I take this opportunity to thank Mr. Frederick North, R.N., for the use of a collection of photographs which were taken by him during the cruise under circumstances of peculiar difficulty, and of which most of the engravings in this work are reproductions. I am also under obligations to all the other officers for assistance rendered to me in various ways; and especially to those officers who acted successively as Senior Lieutenants, for the consideration with which they tolerated those parts of my dredging operations that necessarily interfered with the maintenance of good order and cleanliness on the ship's decks. Finally, I have to thank my friend, Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, the distinguished ornithologist of the British Museum, by whose advice and encouragement I was induced to submit these pages to the public, for his assistance in perusing my MS., and offering some useful suggestions. R. W. C. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTION. Object of the Voyage--Former Surveys of Straits of Magellan--Change of Programme--Selection of Ship--Equipment--Arrangements for Natural History Work--Change of Captain--List of Officers 1-4 CHAPTER I. Departure from England--Storm Petrels--A Sparrow-hawk at Sea--Collecting Surface Organisms with Tow-net--Water-kite--Wire Sounding Apparatus--Land-swallow at Sea--Gulfweed--Phosphorescence of Sea-water--Arrive at Madeira--Curious Town--Dredging Work--A Pinery--Discoloured Sea-water--Petrels again--St. Vincent--Cape de Verde--Pelagic Animals--Sounding near Abrolhos Bank--Dredging over Hotspur Bank--Dredging over Victoria Bank--Moths and Butterflies on the Ocean--Extraordinary Vitality of Sphinx Moths--Arrive at Monte Video--Gauchos--Trip into Interior of Uruguay--Buenos Ayres--Dr. Burmeister's Museum--Arrive at the Falklands--"Stone Runs" 5-33 CHAPTER II. We enter Straits of Magellan--Reach Sandy Point--Gold and Coal--Surrounding Country--Elizabeth Island--Dredging--Fuegians at Port Famine--We enter Smyth's Channel--Canoe "Portage" at Isthmus Bay--Arrive at Tom Bay--A Fuegian Family--Trinidad Channel--Climate of Western Patagonia--Flora--Rock Formation--Soilcap--Natives--The Channel Tribe of Fuegians--Scarcity of Old People--Water-birds of Tom Bay--Sea Otters--A Concealed "Portage"--Habits of Gulls and Shags--Steamer-ducks--Land-shells--Fresh-water Fish--Deer 34-65 CHAPTER III.