WCP5554

[[1]]

H. M. S. "Nassau"

Valparaiso.

October 13^th. 1868.

My dear Sir,

I need hardly say that it was with great satisfaction that I received your letter of July 29^th by the mail reaching this port two days ago. I suppose it must have been detained for a month at the Admiralty as from the date I aught to have got it by the middle of September. Before proceeding to give you a short account of our proceedings during our winter in the north which is now drawing rapidly to a close let me say a few words in reply to some of your remarks. You say that the rarity of marine life "in the west coast from Chiloe¹ to the Straits² and of Algae is a most unaccountable fact" and you ask if cold and hot currents meet there. I have therefore to state that we have no evidence that cold and hot currents do meet in any of the localities we have yet visited, but I think the paucity of animal and vegetable forms may be accounted for in the following manner. You will bear in mind that my disernations[?] relate exclusively to the long line of Channels leading from the western end of the Strait up to the Gulf of Penas and that they do not refer to the west coast outside the archipelago of islands which form the outer boundary of these Channels[.] That coast I have not had and do not expect to have any opportunity of examining as no surveying operations are to be carried on there so far as I am aware[,] but I would not be much surprised to find should it ever be examined that it presented a much greater variety of forms of life than are present in the Channels and principally for the following reason i[.]e[.] that the water must be much s-alter. You are aware that the Channels throughout a great part of their extent are extremely narrow, that throughout nearly the whole year there is constant and heavy rain and that they are farther supplied with fresh-water from myriads of small streams derived from the snow-fields in the higher mountains and the numerous and very extensive glaciers. Farther the amount of evaporation must be exceedingly small owing to the very feeble power the sun has in these regions. Now we know as an absolute fact from our own observations by testing the specific gravity of the water that it is very much fresher [2] than that of either the open sea or the eastern portion of the Strait and this circumstance was peculiarly well-marked in the harbours into which as a rule the largest streams emptied themselves and in which necessarily all my dredging operations were conducted. Add to this that the rocks are almost entirely of agranitic or metamorphic character (such rocks so far as my experience has gone at home and abroad I have always found peculiarly sterile as regards marine animals and plants which appear to prefer the distinctly sedimentary rocks) and that ^almost no-where are ^there any beaches worth the name, the mountains in the main track of the Channels descending sheer into the water to a depth of very many fathoms and we have what appears to me a tolerable solution of the barrenness of marine life ^of which I have spoken. I must say I was surprised by the absence of the genus Patella which is common in the Strait at least as far west as Sandy Point [Punta Arenas]. On the Chilean coast beginning from Chiloe northwards it appears to be replaced by Fissurella. Many thanks for your information that the plant with drooping crimson flowers which I got at Chiloe is Tricuspidaria. I have looked up the description of the genus in Endlicher³ and find it corresponds in almost every respect. Then you remark that I mention Skua and other Gulls and ask if I have any proper Gulls to the exclusion of Petrels. To which I reply certainly I have. As I have already mentioned my stock of scientific books is small but I have always looked on the possession of tubular nostrils as an infallible mark for Petrel, none of the true Gulls having this peculiarity. I hope all the seeds reached you safely, some more sent from Chiloe in April and some from Valparaiso in June. I am glad the Sisymbrium has come up but I would have been gladder to hear that some of the Composite genera had done so as I think all I sent were perennials. Along with this letter I shall send you some seeds of Cacti &c from Bolivia which were lately received by a German gentleman (Dr Ried)⁴ here who kindly gave to me as well as a few seeds of Lapageria collected this year. I hope this next season to get you the seeds of Fagus betuloides and will of course keep a lookout for seeds in general. The letter you enclosed did not relate to Pediculi but was from Dr Barnard Davis⁵, asking for crania. I have written [3] to him to say that the collections examined by me are not primate properly and that I have hitherto recommended that the crania obtained by me be sent to Prof[essor]. Huxley⁶, and that it is only in the case of duplicates that I should feel at liberty to send specimens to private individuals. I did not think it necessary to mention that a number of people, Turner⁷, Dr A. Thomson⁸, Dr Sharpey⁹ &c ^have much greater claims upon me in that line. I feel [one illeg. word struck through] rejoiced to see that the Anthropological Society¹⁰ has been getting pretty well pitched into by Mr Hyde Clarke¹¹ in the Athenaeum¹². I have not yet had time to read carefully your deeply interesting address¹³ to the Association¹⁴ but hope to do so before long. I was specially interested by your remarks on Indian archaeology. Your reference to Mr A. Wallace reminds me of a paper of his which I lately read entitled a theory of Bird’s Nests¹⁵. It is certainly very interesting and ingenious but I could not feel satisfied with the conclusions attempted to be established. How does the Journal of Travel¹⁶ circulate? Mr Darwin’s¹⁷ work on Animals and Plants under Domestication¹⁸ I lately obtained from home but have not as yet had time to make a satisfactory study of it. However much naturalists may differ as regards the acceptance or rejection of his hypotheses when carried out to their farthest extent, surely all must agree that he has done an incalculable service to science by the careful investigation of phenomena hitherto merely glanced at —

And now for a few disernations[?] on what I have seen and done during the past four months. My last long letter to you was despatched shortly after our arrival at Valparaiso in the middle of June. There we spent about six weeks rather uncomfortably owing to the frequent northerly gales accompanied by heavy rain, which frequently rendered landing a matter of danger and difficulty and [one illeg. word struck through] confined us in consequence on board ship. I managed however to get some long walks though owing to the season of the year there was not much to be done either in the botanical or zoological way. A pretty little yellow Oxalis named by the country[?] people here Flor de Perdiz was blooming luxuriantly and communicating a golden tinge to some parts of the hills[,] a Fuchsia with a small pink flower was rather common in some of the quebradas [Spanish: "breaks," a rugged or cliffy area] as well was also a scarlet Anenuca (Habranthus) and other plants abundantly met with were a pale yellow flowering Barberry (Berberis actinacantha) a yellow-flowering Ribes, a tall shrubby Tupa with a pale scarlet flower, a shrubby Calceolaria &c. Of the exquisite little Tropaeolum tricolor I obtained a single specimen in flower. I had a very pleasant short excursion to Santa Rosa [Los Andes] a small town at the [4] foot of the Cumbre Pass¹⁹, spending two days very agreeably wandering about the neighbourhood with two of our officers. The scenery I need not say was most striking and magnificent, and the sunsets on the snowy Cordillera [Spanish: mountain range] ^were indescribably grand. On the lower stony hills a tall Cereus with most formidable spines ^{and often covered with a scarlet leafless} Loranthus usurped the place of almost all other vegetation and communicated a most remarkable appearance to the landscape by its stiff artificial looking[?] growth.

We left Valparaiso for Coquimbo on the 30^th of July and reached our destination the following afternoon. Owing to the long absence of rain, the neighbouring country with the exception of the immediate vicinity of the pretty little town of [La] Serena[,] where there are marshes[,] presented a very burnt-up appearance, even more so than that of S[ain]t Vincent when I visited it two years ago. Here and there however were green patches of meadow where crops of the "alfalfa" (a Medicago) were reared by means of artificial irrigation. We spent a month very agreeably at Coquimbo and I met with a good deal to interest me in my department. Though the dryness of the season was decidedly against the prosecution of botany. I yet met with various genera of plants with which I had previously little or no practical acquaintance. On the rocky hills a tall Cereus apparently distinct from that seen in the neighbourhood of Valparaiso and a shrubby species of Oxalis sometimes attaining a height of five ^feet and the branches of which I saw employed in lieu of lathes in the construction of adobé dwellings were extremely abundant and an Aristolochia with dark purple flowers possessed of a most abominable, carrion-like odour was very common trailing over the stones. A handsome yellow Cassia and a purple Solanum (or Witheringia) abounded in many places in similar intensity[?] where I also found the curious Llagunoa glandulosa. Other characteristic plants were Puya coarctata conspicuous at a distance from its tall flower-stem, various yellow-flowered Compositae and purple Malvaceae, the Mesembryanthemum Chilense &c[.] I was much delighted with a little Schizopetalon common especially in the neighbourhood of cultivated parts of land and also with a very beautiful species of Schizanthus. As the month advanced various species of Nolamaceae an oder[?] I had [5] [2] not previously met with came into bloom. Alona coelestis covering the lower slopes of the hills and presenting a beautiful variety of tints from white to deep blue, while a species of Torenia flowered so luxuriantly as to communicate a blue tinge to some parts of the sandy plains. Shortly before the end of the month I obtained a species of Bipinnula, the curious little Trichopetalum and two species of Calandrinia one of a fine mauve-purple tint and the other white.

The Zoology was also considerably varied — Of Land Birds, the Condor, two or three species of Falconidae, two of the curious genus Pteroptochos (P[teroptochos]. albicallis and megapodius, of the habits of which Mr Darwin has given an excellent description in his Journal²⁰), the red-breasted Starling (Sturnella militaris) and a small dove were these most commonly observed. A few miles inland from Serena I saw the Giant Humming-bird (Trochilus gigas) for the first time, flying about a good deal after the manner of a Swallow and numerous specimens of the small species (Trochilus forficatus) which we had before seen at Chiloe and in the Channels. Pelicans, Gannets, Cormorants, Gulls, Terns and Petrels were generally to be seen in numbers fishing about the bay which swarmed with shoals of fish (principally Scombridae). Two species of lizards were common in most places and I procured one snake. The insect life appeared to be very limited, particularly as regards Lepidoptera. One of the very few butterflies I saw was Cynthia Cardui which I have now observed at Rio ²¹, Monte Video, Coquimbo, Valparaiso and Lota. I succeeded in getting a considerable number of marine animals of various classes. Among the Mollusca I only obtained one Cephalopoda a species of Sepia, but procured a considerable number of Gasteropoda and Lamellibranchiata, comprising species of Lima, Monoceros, Fissurella, Concholepas, Chiton (several very large species), Pecten, Mesodesma &c &c. I also found several very beautiful species of Crustacea, the greater number of them Brachyura. The curious Palaemonidous [sic] genus Rhynchocinetes I obtained in abundance in rock pools at [one illeg. word] and from some fisherman specimens of a handsome Squilla which I am told is common in the bay.

I was greatly interested in the terraces of fossil shells of which Mr [6] Darwin has made mention and collected a series of specimens from them, claiming[?] species of Concholepas[,] Monoceros, Fissurella, Lima, Calyptraea, Turritella, Astraea, Pecten, Arca &c as well as a considerable number of the teeth of of [sic] Squalidae and many fragments of the bones of Cetacea. Of the Mollusca I have mentioned, the Astraea appears to be the only one that does not exist in the bay at the present time.

Through the kindness of a gentleman in the neighbourhood of Serena I succeeded in procuring some bones from old Indian graves and I hope they may possess some value. We were lying at Coquimbo at the time of the earthquake which has desolated so many places in Peru and felt the earthquake wave but only in a slight degree and the shock was hardly (if at all) felt on shore[.] We left Coquimbo on the 5^th of the month ^September and arrived here two days later. We had for some time now rainy weather as a consequence of which the hills at the back of Valparaiso are, I am told, greener than they have been for years and now that we are experiencing warm sunny weather there is a wonderful variety of plants in flower, including species of Calceolaria, Adesmia, Loasa, Anemone, Oenothera, Verbena, Hancea[?], Acaena, Polygala and a host of others. The Tropaeolum tricolor is glorious covering the low shrubs with masses of scarlet and the beautiful blue Pasithea is very conspicuous. I went up to Santiago and there spent a couple of days a short time ago, my principal object being to see the Museum²² and meet Philippi²³. I found the latter very kind and agreeable and got a good deal of information from him. I was however sorry, though hardly surprised to find that nearly all of what I considered my best specimens from the Channels have been previously procured from Valdivia. Thus the Bignonia I found in the Messier Channell is the Tecoma valdiviana. Phil. and a curious little dwarf conifer I procured in the same district is the Lepidothamnium Fünke [Lepidothamnus fonkii] of the same from the mountains of Valdivia. Also my handsome Cerambycidae beetle from Eden Harbour [Eden Port] is Cheloderus Childreni likewise from Valdivia. However the occurrence of these species in the Channels proves that they have a much wider range than was at [7] one time supposed. In about a fortnight’s time we expect to start for the south where we shall probably remain till the end of May and then come up here again. I think it therefore, likely, that my next letter to you may be dated from Sandy Point about the end of December. I intended to have written to you at greater length on various points but at present I am feeling rather out of health and in consequence less capable of my sifting my memoranda for correspondents than is usually the case with me,

Believe me, | My dear Sir, | ever yours most truly, | Robert. O. Cunningham. [signature]

P. S. Captain Mayne wishes to be kindly remembered to you.