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

332 WILD POTATO — SPEEDWELL BAY. Jan. 1830. " Being well supplied with powder and small shot, the people provided themselves plentifully, during our stay at Speedwell Bay, with a variety of wild-fowl, namely, geese, ducks, red- beaks, shags, and the ibis ; curlew, snipe, plover, and moorhens, were also met with, and fish were observed in shoals near the vessel, but, as we had no seine, they escaped. With hooks and lines our fishermen had no luck ; the baits were no sooner at the bottom, than they were taken away, and for a day or two the cause of their loss was unknown ; but being acci- dentally ascertained, small trap-nets were made, and great numbers of crabs were taken, about a pound each in weight. " In almost every bay we noticed the potato, growing among \vild celery, close above high-water mark : but in so unfavour- able a situation, choked by other vegetables, its produce was V^ery small. " The trees are not of large growth in these islands, neither is the land thickly wooded ; but above the beach, and almost i-ound the coast, there is a breast- work of jungle and under- wood, from fifty to one hundred yards broad, and nearly im- penetrable ; beyond which is a great extent of clear, but low and swampy ground. " On the 25th, we left this port, and ran to the S.E., through what I have named Rundle's Passage. This small channel, where the islands approach each other, is about a quarter of a mile wide, perfectly clear in the whole extent, and also at its southern entrance ; but at the northern there are many detached rocks, which are obstacles to entering Speedwell Bay, except in daylight. Rounding the islets, at the S.E. extreme of Byron Islands, we anchored in Muscle Bay, which lies on the northern side : by no means a secure place, — but the only one that could be found, by the boats, after many hours' search. I selected this situation in order that the entrance to the Fallos Channel, and the whole outline of these islands, might be laid down, and properly connected with the land of Port Barbara ; which was thoroughly executed by Mr. Kirke and Mr. Millar, although delayed in the completion of their