphonse Island, which we had not time to examine
carefully. The depth of water over its general surface is not
more than a fathom at low tide; while at its outer edge, which
is marked by the line of breakers, the depth is only a foot or
so less.


The produce of the island consists of cocoa-nut oil and green
turtle. The greater part of the island is covered with cocoa-nut
plantations, young and old, for which the soil seems admirably
suited. I noticed that here the cocoa-nuts had been planted in
the surface soil, and not in pits as at Poivre and Des Roches; and
on my making a remark to that effect, Monsieur Hoyaeux, the
manager, explained to me the reason. It has been found by
experience that cocoa-nuts will not thrive on any of these islands
unless they are so planted that the roots may be enabled to reach
the bed of coral into which the sea-water penetrates. Hence it
follows that when nuts are planted on any but very low coral[233]
islands it has been found advisable to put them at the bottom of
basin-shaped excavations, some three or four feet in depth, so that
the roots may have a chance of reaching the moist coral beneath.
Providence Island being sufficiently low by nature, it was not
necessary to make these excavations.


Green turtle are captured in great numbers during the month
of April, when the females come up on the beaches to deposit
their eggs. A turtle pond near the settlement contained, at the
time of our visit, no less than eighty, all of large size. In connection
with this pond a portion of the sandy inner beach was
wattled in, so as to serve as a hatching-ground for the captured
turtle. As soon as the young ones have become sufficiently
strong to take care of themselves, they are turned adrift into the
open sea. In this way the young turtle escape the danger, which
they are otherwise exposed to when of a tender age, of being
destroyed by predatory sea-birds; and thus the maintenance of
the stock is favoured. It is a curious thing that young turtle
seem to have a difficulty about, or a strong disinclination to,
diving beneath the surface of the water. One almost always sees
them floating in the ponds, instead of groping about the bottom
as the adults do.


The indigenous fauna and flora were almost identical with those
of the Amirantes, except that there were no land-birds as at Isle
des Roches. Monsieur Hoyaeux very kindly supplied me with
the creole names of the trees, shrubs, and one or two herbaceous
plants. Among these were the "Bois Blanc" (Hernandia peltata),
"Sauve Souris" (a low tree with long dark green leaves), "Bois
Cu Cu" (a tree with drupaceous fruit, having a curved hook at
the apex), "Veloutier Tabac" (Tournefortia argentea, a seaside
bush of the family Apocynaceæ, the leaves of which are sometimes
smoked instead of tobacco), and the "Veloutier Blanc" (Scævola
kœnigii, a very common seaside bush of the family Goodeniaceæ).
Some of the bushes and Casuarina trees (called "Cedre" by the
creoles) were overrun with a parasitic creeping plant, Cassytha[234]
filiformis, which they use for making a sort of tea, and to which
they give the name "Liane sans feuilles."


The huge land-tortoises of Aldabra have been imported, and
seem to find a congenial home in the island. There was a herd
of seven roaming about among the bushes, one of which was said
to be able to carry two men on its back.


Among the introduced plants and vegetables we saw the
papaw, custard-apple, pepper, sweet potato, onions, lettuce,
capsicum, etc.


Pearl-shell is collected on the reefs, but not as yet in sufficient
quantities to establish a lucrative industry. In this respect the
island is not so fortunate as Alphonse, for there are no sheltered
rock-pools in which the shell can be collected by swimming-divers
without danger from the sharks; the sea everywhere flowing
in over the outer edge of the broad fringing reef, and the
great reef to the southward only drying in patches at low tide.


Small water-worn fragments of precious coral (C. rubrum) are
from time to time picked up on the reef, but we could not glean
any information as to its precise habitat. We met with none in
our dredgings, which ranged up to a depth of twenty-two fathoms.
It probably inhabits the deeper water on the outer slope of the
bank. Madame Hoyaeux, who was most kind and hospitable,
presented me with some fragments which had been picked up on
the reef, and which resembled the Corallium rubrum of the
Mediterranean.


There are many wells on the island, but in all the water has a
saline taste. It is serviceable enough for washing and cooking
purposes; but for drinking, the inhabitants rely upon the rainwater
which they collect.


On the forenoon of the 28th of April we anchored about a mile
and a half to the westward of three small islets, which rest on the
southern extremity of the Providence Reef. I then accompanied
the captain on a boat-trip to the islets, visiting the two which lay
nearest. The most northerly of these we found to be a low and[235]
almost barren sand-cay, crescentic in outline, about two hundred
yards in greatest length, and thirty yards in width. Near the
eastern extremity were two rude fishing-huts which seemed to
have been recently inhabited. They contained a turtle-spear and
some other fishing appliances, a hatchet, a bag of salt, a tinderbox,
and some other small bags which were closed up, and which
a delicate regard for the sacred rights of private property deterred
us from examining. A few pearl-shells of the species peculiar
to these islands lay in a heap near one of the huts. I appropriated,
without any scruple, some specimens of these, leaving, however, in
exchange, a big lump of tobacco, which I deposited in one of the
bags hanging from the rafters of the hut.


Close to the concave margin of the islet was a small turtle-pond,
composed of stakes driven vertically into the soft sand, and
lashed together so as to form a circular enclosure through which
the shallow water flowed freely at all times of the tide. It contained
six large turtle.


The only plants growing on the islet were a very young cocoa-nut,
scarcely six inches high, and a weed, without flowers, somewhat
resembling a Mesembryanthemum, and evidently growing
wild. The latter may, I think, be considered to be the only
indigenous plant on the islet. In strolling over the piled-up
sand and broken coral, of which the surface of the islet was
composed, I came across three fruits of the widely-distributed
Barringtonia speciosa, which had evidently drifted on to the beach,
and had then been blown up above tide mark.


We subsequently visited a second islet which lay about a mile
to the westward of the above, with which it was connected by a
shallow reef, probably laid bare at low tide. This second islet
proved to be utterly devoid of vegetation, and showed no signs
of having ever been inhabited. Strewn over its surface were
great quantities of dead shells, among which I saw examples of the
genera Harpa, Dolium, Bulla, Cypræa, Littorina, Voluta, Conus, etc.
From here we obtained a good view of the third islet, and could[236]
see on it two large huts and several clumps of bushes, but nothing
in the shape of a human being. (One of our boats visited this islet
on the following day and reported that the huts were uninhabited,
although showing signs of having recently been in use.) There were
three plants; viz., the Veloutier Tabac (Tournefortia argentea), the
Bois d'Aimanthe (Suriana maritima), a bush with lanceolate woody
leaves, and a small herbaceous plant. After a good deal of groping
and wading about the shores of the islet, we returned at about 5 p.m.
to the place where we had left our boat, but found, to our dismay,
that the tide had fallen so low since we had landed, that the boat
was now hard and fast on the bare reef, and after repeated efforts
to drag it over to the reef-edge, a distance of nearly half a mile,
we were obliged to make up our minds to wait for the rising tide.
As we were unfortunately without any provisions, our position was
not the most agreeable, especially as the boat was not floated off
till near midnight.


On the morning of the 1st of May we weighed anchor and
steamed over to the island of St. Pierre, which lies about ten
miles to the south-west of our last position. We spent some
hours sounding off the island in deep water, and as it was
reported that there was no safe anchorage, the captain did not
attempt to land. Seen from a distance of about half a mile—the
nearest we approached to it—St. Pierre appeared to be of a very
different character from the islands recently visited. It was somewhat
circular in outline, and was covered by a dense growth of
scrubby bushes, above which appeared the crowns of three or four
isolated palm trees. The mean level of its surface was about
thirty feet above the water, so that it was three or four times as
high as Providence, or the Amirante Islands. It presented all
round a precipitous rock-bound coast worn into jagged pinnacles
above, and undermined below by the wear and tear of the heavy
ocean swell, which thundered against it and testified to its eroding
power by the jets of spray which we saw shot upwards from blowholes
through the upper surface of the rock.


[237]


On the 3rd of May we anchored off Du Lise Island, the most
northern of the three islets which compose the Glorioso Group.
These islets lie about two hundred and seventy miles to the
south-west of Providence Island, and one hundred and twenty
miles in a west-by-north direction from the northern extremity
of Madagascar.


Du Lise Island is of a very irregular shape, both as to its
surface and outline, and measures about a quarter of a mile
across in various directions. It seems to be formed entirely of
coral sandstone, conglomerate, and breccia, and presents to the
sea on its north-west side low jagged cliffs of consolidated coral
breccia, and on the opposite side a sloping beach composed of
hard coral sandstone arranged in gently inclined slabs; while its
surface is in one place raised into a large mound about thirty feet
in height, covered with trees and rank grass, and probably composed
of blown coral sand. Among the tufts of grass on the
sloping sides of this mound were great numbers of Spirula-shells
in a tolerably perfect condition. Many of them lay in sheltered
places where they could hardly have been deposited by the agency
of the wind alone, and yet if they had been dropped by birds after
the latter had devoured the soft body of the mollusc, one would
expect to have found the fragile shells in a more or less mutilated
state, which was not the case. The circumstance is, therefore,
a rather puzzling one to account for satisfactorily.


The flora was more abundant in species than at any of the
coral islands to the northward. There were, moreover, no signs
of the island having been inhabited; and consequently we saw
no palms, for the cocoa-nut does not seem to be indigenous at
any of the islands recently visited. The prevailing tree was a
good-sized banyan, of which many examples appeared to be very
old. There were also several Hibiscus trees. As to bushes, there
were a few isolated examples of the "Veloutier blanc," while the
low central part of the island, into which the sea-water penetrated
so as to form a filthy salt-marsh, was covered with a dense impenetrable[238]
thicket of "Bois d'Aimanthe." Herbaceous plants were
numerous, and comprised species of the families Solanaceæ, Malvaceæ,
Euphorbiaceæ, and Graminaceæ.


The fauna, which was not extensive, included a brown rat,
which was to be seen climbing along the upper branches of the
trees, apparently in search of small birds or their eggs; a lizard;
a large brown dove, pronounced by Mr. Bowdler Sharpe to be a
new species of Turtur; a Zosterops, and a sun-bird, a large crab
of the genus Birgus; terrestrial hermit-crabs, and many spiders.


We did not find any fresh water. The soil on the upper parts
of the island was a dark loam; and although sea-birds in the
shape of gannets and frigate-birds were abundant and bred on
the island, I saw very little guano.


I spent the forenoon of the following day in examining the
broad fringing reef, a great extent of which was laid bare by the
low-water spring-tide. It was composed of coral sandstone and
coral breccia, and presented a rather sterile appearance, being
entirely devoid of living corals, and containing very few zoophytes
in its rock pools. I was, however, interested at finding on the
surface of this reef a few isolated rounded stones which were quite
foreign to the surrounding formation, and whose source remains
a mystery difficult of solution. One was an oblong block of hard
black basalt, about a foot long, by four inches in width, while the
other was a lump of clear quartz the size of an orange, and much
worn by attrition. Darwin, in his "Journal of a Naturalist,"
mentions a similar occurrence at the Keeling Islands; and in
endeavouring to account for it, inclines to the belief that such
stones have been transported by floating trees, in whose roots
they were originally entangled, and from whence they have become
detached after the stranding of the dead tree.


From the rock-pools we picked up some large Cone-shells, as
well as a few Murices, Littorinas, and Turbos. We also saw some
Ophiurids, and one Holothurian.


We got under way again on the 5th of May, and, after spending[239]
several hours in taking soundings, came to an anchor in eleven
fathoms, about two miles to the northward of Glorioso Island.
This is the largest island of the three which constitute the
Glorioso Group (Vert Island is very small indeed), and is somewhat
squarish in shape, measuring a mile and a half each way.
It consists of a central depressed plateau, in which the wells yield
only brackish water, enclosed by two lines of circumvallation,
which are composed of sand hills forming continuous ridges, and
ranging from thirty to forty feet in height above the level of the
sea. The outer of these two ridges is about forty yards from
high-water mark on the beach, and is separated from the inner
ridge by a broad and deep furrow, which sustains a luxuriant
growth of "Veloutier" and "Bois d'Aimanthe" bushes. Near
the centre of the island we saw the muddy bed of a marsh, now
dry, which one of the negroes informed me was at certain times
of the year full of salt water.


Glorioso Island is the property of a Frenchman named Carltot,
who, at the time of our visit, was away somewhere in Madagascar.
The population consisted of the manager—an old Frenchman—one
other white man, and fifteen negro labourers; who, with their
wives and families, amounted in all to twenty-seven. They were
endeavouring to cultivate cocoa-nuts, but so far as we could judge,
without much success; for the number of these trees bearing fruit
scarcely amounted to twenty. The poor people were in great
distress for want of clothes and provisions, not having seen any
vessel for ten months before our arrival. They had latterly been
subsisting wholly on turtle and fish, without vegetables, meal, or
bread of any kind. The island was so infested with rats that it
was found almost impossible to raise any vegetables. In fact,
commercially, it has proved a failure, so that the wretched inhabitants
were only awaiting the first opportunity for quitting it
and returning to Mahé.


The flora resembled that of Du Lise. The banyan tree, called
"Fouce" by the Creoles, was conspicuous, and in many instances[240]
seemed to be of great antiquity. I noticed the same land-birds
as at Du Lise, but there was an addition in the occurrence of the
Madagascar crow. Frigate-birds were numerous all over the
island, and, strange to say, were frequently to be seen perching
on the branches of tall forest trees. In using the word
"forest" for the first time whilst speaking of these islands, I should
add that a great portion of Glorioso was covered with a dense
growth of virgin forest, upon which the clearing operations of
the colonists had made comparatively feeble inroads. I need
scarcely add that our proximity to the great island of Madagascar
was rendered apparent by the above-mentioned novelties as to
fauna and flora which we encountered on our voyage southward.


The greater portion of the circumference of the island is fringed
by a broad reef of dead coral and coral sandstone, on which rests
in many places a thin coating of mud or sand. This platform
of reef, and also the sandy beach proper, together exhibited
examples of a good many shells, most of which, however, were
dead specimens. We saw representatives of the genera Conus,
Turbinella, Fusus, Cypræa, Trivia, Nassa, Natica, Neritina, Haliotis,
Dolium, and Oliva. Besides these shells there was little else to
be seen, except fragments of organ-pipe coral (Tubipora musica),
and the bleached tests of an Echinus, a species of Hemiaster (?).


On the morning of the 8th of May we were again under way
and sailing for Mozambique Island, which is about five hundred
miles from Glorioso. On the evening of the 10th we passed
within a few miles of Mayotta, one of the Comoro Islands, and
had a fine view of its high volcanic hills,—a sight peculiarly
grateful to eyes now for some time accustomed to seeing land
only in the shape of low coral islands. As we passed to the
eastward, the shadow cast by the western declining sun on the
face of the island brought out the outline of its hills in the form
of a bold silhouette.


May 12th, about midday, looking to the westward we saw a
great flat-topped hill appearing above the horizon. This was our[241]
first view of the east coast of Africa, and proved to be Table
Mountain, a hill two thousand feet high, and situated some twelve
or fifteen miles inland. Being of such a height it was visible to
us from a distance of fifty miles, when nothing was to be seen
of the coast itself or of the intervening lowlands. Shortly before
dusk we steamed up to the north side of Mozambique Island,
and anchored for the night in an open roadstead, whence, on the
following morning, we moved into the inner anchorage.


Mozambique Island has been in the possession of the Portuguese
since the middle of the fifteenth century. About the year 1505
they commenced to build a large fort on the northern extremity
of the island. It was designed on a scale of great magnitude,
and although constructed entirely of stone, and entailing an
immense amount of labour, was completed within a period of
about seven years. Having then by means of this stronghold
established themselves securely and made this island a base of
operations for further conquests, they began to annex nominally
a great extent of territory along the neighbouring coast of Eastern
Africa. For the next two hundred years, or thereabouts, most
of the trade of the coast passed through Mozambique, and the
position was therefore of great importance, both in a commercial
and political point of view. The produce consisted of ivory,
cocoa-nut oil, india-rubber, gold, amber, and calumba root. Of
late years Zanzibar has monopolized most of the East African
trade, and, consequently, Mozambique has been losing its importance,
and has now almost ceased to be a centre of commercial
industry. Indeed, the only African export of any moment which
now passes through Mozambique is india-rubber, which is said to
be of good quality, and of which large supplies are forthcoming.


The coast tribes have never properly fraternized with the
Portuguese, and although a large force of troops is maintained
at the fort, the few colonists who now reside on the mainland are
practically at the mercy of the natives. At present, a large tribe,
the Macolos, hostile to the Portuguese, and numbering about[242]
fifteen thousand, were encamped in the neighbourhood of Pau
Mountain, a hill which we could see from the ship, and which is
only twenty miles distant. The Macolo dialect is the same as
that used by the black natives of the island.


Mozambique Island is a mile and a half long by a quarter of a
mile in width, and is separated from the mainland by a shallow
channel one mile broad, through which the ebb and flood tides
run with great velocity. Considering the small area of the place
the population is dense, amounting altogether to seven thousand.
It is composed of African blacks, Banyans from Kutch and
Gudjerat in Hindostan, Portuguese, Arabs, and English. There
are only five of the latter nationality; viz., the British Consul,
Mr. O'Niel (late Lieut. R.N.); Mr. Cassidy, superintendent of the
telegraph cables; Mr. Parlett, agent for the British India Steamers;
and two telegraph operators. The number of Portuguese forming
the garrison of the island amounts to two hundred and fifty; and,
besides these, there is a detachment of sixty soldiers stationed on
the adjoining shore of the mainland.


There is a local trade in an intoxicating liquor called "Caju,"
which is made from the fermented juice of the soft part of the
cashew fruit, by distillation. It is said that a tablespoonful of
this liquor is sufficient to intoxicate an ordinary man, and to
give him a fearful headache as well.


I spent several hours, while the tide served, in exploring the
neighbouring reefs for shells and other marine specimens. Among
the former were three species of cowries, C. tigris, C. mauritiana,
and C. moneta; a large Fusus, a Haliotis, a Volute; an Ostræa,
a Conus, a Tridacna, and a Pinna; while on the beach we found
Naticas, Neritinas, and Pinnas. Several Echinoderms were also
seen, comprising four Ophiurids, and three or four Asterias. Of
the latter, there was one huge species of a blood-red colour on
the upper surface, and gaudily variegated with round blotches of
yellow. Among Crustaceans, the most common form was a
Calappa. Grapsus was also represented, and a few Maioid species[243]
were also captured. On opening a couple of clam-shells some
curious commensal crabs were found inside, two in each shell;
they seemed to be very reluctant to leave their old quarters.


Fringing the adjoining shore of the mainland was a large
extent of reef covered with fine sand, and bearing a luxuriant
crop of short green sea-wracks (Zostera). Under shelter of this
weed we found a great number and variety of Holothurians. A
long Synapta unpleasant to handle on account of the pricking
sensation which its spicules imparted to the skin, was here obtained,
and a small conger eel dwelt in burrows projecting downwards
from the bottom of small pits in the sand, where it might be seen
protruding its head on the look-out for its prey.


The most frequent shell on this part of the reef was a species
of Pinna about eight inches long, which, in numbers of three or
four together, was generally to be seen anchored vertically in the
sand by means of its long byssus. The lips of the shell were so
very fragile, and the byssal attachment was so firm, that it was no
easy matter to root up an uninjured specimen. About the roots
of the green sea-wrack nestled in great numbers a tiny cowrie, the
collection of which gives occupation to great numbers of women
and children, who may be seen scattered over the reefs every day
at low tide. Great quantities of these shells are exported to the
west coast of Africa for the benefit of the negro tribes there, who
still make use of them as the current coin of the country.




With our arrival at Mozambique terminated the surveying
operations of the Alert, so that it only remained for us now, on
receiving our mails, to make the best of our way to England. We
accordingly sailed on the 22nd of May, and proceeded on our
voyage towards the Cape of Good Hope, which we expected to
reach in about a fortnight's time. However, the weather proved
to be most unfavourable, for on passing to the southward of
Madagascar, where we had calculated on meeting with the south-easterly
trade wind, we encountered instead a westerly breeze,[244]
accompanied by a rather heavy sea, so that our progress for the
time was far from satisfactory. On reaching the latitude of Algoa
Bay, on the east coast of Africa, it was decided on running in
there for coal, which we accordingly did, anchoring off the town
of Port Elizabeth on the 9th of June, and remaining there until
the morning of the 11th, when we resumed our voyage to the
Cape.


We arrived at Simon's Bay, Cape of Good Hope, on the 14th
of June, and made a stay of fourteen days, which was necessary
in order to enable us to refit and revictual the ship, and otherwise
prepare for the homeward voyage through the Atlantic.


On one of the few days which I here spent on shore, I made
the acquaintance of a Mr. Black, a fine hale old man, a shipwright
by trade, who supplemented his regular work by collecting and
preparing for sale various curiosities of natural history, especially
the skins and horns of many South African animals of the antelope
family. His latest trophy was a very large specimen of the egg
of the Epiornis of Madagascar, a gigantic bird which would seem
to have become extinct almost within the historic period. He had
purchased this egg, as a commercial speculation, from the supercargo
of a trading schooner, and hoped to realize a considerable
profit by disposing of it to one of the European museums. It was
indeed of enormous proportions—although not actually the largest
on record—for it measured eleven and three-quarter inches in length
and eight and a half inches in breadth, while it had a capacity of
about eight quarts. The shell was one-eighth of an inch in thickness,
as I ascertained by measuring it at the smaller end, where
there was an aperture large enough to admit the thumb. He
could not give me any information as to the conditions under
which it was found, and although he had paid a large sum for it
seemed to be unaware of the fact that somewhat similar specimens
existed. It appeared to be in a sub-fossil condition, and was
dotted over externally with fine pits, so that its surface somewhat
resembled that of an old half-decayed human skull. About one-third[245]
of its surface was stained uniformly of an earthy colour,
suggesting the idea that it must have remained for a long time
partially imbedded in the ground.


On the direct homeward voyage we stopped for a few days at
St. Helena, and also at Fayal in the Azores, finally reaching
Plymouth Sound on the 3rd of September, 1882, after an absence
from England of nearly four years.


[246]


GENERAL INDEX.


























[253]


INDEX OF NATURAL HISTORY TERMS.


ZOOLOGICAL.
















BOTANICAL.



Transcriber's Note:


Corrections to the Index have been made without note.
Significant changes to the text are listed below.



Listed below are unique genera and species names that remain unverified for
typographical errors.


Note on genera and species: Whilst it was not uncommon for binomial names
to retain an initial capital letter when formed from a proper noun, e.g., Cervus Chilensis,
such notation has only been occasionally, and erratically, applied within the original text.
To avoid these discrepancies the secondary element of each binomial name has been rendered
in lowercase, e.g., Cervus chilensis.