It seems now pretty well established that
plants propagated by buds all partake of a common duration
of life; and it is familiar to every one, what singular and
numerous peculiarities are transmitted with certainty, by
buds, layers, and grafts, which by seminal propagation never
or only casually reappear.
[1] The desserts of Syria are characterized, according to
Volney (tom. i. p. 351), by woody bushes, numerous rats,
gazelles and hares. In the landscape of Patagonia, the guanaco
replaces the gazelle, and the agouti the hare.
[2] I noticed that several hours before any one of the condors
died, all the lice, with which it was infested, crawled to the
outside feathers. I was assured that this always happens.
[3] London's Magazine of Nat. Hist., vol. vii.
[4] From accounts published since our voyage, and more
especially from several interesting letters from Capt. Sulivan,
R. N., employed on the survey, it appears that we took an
exaggerated view of the badness of the climate on these
islands. But when I reflect on the almost universal covering
of peat, and on the fact of wheat seldom ripening here, I can
hardly believe that the climate in summer is so fine and dry
as it has lately been represented.
[5] Lesson's Zoology of the Voyage of the Coquille, tom. i.
p. 168. All the early voyagers, and especially Bougainville,
distinctly state that the wolf-like fox was the only native
animal on the island. The distinction of the rabbit as a
species, is taken from peculiarities in the fur, from the
shape of the head, and from the shortness of the ears. I may
here observe that the difference between the Irish and English
hare rests upon nearly similar characters, only more strongly
marked.
[6] I have reason, however, to suspect that there is a field-
mouse. The common European rat and mouse have roamed far from
the habitations of the settlers. The common hog has also run
wild on one islet; all are of a black colour: the boars are
very fierce, and have great trunks.
[7] The "culpeu" is the Canis Magellanicus brought home by
Captain King from the Strait of Magellan. It is common in
Chile.
[8] Pernety, Voyage aux Isles Malouines, p. 526.
[9] "Nous n'avons pas ete moins saisis d'etonnement a la vue
de l'innombrable quantite de pierres de touts grandeurs,
bouleversees les unes sur les autres, et cependent rangees,
comme si elles avoient ete amoncelees negligemment pour remplir
des ravins. On ne se lassoit pas d'admirer les effets
prodigieux de la nature." - Pernety, p. 526.
[10] An inhabitant of Mendoza, and hence well capable of
judging, assured me that, during the several years he had
resided on these islands, he had never felt the slightest
shock of an earthquake.
[11] I was surprised to find, on counting the eggs of a large
white Doris (this sea-slug was three and a half inches long),
how extraordinarily numerous they were. From two to five eggs
(each three-thousandths of an inch in diameter) were contained
in spherical little case. These were arranged two deep in
transverse rows forming a ribbon. The ribbon adhered by its
edge to the rock in an oval spire. One which I found, measured
nearly twenty inches in length and half in breadth. By counting
how many balls were contained in a tenth of an inch in the
row, and how many rows in an equal length of the ribbon, on
the most moderate computation there were six hundred thousand
eggs. Yet this Doris was certainly not very common; although
I was often searching under the stones, I saw only seven
individuals. No fallacy is more common with naturalists,
than that the numbers of an individual species depend on
its powers of propagation.
CHAPTER X
TIERRA DEL FUEGO
Tierra del Fuego, first arrival - Good Success Bay - An
Account of the Fuegians on board - Interview With the
Savages - Scenery of the Forests - Cape Horn - Wigwam
Cove - Miserable Condition of the Savages - Famines -
Cannibals - Matricide - Religious Feelings - Great
Gale - Beagle Channel - Ponsonby Sound - Build Wigwams
and settle the Fuegians - Bifurcation of the Beagle
Channel - Glaciers - Return to the Ship - Second Visit
in the Ship to the Settlement - Equality of Condition
amongst the Natives.
DECEMBER 17th, 1832. - Having now finished with
Patagonia and the Falkland Islands, I will describe
our first arrival in Tierra del Fuego. A little after
noon we doubled Cape St. Diego, and entered the famous
strait of Le Maire. We kept close to the Fuegian shore, but
the outline of the rugged, inhospitable Statenland was visible
amidst the clouds. In the afternoon we anchored in the Bay
of Good Success. While entering we were saluted in a manner
becoming the inhabitants of this savage land. A group
of Fuegians partly concealed by the entangled forest, were
perched on a wild point overhanging the sea; and as we
passed by, they sprang up and waving their tattered cloaks
sent forth a loud and sonorous shout. The savages followed
the ship, and just before dark we saw their fire, and again
heard their wild cry. The harbour consists of a fine piece
of water half surrounded by low rounded mountains of clay-
slate, which are covered to the water's edge by one dense
gloomy forest. A single glance at the landscape was sufficient
to show me how widely different it was from anything
I had ever beheld. At night it blew a gale of wind, and
heavy squalls from the mountains swept past us. It would
have been a bad time out at sea, and we, as well as others,
may call this Good Success Bay.
