[6] I have reason, however, to suspect that there is a field-mouse. The
common European rat and mouse have roamed far from the habitations of
the settlers. The common hog has also run wild on one islet; all are
of a black colour: the boars are very fierce, and have great trunks.
[7] The "culpeu" is the Canis Magellanicus brought home by Captain King
from the Strait of Magellan. It is common in Chile.
[8] Pernety, Voyage aux Isles Malouines, p. 526.
[9] "Nous n'avons pas ete moins saisis d'etonnement a la vue de
l'innombrable quantite de pierres de touts grandeurs, bouleversees les
unes sur les autres, et cependent rangees, comme si elles avoient ete
amoncelees negligemment pour remplir des ravins. On ne se lassoit pas
d'admirer les effets prodigieux de la nature."--Pernety, p. 526.
[10] An inhabitant of Mendoza, and hence well capable of judging,
assured me that, during the several years he had resided on these
islands, he had never felt the slightest shock of an earthquake.
[11] I was surprised to find, on counting the eggs of a large white
Doris (this sea-slug was three and a half inches long), how
extraordinarily numerous they were. From two to five eggs (each
three-thousandths of an inch in diameter) were contained in spherical
little case. These were arranged two deep in transverse rows forming a
ribbon. The ribbon adhered by its edge to the rock in an oval spire.
One which I found, measured nearly twenty inches in length and half in
breadth. By counting how many balls were contained in a tenth of an
inch in the row, and how many rows in an equal length of the ribbon, on
the most moderate computation there were six hundred thousand eggs. Yet
this Doris was certainly not very common; although I was often
searching under the stones, I saw only seven individuals. No fallacy
is more common with naturalists, than that the numbers of an individual
species depend on its powers of propagation.
CHAPTER X
TIERRA DEL FUEGO
192