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

306 SHKLLS — SPANISH ACCOUNTS. Feb. 1830. found wild every where, and remind one of Lord Anson's visit.* Not only in its botanical productions does this island differ from the Chilian coast, but also in its shells : the shell fish being extremely scarce, and dissimilar in character. On the rocks we found a patella and a small chama, but we saw no mytilus. From the deep water I fished up some coral, and attached to one fragment was a new species of arca.-j* The fish- ing-lines brought up, from the -depth of eighty fathoms, a branch of coralline, to which an infinite number of a species of caryophyllia were attached. The existence of coral is mentioned in Mr. Barry's translation of the ' Noticias Secretas de Ame- rica ; por Don J. Juan, y Don A. de Ulloa,' a work which con- tains a long and, generally speaking, good account of the island ; but their description of the anchorage does not agree with ours. They say, " The distance between the two points, which form the bay, is two miles, and its depth about half a league; and, although the depth is nearly the same in all parts, the best berth to moor ships is in the front of the ' Playa del Este ;' but it is necessary to be close to the stones of the beach, for at one or two cables' length there are fifty fathoms water, and the outer anchor is in the depth of seventy or eighty fathoms ; but if the vessel is three or four cables off, it will be necessary to drop the outer anchor in one hundred fathoms, which, even with two cables an end, will scarcely secure the ship." Now, at three cables' length from the beach, we had only ten fathoms, our outer anchor was dropped in seventeen fathoms, and in a line between the two points of the bay there is not more than fifty fathoms. If the accounts of those Spanish officers were correct, the earthquakes, which certainly affect these islands, must have caused a considerable uprising of the base of the island; but, on referring to the plan in Anson's voyage, the soundings in 1741 do not appear to have been different from ours. The innermost ship, whose berth we occupied, is, in that plan, at anchor in , * A nson's Voyage, p. 118. T Area angulata. See Zool. .Tournal, vol. v. p. 3.3().