Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.1): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

April 1827. hope's cruize. 81 point I afterwards took angles, among which the most impor- tant gave Mount Sarmiento bearing S. 14° W. (true). Its distance must have been (by recent observations) ninety-four miles. Elizabeth Island is a long, low strip of land, lying parallel to the shores of the Strait, which here take a N.N.E. direction. Compared with the land to the southward it is very low, no part being more than two or three hundred feet high. It is composed of narrow ranges of hills, extending in ridges in the direction of its length, over which are strewed boulders of the various rocks, which have been noticed before as formino- the shingle beaches of Point St. Mary and Point St. Anna ; two kinds of rock, greenstone and hornblende, being the most common. The vallies which divide the hilly ridges wei'e well clothed with grass, and in many places were seen hollows, that had contained fresh water, but now were entirely dried up. These spots were marked by a white crust, apparently caused by the saline quality of the soil. Geese and wild ducks, and the red-bill (Hcematopus), seem to be the only inhabitants of this island. The Indians some- times visit it, for at the S.W. end we found remains of wig- wams and shell-fish. Perhaps it is a place whence they com- municate with the Patagonian natives, or they may in the season frequent it for eggs. We anchored in Laredo Bay, and visited a lake about a mile from the beach, distinguished on the chart by the name of Duck Lagoon : it is very extensive, and covered with large flights of gulls, ducks, and widgeons. We shot one widgeon, which was a most beautiful bird, and of a species we had not before seen.* Here the country begins to be clothed with the deciduous leaved Beech tree (Fagus Antarctica), which is stunted in growth, but very convenient for fuel. Though the hardiest tree of this region, it is never found of large size, the larger trees being the evergreen Beech {Fagus betidoides) . We also met with several small plants common to Cape Gregory. One • 'Anas Rafflesii,' Zool. Journ., vol. iv., and Tab. Supp., xxix. VOL. I. G