OCR Text |
Show 304 TIERRA DEL FUEGO. June, 1834. length, though the stem is not much thicker than a man's thumb. I have mentioned, that on some of the shoals upon which it grows, we did not strike ground with a line of twenty-four fathoms. The depth of water, therefore, must have been greater. And as this weed does not grow in a perpendicular direction, but makes a very acute angle with the bottom, and much of it afterwards spreads many fathoms on the surface of the sea, I am well warranted to say that some of it grows to the length of sixty fathoms and upwards." Certainly at the Falkland Islands, and about Tierra del Fuego, extensive beds frequently spring up from ten and fifteen fathom water. I do not suppose the stem of any other .plant attains so great a length as 360 feet, as stated by Captam Cook. Its geographical range is very considerable· it is found from the extreme southern islets near Cap~ Horn, as far north, on the eastern coast (according to information given me by Mr. Stokes), as lat. 43°,-and on the western it was tolerably abundant, but far from luxuriant at Chiloe, in lat. 42°. It may possibly extend a little fur;her northward, but is soon succeeded by a different species. We thus haye a range of fifteen degrees in latitude ; and as Cook, ~ho must have been well acquainted with the species, found It at Kerguelen Land, no less than 140° in longitude. The number of living creatures of all orders, whose existence inti~ately dep.ends on the kelp, is wonderful. A great volume might be wntten, describing the inhabitants of one of these beds of sea-weed. Alm~st every leaf, excepting those that float on the surface, is so thickly incrusted with corallines, as to be of a white colour. We find exquisitely-delicate structures, some i~habit~d by simple hydra-like polypi, oth~r~ bJ more orgamzed kmds, and beautiful compound AsCidue. On the flat surfaces of the leaves various patelliform shells, Trochi, uncovered molluscs, and some bivalves are attached. Innumerable crustacea frequent every part of * I have reason to believe that many of these animals are exclusively confined to this station. June, 1834. FUCUS GIGANTEUS. 305 the plant. On shaking the great entangled roots, a pile of small fish, shells, cuttle-fish, crabs of all orders, sea-eggs, starfish, beautiful Holuthurire (some taking the external form of the nudibranch molluscs), Planarire, and crawling nereidous animals of a multitude of forms, all fall out together. Often as I recurred to a branch of the kelp, I never failed to discover animals of new and curious structures. In Chiloe, where, as I have said, the kelp did not thrive very well, the numerous shells, corallines, and crustacea were absent; but there yet remained a few of the flustracere, and some compound Ascidire; the latter, however, were of different species from those in Tierra del Fuego. We here see the fucus possessing a wider range than the animals which use it as an abode. I can only compare these great aquatic forests of the southern hemisphere with the terrestrial ones in the intertropical regions. Yet if the latter should be destroy~d in any country, I do not believe nearly so many species of animals would perish, as, under similar circumstances, would happen with the kelp. Amidst the leaves of this plant numerous species of fish live, which nowhere else would find food or shelter ; with their destruction the many cormorants, divers, and other fishing birds, the otters, seals, and p.orpoises, would soon perish also; and lastly, the Fueg~an savage, the miserable lord of thi~ miserable land, would redouble his cannibal feast, decrease m numbers, and perhaps cease to exist. JUNE 8TH.-We weighed anchor early in the morning, and left Port Famine. Captain FitzRoy determined to leave the Strait of Magellan by the Magdalen channel, which had not long been discovered. Our course lay due south, down that gloomy passage which I have before alluded to,. as appearing to lead to another and worse world. The wm~ was fair but the atmosphere was very thick ; so that we missed mu'c h curious scenery. The dark ragged clouds wer.e rapi·cn Y driven over the mountains, from their summits nearly to their bases. The glimpses which we caught through the VOL. III. |