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

CHAPTER Vn. Leave Rio de Janeiro — Santos — St. Catherine's — Monte Video — Pur- chase the Adelaide schooner, for a Tender to the Adventure — Leave IMonte Video — Beagle g'oes to Port Desire — Shoals off Cape Blanco — BoJlaco Rock — Cape Virgins — Possession Bay — First Narrow Race— Gregory Bay— View— Tomb — Traffic with Natives — Cordial Hieeting — Maria goes on board — Natives intoxicated — Laredo Bay Port Famine. We were ready to resume our voyage early in September (1827) ; but not having received any communication by the packet, from the Admiralty, relative to the purchase of a tender, I determined to await the arrival of the next, early in October. I was again disappointed, and very reluctantly left Rio de Janeiro, on the 16th, for Monte Video ; but that I might still benefit by the orders which were sure to be in the following packet, I detennined upon calling at Santos, and St. Catherine's, for chronometrical observations; leaving the Beagle to wait for letters conveying the decision of his Royal Highness the Lord High Admiral. We reached Santos on the 18th, and staid there until the S8th. In this interval I paid a short visit to St. Paul's, for the purpose of making barometrical observations.* At St. Cathe- • On our passage from Santos to St. Catherine's, in latitude 28° south, we caught a 'dolphin' {Coryphena), the maw of which I found filled with shells, of Argonauta tuberculosa, and all containing the ' Octopus Ocythoe'' that has been always found as its inhabitant. Most of the specimens were crushed by the narrow passage into the stomach, but the smaller ones were quite perfect, and had been so recently swallowed that I was enabled to preserve several of various sizes containing the animal. To some of them was attached a nidus of eggs, which was deposited be- tween the animal and the spire. The shells varied in size from two-thirds of an inch to two and a half inches in length ; each contained an octopus, the bulk and shape of which was so completely adapted to that of the shell.