The Giant Sea-Weed.

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of roots, and living concealed on the wild and arid plains, are sufficiently wretched. The Australian, in the simplicity of the arts of life, comes nearest the Fuegian; he can, however, boast of his boomerang, his spear, and throwing-stick, his method of climbing trees, of tracking animals, and of hunting. Although the Australian may be superior in acquirements, it by no means follows that he is likewise superior in mental capacity; indeed, from what I saw of the Fuegians when on board, and from what I have read of the Australians, I should think the case was exactly the reverse."

Darwin found the zoology of this region more or less disappointing, though the ocean and rocky shores gave protection to numbers of interesting animals, which he added to his collection. He observed that the giant sea-weed, Macrocystis pyrifera, flourished off shore in the midst of a terrific sea, and he at once recognised in it an important factor in the preservation of animal life. He found it growing in water three hundred and sixty feet deep, reaching to the surface, and proved that it formed a natural breakwater, and gave shelter in its leaves and branches to innumerable animals, from delicate shells and crustaceans up to fishes. Indeed he considered that the actual existence of the natives depended upon it, as he says: "Amidst the leaves of this plant numerous species of fish live, which nowhere else could find food or shelter; with their destruction the many cormorants and other fishing-birds, the otters, seals, and porpoises, would soon perish also; and lastly, the Fuegian savage, the miserable lord of this

miserable land, would redouble his cannibal feast, decrease in numbers, and perhaps cease to exist."

Tierra del Fuego was found to be the land of the glacier, and numerous opportunities were afforded to study them, many valleys being filled with these moving rivers of ice which formed in the low ranges of mountains. Some of them gave their icebergs to the sea with blasts and roars like the broadside of a ship of war. In Eyre's Sound Darwin saw fifty icebergs of large size floating about at once, borne from the adjacent glaciers. One of the largest observed, and the farthest from the Pole, was in the Gulf of Penas, where the ice river was fifteen miles in length and seven broad. Darwin's studies on these glaciers, and the laws which govern them, were of no little value to scientists, and many of the theories regarding their action which have found place as facts originated with him.

At Valparaiso-Andean Life-An Old School-mate-An Ocean Bottom-In the Mines-Hot Springs-Darwin Excites SuspicionVolcanoes-Tame Birds-The Myopotamus-Predaceous Gulls -Birds Killed by Them.

ROM the barren; desolate shores of Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia the Beagle sailed for Valparaiso, where Darwin was to study the features of life along the base of the Andes. He was enthusiastic over the change, finding in the dry, bracing air and clear blue skies entirely new condi

tions. The general aspects of the country reminded him of Santa Cruz in Teneriffe, and from the bay he had his first glimpse of the Andes proper, and gazed upon the great volcano of Aconcagua, with an altitude estimated by his fellow-officers at 23,000 feet.