bones were charred, some were split, and some were fashioned into awls and needles. Besides these they found arrow- and spear-heads, and knives rudely made of chert. Bolas also were picked up, which were well rounded, with grooves cut round them, in which to secure the string by which they were thrown. Strange to say not a single fish-bone was found. This midden rested on a bed of very fine sand of about six feet in thickness, and that, again, on blue glacial clay.

Judging by these kitchen-middens it seems more than probable that at the time they were formed this island was connected with the Patagonian mainland. The island is only about seven miles in length by one and a half broad, and therefore much too small to have maintained numbers of guanacoes, &c.; and one can't suppose that the natives would take the trouble to bring them from the mainland to the furthest-away point of an island lying off it. Besides which, the sand on which the middens rested does at present nowhere fringe the shores of the island, though there are long beaches of fine sand on the mainland close by. As to which race of natives-Patagonians or Fuegians -made the middens, the answer would seem to lie in the fact of bolas having been found, which, it is said, the Fuegians do not know the use of.

The Challengers were disappointed in seeing no Fuegians, not even a glimpse, such as we in the Zealous were blessed with, when a canoe full of shivering, cowering, naked savages-men and women-came paddling past us, shouting and shrieking with amazement as the great ironclad swept full speed by them, and at which one man jokingly fired an arrow! They met with rookeries of penguins, terns, and fur-seals; shot geese and ducks ; fished with fly1 in brawling streams and caught fine trout by dozens; and on the 18th January, 1876, they arrived at the Falkland Islands. This colony appears to have gone ahead wonder

1 As it has been said that fish in the Straits' streams do not take the fly, let me inform navigating fishermen that at Grey Harbour, Messier Channel, they will find exciting sport in the fresh-water streams there.

"

fully since even when I was here in 1866, and this prosperity is due mainly to the introduction of Cheviot sheep, which in the wet climate prevalent here do better than any other kind. The "Falkland Island Company" own half the land, and a few proprietors the remainder. These have brought out, to look after the sheep, a number of young Scotch shepherds, who live together in a settlement, an have a church, minister, schools, &c. The sheep are found to pay better than cattle, and the great herds of wild cattle and horses which roam over the islands are being rapidly killed off. These Scotch shepherds have learnt to rival the South American Gauchos in throwing the lasso and bolas from horseback. And when I tell you that in the chief settlement there is a Governor, a detachment of twenty marines, a doctor, an English and a Roman Catholic church, a bishop, a small theatre, and "stores," you will understand what an amount of civilisation exists in these bleak, cold, rainy, stormy Falkland Islands.

You may remember that the country consists almost wholly of undulating moorland, coarse grass, moss, and a stray shrub here and there growing on peat soil. Through this country-called by the inhabitants "the camp "—there are no roads, and the travelling is all done on horseback. Upland geese" abound, as do also snipe; the first being easily shot. On the shores the rock-geese and the loggerheaded ducks are very common. There, also, are rookeries of "jackass" penguins, which burrow into the ground, building their nests six feet deep in the soil. It is a curious act that inside these penguins, remains of fish were found, while inside those which had hitherto been met only small crustacea were discovered, in addition to the large pebbles which penguins universally seem to appreciate. Query, do they swallow these as ballast? Fur-seals are also caught around the shores.

Some portions of the land being wetter than others, the inhabitants divide the camp into the wet and dry. The wet camp occurs where the rock is quartzite, and the dry camp where the rock is slate, which brings us to a subject

that has puzzled geologists. In the "wet camp "—where the quartz rock crops up-the country is covered with enormous angular stones from the weathering of the rocks. In most places these stones are now covered by soil, but over some parts of the land they lie on the surface in streams. One such "river of stones" is uninterrupted for the breadth of a mile. One theory accounted for these "streams of stones" in earthquake action-an oscillating movement of the earth's surface shaking them into long. bands. But the Challengers found what they supposed to be a simple explanation of the phenomenon, viz., beneath these "streams of stones," far down, run streams of water, which prevent the soil from accumulating over the stones, while over the country where streams do not run, there stones, equally numerous, are hidden beneath the soil. In spite of the prevalent cold wet climate, the inhabitants all declare that it is most healthy, and that sickness is almost unknown. Guanacoes and hares have been introduced and are thriving; and altogether this out-of-the-way group of islands has become one which it is well worth while for England to have in her possession.

On the 6th of February the Challenger left the Falklands and went to Monte Video; thence she proceeded towards Tristan d'Acunha. On these two last sections they struck that bottom-current of cold water which we found under the line, and which we had missed when sailing from Bahia to Tristan on account of our hurrying south to avoid yellow fever. The minimum temperature now registered was 31°, a colder temperature than any which had been obtained before, excepting in the immediate neighbourhood of the Antarctic regions.

From the neighbourhood of Tristan d'Acunha the ship sailed to Ascension, whence she proceeded to Porto Praya, St. Vincent, and Vigo, and arrived at Spithead on the 24th May, 1876. And so ended the cruise of the Challenger.

ΙΙ

CHAPTER IX.1

CONCLUDING NOTES.

A FEW words as to the Challenger's work, and how she did it. Her work was (as the Times put it)" to be of three or four years' duration, during which soundings, thermometric observations, dredging and chemical examination of seawater should be carried on continuously, with a view to the more perfect knowledge of the physical and biological conditions of the great ocean basins, and in order to ascertain their depth, temperature, specific gravity, and chemical character, &c." In addition to all this the naval scientific staff (commonly called surveyors) would survey any unsurveyed harbour, or coast-line, which we came across, or re-survey old work, and take a daily chain of magnetic observations round the world.

With this view H.M.S. Challenger, a large main-decked corvette, was commissioned by Captain Nares, in November 1872, with a reduced complement of officers and men. She carried also a civil scientific staff, consisting of five gentlemen, three naturalists, a chemist and physicist, an artist and private secretary to Professor W. Thomson, who was the head of this civil scientific staff. I need scarcely say that to us, of course, fell the practical working of the list above, while theirs was to examine, to draw, and describe, to bottle in spirits the animals and mud, and to examine chemically the water from the bottom and intermediate

1 Throughout this chapter I am indebted for information to published reports, written by Staff-Commander Tizard, R. N.; Prof. Sir Wyville Thomson; the late Dr. R. von Willemöes-Suhm; Mr. Moseley; Mr. Buchanan; and (particularly) Mr. Murray.

depths of the sea which we obtain by means of the sounding-rod, dredge, trawl, and water-bottles.

The naturalists had their analysing room, the photographer his "dark-room," the physicist his little laboratory, and the surveyors their "chart room," on the main deck, which was deprived of its guns, excepting two 68-pounders -which were never fired. On the lower deck was our mess-place (ward-room) and cabins. On the upper deck, abaft, was another analysing room, devoted to mud, fish, birds, and vertebrates generally; also an instrument for finding the magnetic dip, &c. ; a donkey-engine for hauling in the sounding, dredging, and other lines; a broad bridge amidships, where the officer on duty carried on the peculiar duties attached to the operations of sounding, dredging, taking "serial temperatures," and procuring bottles of water from any required depth. Forward in the bows were reels and boxes on which were reeled and coiled the sounding and dredging lines. While, not to be forgotten, there was a large sheep-pen on the main deck, and various contrivances for the stowage of fowls and ducks.

We carried thousands of fathoms of rope of different sizes for dredging and sounding; many tons of sounding "weights," of one cwt. each (afterwards, as being more convenient to handle, of half a cwt. each); dozens of thermometers of peculiar construction - for deep-sea temperatures; hundreds of gallons of spirits to prese ve whatever we might get from land and sea; numerous dredges, as also trawls, both "beam" and "otter;" waterbottles, and aquariums-which last proved failures.

The sounding instrument ("Hydra") consisted of a long hollow metal rod with a ring at one end for attaching the rope to, and "butterfly valves" at the other, to prevent the mud inclosed from falling out again. In the centre of each weight-thick discs of iron--were holes, through which the rod was placed; and these weights were hung by a stout wire passing under the lowest one, and over a button fixed near the top of the rod, the tension of the heavily